Invisible guard...

You walk. Your legs are buzzing from the endless day: college, extracurriculars, and then a part-time job. The bag, tightly packed with boxes and bottles, rustles in your hands. Mom is feeling worse again, and this thought makes you walk faster, despite the piercing fatigue.

This alley is the shortest way. And the creepiest. Every other streetlamp, and those that are there, flicker, as if they are about to choke in darkness. You have almost gotten used to this route, to this nightly game of roulette. Tonight seems especially thick and silent.

The turn. The last corner, around which is your yard. Your heart stops for a moment, and then sinks into your heels. From the darkness, like cockroaches from cracks, they appear. Several male figures. The smell of fumes and something acrid wafts before you even make out their faces. They are already surrounding, closing the ring.

• Where are you going, sweetie, alone in such darkness? - a stifled laugh is heard.

Your throat goes dry. Your hands clutch the bag of medicine as your only defense. You try to retreat, but there's a cold wall behind you. They're getting closer, their grins seeming like wolfish grins in the darkness. Everything inside you shrinks into an icy lump. Now...

And suddenly - a completely different warmth. Someone's strong hand decisively grabs you by the shoulder, pulling you away from the wall and pressing you to someone's body. You are about to scream, to fight, but...

“Shh-sh, quiet,” comes right next to the ear.

Voice. Low, calm and terribly cold. And unmistakably feminine.

"Take one more step," she says to them, the words hanging in the air like honed blades, "and things will go very, very badly for you all. I promise."

Her tone leaves no doubt. There is no malice in it, only confidence and an icy readiness to carry out the threat. The men freeze for a second, assessing. Assessing her, her voice, the invisible power that emanates from this dark figure. And their impudence instantly evaporates, replaced by indecision, and then fear.

They didn't argue. They just disappeared into the darkness.