The cars whizz by making a loud CLANK every time one passes over the man hole.  The freezing wind bites my face as I put my chin to my chest trying to cover myself from the harsh winter.  Police sirens are drowned out by the bustling traffic.  As the sun sets, the buildings that line the streets illuminate the night sky.  While many may feel safer with the lights on, one can’t help but feel even more unsafe.  When the lights come on, everyone stays inside; no one dares to step outside.   While the lights of the buildings may illuminate the city, they fail to shine a light on the darkness of the city.  Graffiti hides behind every corner, witnessing the drugs and gangs that lurk the alleys.  It’s a long walk to my house from the city, about five miles.  My stupid 1999 Chevy Tahoe broke down again 10 blocks back, and my friend Robert can’t pick me up because his stupid boss won’t let him off work for 30 minutes.  I haven’t walked these streets in a long time, and for good reason.  I only drive through the city when I have to, I try not stand outside too long.  Gangbangers roam the streets claiming victims left and right just to show whose turf it is.  Drive-bys are more common than someone holding the door for another person.  This is just a plain ol bad town to live in.  I live 20 minutes away from where I currently am, but that’s by car.  I don’t even know how long it’s going to take by foot.  My apartment is all the way on the other side of town, and with the wind picking up and temperature dropping like an anvil, I have no choice but to go through the city. 
The wind carries the smell of a Philly Cheese Steak from the famous food stand: Sports Sandwiches To-Go.  I’m on the brinks of the city, walking along the sidewalk with my head down as I’m texting all my friends trying to catch a ride.  It probably won’t work though, either everyone’s working or too busy with their stupid girlfriends.  It’s no help that the cold wind is only making my skin even colder. Around here, outsiders aren’t welcome on some people's turf. 
“Yo what up homie!”  I look to my left and a group of about six or seven black and white men dressed in all baggy clothes that are two sizes too big are staring me down.  I speed up my walk and try to ignore them, you don’t want to mess with the wrong kind of people in this city.  “That’s right!!” one yells, “Keep on walking, you don’t want to step here!”  By now the sun has completely set, and the darkness of night surrounds the city.  While the lights from the buildings may light up the sky, they have a hard time lighting up the streets.  I’m getting closer to the heart of the city, but I don’t want to cross over to the east side of the city.  The west side is not nearly as bad as the east side.  The east side is where all of the drive-bys, all of the homicides, and all of the drug busts happen.  Nothing good comes from the east side of this city. 
As I pass block after block, the lighting becomes even poorer, and there becomes more graffiti on the walls and alleys than the original paint.  I feel a vibration in my pocket; I reach down and grab my phone.  I see a text from Robert and I can’t help but get excited.  What if he can get me?  What if he’s done with work?  What if I can just go home?  But as I begin to read the text, my stomach falls to the ground.  Hey Brenden, I’m working a double shift tonight, ya know, gotta get some money.  My boss still won’t let me off long enough to take you home.  Sorry man, you really should just take a cab.  Call a cab, that never even crossed my mind.  I start to become ecstatic and I try my best not to jump with joy.  I grab my wallet from my back pocket, and go to grab my money.  $7, that’s it.  I only have $7.  All my joy suddenly flees and it’s as if I had just taken a body blow from Mike Tyson. 
“Yo what up boy?”  I turn around and a group of 3 black men and one white man slowly walk up to me.  “Whatchya got there?”  Shaking with nerves, I put my wallet back in my right cheek pocket.
“Oh nothing man.”
“Don’t f**k with me boy, I know what I saw.”
“Nah I don’t have anything you want, I only have $7 on me I swear.”
“I wasn’t talking bout your wallet n***a.”
I look down at my right wrist.  He was clearly talking about my gold Rolex.  They had a look in their eyes like they were on the hunt, as if they were the predators.  I take off.  In a crazy whirl of emotions and fear, I turn around, and ran for my life.
“Bring that a** here boy!!”  I run through a graffiti covered alley, and make a hard right at the first opening.  I could hear their Tims slamming the ground as they chase after me.  I run through another alley that only leads to a chain linked fence.  With no time to turn around, I climb it as fast as possible.  In the midst of all the chaos, my leg slips at the top, and I cut my leg along the fence.  My khakis are ripped and I begin to feel the blood drip down my leg.  I finally hop over, just in time as the 4 gangsters run up to the fence.  As I run forward they immediately turn back around and run away.  I don’t understand it, but I’m not going to question it.  I keep running as fast as I can through the alley, towards the only opening I see.  As I get closer, I begin to hear cars whizz on past; the noises get louder and louder until finally, I come up to the road.  I have no idea where I’m at, and this is not a good time to be lost.  I pull my phone out and open up the Maps application on my phone.  While I’m looking down, a car backfires and scares the absolute poo out of me.  I notice that my leg begins to bleed again, it had to be from my cut.  The blood flow begins to increase more and more until suddenly, I feel an immense pain through my thigh.  There was no car that backfired, just a car full of gangsters that fired at me.  I scream in absolute agony; I can’t walk; I can’t even move.  I look to my right and see the four gangsters get out of their car, and start making their way over to me.  I try to hobble my way away from them, but it’s no use. 
“You thought you could get away from us pretty boy?” one asks, “Well you thought wrong homie.”
One hits me from behind and knocks me to the ground.  The other three begin to kick me in my ribs and my gut causing a wave of split-aching pain through my torso.  I feel my ribs break one by one as they continue to beat the absolute life out of me.  They suddenly stop, one picks me up by the armpits exposing my frontside to the other three.  One of the black gangsters comes up face to face with me.  His head his covered by a doo rag, but it doesn’t hide the long scar stretching down his right cheek.  Teeth stained yellow and look in his eyes that could kill anyone point blank.
“Don’t you know not to mess with us, we run this town, not your sorry cracker a**.”  A left hook immediately follows his words shattering the right side of my jaw.  He backs away as the other two raid my pockets taking my phone, my wallet, my Rolex, and even my gum.  Police sirens echo in the distance as the gangsters sprint back to their car.  I can barely see as the lights from the cars driving by blur my sight of vision; everything seems to be getting darker.  The sirens become louder as I can barely see the blue and red lights flashing.  It all fades away as it becomes black.
I wake up in a hospital bed, with enough wires strapped to me to wrap around the building twice.  The room is empty; there is no sound except for the electronic sound of my heart beat.  No one knows what happened to me, and no one seems to care.  I go to reach for my phone, but there’s nothing there.  I sit up and stare ahead.  I stare for 5 minutes, then 30 minutes, at this point it’s been an hour.  Still no sign of anyone.  Then the door suddenly bursts open. 
“Yo Brenden are you okay?”
“What happened?”  Robert and Jimmy walk in with faces paler than a ghost in the heart of a blizzard.
“I don’t even know where to start” I tell them.
“I should’ve just left work to pick you up man” Robert says with a worried look deep in his eyes.”
“No man, you had to work. It wasn’t nothing you could’ve done.”
“Why didn’t you just call me and told me it was an emergency?” Jimmy asks.
“You were with your girlfriend and it wasn’t an emergency at the time.”
“Where were you?” Robert asks.
“Flint.”