Page 2 of Sacrifice

I’m alone, suddenly, the walls on either side of the alley closing in like a vise.

“Hey!” I call out, spinning around, trying to catch a glimpse of where they might have gone. “Where did you two go?”

Silence greets me, save for the distant throb of bass from the clubs we left behind. My heart pounds against my ribcage, not entirely from the drugs anymore. Panic begins to claw at my throat.

“Come on, this isn’t funny,” I say louder, hoping they’ll pop out from behind a dumpster, laughing at the trick they’ve pulled.

Instead, a shadow moves at the far end of the alley—a dark shape detaching itself from the wall. It’s coming towards me, silent and menacing. There’s no laughter in this; there’s no game.

“Who’s there?” My voice cracks, bravado faltering.

There’s no answer, just the steady approach of that dark figure. I can’t make out any details, just the certainty that whatever fun I thought I was having has turned sour.

“Alright, joke’s over!” I shout, but my voice echoes back at me, mocking and weak against the brick walls.

The darkness creeps closer, a silent predator, and I realize too late that I should have stayed in the light. I should have never let the shadows reel me in.

I turn and bolt, the soles of my shoes slapping against the damp pavement. I’m running blind, adrenaline surging through my veins, every shadow a potential hiding spot for whoever—or whatever—is after me.

“Shit, shit, shit,” I mutter under my breath, my thoughts racing as fast as my feet. This is bad, this is so very bad. Not just the drugs, not just the paranoia—they’ve always been manageable.

But this?

This is a nightmare come to life.

A trash can clatters as I barrel past it, my shoulder grazing the metal. My breath comes in ragged gasps, and I can feel the burn in my lungs, the sting in my eyes from the cold night air.

There’s a sound behind me—a footstep? A whisper? It’s too close, and it sends a jolt of terror down my spine. Don’t look back, I tell myself. Just don’t look back.

Then, a hand grips my arm, yanking me backward. I stumble, my balance lost, and I’m spinning, falling—

“Let go!” I yell, flailing to break free from the iron grasp. The world tilts, but when I try to focus on the figure holding me, all I see are blurred edges, a faceless form that my mind refuses to define.

“Please—what do you want?” I gasp out, struggling as the grip tightens.

The drugs twist my perception, warping reality until I’m convinced that I’m not facing a man at all. It’s a monster, a creature born from the darkest pit of my imagination.

“Get off me!” My voice breaks with fear, raw and strangled. Every instinct screams at me to fight, to escape, but the terror has sunk its claws deep, paralyzing me.

“Please,” I choke out, my words barely audible over the pounding of my heart. “Please, don’t…”

But the darkness doesn’t answer, just closes in tighter, suffocating, relentless. And for a moment, I’m certain this is how I die—alone in an alley, at the hands of a nightmare.

But then, something snaps inside me.

I can’t die like this.

Not in Echo Beach…not on Rossi turf, where I should be safe. No, this is my world.

A primal fury bubbles up from my gut, and I lash out with a ferocity I didn’t know I had. My elbow connects with something solid—his face?—and there’s a gratifying crunch.

“Get off!” I roar, my voice a feral growl that bounces off the walls of the alley.

He staggers back, and I seize the moment. I’m on him before he can recover, fists flying in a blind panic. I hit anything I can—a jaw, a temple, the soft part of a throat. Each blow is a punctuation mark on my desperate need to survive. I don’t stop, not even when he falls to the ground. My hands are around his neck, squeezing, squeezing, because I can’t afford to hold back. Not now.

I’m crying, shouting, cursing until there’s silence. And the monster is still beneath me. Too still. Panic seizes me again as I realize what I’ve done. I’ve killed him.

I scramble away, chest heaving, hands shaking. That’s when I hear it—the piercing chime of a phone cutting through the silence.

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