I looked at my watch; it read 02:24. I yawned; it had been a long night. I took another long drag on my cigarette and sighed as I exhaled. I watched the smoke curl slowly up to the flickering strip light, which barely lit the grubby little room. I was alone; waiting for a taxicab and outside it was raining. I could vaguely hear, over the rain, music beating through the wall from the nightclub next door.

I looked up when the door opened and watched the girl enter unsteadily on her high heels. She was drunk and dishevelled. She hobbled past me to the desk and slurred something to the fat guy behind the fenced-in counter, and then she slumped in the seat next to me. We sat there, watching the cars flashing by and the rain pour onto the glistening black streets.

“I hate this part, the waiting.” She said.

“Me too.” I said.

She was pretty in a babyish sort of way. She couldn’t have been more than sixteen. She had too much red lipstick on and wore a very short mini skirt that was about the same colour. She looked deathly cold. Rain water dripped from her shoulder-length brown hair onto a bright pink short-sleeved blouse. She put a black plastic handbag onto her lap and clumsily took out a pack of cigarettes. “Have you got a light?” She asked.

I lit her cigarette and lit another for myself. I looked at my watch again; it was 02:29. I’d been waiting nearly an hour. I got up off my seat and walked to the window. Still the rain came down. I could see the girl in the window’s reflection. She was hugging her shoulders, trying to keep warm. She fidgeted uneasily in her seat. She looked so fragile and small.

“Oh damn, I’m gonna walk home.” She suddenly exclaimed. “Taxi for Grace!” The fat guy announced as a white cab slid up to the curb. I shot him a wry smile and looked back at the girl. “That’s my cab, why don’t you share it with me?” She looked so relieved.“Oh god, that would be so cool, thanks.”

We hurried out of the office and huddled into the back of the taxi. “Clarkesville please!” I told the driver. “Hey, that’s where I’m going, how did you know?” The girl asked. “That’s where I’m headed.” I replied.

As we took a left on Beaumont and Third we came to a standstill. Police cars had blocked the road. There had been a crash. There was a myriad of flashing red and blue lights. A fire truck wailed impatiently behind us so the driver pulled over to let him by. Through the assortment of emergency vehicles I could see that a car had mounted the sidewalk and ploughed into a boarded-up storefront. The ambulance crew and police were trying to pull the driver out of the wreckage. He was probably dead. We sat and watched.

Then, the girl opened her door and got out, she headed for the wreck. “Mia, don’t!” I shouted after her. She faltered, then stopped, she turned her white face towards me. “How do you know my name?” I just stared at her. I couldn’t speak. My heart ached. She turned away from me and carried on walking.

Somebody near the crash was shouting. They’d found another body. It looked like the dead drunk driver had killed a pedestrian as well as himself. When I caught up with Mia, they were pulling a small lifeless body out from under the mangled car. It was a girl. At first I thought she’d had red hair, then, I realised that her head was covered in crimson blood. As the rain diluted the colour and washed her life away down a near-by drain, I could see her hair had been brown.

Mia started to tremble. The corpse was wearing a red mini skirt and a bright pink blouse. Realisation dawned, she turned her terrified eyes to meet mine. As a blood curdling scream of sheer terror erupted from her butterfly lungs I held her slight body tightly against mine. Over her shoulder I could see that the Angel had arrived.

The Angel spread its wings and Mia was gone.

I clenched my fists as a lightning bolt of white-hot pain seared through my heart. With each pure soul the pain grew. I looked down at the cold black asphalt and waited for the pain to ease. I couldn’t linger long; I had three more to do before dawn.