As they approached the alley a pungent smell made them dizzy. This was a different part of town and, except for the sky, everything was horrible, in ruins. They looked at each other and Ritesh was the more terrified one. Rohan looked in his eyes and was sorry for everything that was happening. Even though he was always the tough one, at this moment Rohan was feeling miserable.

Out of curiosity, Rohan had always wanted to visit the red light district. After a lot of effort he had convinced Ritesh to go along. At first they felt outrageous, walking amidst the women and feeling like adults. But the murder they'd witnessed had resulted in chaos all around. They'd run and now they were lost in this area of town.

They could still hear the police whistles and the fear of being caught in such a place terrified them. With no other option in sight, they decided to go to the end of the alley and look for an escape.  As they reached the end of the alley they saw the start of a familiar road. Screaming with joy they ran for it and kept on running until they got home.

© 2009 Raghvendra Tripathi. Original for CCF. Tripathi grants CCF first electronic rights for one month; CCF may archive the material indefinitely and include it in an eBook anthology.