Eva knew very well that she shouldn’t have came to this side of town at this time of night. She was fairly certain of the type of trouble she may find herself in and she could make an educated guess at the character of those individuals who would be that particular trouble’s architects.

Knowing not to go somewhere and knowing not to do something were never the avenues to common sense most people would have you believe. Pragmatism calls for people to go against their better judgement on occasion. You can’t live in the world and abide by everyone’s rules – even your own – all the time.

The world didn’t work that way. Something has to give and more often than not it was your integrity, your honour, your common sense. We give it all up when the moment calls for it. It didn’t make us any less intelligent or any more stupid.

As the fist crashed into the side of her head, for what seemed like the dozenth time, these words were of very little comfort. Eva had known this would happen, yet she came across to the Riverwood all the same.

She felt her body keel over onto the soaking wet alley floor. Her vision had went about five swings back. All she knew was that there were five or six very pissed off shadows standing in front of her and they were keen to make sure Eva didn’t get out of this alley still breathing.

‘Get her back on her feet,’ a female voice called out from amongst the huddle of dark shapes. It sounded like the girl Eva had bumped into not five minutes ago. She had seemed a poor, defenceless creature back then. Covered in a dirty rag, face smeared in dirt and blood. ‘Can you help my little brother, he’s really sick’, Eva ran the girl’s words through her head. Sick fuckin’ siblings. I knew it, I knew this was a trap. Eva had obviously known no such thing and had bought the girl’s story due to her excruciatingly impoverished appearance. But when you’re lying, near-blind in an alley with your life soon to be much shorter than you had originally intended, you’ll tell yourself anything. Continue reading