The Alley Way
I still remember that day. It was that one incident that had changed my entire life. I try to not think about it, but one question would keep popping up in my head — “Why did we do it?”. That would be all it took for the memories that I had locked away, to come rushing back, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
When we were younger, a friend and I had decided to sneak out of the house for a late evening stroll without our parents’ knowledge. As we walked through the bustling city, we came across an alleyway with no idea of where it led. We decided to explore it, even though our fifteen year old selves were banned from ever going into any deserted alleys in the day, much less the night. But my dare devil friend pulled me along anyway. Looking around, I noticed how empty and quiet that street was. The only light was coming from the few street lamps that were working. Even the few pigeons that dotted the sidewalks were quiet as we passed them, giving the atmosphere an ominous feel. Looking at them, reminded me of something I had heard a while back. It spoke of how pigeons have an acute sense of danger. If they sense any, then they tend to fly as far away from it, as possible. But them being calm and collected brought me peace.
As we walked, my friend began dragging me through these smaller alleys in which the persistent silence remained, and in some that we passed further, there was hardly any light. That was when I heard murmurs and gagged screams. We followed the sound and peaked into one of the smaller parts of the alley. We saw that we weren’t alone. There was a whole group of people standing in a circle. I couldn’t see much because my friend was blocking my view. But, all of a sudden, due to whatever it was that she saw, my friend shrieked. Immediately all eyes landed in our direction. I could hear her yelling at me to run, but I was frozen in place — petrified.
The next thing I knew, I was being pulled, made to run faster than I ever thought I could. In the silence I heard another pair of footsteps following us, when I heard a door close. That was when I realized that they were going to chase us by car. Luckily, I could hear the engine fail every time they started the car, which bought us a couple of minutes.
If only we could reach the end of the alley, we could reach safety. I thought, as we finally exited the narrow lane, all the while listening intently for the sound of a supposedly on coming engine. We were halfway through the alley by then, running for our lives, when the sound of an engine nearing made me look back. The car stopped a few meters behind us, and a man got out of it with a gun in his hand. That was when the pigeons nearby began to fly away. I was so distracted that I hadn’t noticed the lid of the manhole in front of me, and I tripped. My friend turned around to help me stand, when I heard three gunshots. Two of them hit the ground near me. The third shot hit my friend. The next thing I knew, my friend was lying on the street beside me, dead, and the man ran back into the car and drove off, on hearing the sound of a cop siren.
Two years have passed since that fateful day, and I don’t remember much of what had happened after the incident due to shock. Though, I still remember the look on my friend’s face, the way she was silently screaming with her horror struck eyes, even though she was long gone. Now, every time I pass the alleyway, all I see is an empty street with pigeons dotting the sidewalk, lit by very few street lamps, and a dreadful silence that never goes away.
