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“Excuse me Miss, but this road is blocked,” a policeman informed me warmly. With an understanding nod, I took the route right next to it. Wisps of mist began curling around my shoes. My eyes were sagging down as a hellish, February day was about to come to an end. Fog swirled around my body, making it difficult to see anything at all. The eerie darkness of the alleyway made me think twice about entering…
It was the stench that hit me first. The smell of something rotting and decaying hung prominently in the air. The fog had dissipated a little - I could see rat droppings dotted across the alley and the rats themselves were scurrying around. Several cockroaches were devouring a dead rat’s guts. Shivering just at the sheer sight of it, I noticed a man, dressed completely in black, with a hood and a mask stretched across his blank and hollow face leaning with his arms crossed on a graffitied and mouldy wall. Glancing nervously at him, I continued walking. Then, just as I trod past him, he got up and started following me - keeping a ten metres distance between us.
All of a sudden, the red bricks around turned into dark maroon eyes, glaring at me from all sides. Thinking fast, I stopped hopping that the guy would move on. But he stopped dead in his tracks too. It was hard to catch a glimpse of him because his clothes made him look like a ghost trying to blend in with the shadows. I could feel his ceaseless gaze burning holes in my now sweating neck. The fog was suddenly getting denser and I could feel it blowing against my face; it was getting darker. Even the slow drip-drip of the foul-smelling drain pipe made me jump up in fright. A clogged drain meant that sewage water was flowing everywhere. As I quickened my pace, glancing back in spite of myself, the stranger started moving faster as well, as if determined to keep me in his line of vision.
Now, the fog was getting thicker and thicker, clouding my retina. Starting to run, I didn’t see a rubbish bin right in front of me. CLANG! My cheek bone slammed into the side of the bin, its cold metal stinging my face. Blinking blood out of my eyes, white lights flashed wildly inside my head as I slid in and out of focus. Sewage water was flowing all around me and the smell was beyond any description. Footsteps, the cocking of a gun, the man was getting closer. Heart hammering, I tried to get up but my foot merely slipped on the wet ground. Closer and closer. I could almost feel the insanity radiate off him like a nuclear bomb. I could taste the fear spewing out of my mouth. My brain froze. It was as if hell was gripping onto me, unwilling to let go until I succumbed to the icy clutches of death. Closer and closer. I could feel him bending down and putting his gun to my head, his breath hot against my neck. And then the street lights turned on.
“Freeze! Put your hands up and drop the weapon. We don’t want to shoot you!”
~ THE END ~