The alley stretched ahead of me like an endless corridor from drowsy evening to silent night. No longer alive with children's cries and mothers chatter, in the gloom, fear stalked its dusty way and it slumbered alone. It was this fear that had drawn me here. Fear that the assailant would strike again. Fear that another mangled body would be found. Fear that another family would take the long hearse led journey to the local cemetery with its green willows and red berried rowan trees to scatter the ashes of yet another loved one.
My soft footsteps slid along the stone walls ahead of me. I tried to make my moves silent like the cat that wide eyed stalks as the world sleeps.
Determination welled up inside me. The animal that sought out defenceless victims would soon become prey itself.
Our plans had been made. I was part of the first shift for a week of evenings and then a break before my turn came again.
A sound from ahead made me freeze, my scalp tingling. Another shadow was in the shadows, waiting - aware of my presence. I moved tentatively, the wall scraping knifelike across my shoulderblades. The wooden stick held in tensed knuckles suddenly felt a poor defence against imagined lethal long knife or flame spitting handgun.
The shadow moved again - cautious, uncertain. It stopped, peered forward, edged on.
Heart pounding, I slid into position behind a large waste bin. It stank of leftovers from wordless TV dinners.
I couldn't see whether the shadow was near without looking round the bin - and the shadow was now too close.
Then the insubstantial shadow became the heaviness of a man knocking me to the ground. The back of my neck felt warm where it had scraped against the stone wall and blood oozed through shattered skin.
The shadow was on top of me and pain knifed through my kidneys, liver and spleen. The only sound to penetrate my agony now were the grunts of his exertion. Dimly I felt good as my flailing arm sank into his face then my arm was shattered by my own stick. Steely muscles clamped around my neck and tightened viciously. Consciousness faded - so this is what it was like.
The light that shone in my face seemed cool. The frightened voice of my next door neighbour distant.
"Oh God, Jim, I thought you were the attacker. Hang on in there, I'll get an ambulance."
Then running feet as he made towards the telephone box standing sentinel at the end of the ally - a sudden cough and a short cry.
As my mind gave way to total darkness, I dimly tried to understand.
Middleton News: April 10 th 2006: 'Two more found dead in Nightmare Ally - Police mystified, Neighbourhood Watch distraught!'
The End
© Rob Hopcott 1999 - 2006, all rights reserved. All characters are fictitious in this story and no reference is intended to any person living or otherwise.
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