Every night, Nina hit the pavement with guarded determination. Homeless and weary, she learned long ago that sleep was a luxury that invited danger. Every dimly lit corner and echo of distant footsteps reminded her of a past encounter – that brutal moment in an alley.
Now, she walked the city’s labyrinthine streets, her eyes alert for any sign of threat.
At night, the neon glow of the urban sprawl transformed ordinary pavements into unseen battlegrounds.
While others huddled down under stinking duvets in cardboard homes or tents, Nina trudged, knowing that only by staying awake could she live.
The cold night air was a constant reminder of the peril hidden in shadows.
Her nights were a mosaic of solitary encounters: a brief nod from a fellow wanderer, a kind smile from a late-night bus driver, and the ever-present silence of empty streets.
With each step, Nina embraced isolation and resilience. Though her heart ached for the safety and comfort of a stable life, fear was a relentless companion that kept her moving.
She had a treadmill she walked each day. It took her from the brash city centre with designer stores, through the run-down Victorian sector, now colonised by middle-class university students, and then down the long arterial road through leafy suburbs where mysterious lives were enacted behind shuttered designer blinds.
An early-morning dog-walker saw what he believed was a stuffed plastic bin bag bursting at its seams dumped in a bus shelter. It was Nina’s body, dehydrated and frozen.
Words: Richard Rooney
Illustration: A.I.
Flash Fiction 250
Flash Fiction 250 