A Friend in the Dark

As soon as the danger had passed, the young man grabbed Samantha's hand and started walking down the alleys to what looked to be a storage shed at the end of a narrow alley. He led her inside and let go of her hand. There was a small lantern lit in the corner that gave off a little light. A few mounds of blankets moved on the floor as they entered, and Samantha realised that there were others in the small room. "I'm Josiah." He said, turning and handing her a blanket. "You can sleep here for the night." "Thanks." she said, timidly taking the blanket from his hand. "Got a name?" he said grinning at her with that mischevious grin she had seen earlier. "Oh, sorry, my name is Secret." she said smiling back. The name had just fallen over her lips before she had thought about it. "That's an odd name." He said, shrugging his shoulders and turning to find another blanket for himself. She didn't comment, there wasn't much to say since she agreed with him. She hadn't even known she had decided to use it until it popped out, but it was too late now. "Well, sleep tight." He said, making a spot for himself and curling up under his blanket next to somebody. There wasn't much room on the floor not to be next to somebody, so she did the same. The next morning she awoke to find herself alone in the shed. The others were gone, as well as their blankets. They had left her with her blanket. As she went outside she could tell by the sun that it was well into mid morning. How had she slept so late in such a strange place? Where had the other's gone? Well, it did not matter, she wasn't planning on living there in that shed or anything, she needed to get on with finding how to make some money so that she could eat. If she needed to she could always come back here for the night. She rolled up the blanket and stashed it behind a loose board in the shed. She did not want to walk about with it all day, it would just add to her ragtag appearance. She wandered around London again as she had the day before, with no sense of a direction to go in, or an idea of what to do. She hoped if she paid attention and kept moving that an idea or something would occur to her. Her stomach growled and started gnawing at itself. Late in the afternoon, when she could hardly take the hunger anymore, she finally got up the courage to snag a loaf of bread from a cart and took off running. She cradled the bread close to her as she dipped under horses, and ducked and swerved around people. Finally she thought she had lost them in the crowd, so she turned quickly down an alley and sank down behind a barrel to eat. Panting from the running, her heart pounding, she ripped off a piece the bread. It had been baked fresh this morning and was still soft, she eagerly popped a big fluffy white piece into her mouth and hardly chewed before she swallowed and popped in another. Just as her heart was starting to calm she heard a rustle from further down the alley. Her head jerked quickly to the left to see what imminent danger faced her now. Her eyes widened as she saw 3 men with clubs and knives in hand coming her direction. They were grungy and dressed in non-descript moth eaten clothing. They looked hungry as they eyed her bread and the one nearest her had a sinister gap-toothed grin. She turned to run back out of the alley, better to risk her chances with the city guard than these men, but suddenly her head was jerked back as one grabbed her hair. They ripped the loaf of bread from her hands which she would gladly have given them to let her go, but then they threw her halfway down the alley and started to beat her and kick her. Ripping at her clothing and tearing at her hair. She struggled to cry out between blows to her stomach that knocked the wind out of her, but she could do nothing but gasp for breath. What little she had managed to eat came back up onto the dirt alley floor to mix with her blood and tears. Blackness threated to creep in on her consciousness and she wavered in and out. Finally, the men stopped and ran off laughing with each other. Clearly they had only beaten her for sport. When she thought of what else they could have done she shuddered. Laying there, she was too warn out to move.