EXTRACT FOR
A Fall From Grace
(Anna Mann)

Kay looked over her shoulder but saw nothing. The sparsely placed street lights flickered and stuttered, some had given up completely and left pools of darkness surrounded by a deep gloom. Ahead lay the skeletons of once busy factories and warehouses, behind lay the fading lights of the city and civilisation.

A stray mutt had made her start as it darted from the cover of thick grass and nettles that had grown up in a patch of waste ground where once a row of shops had stood. She checked her pulse again and found it the same as before, still she wasn't scared... the reaction was simply her excitement building.

And now the fun begins she told herself as ahead she saw the orange flicker of flames dancing against a crumbling wall. Bums and vagrants she realised, even in the summer months they seemed to crowd around their fire lit inside an old forty gallon oil drum.

The coat slipped from her shoulders and Kay folded it neatly then lifted a raft of creeping weeds to push the bundle underneath hiding it from sight. Now only the skimpiest of net dresses stood between her nudity and dozens of lusting eyes. Her head held high Kay walked forward, a glance down confirmed that despite the low light her nipples and mound were clear to see. The firelight grew stronger, she heard low conversations, wood smoke drifted on the breeze along with alcohol and body odour. Kay shuddered as wicked thoughts ran through her head, she could see them now, so many of them all dressed the same way, boots and filthy torn coats, most sported scruffy beards and long unwashed hair. Several turned to study her as she approached, suspicious eyes peered from grimy faces. She understood their silence, these were men excluded from society, men who were blamed for every criminal act that ever happened. 

And I could be a trap she realised, after all how many other naked black girls wandered such a threatening area in the early hours of the morning. Of course they would mistrust anything that looked too good to be true. Kay saw them whispering to each other, their voices so low she couldn't catch a single word. But they are discussing me she thought as she slowly walked past, and soon they will be looking at my ass, and I think that is even more tempting.

On she walked slowly approaching what had been a vast car showroom. Now the entire glass frontage had been shattered leaving wide voids filled with shadow. Kay drew level with the front entrance then caught her breath, a deeper darkness had moved in the shadows and she heard broken glass underfoot... someone had seen her...

And now he's following me she told herself, then realised that between her legs a slippery flood had formed.