Dante

As I turned around, I quickly came face to face with the men that had now cornered me into this alleyway. It was still hard to make out any features, even with them standing much closer now. Rain was pouring hard all around us.

The three men had their hoods pulled up, but only two wore the black face masks. The third one without the mask, was the one to speak. It was the same voice from moments ago.

"It's getting a little late to be walking around this area."

His voice wasn't what I was expecting at all. It was a higher octave, and for his build, I guess I expected something a little tougher. Two out of the three men were quite large actually. The rain had made their soaked black hoodies mold to their figures, which showcased some well developed muscles. There was a third man a little shorter than the rest

I thought quickly of something to say.

"I was just jogging through, and I lost track of time. I'm not from around here." Those words had sounded fantastic in my head, but saying them out loud made me realize I had just put a target on myself.

The man without the face mask grinned. When he did, his hoodie slipped back a little to reveal more of his features. It was too dark to see his exact eye color, but from the little amount of light the street lamp was giving, I noticed a scar next to his left eye.

"Oh, we can tell." He replied. They all took another step towards me. "We'll just need to take our cut here, then I think we can let it pass."

My mind was racing a mile a minute, planning every escape route possible. So far I had come up with absolutely nothing. These guys wanted money, but I didn't have any. I didn't even have my wallet. I had left everything back at Sammy's place above Fight Club.

"I don't have anything on me." I said honestly.

The man's smile only grew at my words. It looks like I had given him an even better answer than he had hoped for.

"Then you wouldn't mind if I double checked." He replied. I watched as he, alone, advanced me.

Okay, I thought to myself. We clearly weren't getting out of this without fighting.

The man didn't waste any time as he lunged forward to throw his first punch. It was a fast one. I just barely dodged it before breaking away. This guy was good, but there were some flaws with his fighting style. That didn't negate from the fact that I wasn't leaving here without at least a few broken bones. There were just too many of them.

When he charged at me again, I did my best to block his hit, but he landed a combo uppercut to my ribcage. That one fucking hurt. Before he could get another hit in, I was swift with a right hook that knocked him back.

If I wanted to make it out of this tonight, I couldn't waste any time. As he stumbled back, I saw an opening and took it. I delivered a jab cross-lead hook- rear uppercut which threw his large frame backwards towards the ground.

I hadn't done a knockout combo on someone in years, and I half expected him to get up... but his body continued to lay lifelessly on the gravel. I glanced up at the other two men now. I couldn't see their expressions because of their masks, but the smaller guy seemed incredibly pissed. I thought he was going to lunge at me. Before he could, the larger guy stopped him.

I saw the bigger man shove his large hands deep into his soaked pants, before he pulled out something. My eyes caught a glimmer of metal, and that was when dread washed over me.

I had official brought fists to a knife fight.

He all but charged at me. I was quick to dodge him, but it was the swipe of the knife that almost got my abdomen.

"You're quick." He called out through the rain. My body had stumbled back slightly from that hard ass uppercut I had taken from the last guy. I was already exhausted from the work day, then that run I had taken out of nowhere.

My stamina was starting to run low.

"But not quick enough." He lunged at me again. This time I used my left hand to block the hand that was wielding the knife. Then I landed one sufficient jab-right cross. That made him stumble back, but not by much.

I shifted our stance again, so the entrance to the street was on my right side. The thought of just taking off crossed my mind, but there was that last man who was standing in between me and the main road.

I almost didn't snap back to reality in time before the man lunged once again. The knife was my only objective at this point. My hand gripped onto his wrist and snapped back, making him successfully drop the blade, before I gave him one more swift jab.

My concentration was immediately broken when I heard my name echoed against the building walls of the alley.

"Dante!" Sammy's voice cut through the rain.

My head lifted to find one very out of breath Sammy at the street corner to my right. His hoodie was pulled down to reveal his face and completely soaked hair. I thought I may have been hearing or seeing things as Sammy started to get closer. Before he could reach me, the smaller man stepped in between us.

"Who the fuck are you?" He asked Sammy.

"Take your friends and get the hell out of here." Sammy replied with. His voice was the most deep and frightening thing I had heard in a very long time. It sounded so unlike the Sammy I knew, I almost thought it may have been someone else.

I heard the smaller man scoff, but he took the smallest step back. I started to make my way towards Sammy, and for a moment his eyes glanced past the smaller man to catch mine. It looked like a thousand emotions flashed across his face before i hard Sammy yell out "Behind you!"

It took me too long to register what he meant, and by the time I was able to turn around, I caught the reflection of the knife before it cut my arm.

My body sprung back, creating the largest distance possible between me and him.

"Shit!" I hissed to myself. As soon as my hand touched the wound right below my shoulder, instant pain shot through me.

The man I had thought was down, slowly starting to pull himself up. I could see the water turn red as it ran down my sleeve before splashing on the broken pavement. The man lunged at me once more, but it was clear his injuries had been major. It took almost nothing for me to dodge his first punch, and knock him out with my good arm. He fell straight back onto the ground.

As my eyes glanced up to Sammy, I realized he was already fighting the smaller man. Sammy cornered him up against one of the building walls, but when he swung, the man managed to dodge it very last minute.

Jesus, he was quick. If I'd a blinked I would have missed it.

As soon as Sammy's hand connected with that brick, I heard his yell tear through the thunderous noise of the rain. My body started to spring into action, but it took no time for me to quickly realize that Sammy didn't even need me. His good hand grabbed the small man's hood before he could escape Sammy, and Sammy smashed the guys face into the brick wall.

Hard.

I stood there, completely frozen in mid stride.

The small man fell to the ground lifelessly.

Before I even had the chance to react to what I had just seen, Sammy's hand suddenly appeared in mine and he was telling me to run.

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