Chapter Text
Pain.
White, hot, pain.
A type, of pain that cause all your nerves to burn as gravel scrubbed your skin and bones strain under pressure. White noise drowned out all other senses as one-by-one your limbs cracked and popped with each strained movement. Colors danced and swirled in your vision, blending and blurring until what was once an ugly mesh of greys and browns turned into rock and stone. With shaking limbs, you hoisted yourself onto your burning elbows. Every movement was torture. The awful ringing in your ears did not go away like the sudden blindness did, if anything the ringing seemed to grow louder the more you payed it any mind.
Huffing, you pushed yourself into a sitting position even as your body screamed to lie back down on the floor. Huffing, wheezing, gasping. It felt like you could not get enough air into your lungs, air your tired body desperately craved. Now that you were semi-consume, you took a look around. Tall brick walls surrounded you, stretching tall and clawing at the damp, grey sky. Cans, bottles, soiled newspapers, and more littered the dirty pavement. Spidering cracks splintered outwards from where you sat and an imprint, vaguely resembling a body, cupped your frame and left you at an awkward incline. Ever more white took up your vision as large puffs of steam rolled lazily in the chilled wind, picking up any stray paper and cups on it's merry way to nowhere.
Where were you anyway? Sure you walking down a street, but you were certainly never in an alleyway, much less during, from what you could tell, the late evening hours. Bloody hell, it was around Twelve O'clock when you left your house, right? How long were you out for? And it's around late summer wasn't it? So why in the world were you freezing your toes off for. None of it made any sense and that thought sent an odd *THUMP* in your chest and a lump in your throat. Another thump echoed, but this one was not from you. This one was metallic, dangerous even. Ominous, black silhouettes danced within the white steam. The thumping echoed again as the figures grew in size as the steam brushed past them reveling their stout frames.
"Well, well. What do we have here Nigel? 'Nother beggar looking for some cash?" The man on the left sneered through yellowed teeth.
"Beggar? Naw, I'd say we might've just hit the jackpot." The brute on the right countered, large fists reaching out; grasping at the lapels of your coat. Lifting up your dazed form, your feet just barely scrapping the ground unable to gain purchase.
"Wait- wait a minute! Can't...*huff* can't we talk about this?" Your hands grasped at the wrists that held you aloft, panic flooding every nerve.
"Nah, hows-about you empty your pockets, before I do it for you."
No. No no no no no. Why now? WHY NOW?! You had to escape, you just had to. Your eyes darted back and forth around the alley; stones, dirt, trash, bottles, pa- wait a bottle! Yes if you just get a bottle then you might be able to defend yourself, or create a distraction. Gripping your hands harder as you think, you nearly missed the groaning from the man, Nigel, holding you until a loud *Crunch* and a scream broke your thoughts. The iron grip holding you up suddenly let go as you crashed back down on the ground. Nigel, now hunched over, had one of his wrists in his other hand, the hand hanging limply to his chest, turning purple and blue. His eyes were wide as he stared at his now broken wrist, "The hell!? What did you do, FREAK?!". Well that was just rude, so was trying to rob you but, eh. A large shadow towered over you as your knees gave out on their own, a loud *CLANG* rang above you. The other man, that you nearly ignored, had just swung a metal pipe at your head. Staring him dead in the eyes, you pulled at his dominant arm towards you, setting him off balanced.
The brute went sailing, flying past your shoulder and sent crashing in the opposite wall that boxed the three of you in. Without a moment to lose, you pushed off the ground and ran. You did not know were, you had to just get as far from those two as possible. You just had to get out of here.
The alley was a maze of twists and turns that made your head spin. Take a right here, then left.
Right. Right. Left. Right. Left.
Freedom.
Like the light at the end of the tunnel, you were greeted by the sight of a worn out road. Dilapidated buildings greeted your vision as the scrapes and bruises to your arms and legs burn, red staining your skin as the pale sun finally shown down on you.
.
..
...
'Oh, Hell."