When the sun rode the back of the setting sun towards bygone cities, the armies of stars approached, shining and calm in their path, as if they were settling in a sky devoid of a moon.
In the sickly evening, and between narrow, empty alleys, my gaze pierced the darkness before my slow steps, each one carefully placed on the surface of the earth. I feared stumbling and falling. I paused, once again, to look right, left, or behind me. A sensation lingered that someone was following me.
The sudden darkness at that moment concealed my whole body. As he passed by, spying with bulging eyes, hoping to catch me, I held my breath, taking precautions. I stuck to the wall, spreading my hand along it, holding it tightly. He did not see me.
My clothes blended into the blackness, and as he took the road leading to another alley, I quickly took the opposite direction. This time, I quickened my steps, stumbling over scattered garbage cans near the houses and the mummified electricity poles. I stopped, panic gripping me. Was he coming back? Would he follow me again?
A deep, thoughtful glance at the alleys covered in pitch darkness betrayed my thoughts. I tried to listen for his footsteps, but he had disappeared, just as I had vanished from his sight. My home was close, but I was shaken from the anxiety of the pursuit. Trembling, I wondered if he would come back after me, feeling the weight of the uncertainty.
I had been carrying bread and vegetables for my children, but these pursuers seemed to have agreed to starve them tonight. I raised my head to the sky, mumbling to myself, cursing the fatigue and wounds on my legs. I spoke to myself about the hope of returning to my girlhood, to a time before these cursed people crossed my path.
But despite all my precautions, without my knowledge, without warning, a knife pierced my weak body, another struck my neck. The stabs, punches, and kicks continued, and I fell to the ground. My thoughts, still fragmented, were with my children—where would they sleep tonight? Hungry and orphaned?
I was covered in blood at the point of sunset, wondering if they would ever know the horrors of this night.
