I'd already been regretting the route I'd chosen back to my hotel for a good five minutes when I heard the woman scream.
That's the trouble with maps of strange towns: the most direct route on a helpfully color-coded map usually isn't the safest. They should code the map in likelihood-of-being-mugged rather than height above sea-level, or whatever the hell this one was.
Part of me just wanted to pretend it hadn't happened and walk on. You're already scared enough, Mike, no point making it worse. But that's not really who I am, so instead, I crept slowly into the alleyway, squinting into the dark.
He was a big man, taller than me. The girl, rather pretty, dress torn, was spreadeagle on the ground, backing away from him, but she had no where to go. I could see his belt was already unbuckled. Not good.
Not knowing what else to do, I ran a few steps, deliberately banging my feet into the ground to make a clatter, and yelled "Hey! You!" My insane hope was that he'd get spooked and run off.
No such luck. Instead, he turned around and glared at me. He was a mean looking pile of muscle and he towered over me.
"Fuck you want?" he demanded and advanced a step. The girl frantically looked for escape routes, but there was nowhere for her to go. The alley was a dead-end.
I'm a lawyer, not used to this sort of physical confrontation, so when he hit me, square in the jaw, I just went down. The pain was beyond anything I could have imagined.
I blacked out as I hit the ground, but it wasn't until I came to my senses a moment later that things got really weird.
