My Second, Surprisingly Scary Contact

           A week or two later, I was walking back to my car after shopping. It was dark, and I had parked rather far away from the store. I set one handful of grocery bags down to dig my keys out of my pocket, and suddenly felt my feet slide out from underneath me as if it was icy. That would be perfectly normal in the winter, but remember, this was still May. I yelped and fell, hitting my head on the asphalt. I didn’t quite black out, but could tell that my body was being dragged underneath the car by my feet. There was nothing to hold onto, and I couldn’t stop it, though I tried.
          My arms and back were soon stinging, and I looked toward my feet to see a dark shadow, human in shape, but too big and bulky, reeling me in with one hand. I reacted with a scream, but a dark hand covered my mouth (and nearly my whole face). He must have pushed my head back down onto the pavement next, because I did black out then.  
           I go to college in a relatively small and safe town, but apparently there are still some narrow, abandoned alleyways here. I regained consciousness in one of these alleys, hearing two men grunting over me.  
           “See? I told you I smelled one in this town.”
           Two abnormally large nostrils neared me and took a good whiff. “It’s still just human, but you’re right. I can smell something else, like a good spice.”

“Yeah, she’ll be tasty.” the other agreed.

“You’re sure this is a good spot, too? No one’s going to barge in on our meal?”

“What do you take me for? We’re good at this time of night.”

I tried to lift my head up from the concrete. “Please, don’t -- don’t eat me!”

“Aw, it’s waking up. Kill it before it makes more noise.”

“Okay.” the other pulled out a knife and knelt toward me. Panicked, I kicked him somewhere, and it must have landed well. He cursed something unintelligible and the knife went clattering to the ground, so I rolled over and started crawling and hobbling away. Like a nightmare, I wasn’t fast enough. One grabbed my feet and pulled me back. I screamed, knowing I really was going to die this time.

There was an incredibly bright flash of light. I was blinded along with my two assailants, and they let go of me momentarily. Someone with much smaller hands grabbed my arm and hoisted me to my feet.

“Run, Ashlyn!” A man’s voice said.

“I can’t see!” I protested, although I was trying to run.

The creatures behind us were angry. I could hear them stumbling towards us, and getting closer. “Now I smell something even tastier!” one of them snarled.

I was suddenly pushed to the side, slamming into a wall, and I heard a cry of pain. Not from the creatures, since their voices were deeper. It was the one rescuing me. The creatures laughed and stomped closer, but there was another flash of light -- a flash of something -- that I could only feel. It was quiet, then, just the sound of hard breathing from two pairs of human-sized lungs.

“Are they gone?” I asked tentatively. “What happened?”

My rescuer took a sharp breath. “I turned them into flies. I’m not proud of it. They’ll -- die in a few days. Ow.”

“Are you hurt?”

“Yes, to my shame.” he panted. “Are you?”

“I’m scraped up a bit. I still can’t see.”

“Sorry about that; it should come back in a minute. Ow.”

“What were those things?”

“Goblins.”

I laughed shakily. “Right. And they wanted to eat me.”

“They almost did.”

“Why?”

“They’ve got to eat something.”

I could accept this easier than I normally would have, since I was almost eaten a few minutes before. “Well, thank you for saving me.”

My vision started to come back. I squinted in the darkness and saw a young man lying on his back, bleeding onto the concrete. I gasped and turned him over to see the wound. It was a four-inch gash starting from under his shoulder and going towards the spine.

“It could be worse.” the young man said. “They couldn’t see where they were slicing.”

“This looks bad to me!” I brushed some gravel away from the gash, which was freely oozing blood. “I need to apply pressure and get you to a hospital.”

“No!”

“What?”

“No hospital! You can’t take me there.”

“But you --”

“Promise!” He was sounding weaker. “Promise you won’t.”

I hesitated, since it might have meant the difference between life or death for him. “I promise.”

He relaxed and put his head down on his arms.

“I have a friend who’s in the nursing program who would know what to do. I’ll call her, okay?”

“Okay.” his voice was muffled.

“Where are we?” I pulled my phone out with one hand and began dialling, trying not to get too much blood on it.

“Near the store.” he answered. I craned my neck to the store’s neon sign only two blocks away, too.  My friend answered, and, being a good friend, said she’d be right there.

“She’s coming; you’ll be okay.” I could see the side of his face. He was sweating from the pain, but he nodded. I put away my phone and pressed on his back with both hands. His breathing was getting slower and louder, like he was losing consciousness.

I sighed and whispered: “I hope you don’t die."