Sasha waved goodbye to her friends and headed home.

Two and a half blocks, almost there. She could save some time by cutting through the back alleys, but they were dangerous.

"There are bad men out there waiting for young girls like you to make a mistake," an image of her mom appeared before her, telling her what to do as usual.

"I can defend myself!" Sasha argued back, but her mother scoffed and vanished. Debate over before it began.

A slow moving car rolled past Sasha as she crossed the second block. Had the car stopped or been aggressive in any way she'd run. Kidnapped off the street, another warning from dear mom.

Suddenly someone shrieked, Sasha jumped in surprise.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

THUD

Sasha jumped again, something landed behind her.

She spun and set her eyes upon a man lying on the ground. A man with red liquid oozing out of his mouth, more of the red spread out around him, slowly creeping towards her.

She'd never seen so much, the dark red puddle grew larger and larger, turning into a small lake.

She bent down, placing her hand on the ground, letting the warm thick red liquid run through her fingers. She watched it spread past her feet as it broke off, forming tiny streams down the curb.

A heavy aroma filled her nose, choking her breath.

A groan escaped the man. His eyes wide open, cheek against the pavement, staring in Sasha's general direction. His legs bent wrong ways, one of his arms too. One of his fingers hanging loosely from his hand.

Sasha knew she should have been scared, knew most would run away, but she wasn't, and running away from something that can't do any harm didn't make any sense.

So still the man was. Lifeless, destroyed from a simple fall. His entire body bled, the metallic stench was strong enough to taste.

Sasha couldn’t turn away, instead absorbed the scene in ecstasy.

It's... beautiful.