“Where is everybody?” I asked myself, scanning the streets ahead of us. Then risking a glance behind. The street lights in this area worked as often as they didn’t, leaving the deserted street in a murky kind of gloom. The stale hum of distant cars seemed out of place in this weird vacuum. It was like this couple of blocks was stagnant; the night holding its breath. “Invisible men and strangely vacant city blocks,” I muttered to myself. “Oh yeah, this is normal, all right. I stopped at the corner of Farrel and Market, eyeing my options. Straight on was a dark sidewalk with only two working lights. Alleyways dumped out into the street, giving dangerous street urchins multiple places to hide. If we went right, it would be safer, with limited outlets and hiding spots, but also less traffic to come to our aid if something awaited halfway down. And in this neck of the woods, something almost assuredly awaited half-way down.
