Chapter 1
Naomi fumbled through her purse looking for her keys. It was half-past 4 am and she’d had a long night. The streets were empty, and half the streetlights weren’t working, the other half flickering in and out of consciousness. But that’s fine. She knew this town like the back of her hand. This god forsaken, one-horse town.
I gotta get the hell outta here, she thought to herself as she glanced down the street. Dark and depressing. Like it always was.
“Frick!” she cursed as her 3-inch heel got jammed in a pot hole, making her stumble. A loud crack echoed through the empty street. “Frick! Frick on a stick! Oh, you little shit!”
She had gotten on her hands and knees by then, trying to pull out the cigarette heel that had lodged into a crack in the cement. With a deep breath, she braced herself for a last-ditch effort to free the heel. Oh great, she thought as she felt herself tumble backwards as the heel came loose and she lost her balance.
Luckily, she didn’t hit her head. She did however, most likely scrape her ass, thighs, and knees on the concrete as she tumbled backward. Now she was lying on the street, one hand clutching a broken heel.
Naomi didn’t get up right away. She lay there a moment longer, calming herself. She let her mind race as it would, but controlled her breathing until, finally, acceptance enveloped her. She looked up to the sky at all the stars and saw a single streak of light flash before her eyes. A shooting star, the brightest shooting star she’d ever seen. She couldn't help but smile despite her possible injuries.
This made her feel a bit more positive. Yes, her heel was broken. Yes, she was probably covered in scrapes, which were actually starting to sting. Yes, this was the shittiest way to end a $100 night.
But, she could probably still fix the shoe. She can cover the scratches with makeup. And a $100 was better than nothing. With a sigh, she slowly got up, undoing the clasp on her heels. She only had a little ways to go anyway and she actually liked going barefoot.
She was getting better and better at acceptance. Her mother had taught her that technique. Initially, she had made fun of her mother and had hated the whole concept from the beginning. “There is nothing you can do when something bad happens. It's already done. If you cannot change it, you must accept it, and find the best way to handle it,” her mother had said to her gravely. Her mother had probably said these words a thousand times to her. As a child, she’d been prone to tantrums and this was her mother’s way of teaching her to calm herself.
“Not like I have a choice,” she muttered under her breath as she got up. She gingerly brushed off the gravel form her bleeding knees and took another deep breath.
She slowly walked barefoot toward her building, just half a block away, forgetting about her keys completely.
The breeze was cool against her skin. She could here the crickets, the owls, the night creatures singing to the darkness, singing to her. The wind came again, rustling against the leaves, then ruffling her skirt, her hair. Embracing her almost. She loved walking home.
She was almost in a trance as she approached her building, taking the steps in a half-skip and giggling like a girl. Her heart felt light, filled with joy. Why?
“Hu--hu--help…”
Naomi stopped dead in her tracks. She was so still, she felt like her heart had stopped beating.
“Help me.” The half-whisper, half-call came from behind her. She was facing the bright entrance lights, just a few steps away from the door. Behind her was a waist-level hedge that kept the drainage ditch from view.
Despite her better judgement, Naomi lingered. It could very well be a junkie or a drunk. Or a murderer.
She shivered but for some reason she couldn’t bring herself to just leave and go straight into her building, even though she was screaming at herself to get out of there.
“I will not harm you. Help me.”
It was a man’s voice. Of course, it would be. The voice sounded weak, plaintive. Before she knew what she was doing, Naomi opened her bag and fumbled inside, looking for her phone. When she got it in her hands she immediately turned on the torch and only then did she have the courage to turn towards the voice.
With her heart nearly jumping into her throat, she shined the beam towards the hedge where the voice came from. She couldn’t quite see him from where she stood so she stepped forward, ready to flee if need be.
At first she didn’t know what she was looking at. It seemed as if she was staring at the sun, as if a bright light was slowly consuming all the darkness around her, but it couldn’t be. She still saw the night sky, she saw the beam of the torch light, she even saw the hedge.
“I’m here.” She blinked, startled. Then she saw him. He was lying by the ditch, as if he’d crawled his way out of it. His clothes were in tatters, though it didn’t seem as if he was wearing much and what he was wearing was…odd, to say the least. It looked like a belted smock that had once been white, before the wearer was apparently dragged through the streets.
From the light of the torch, she saw dark hair, light grey eyes, almost silver. Definitely blind, she observed. His muscles rippled under his smock, but his face was deathly pale.
He was holding his side tightly, and she guessed that was where he was injured.
She realized that she was shining the light directly at his eyes, but he didn’t squint at all. He was staring right back at it. He must be blind, she thought.
“What happened to you? Are you hurt?” she asked, worry seeping into her voice. “I’ll call an ambulance, don’t move…”
“NO!” he yelled. She stopped dead in her tracks. Had she just imagined feeling the earth shake?
“No ambulance, nothing like that. Just help me,” he struggled to sit up. “Please.”
“This is crazy, you need to see a doctor!” Naomi turned to her phone, ready to call 911.
He had gotten up and was using the hedge as support. “Please, don’t do that.” He said it so quietly but it sent a chill down her spine. “Help me, you will not regret it. I can reward you.”
As he said this, their eyes met and she felt like she was being sucked into a universe. She saw stars die, planets collide, she saw cosmic dust coming together and creating clouds of light. She saw worlds bursting with life and dead wastes with only barren rock and darkness.
And she was back. She was standing in front of her apartment building, her phone in her hand, 9-1 already dialed on it. And he, the mysterious he, was standing there against the hedge.
He slowly reached out a hand. She shined her torch at him and saw him holding the thickest wad of cash that had ever been offered to her in her entire life.
“I can reward you greatly.”
