âDonât walk home aloneâ weâre told. âDonât walk alone at nightâ they say. But what could they think could really go wrong? So today, I stray away from my friends, and I walk the path to my house by myself. Everything is going fine until a figure appears from behind.
He grabs me by the neck, and throws me on the cement. I cry out for help, but it falls on deaf ears, and Iâm already halfway to deat...
In 1953, I lost everything in a rigged poker game in Mairi, Seoul. On the side of the street, I watched the thief, a Dr. Farci, walk off with my money and use it at the nearest whorehouse. He stayed there a good long time. When he left, a group of American Servicemen in an Army issued Jeep rolled off with him. They headed back to the war, and I was left to lick my wounds as a penniless hobo on the...
We know the rules. From a young age, weâre told to be aware of our surroundings. Donât create attention to yourself. Watch what you wearing. Donât be too loud. Donât drink too much. Be polite. Bite your tonuge. Hold your tongue. Bite your tongue. Hold your tongue.
You never know what roams the streets of this city.
It hides in the night and the mist and the fog. It disappears in the foliage of crooked alleyways and senseless dead-end streets, and it is forgotten amidst the crowds of passersby who do their best to forget that there is strength in numbers.
The clicking of solitary heels against the pavement disrupts the stillness.
My mother, Barbara loves to tag me in all these social media posts about girls being attackedâor worse. As long as all of her friends can see her being a âgood momâ then all is right in the world. Her world anyway.
My world has always been lonley. The truth is, I have only ever known saftey in solitude. My mother never knew where I was or what I was doing. She didnât notice when I would stay in m...
It's raining tonight, makes it hard for people to see the person that could be lurking in the shadows waiting to jump out and attack. The streets are getting dangerous especially for young girls to walk home. I pick up my pace hoping the splashes beneath my feet don't alert anyone close by. I keep my eyes ahead and carefully side eye all the shadows in between each building and alley. A bolt of li...
School had ended thirty minutes ago, and my house was a faraway sanctuary. The bus had already left, and my mother was in another country for a business meeting. My phone, of course, was dead. The isolated road, adorned with dim street lights, and the cool breeze sporadically hitting my face, added an eerie touch to the atmosphere.
I shoved my hands deep into the pockets of my coat, my eyes darti...
To my discovery, the challenges of my gender appear not only to have begun as exhaustive, but are expanding in oddity and their sinister nature with each day.
âWell, you donât wanna walk home alone! As another girl, I thought youâd understand?â Sheri looked at me with a tentative expression, her eyes a little wide under her false lashes which brushed against the bubble of her fringe.
The darkness is where they thrive. They anticipate that sudden jolt of adrenaline that spikes when you hear footsteps shuffling closer and closer to you, and then suddenly holt.
They know you notice it, even when you choose to ignore the obvious signs. They can smell the fear leaking from your pours. It makes them salivate to the very thought of it.
I emerged from the outside office door into the dead of night. A street light flickered reminding me that I did not want to stay late at work tonight. It is the one night that the strangers in the shadows would creep up on you and do the unimaginable. I wish I knew what that was but I didnât have much of imagination but figured it must be bad for it to be a saying. _Why had my boss asked me to st...
