The night has been too long, you're sure by this time even Mitchell, the security guard, has gone home. The night hangs in thick strands of dark, punctured by the pale illumination of the street lights. Echoes of your heels click clack on the blacktop as your rummage through your purse, searching for your keys. Sleep weighs heavily on the edges of your mind and the sharp crispness of the night air stings at your bare legs. It has been a long day selling tops too small to girls too young, and pants too tight to women too fat. The perfume you "borrowed" from the shop before you left swirls in the winter air, offering no protection from the encroaching cold. A shiver runs up and down your spine; however, it is not from the plunging temperature. Heavy footsteps are drawing up behind you.
You glance down at the shadow looming towards you, cast by the baleful light of the failing fluorescents that the mall installed a few years back. Your steps quicken to match your heartbeat, but the figure is approaching quickly and your car is still a few hundred yards away. "Why," you ask yourself, "do I feel the need to park in the back of the damn lot?" You can see the answer to that question from here, though. A large dent on the side of your otherwise pristine Mazda seems mockingly distant, yet as pervasive as it has been since it was acquired two months ago.
Suddenly you feel a thick, meaty hand grab your elbow, stopping you. Instinct takes over and your body is a blur as you spin, throwing your weight into your knee as it rises quickly and speeds toward the man's crotch. In the flash of motion, you get a truer idea of this man's size: immense. He stands a head over you, his broad shoulders rippled with muscle under a black leather jacket. You also realize the flaw in your attack plan as your knee connects solidly; directly into the man's thigh. His eyes are dark, obscured slightly beneath a black ski mask, unsurprised by your assault.
"That almost hurt, bitch. I was just going to take your purse and your car... but now I think we can have some fun." His lips curl into a sneer beneath his mask, revealing ivory white teeth that appear to be sharpened into wicked points. Predator teeth, your mind screams at you. His fist, roughly the size of a frozen chicken, slams hard into your stomach and the wind in your lungs escapes into the night. His teeth gnash at you, inches from your face, and his breath smells distinctly of Wintergreen and menthol. When you joked with Lucille that you hoped to get eaten tonight, this is not what you meant.
Before you can mentally decipher the irony of modern sexual euphemisms, you are airborne. The man had lifted you effortlessly by one arm and hurled you into the air. Being midflight is not nearly as terrible as you imagined, but then the landing reminds you that gravity is a law that mankind is not meant to break often. The asphalt below you scratches and digs into your bare legs, a warm wetness quickly rises to your knee and you curse yourself for wearing a short skirt on such a cold evening. Jeans would have been far more practical, and in the current situation, probably less inviting.
Moving slowly like a caged panther, and only slightly less muscular, the masked man stalks toward you. You push back on your heels and hands, adding promptly to your collection of abrasions, when your left high heel snaps at the base of your sensibly priced shoe. You silently curse shoddy Italian craftsmanship, and kick flailing at the nightmare nearing you. Your ankle is grabbed out of the air with lightning precision and nearly inhuman strength. Holding your leg as leverage, the man twists his body and delivers a devastating punch to your thigh. Your voice catches itself in your throat as the pain snakes throughout your leg, a well learned lesson from your Master back in the safety of home. The man just grins down at you, "Not screaming yet, cunt? Good... I like a challenge." You have never heard such lust and admiration turned vile by menace in anyone's voice before, and fear embraces you like a mother's grip of an infant.