A Dark Night

By Castor

(special thanks to Dru for editing)

Ann Minows didn’t like being out this late. She never much liked the night as such. Especially this part of town – which was, technically, the nice part of town. But like a lot of nice parts of town after a certain hours …

She shook her head. The streets where cold. She was wearing a light blue dress over her small frame. If nothing else she wished she had a sweater.

But she had a ticket to an opera that she had loved in college and had started when the sun was out, and the fact that the tickets where expensive went against the fact that she so cheep to park her car which felt like a mile away … so …

Cold night. Dark streets and a mind.

There was a sound of a foot in a puddle a ferocious splash.

A mind that lead to imagination.

She shook her head. Her car was a block away and between them was a street that may technically be an alley … but …

She walked down it. Trembling, almost waiting, expecting that if she went deep inside of her enough, that if something actually shocking were to happen it wouldn’t effect her.

She still screamed when the large man with a gun grabbed her.

“AHHHHHHHH”

“Quiet lady,” he said as he put a large dirty hand over her mouth. “Quiet or I’ll kill ya.”

Ann wanted to scream, wanted to let out.

“Just want your money, not your life, but if you keep this I won’t think twice”

“Is that a lyric to to a song?” said a voice from nowhere

The man turned.

“Lyric to a song?” said the voice.

Ann turned her eyes and saw the person he was talking to. It took her a second to figure it out in the dark. She was tall. 5’10 maybe even 6 feet. She was wearing a black green getup – it was strange, theatrical, as if she stepped not so much out of a comic book, but something not quite a comic book. It was a sleek bodysuit that covered her heroic build – her tight muscles, her thin waste bulging with abs, her even bigger breasts. She looked a warrior out of some strange world with a mask over her eyes and her face. She also wore a gigantic cloak on her back. She was both very distinct and very well formed – comics are defined by the fact that black lines are around them. She of course didn’t have that – but it was almost as if the light was moving to create it.

Her attacker looked at her saviour and his victim. He probably had the same thought. And though one could say what this woman said or did beyond talk about music was in doubt – he was frightened. Legitimately. She was the unknown; the strange.

“Ain’t no rest for the wicked … Cage the Elephant song? Couple of years ago.”

Anna felt a gun go right to her check. It felt cold and metallic and hurt – while a gun obviously can’t pierce the skin by itself … .it could move against you as a blunt force.

“Look lady: if you don’t stop I am going to blow her brains out.”

“That’s the only thing you have,” said the woman. She walked towards them.

The guy trembled.

“Your scared,” said the stranger. “What you have is fear – that I care enough about your fear to change my response. The answer is no.”

The big man looked at her. Anna had no real gauge of him as he was behind her and around her and she had no view..but she could feel it..as the woman was maybe 10 feet away and walked into light.

The man barreled his barrel into her.

“Shes scared to.”

The strange woman looked at the pair. “Shoot me.”

And the man took his gun from his jaw and shot at her.

This was the thing with guns. They go off, they’re loud – they’re surprisingly bright, but you don’t see the bullets. If this had been a Hollywood movie you would see something fly out and hit her … Anna didn’t see it, she just saw the flash.

And the woman looked none the worse for wear.

She did, however, move very quickly to grab the gun from his hand … or part of it. For in her hand the gun broke in two. It’s easy to see things like bent steal, to bend metal bars into curly cues. This just broke. It just shattered into pieces.

“Now where are we?” the woman inquired.

The attacker let Anna go and ran away. Anna fell to the ground in awe.

The woman above her looked down, dropping the metal next to her.

“Thank you,” said Anna.

“I suppose if I was a good person,” said the strange woman “I should go after him. But he’s running on the hoof. You’re a much easier target.”

Anna looked up. “What?”

And the strange woman exposed her teeth giant fangs like maw.

“Much easier.”

She then grabbed Anna by the neck and drank.