The Girl & The Hound | Winter Soldier

FOUR

❝BEING SWALLOWED BY THE WORLD SHOULDN'T BE ANYTHING NEW TO YOU.❞

❝THEN WHY DOES THE FEELING OF SUFFOCATION STARTLE ME EVERY TIME?❞

The rain pelted down as she followed the pavement blindly with only hope for the dog. The streetlights loomed over her and drunken laughter filled the air from the bars and restaurants across the street. She huddled the blankets closer to her chest for reassurance from the sound as her converse splashed in puddles, water sputtering up at her as nerves built in the pit of her stomach.

She was cold and she was miserably wet but she knew to force herself to focus on finding the dog as she sprinted down the pavement, checking every passing alleyway.

Her pace was constant as she glanced up and down each alleyway, her face grimacing in the rain as drops slipped onto her eyelashes and slightly fazed her vision. She felt the water softly slide down to the tip of her nose and cheekbones before dripping off of her features, her hair damply clinging to her whilst her clothes began to feel heavy with weight.

Careful, light steps into puddles became hardened stamps, her face contorting harder as the rain began to whip against her face as the sound of laughter dispersed away from her hearing. With every second passing in the heavy downpour, Sawyer began to question her stupidity and how her chances of finding the dog were alarmingly slim- yet still, it did not sway her to stop and return home before she got herself into an irreversible situation.

Using the wet blankets in her arms to quickly wipe her drenched eyes -though their wet texture rewarded her no relief-, she curved a corner through the rain, however her feet immediately falling to a slow, padding stop as her heart suddenly sunk at the sight of a considerably big group of drunks a few feet away.

Her paranoia played havoc with her frozen state, her legs beginning to waver. In that moment she contemplated whether to cross the road or brace through them to ignore her stupid fear but as she internally debated, their sight instantly landed on her.

She immediately froze, her expression clasped in dread as she frantically pondered wether it was rude or undeniably smart to turn and run as they all began to notice her.

"Miss!" A drunken man, raffled in rags and ripped attire, called to her as she remained still, gesturing his friends to follow him and walk towards her as she wondered if perhaps he was a lovely person who she was wrongly accusing to be bad.

"what a princess, she brought blankets for us y'all," he murmured, his words belching out at her as she was inundated with the intoxicating stench of damp clothes, abundant alcohol and a thick cigarette musk. Her attempts to calm herself down with the soft exception that they could be genuinely kind people was immediately draining with the rain into the gutter.

Before she could even object to his statement, she inwardly yelped as the men surrounded her, an eariness of their hard, defined features clinging to them as they cornered her off, like predators antagonising their prey before they began to snatch the blankets from her arms. She flinched as the first man, roughly her age, tore a blanket viciously from her and threw it on to the soaking pavement, her arms beginning to tremble as she shut her eyes as if to disappear.

Do not aggravate them, her mind whispered sensibly but not comfortingly, they could be armed with knives or weapons.

She winced as the others followed suit, "please don't," she weakly protested, her timid voice urging a laugh from another man, "it's for a dog I'm trying to help, he's really really hurt maybe you've seen him pass-" her terrified voice was cut short as they sniggered, stamping their feet into her grounded blankets as she trembled in their company, the men enjoying aggravating her as she simply stood there hopelessly.