A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night [top] «WORKING»

One, two, three... She counted her steps. He matched them.

Leila smiled. It didn’t reach her eyes. “You don’t need the time,” she said softly. “You need to go home.” a girl walks home alone at night

His jaw tightened. For a second, his hand twitched inside the pocket. Leila’s thumb pressed the button on her keychain alarm—the one that emitted a shriek at 130 decibels. She hadn’t used it in two years. Her thumb hovered. One, two, three

Leila reached into her satchel without looking, her fingers brushing over the familiar objects: a half-empty bottle of water, a crumpled prescription pad, and finally, the cool metal of her grandfather’s compass. It was broken, its needle spinning uselessly. She carried it for weight, not direction. a crumpled prescription pad