Far back towards the entrance to the alleyway a loud male voice rings through, “Hello? Is somebody here?” Footsteps slowly follow after the man calls out.

The woman in the shadows lets out another sigh and quickly pulls he hands back, “I hate being interrupted while I’m in the middle of something.” She focuses on the chained woman and her eyes glow to their brightest as she utters her next words in an unusually calm and soothing tone, “Looks like you managed to grab somebody’s attention. What happens next is because of you.” Under the sound of a sinister chuckle, the woman’s crimson eyes and gruesome smile vanishes in the shadows without a trace.

Although the chuckle only lasted no more than a second, it was long and loud enough to grab the man’s attention; he rushes down the street and stops in the entrance the alley. Barely able to see just a few feet in front of him shadows practically take up the entire alley except for the bright light that illuminates the chained woman.

Her clothing is all torn, her blue blouse shredded in multiple spots and barely hanging on by her shoulders. Her skirt is in tatters with claw marks around the bottom where it reaches just below her knees. The chestnut color of her hair is highlighted red in a few spots, devoid of its natural shine. From all over her body blood has dried in various spots, but continues to drip from her lips from the fresh punctures.

For just a brief moment, the chained woman manages to lift her head up to see who walked into the alley. Seeing a bright light appearing in front of her, the woman notices the approaching police officer, in his dark blue uniform and badge proudly on display on his uniform shirt. When he shines his light towards the back of the alley, he breaks into a panic and runs down the alleyway.

Even with his years of experience on the force, the police officer doesn’t know how to correctly approach a situation like this. As he’s getting closer and closer to the woman, the scars on the woman’s body become more noticeable, “Ma’am, what happened?! Are you alright?!”

Although she knew that her situation would be far from over, the chained woman started to feel a small tinge of safety and security seeing the police officer running towards her, his footsteps growing louder and louder every second. The woman thought to herself that it must have been a blessing from a higher power that somebody heard her cries for help. Whether it was a blessing or not, she couldn’t wait to finally get out of her chains.

The woman tries to speak, but the stress from yelling just moments ago was too severe for her. Even her own whispers were hard to hear for herself. She wanted to thank the officer for coming to her rescue, so all she could do was put on a faint smile as he approached.

When the officer finally arrived to the scene, he didn’t even hesitate to try and figure out what occurred; he began trying to see how the chains could be broken, “Ma’am, don’t worry. I’ll get you out of here.” He tries to pull on the chains bound by her wrists, but cold metal was freshly made and shows no sign of rust. He couldn’t pull them apart, “Shit, there has to be a key somewhere here.”

Using his flashlight, the man starts to investigate the alleyway for some sort of key. His light flashes across the usual things found in an alley, numerous broken down boxes, a few street mice running around along the concrete ground, and a large dumpster used by residents in the nearby buildings. When he turns around to face the shadows he ran though just moments ago, something begins to sparkle when it comes in contact with the light: a small, silver key.

Making sure to reassure the woman, the officer looks back at her and says, “Don’t worry. I’m not going to abandon you. I’m just going to get the key so I can get you down from there, alright?”

The woman nods before she lets her head hang back down, her body too exhausted to try and do anything for long. The officer rush down the alley towards the key; it only takes a second for him to reach it. When he leans down to pick it up, something cold and wet drips down on top of his hand. It’s doesn’t easily slide off of his hand, gently sticking as it trickles down.

“What the hell is this?” the officer mumbles to himself when he flashes his light on his hand. A dark red liquid has spread out across his hand and running down between his fingers like a river. He brings his hand a bit closer to his face to try and smell it, but the stench of his is strong enough that he could smell it from a few meters away, “I-Is this blood…?”

Blood somehow rained down on his hand. However, there’s one thing that confused the officer. How could it have landed on his hand if there’s nothing above him except the open sky? At least, he thought that there was nothing above him…

• Original Works