Wolves among men by penelope sweet

work today. “If you don’t
have any change, how about your wallet then,” the man from behind
me spoke.
     
    “ I don’t want any
trouble,” I said immediately damming my shaky voice.
     
    “ Neither do we,” the man
with the knife said with a smug look on his face. The next thing I
knew I was being pulled into the alley by my hair. The man with the
knife walking in front of us was scanning the street for any sign
of a witness. It’s funny the things your mind thinks of when your
life is in danger. For instance my mind’s loud and angry grumble
about the state of my hair and how I should cut it when I had more
important things to think about like surviving. My back was slammed
into a wall so hard I lost my breath for a moment and the small man
moved leaving room for his hulking counterpart to take
control.
     
    “ Wallet. Now!” he barked,
waving the massive blade in my face. I nodded my head and managed
to free my hand enough to reach into my pocket. As I fished around
my stomach dropped. I didn’t have it.
     
    I left it at home when I
was at work, it kept me from spending the money I never really had
to spend. I dammed myself for not bringing it tonight. I dammed
myself for not staying home.
     
    “ I… I don’t have it,” my
voice was almost pleading. For the first time in my life I wanted
to cry. I didn’t know if I was going to make it out of that alley
alive. I felt a sharp pain on the side of my head as something
struck me, hard. It was the smaller man. He was standing face to
face with me now, our eyes met and somehow I knew that I wasn’t
going to survive. My mind stopped and I began to run on auto
pilot.
     
    You know those scenes in
the movies when someone is in trouble and they instinctively know
what to do? They fight off the bad guy, save the damsel in distress
without even so much as a thought to how.
     
    This was not one of those
scenes. I froze. Of all the things I could have done and my mind
chose to freeze. I sluggishly and halfheartedly threw a punch at
the smaller man’s head and to my surprise I managed to knock him
back. He hit the wall on the other side of us and looked over at
his beast of a partner.
     
    The large man charged me.
I tried the same move again. Nothing. I connected but he didn’t
budge. I suddenly became aware of the sharp pain in my hand as I
realized I hurt just about as much as if I had punched a boulder.
He grabbed my neck and plunged the knife into my stomach. The
searing pain was enough to make me forget where I was let alone
what continent I was on. I felt the blade cut through me. I felt
the heat as what I could only imagine was blood escaped my
body.
     
    It’s funny the things your
mind thinks of when it has better things it could be doing, like
surviving. I remember feeling the blade again. It pierced through
me sending a bolt of white hot fire through me and the only thing I
could muster to think as I felt a wave of warmth running down my
side was, I need that.
     
    I wished I would pass out,
I hoped I would die. At least then the pain would stop. As I said
before, I never was so lucky. I heard a growl from the other end of
the alley and before I had time to register what I was seeing, a
beast came charging at us. It was large and ran on two legs. Its
massive frame was somehow supported by its proportionally smaller
legs and I got a better look as it swung at the man that held the
handle of the knife that jutted out of my gut.
     
    I fell to the ground as he
flew to the side. Another jolt of pain went through me as the blade
moved from the sudden shock. I heard a scream and a tear as the
monster turned on the smaller man in front of me. I closed my eyes,
I didn’t want to see him die but I couldn’t help hearing the
sickening gurgle that escaped his throat as he left this
world.
     
    The beast walked toward me
as I pulled the knife out of my stomach slowly and painfully. I
threw it to the ground and locked eyes with the massive creature. I
wasn’t