With Rose gone, the employees finally realized the day was over and began to go home. After an extra hour of scrubbing every plate, cup, fork, spoon, and knife, I finally grabbed my brown leather jacket off the rack and headed out the door.
I started heading my way towards the parking garage. The streets were surprisingly clear for such a big city. Most of the shops I walked past were beginning to close for the evening, leaving the street dark, quiet, and eerie.
I began to quicken my pace. You'd think after living in the city most of my life I'd grow used to it. But urban nightfall still left me feeling uneasy.
"Hey, you"
A voice yelled out behind me. I could feel it thrown in my direction, but I kept walking. It was probably for someone else. But then I heard the footsteps on the concrete.
"Hey, you, I'm talking to you!"
I began walking faster. My eyes darted frantically up and down the street but no one else was around.
Just then, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and before I could even react, my back was pressed into the concrete wall of an alleyway next to a store. My assailant was a guy in sweatpants and a hoodie, his breath stinking of liquor.
"I was talking to you" he spat into my face, along with dots of saliva.
"I don't want any trouble" I said, my voice quivering.
"Gimme whatever's in your pocket"
My heart pounded madly in my ears. Once again, my eyes searched the nearby sidewalks but with no prevail to find help. I looked back at the guy, his whiskery face and tattoos on his knuckles. Muscles rippled under his hoodie. There was no way I could fight this guy.
"Well, did ya hear me?" he said. "Get out your wallet!"
He slammed his fist across my face. Pain surged through my jaw and a sprit of blood shot from my mouth. Before I could even say anything, he sent another one across the other side of my jaw.
"Okay, okay" I whimpered.
I reached into my pocket for my wallet, my hands shaking, when suddenly a figure appeared behind the guy.
"Now that is no way to approach anyone, young man" a voice said. It was familiar. Cool, calm, and intimidating in sound alone.
The guy turned around, and my jaw dropped to see Rose Delacourt once again, carrying a little pink bag from the store next door.
"Yeah?" the guy said, eyeing her up and down with a licentious look in his eyes. "And what are you going to do about it, sweetheart?"
Rose scrunched her mouth. Her hands reached slowly into the little pink bag at her side. In one quick motion, her hand came shooting out, slamming something red across his face. In an instant, the guy tumbled down, his skull slamming against the sidewalk.
"Honestly, people have no class anymore" she said with a sigh. The red high-heeled shoe in her hand dripped with blood from the heel.
She pinched my face in her hands. Her face moved inches from mind, her eyes analyzing me like a doctor examining a patient.
"Are you okay, Mr. Luxembourg?" she said,
My vision was still blurry from the blows to the face and bizarre nature of this whole situation. My head grew light, my limbs limp. In the last moments I could recall, my head tumbled gently to the sidewalk.
The last thing I saw before everything went to black was a pair of sharp black heels.