A woman in her early 20s sits on a park bench staring up at the dark night sky. The stars are faintly visible through the bright city lights. At first glance, the streets are quiet, and everything is calm. It isn’t until you close your eyes and listen to the sounds of the city that you get the real picture as to what is going on. The constant whine of police and fire sirens in the distance show exactly how peaceful the city is. There is always someone in need of saving, but who was going to save her?
Sitting on the bench alone, the woman seems nervous. She rubs her left arm gently as she glances between the starry night sky and her surroundings, making sure nobody is sneaking up on her. She checks her watch, the small led numbers read 8:15, she needed to get going. She thinks about her boyfriend and how he wouldn’t be too happy with her if she was late, and the thought about him unhappy makes her shudder.
She gets off the bench and begins to walk out of the park. She struggles to continue forward, a part of her unsure if she even wanted to see her boyfriend tonight, but she still walks forward. The quiet streets give her plenty of time to reflect on her thoughts, whether she wanted to or not. Her thoughts always seemed to drift back to her friends she used to know in high school. Did any of them remember her? Did they notice the day she left? Knowing how little she knew them, odds are they didn’t. Her thoughts and her memories continue to overwhelm her, tormenting her for the entire walk home. Thankfully she had other misfortunes to deal with the second she got there.
Rebecca finally gets back to her apartment in just under half an hour. She doesn’t live anywhere fancy, in fact it is quite the opposite. Her apartment is very run down, the wallpaper is peeling, the ceiling is cracked, the walls are barley insulated, the heat doesn’t always work, it is almost unbearable some days. The only thing that keeps her there is her boyfriend, Trent, His parents wanted him to grow up to be a auto mechanic, and he did in a way. He primarily works on cars for the various gangs around the city, often equipping them with bullet proof windows and other necessities.
When Rebecca first met him, he seemed like a nice guy. He was on his way back from a job when he had found her when her car broke down four miles outside the city. Trent gave her the illusion he was a nice and caring guy, but after a couple days living with him she realized just how bad he actually was. It seemed every other night he was sleeping with a new girl, and if he wasn’t he was forcing himself on her instead. The worst part was that he was always drunk when he did, so he just denied it in the morning, and when she told him about it he would hit her in the stomach as hard as he can and tell her to stop lying.
After the third time she told him he managed to crack one of her ribs, and she knew it would only get worse so she stopped telling him. She tries to gather up the courage to leave him, but whenever she tries he hurts her more. So she stopped trying. The only thing she could do was face reality. Superman wasn’t coming to save her, nor was any knight in shining armor. The only thing she could do was accept her fate.
