Click. Flickering lights blinded my emerald eyes as I struggled to keep my balance on the precarious cobbled stoned street. Such was a rare occasion in the dark alley I had ventured to cross, where obscurity ruled above all and light was but mere illusion. Looking in the near horizon, one could only perceive the memory of a drunken past, the recollection of laughter and weeping, of rivalry and sheer vanity. I walked as steadily as I could muster, clutching the nearest wall to find support as my wavering ankles failed me once again. My hand caressed the bitter surface where once a girl had been slammed against; and my fingers brushed against the brick which had once been thrust into someone’s open veins. My mind in excruciating pain, I shook my cloudy mind clear and attempted once again to find my balance on this hectic path. My feet ascending slowly off the syrupy beer-covered gravel, I pulled my head up steadily, commanding myself to put on my bravest face. Fighting the tipsy ground, I recovered quickly and looked around. The walls of nearby homes and suspicious pubs went closing in on me in the narrow lane. My breathing became hysterical as I came to the chilling epiphany that an old hag was gazing straight at me from a small dusty window. That cold stare left my veins popping, my view hazy, and my heart going crazy. Looking down at my feet, not daring to breathe, I closed my eyes slowly, but surely. When I opened them again, she was gone.

Darkness submerged me in the ghastly night, making me wonder whether today was the day of an equinox and why the night was dragging itself so long before my eyes. Dancing shadows surrounded me, accumulating the sick bittersweet scent of smoke that went crawling up my nostrils. Cinders gathered around the ample olive litter bins, where a man sat asleep. I walked around to take a closer look at the eldery man whose features were hard and rough. A greasy bronze chevelure went down to his shoulders covering his ears which had bent over the years of hearing people’s disgraceful disgust as they walked on by. The fresh bleeding cut of a recent fight begging for even just an old apple, soon to become a scar. A chiseled jaw that roughened his tired features was hidden behind a thick brown beard, soaked with yesterday’s gruesome brown beverage. While his creased eyelids covered his pupils, I could see the years of sorrow that would show in his eyes should he ever open them again. His russet brown boots rested on a piece of weather-worn cardboard, along with his drained calloused hands. On the the tip of each of his fingers were filthy nails, shedding like  a deciduous forest. The sole of his brown leather boots was tearing off from the heels from the old man’s heaving and snoring. I couldn’t be sanguine about his situation like I was when it came to saving polar bears or a rare species of exotic birds. The man was skin on bones. His scrawny arms left me shuddering, drowned in bucketfuls of pity.

I looked up into the sky. Nope. Not an equinox. Just a really long night. No need to mention the stars weren’t shining. The pollution in the air would’ve made it impossible for me to see them either way. The street was infinite and my feet were seconds away from giving in. The distant sound of laughter left me shaking as I passed by a store selling weed. I was about to call a friend when I noticed some shadows moving a few feet aways.

I stopped. Then went on. I was being ridiculous, it was just the obscurity messing with my mind. Nothing worth analysing. 

But as I slowly pulled my phone out of the back pocket of my tight blue jeans, I noticed the silhouette of a tall menacing man facing the other direction. I gasped and looked around, to see whether there was anyone else around. But the last thing I recall was the cold metallic gun pressed against the shivering lobe of my right ear, and a rusty voice whispering almost gently the three words that’d scarred me for life.

“Wrong turn, sweetie.”