This piece was inspired by a photograph taken by Anethlas (web address to the photograph below)

www(.)deviantart(.)com/deviation/44083794

As I lay on the gravel of the alley, heart pounding and the feeling of helplessness claiming every fiber of my being, I felt a new sensation take over me. Besides the obvious pains that I felt in my body, I felt a peculiar new feeling: the feeling that I was being watched. The throbbing in my legs seemed no longer important. I was only concerned with who may have been watching me lay there in the alley, paralyzed with fear and pain.

But it was impossible though for someone to be watching me there in all of my helplessness. Those guys had made sure that no one was around when they left me in the alley, and it wasn’t like anyone would be walking by when it was almost midnight on a weeknight.

This strange sensation filled me, though I dared not to open my eyes to see, if in fact, there was someone else in that alleyway with me. Even if I had wanted to open my eyes to look, my view was limited not only because of the darkness, but because I couldn’t move without surges of pain spreading through my neck and back.

I don’t know how long I lay there, alone in that alleyway. At the time, I was only conscience with spitting occasionally to rid my mouth of the taste of blood, and that constant lingering feeling of being watched.

I remember that at one point I called out weakly to the person watching me, “What do you want from me?” Though my pathetic attempt of perhaps finding help was only answered by a car speeding by on the road that was only ten feet away from me.

Eventually I remember the cold numb feeling taking over my toes. I began to silently cry as I realized what that horrible numbness could mean. Still I was incapable of doing anything about it. I had tried to push myself upright as soon as they had left me to die, even with my adrenaline to survive; I couldn’t go any further that around the garbage bin.

Open your eyes, were the words suddenly formed by my mind. They were not my own though. The voice of my thoughts was foreign to my brain. The same thought pounded steadily in my already aching head. It was as if it were a mantra of a sort, trying to hypnotize me into searching for that ever watching person.

I called again to whoever was there. I even begged for help. Though I do not know if my begging was out loud or only in my mind, I do know that there was no voice to answer to anything I might have said.

The numbness had spread to my hip. If I hadn’t been so desperate to leave the alley and return to my apartment only two blocks away, I would’ve welcomed the numbing of my pain.

A sound from behind a trashcan distracted me from my fear of the numbness. I called for a third time out to the one who was watching me. This time however I was only answered by a hiss and more crashing trashcans.

Open your eyes, the thought ordered me. I ignored it. The numbness was slowly making its way through my spine and up to my shoulders. I wanted nothing more than to be in my living room with or without my ever irritating roommate.

The numbness had almost completely enveloped me. The thought was becoming louder and more urgent. It can more frequently as all other thoughts of mine seemed to be subdued by the numbing.

Look around you before it’s too late. The thought rang like church bells through my head.

I did, and all that I saw was myself; cold, alone, and dead in the dark alley.