Apocrypha Sequence Deviance by Shane Jiraiya Cummings

Author:Shane Jiraiya Cummings
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-01-17T22:00:00+00:00

Miri huddled on a doorstep in the first alley that led her from the lights of Exeter Street. She cupped her head in her hands and fought back tears. Goosebumps covered her arms and legs. Her miniskirt, blouse, and fishnet stockings offered no protection from the draft funnelled through the streets. The cold was unrelenting. She curled into a tighter ball as defence against the wind. The soles of her feet were freezing, the consequence of abandoning her high heels as she ran.

A dark silhouette loomed at the top of the alley, framed by the light of the streetlamp at its back.

"Piss off, creep," Miri sniffled.

The silhouette drew closer. Every step echoed down the hill and into the valley of darkness beyond.

Hugging herself even tighter, she turned her face into the splintered wood of the door. Too much had happened tonight without this, another attack, another set of hands. A sob wracked her as the man drew closer.

"Miriel."

"Joe?" She squinted up at him through tears.

The light was still at his back, but the silhouette took on a calming familiarity.

"Come back with me to the centre."

Miri sobbed again and rubbed her eyes with the heel of her palm. Filth slicked her legs but the cold numbed her to the worst of it.

Her makeshift sanctuary was the rear entry to a small warehouse, one of many clustered in this part of the Strip. Grime clung to the concrete. Discarded needles glinted in the dim light nearby.

The maze of walkways and alleys that comprised this side of Exeter Street was the ideal haunt for the Alley Cats, hookers who offered sex then and there, in doorways, pressed against walls. Already, a few shapes watched them from the shadows further down the street.

"Come on, I have a hot shower and nice warm coffee waiting. Let's get you out of this cold." Joe said.

"What happened? With those guys, I mean?" She uncurled herself a little.

"Just a misunderstanding. They'll be no more trouble to you." He sounded distant.

Without a further word, she reached out to him. Joe took her hand and eased her to her feet. For a moment, their eyes locked—hers, watery and pale; his, the unreadable grey of stone.

Miri was a fresh face on the Strip, yet to be broken by the tide of perversion heaped onto this single neighbourhood. Joe had taken her under his wing the day he'd set eyes on her, although that had only delayed the inevitable.

Everyone lost their souls on Exeter Street. Some gave them up to crawl the heap for positions of power—the dealers, the pimps, the strip club owners. Others, like Miri, ended up there through happenstance or the worst of luck. People were already a little damaged when they arrived at the Strip. Miri, like the others forced into prostitution, was no exception.

Joe gently guided Miri from her squalid sanctuary. With one arm around her shoulders, he walked her up the incline and back toward the neon glare of Exeter Street. Joe paused at the top of the lane and glanced back.

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