Free One Late Night by Ashley Shayne

Chapter One
     
    I picked up my pace, hurrying through the silent, dark
streets and cursing my boyfriend Alex for calling at the last minute and
telling me he had to cancel our date and wouldn’t be able to pick me up
tonight. I worked nights at a gas station and usually got off at 2:00 a.m. As
if working the graveyard shift all alone wasn’t bad enough, Alex knew I hated
walking home by myself. It was always late and dark and my route took me
through a rough patch of town that flat-out scared me. The area was a mix of
industrial and residential buildings and was made up of big, empty warehouses
and lots with large blocks of cheap apartments thrown in around the edges.
There was rarely anyone around and the people I did see were rough and
scary-looking. Usually, when I knew Alex wouldn’t be coming to meet me, I
either arranged with my brother to pick me up or I took a cab home. But my
brother wasn’t answering his phone and payday was two days from now. My budget
was way too tight to justify a cab home tonight.
    I told myself I’d be fine—my usual mantra when I got stuck
walking alone—and tried not to hurry too obviously. I always felt that if I
started running, I would look like a ready-made victim and anything coming
after me would get the thrill of the chase as an added bonus. I clattered along
as fast as I dared, wishing I hadn’t worn high heels tonight. I’d been
expecting a nice evening with my boyfriend and had taken time with my
appearance. I was wearing a pretty, wraparound blue skirt that flowed out
around my hips and stopped just above my knees, and a white silk tank top. A
white bag and white pumps completed my outfit. Though it was a warm evening,
I’d have brought a sweater if I’d known I’d be walking home alone.
    I cursed softly as I went. This was typical of my life.
Everything was boring or stressful. Nothing at all was any good. My friends
were moving on with their lives and having families. That wasn’t in the cards
anytime soon for me and I had no interest in intruding on their busy lives too
much. I found myself wishing, as I often had been lately, that I could just up
and leave my life. Move somewhere exotic. Do something different. Meet someone
new. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to leave and no one new ever came here.
Or if they did, I never met them. And something exotic? Fat chance.
    My heels tapped on the pavement with every step I took and
were basically announcing my presence to anyone who might be interested in a
woman walking alone at night. The wind tugged at my long, dark hair, tangling
it around my face as I went, and I wished I was home already, tucked up in a
blanket on the couch, watching a feel-good movie and trying to ignore how hurt
I was that Alex had cancelled. Again. The second time he’d done so this week
alone and he must have cancelled at least a dozen other dates with me in the
last two months. I didn’t understand what his issue was. If he wanted to get
rid of me, all he had to do was say something. And to make things even more
confusing, he was acting like his usual sweet self when I saw him. When he
showed up at all, that was. I wondered if he’d met someone else and was just
stringing me along until he decided who he wanted. Alex had a selfish side and
I was dismayed to discover that it wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn he’d
been cheating on me.
    As I hurried past a dark, narrow alley, I heard an odd
sound. Sort of a wheezing, snorting, cough kind of noise. I froze. What the
hell was that? It sounded like the sort of sound you’d hear in a zoo or a
tropical jungle, not the urban jungle of Manhattan. As I stood there listening,
uncertain and beginning to feel a little fearful, I heard the noise again, a
little closer this time. I backed away from the alley as quietly as I could, staying
on my tiptoes to stop my heels from tapping on the pavement. I backed far
enough away that I’d have a small head start if something came out of the alley,
and