Doomed Town A place where all seemed to be doomed. The people who live there are the lost people in the streets and in the shabby abandoned buildings with broken windows. Old bums, alcoholics, the homeless, washed up prostitutes, men and women who grow up and never gave up their rowdy gang lives. The younger gang members roamed the streets at night looking for drugs and beating up the more helpless of the people there .Occasionally outsiders would get lost there. If it was a man he would get beaten, if it was a woman she would be raped either way they would just disappear never to tell what happened there to them. This place held secrets that no one would ever know. It seemed as though the sun never shined here. The air was never warm, it had ice cold ora about it. The place itself was scary with its demons hiding in every run down building or house. The streets were crumbling and full of pot holes. There was no grass or living tree there. Garbage was strewn all of the streets. Most of the street lamps had been burst so the darkness of night would hide any crime that was committed. Thin dogs with the ribs showing would run from garbage can to garbage can sniffing for food. They would sometimes find something there if the bag ladies or bums hadn�t beat them to it. There was only misery there haunting the houses and streets day and night. Foul language and wicked laughter could be heard loudly from the building where the old prostitutes stayed. To go there without a purpose in the day time or get lost there at night would be a big mistake if you valued your life. In the day light it seemed to be abandoned, almost a ghost town except for the people at the mission pushing and shoving each other to get food or a place to sleep at night. Still there was a dark ora of danger beaming from every corner there. Unseen eyes were watching just in case some new prey strayed off their original path and got lost there. When dusk of evening came all the sickness of this place would emerge to take over the night. The scourges of the world seemed to live here in one big group. They would prey and devour each other when one was weaker. It was a black jungle of lost souls, slyly creeping and crawling in and out of the dark pits from hell. The mission was in the center of town where the hungry went to eat when no other food was available. At night some of the neighborhood bums and drunks slept there in the mission. They would fight for the few covers that were there. And the strongest of them always won and got the covers or whatever the fight was over. When the mission was as full of bums and drunks as it could hold, the others would sleep on the dirty streets under cardboard boxes and old dirty news papers. The workers of the mission were bused in and a few came by car every morning. They would serve the food for the day anxiously and in a hurry. The people there would peer at them through glazed sick eyes of hate. After the workers had fixed and fed them breakfast, lunch and dinner they would finish up by cleaning up the dining area and the kitchen then they would get the hell away from there hopefully before dark set in. The three or four who didn�t leave before dark, didn�t leave at all. They disappeared into the night and were never heard of again. One evening as it was getting dark the workers hurried out of the mission to get home. The bus was waiting to take them away from this wicked place. One group of 4 ladies who had come there in a car rushed to the car as the bus pulled out and on its away. When they got to the car the tires had been removed. "Oh shit," one of the women screamed. We are stuck here in this hell hole." "Calm down, please. We will find away to get home safely." Another woman said. "Oh God, I hope so, I have heard about this place and how people disappear at night here." They all huddled together looking around for a way away from there. They all wished now they had taken the bus every morning here instead of car pooling with Betty. They now all 3 women were looking at Betty. "Don�t look at me like that. This is not my fault. Instead of just standing here we should be trying to find a way home." she said. Her voice tremble and she spoke. They looked up and down the streets for a safe way to get away from there. There wasn�t even a phone booth where they could call someone to come in a hurry to get them. If there had been a phone booth close to them, who would come here at night anyway. Everyone was afraid of this place that they called doom town. No one would be fool enough to take a chance on coming here after dark. "Well you guys can stand here debating us getting away from here with no results, but I am going back to the mission and use their phone to call my brother to come and get us." She really didn�t believe that her brother would come there, but it was worth a try. They had to do something sto try and get out to there. . "Well you go ahead, we all know that he won�t come." Lisa started back towards the mission alone. She was inwardly praying that she would make it back there without any trouble. Some people stared at her as she walked back up the streets. She strode bravely back down the street to the mission pretending not to see the eyes that watched her as she went. The other women watched her until she was out of sight. Some men on the other side of the street yelled out nasty things to her. She kept on walking trying to ignore them. Some one threw a bottle into the street and broke it. This made her jump and speed up her pace on the street. When Lisa got to the mission she was surprised when she went inside and there was now phone she could use to make a called. The people who ran the mission had lock up the things they thought the people here would steal or use then go home themselves. Everyone would leave except two men that watched the people who slept there at night. Lisa left the mission angry for not being able to even attempt to call for a ride home. It was dark now as she headed back toward the car where she had left the others. When she got there, they were all gone. She looked up and down the dark street to see if she could see them. They were no where in sight. Now she was really scared. She was out there alone in the darkness. "Where could they have gone." she said out loud. In the darkness of the town and the moon shining down on the buildings cast giant shadows that looked like ghost swooping down to torment her as she ran looking for safety. No matter where she ran there was no place of safety in this town. She wanted to scream, but some strange person might hear her and instead of coming to her rescue would surely attack her for being there in the first place. She was the stranger here, out of place, lost and alone on these streets. She ran until she discovered a dark place to hide under some stairs in the back of one of the houses. She forced herself not to breathe for someone would hear her there hiding in the darkness. She was shaking all over with fear of this place of forsaken people. She could hear her heart beating; It was beating so loud she thought it may be heard by someone. But she couldn�t stop its beating as it filled her ears with the loud sound coming from within her terrified body. She heard footsteps in the alley where she had gone. She backed into a corner beneath the stairs. She stepped on something not knowing what it was. But she soon found out. "Hey, what the hell is going on." A loud deep voice called out. Lisa was so horrified, she screamed and ran. Her heart felt as is it would race out of her chest. Then she felt as if it would stop beating at all. She thought she heard footsteps coming after her. She ran faster looking for some place else to hide to get away from her pursuer. If she had just slowed down she would have seen it was only a drunk that had been sleeping under the stairs where she had hidden. She had frightened him as much as he had frightened her. She came to an alley and turned into it looking for cover from the person she thought was chasing her. The alley was dark, but she could tell it was filthy. She could smell garbage and feel garbage under her feet as she ran. She slipped and fell in the middle of a pile of garbage. She thought she would die laying in the middle of all that filth. She got up almost vomiting from just the feel and smell of it. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She ran to the other end of the alley when she exited it. There stood two old bag ladies digging in a garbage can. They stopped what they were doing and just stared at her. Then one of them recognized her from the mission. "Hey, you that lady what feeds us at the mission? What the hell you doing here at dis time of night?" Lisa just stared at them. She was shocked that the woman remembered her. She had never looked at any of there faces. "You better git before those bad boys come out and get you." the bag woman said. "They don�t think to kindly of strangers wondering around out here. Theys even chases us. Bad boys dim is, bad boys. Wez do our picking and go hide from theys." "How can I get away from here?" Lisa cried. "Wez don�t know gurl, we stay here don�t know no place else. Gurl, youz in big trouble if you don�t git." the woman said looking up and down the streets. Then went back to rummaging in the garbage can. Lisa hurried away from the two women as they went back to garbage picking. She was at a lost for directions now. Which way should she go to get out of here? She ran until she was tired and stopped to rest. Then a thought came to her. If only she could find her way back to the mission she could go the way the bus took to get out of there. But she was so turned around now from running she didn�t know how to get back to the mission. She turned back to the way she had just ran from. When she got back to where she saw the bag ladies they were gone. She looked down the filthy alley. If she was going to back trap to find the mission she would have to go back through this alley. She took a deep breath and back through it she went. This time she was more careful in her running. She didn�t want to fall in that pile of rotten garbage again. She came to the other end without going through that mess she had fall in before. She breathed a sigh of relieve. She started to trace her route back the way she thought she had came. Not knowing she was going deeper in this place. She was so afraid and confused. She wondered what had happened to the other woman. She hoped they had been more fortunate than she was and had found a way out of here. And maybe they would get someone to come look for her. She knew no one would come looking for her, she would just be one of the lost ones to add to the others that never got out of here. She would have to save herself, it that was possible. Lisa sat down on fire hydrogen to rest, cry, ant try to think. She lowered her head into her hands at a lost for what to do next. She heard footsteps coming very fast towards her. Before she could get up to ran she was surrounded by eight men. They were laughing and looking wildly at her. She shouted at this crowd of thugs. "Leave me alone! Go away, I have done nothing to any of you. I am just trying to get home." They only laughed louder and moved in closer on her. Lisa was terrified at what they would do to her next. She covered her ears to block the sound of the loud taunting they were doing to her. One of the gang touched her and she screamed. That to was funny to them as they jumped around laughing almost looking like clowns in a circus, this wasn�t funny to no one but them. They move ever closer to Lisa, backing her up as far as she could go. They all then began to touch her. She tried to move away from the hands as they moved over her body. One slipped his hand beneath her dress as one groped her breast. They had now stopped laughing and had more devious looks on their faces. Lisa knew she was about to be raped by this sick angry men. "Oh God help me." she cried out. Her voice echoed through the night. "Please stop this, this is wrong." They continued to rub and touch her, not caring about her cries or her begging them. Suddenly a dark, dark shadow appeared. It was darker even then the night. But it�s appearance was very visible to Lisa and to the men who was about to ravage her body. The men looked curiously at the shadow. Lisa was glad but still quite frightened. This could have been their leader just coming to watch them as they raped her. Then she noticed that the men were as stunned as she was by the shadow�s appearance. "What the hell do you want here? one of the men shouted. Don�t you see we are taking caring of business here?" "Be on your way and let us get back to what we are doing. You have no business here." another of the gang of men yelled. Are you looking for trouble? The shadow never moved an inch. It did not fear these men. Lisa stood there dumbfounded She now was thinking that the men would attack this dark shadow interrupting into what they were about to do to her. Maybe she would get a chance to runaway and hide someplace in this doomed dark town. As the gang of men started to rush towards the shadow, mouth opened on the shadow and fire jumped out of the mouth like a dragon�s torch. The men stopped short of going any close to it. Now, they all looked afraid. What was this thing? It had blown fire at them and singed the hair on their heads. Their clothes were smoking. They backed away from it. They had forgotten all about Lisa. Now they only concentrated in amazement about this dark shadow standing there before them. The mouth of the shadow opened again. Fire could be seen in its mouth and now in its eyes too. Then it spoke in a horrible deep raspy voice that echoed through the silent streets. "Move away from the lady. Go about your business else where." it called out. There will only be trouble for you if you continue to hurt her." The men at first were too horrified to move. They just stood there with their mouths wide open in shock. One of the gang wet his pants. They then ran for the hills. Now what would happen to Lisa alone with this whatever it was. Would it burn her up. Would one fear of the gang of men become now a fear of this thing standing there with eyes of fire and breathing fire. Lisa thought this might be a nightmare, but she was awake. How could this thing be. Knowing she was awake, she also knew this thing wasn�t human. Now more fear filled her. Even though this thing had stopped her from being raped and maybe worst. She thought about the people that never returned from this place. Would this be the end of her. Now she knew why the streets were bare. The bums, bag ladies, the thugs and now this thing, this monster. She stood there about to wet herself when suddenly the shadow spoke again. "Follow me, I will take you to where you can leave here." The voice was not as harsh as it was with the gang of men, who had attacked her. But now the fear was that this thing, whatever it was would lead her off into the night and what then? She didn�t move a muscle. She was scared to move. The voice repeated itself. This time with more of a demanding tone. "Come with me, I will get you safely out of here. Others weren�t so lucky. They are lost forever." He must have been the one who made them disappear, she thought. Why wouldn�t it do this to me too. Lisa was afraid, but she spoke out. "Do you mean my friends, the ladies that came here with me to work. My friends car had the tires removed by someone We got lost from each other." "Your friends got out of here. One by one I took them to where they could go to safety." "Who are you?" she asked. "Don�t ask or you will have to stay here. Follow me." The shadow moved down the street. Lisa was afraid, but she followed slowly behind it. She walked for maybe miles behind this thing. No one saw them as they moved through the town. Lisa could see the bums who slept on the streets. She saw some drunks drinking from their bottles. She saw the dirt and filth of this place. The homeless and forget people as she walked behind the shadow. Then they came to a street where she could see the clean side of the town. She was out to the doomed town. She could go on without harm or fear. She started to thank the shadow, but it had faded back into the night. She looked around her and there was no sign of it. She wanted to think of it as a guardian angel, but what guardian angel spit fire and had eyes of fire. She didn�t care what it was it had saved her and bought her to safety. She could see dawn coming. She flagged down a taxi and rode home. RETURN TO INDEX