Warm summer evening in the city of Delhi. A boy in his late teens was coming home after shopping in the mall near his home. He held the grocery bags in one hand and his phone in another. He was watching a fantasy anime episode on his mobile with headphones over his ears while he slowly walked towards his home.
To avoid the rush of people and vehicles, the boy was taking an alternative detour he knew very well that ran through some quiet backstreets. These backstreets were not as frequented so there were no streetlights here. The only light that illuminated the place was from the setting sun and the occasional dim light from some houses that had their windows opened.
Suddenly, the boy felt a searing pain in his waist. His mobile and bags fell from his hand and a cry of pain escaped his mouth. He stumbled forward and a new wave of pain assaulted his senses as something was pulled out of his gut.
As he weakly fell to the ground, he felt a warm liquid rapidly soak his back. The boy felt himself going into shock as his body felt paralyzed due to the loss of energy and blood. He was weak enough that he could barely even tilt his head to look at his attacker.
He didn't know if it was the dim lighting or hallucinations caused by weakness from his blood loss, but his attacker didn't look human. His attacker seemed to have a humanoid figure but had greenish wrinkled skin and an ugly face.
The attacker was also short in height, barely coming up to even five feet, yet he didn't look like a child. He wore weird patched leather clothing and held a small dagger-like weapon in his hand, still dripping with the boy's blood.
Weird growling animalistic sounds emerged from his attacker's mouth. Under the boy's terrified gaze, the attacker opened his small mouth with blackened lips. The boy saw yellowed, dirty, yet sharp-looking teeth that filled the attacker's mouth, along with a long snake-like tongue that was dripping saliva as the attacker licked his lips.
However, just as the attacker was about to move towards the boy once more, a female shout was heard from one of the houses as lights were rapidly flipped on and windows were opened. The attacker was startled by this and seemed to look between the boy and the house with conflict evident on his face.
Finally, the attacker seemed to make up his mind as abandoned the boy and ran away with a surprisingly quick speed. By the time the boy's rescuer opened the backdoor to her house and rushed out, the weird attacker was nowhere to be seen.
The last thing the boy saw was a beautiful girl in shorts and a tank top running towards him while talking hurriedly on a phone. Unable to drag it out any longer, his eyes closed by themselves and his conscious sank into never-ending darkness.
-x-x-x-x-
Naina squatted by the side of the wounded buy who was rapidly losing blood. She was in a panic as she didn't know anything about first aid in situations like this. She was not prepared for a situation like this and the ambulance she called was taking forever to arrive.
She knelt by the side of the wounded boy as she thought back to what she had been doing before all the commotion. There she had been, doing her dance workout to the video of some of the popular internet pop idols, when she suddenly heard a shout of pain from the back of her house.
When she had peeked out from the window, she had seen a shadowy figure standing above a person who had fallen to the ground. In the dim light of the backstreets, the shadowy figure seemed to be holding a knife or dagger-like weapon and was almost growling at the person who had fallen.
"Hey you!!" she had screamed from the window and she switched on all the lights of her room, "What are you doing?!!"
The shadowy figure seemed to be startled by her shouts and the lights she flipped on, probably scared of being caught and sent to the police. She had rushed through the house, flipping on light switches and opening windows to scare the shadowy figure further. At the same time, she had also started dialing the emergency number for the police.
"Hello!! I don't have much time!! There has been a mugging or robbery-like attack here and a person seems to be injured. The attacker is still here at the moment so please some fast. The address is ***,*****,*****."
Next, she had dialed the emergency number for the ambulance services, "Hello!! This is an emergency!! There has been a mugging or robbery-like attack here and a person seems to be injured. Please send an ambulance as fast as possible!! The address is ***,*****,*****."
She had then rushed out the backdoor, but the shadowy attacker had long vanished by that point. All that was left of this incident was the severely injured boy, his belongings that had fallen around him, and the pool of blood on the ground that seemed to look ominous and scary in the dark.
Currently, she was counting the seconds as she glanced at her mobile again and again. The injured boy in front of her had not moved or given any signs that he was still alive for over ten minutes now. He would be kind of cute if he was not smeared with blood and dirt while lying on the ground like that. If he really died in front of her then she was going to have nightmares for quite a while.
Right then, the injured boy in front of her suddenly gave a gasp as he coughed and spat out blood. He weakly moved as he tried to turn and look around.
"No no!! Please don't move!!" Naina shouted as she moved and knelt in the boy's field of vision, "You are severely injured and have lost a lot of blood. I have called for the ambulance and they will be here any minute."
"Please just stay conscious and keep talking to me. You might not awake again if you fall unconscious, I have seen such stories online. Just focus on me and keep talking." Naina said as she grabbed the hand of the injured boy to make him focus on her.
"What …. is your .. name?" the boy whispered weakly.
"My name?" Naina leaned in towards the boy to catch his words, "I am Naina. My house is just a few feet behind you. I heard and saw you getting attacked from my house. I tried to scare away the attacker from my house and succeeded. But by that time you were already like this. Sorry, I couldn't be more helpful."
"That .. is fine… you did your .. best…" the boy replied weakly. His eyes seemed to flicker close, making Naina panic.
"No!! No!! Stay awake!! Come on, you asked me my name. Tell me yours too!!" Naina said as she gripped his hand to make his attention focus on her.
"My name.. is … Rodas Rao…. however … you can also call me...Alcor.." the boy replied.