I emerged from the outside office door into the dead of night. A street light flickered reminding me that I did not want to stay late at work tonight. It is the one night that the strangers in the shadows would creep up on you and do the unimaginable. I wish I knew what that was but I didn’t have much of imagination but figured it must be bad for it to be a saying. _Why had my boss asked me to stay late tonight, and more importantly had I said yes _I thought to myself.

When I took the first step out the door I heard the scurrying of what I know must be some creepy little animal run down the alley. _Who in their right mind puts the exit of an office building out into an alley _I thought to myself. I had been thinking to myself a lot ever since I had said I would stay late.

I walked along the wall making sure to try and stay out of the sight of anyone who might be out here to kill someone. I am such a worry wart and scaredy cat. I just need to get to my car so I can get out of this situation. I continued to move down the alley when someone appeared out from behind the large dumpster on my left. They stared at me. I only know they were staring because I could see the shining of their eyes as they cut through the darkness. I couldn’t tell what color they were, and I didn’t care and turned to go the other way when I saw another figure appear at the other end of the alley.

My mind began to race, _what am I going to do? _my worried mind raced through ideas. I could run, but where. I could scream but who was going to hear me? I knew of only one action that I could take, and that was to fight back. I dropped my bag and prepared for battle. It was me or them. I wasn’t going to be a victim or be the coward this time.

I put my fists up and yelled “Come and get me you bastards.” The man by the dumpster moved forward and nodded at me, he put his fists up. I rushed towards him and landed a right on his left cheek. He backed up and seemed dazed, but that didn’t last long. He moved forward again and pulled a knife from inside of his jacket. The blade was long and I could see the shine of the blade from the moon light. I felt the sharp stab in my right side as the blade entered me, but I wasn’t going to go down without more of a fight. I swung again at the man who now appeared to be a giant to me and felt another stab in my mid-section.

I fell to my knees and looked up at the man. I looked up and saw the shining eyes and the last thing I heard was “Don’t walk home alone.”, and then felt the jolt of pain at the back of my head.