A Fateful Encounter

"Do you recognize me?" I ask.

"Sorry, I have too many fans to recognize one face. And even if I do remember it's not worth the effort to recall where I remember you from." Zen responds. He didn't even look fully at me, his honey gold eyes just passed right over my face. And sheesh who does he think he is calling me a fan. When he turns again to walk away my shout follows him "I'm not one of your fans!". The curious eyes of the film and dance crew fall on me and I avoid their gazes.

I say my goodbyes to Eva and the man I helped with the boxes. I shuffle back through the hallways retracing my steps back to the PR department. When I step into the big room I notice that most of the interviewees are gone and take that as my cue to leave also. I am walking past on of the desks when I overhear a woman asking for some help fixing a computer. No one responds, so I stop walking, "I can fix the computer." She looks over at me and gives me a once over "I don't recognize you. Do you work here?". "No" I respond " I came in for a job interview. I graduated with a degree in computer science". Hearing this she nods, "Follow me. I need you to fix Vice President Natalie's computer right away."

She leads me up three flights of stairs to the top floor of the building. We cross one of the beautifully built sky halls and I stop for a moment dazzled by the view of the city. The woman noticing I have stopped, looks over her shoulder and gives a small cough. I come out of my daze, and we continue on. The woman opens the door to a large comfortable office and gestures me inside. I walk around the desk. Sitting down at the chair I get to work on rebutting the computer and checking it for any viruses that may have caused the problem.

While I am working the door opens and a beautiful woman walks into the office muttering to herself she puts her coat on the coat rack next to the door. " That woman just doesn't know when to quit. I mean even I can see she is just trying to get in his pants." She hasn't noticed me yet because the desk is across from the door and the computer obscures my face from view. I quickly scoot back in the chair and shift my feet back.

She turns towards the desk and stares at me in surprise. I rush to stand up from the chair, before I can take a step to leave she speaks up with suspicion in her voice, "Who are you? What are you doing in my office?" I realize this woman must be Vice President Natalie " I'm sorry, I'm Sierra Johnson and I was just fixing your computer. You see I am an interviewee and I overheard that a computer needed fixing while I was on my way out of the PR department." The look of suspicion fades from her eyes and she nods in understanding, "You didn't overhear what I was saying right?" I shake my head in strong denial and announce that no I had not heard anything.

As I am about to leave her voice pipes up behind me "What did you say your name was again?" I turn because not making eye contact with someone who could be your boss when you are speaking comes of as rude. "Sierra Johnson... Vice President." I respond. After she allows me to leave I walk quickly out of the building trying not to get into any more trouble along the way.

After I exit the building I run over to my bike and peddle to one of my favorite places to hang out and work. When I first moved into the city around two years ago there was a night that I can still visibly recall in my memory.

Two years ago

"Hmm this part of the bridge just doesn't fit into the melody" I mumble to myself while walking down a poorly lit street. The streetlight flickers and dims considerably; I start to speed up. Just my luck, this is the perfect scene in one of those dramas where a kidnapping or murder occurs. I look furtively around me just to double check that I'm not being followed by some creepy stalker. I shiver from nerves and slightly from the cold.

"Be positive Sierra this situation can't get any worse" I comfort myself with that thought. Unexpectedly it starts to rain and thunder booms in the distance. Great, just great next thing that's going to happen to me is an accident of some kind, I think. Walking quickly I stick to the sides of the street using the wall as some protection against the pouring rain.

Lighting illuminates the sky and I spot three men surrounding another man. I get close enough to tell that the three men are all beating up on the man in their midst. I stop for a moment debating, I know I could take on the three men in favorable circumstances but right now it's dark and the ground is wet I might slip. But I can't let someone get hurt if I can do anything about it. I make my decision and step forward slipping out of my flip flops for better traction and placing my purse next to them.

"Hey" I shout, that gets their attention. They turn away from the beaten man and he stumbles a few yards away before he collapses. It is clear to see that he is drunk. "Look, what is a pretty little thing like you doing out this late?" The man on the left asks with a sneak. "Probably up to no good. Maybe you can entertain us better than that son of a B**** drunkard over there. He was no fun." They all laugh at his crude comment.

I say nothing, just roll my shoulders and slide my feet into the stance I'm so familiar with. They advance in a group. No one on one? Fine thugs, It won't be as easy as you are thinking. The one on the left swings his fist at me. I duck it and kick his legs out from underneath him, he goes sprawling to the ground but I have no time to think before the next fist comes at me aiming for my gut. My reflexes save me as I spin away. But the other thug is coming at me. I completed a jump front kick and hit him in the chest with my foot. He lands a few feet away, unconscious. I still have to deal with the other two.

They advance slowly learning from their comrades' mistakes and circle me, being careful to keep out of range of my legs. The stronger looking one, the one that talked to me first, pulls out a knife. The blade gleams as another lightning bolt strikes, fragmenting the sky above our deadly dance. "Not so confident are you now missy" said the man, seeing the frightened look in my eye.

My first priority is that knife, I need to get it out of his hands. I strike suddenly, much to the man's surprise. I leap forward so I'm within range and execute a flying side kick aiming for his arm that is holding the knife. The knife goes flying to the ground out of range of the fight. I smile but my victory doesn't last long.

I lose my balance on the slippery ground and my equilibrium is lost. The thugs see this and take advantage. One comes flying at me with his fist aimed low, the other aims an uppercut, to bring his fist up into my jaw. I bring my arms up to protect my jaw, but I am unable to protect my gut. I go flying through the air and hit the wall. My breath is knocked out of me and I am unable to gulp in any air. Silhouettes of the men appear above me and my vision is getting blurry from the lack of oxygen. I rub the back of my head and feel something sticky on my fingers. I bring my hand to my face and see blood.

Crap I force myself to get to my knees but one of the looming men kicks me and I fall back down. Now is about the time I start regretting my decision to help out. Oh why couldn't I have just backed away and found a different way home. I hear one of the men laugh distortedly as if I am under water. " Not so high and mighty now are we missy. But don't worry I'm going to enjoy f*cking you up!"

Behind them I can see a shadow moving, coming closer to where the 2 men are surrounding me. I see the glint of something metallic. What is it? It stands behind the men and my confused mind finally understands. It's the drunkard and he is holding the knife that had been discarded earlier in the fight. I stifled a sound of wonder, he came to save me!

He aims the knife at one of the thugs neck but misses because of his incoordination due to his intoxicated state. Instead the knife slides into the back of the man's upper arm. Surprised the man screams out in pain. Their attention is finally diverted away from me. With great effort I stumble to my feet.

Gaining my bearings takes a few seconds, in that time the thugs advance on the swaying drunkard. Clutching his bleeding arm the injured man swears. "Kill him, I've had enough of his bullsh*t!". Hearing this I side kick the man in the back. My kick has lost a lot of its power but it still deals some damage. I follow it up with an axe kick. Using gravity to assist my kick allows me to put a lot more power in this kick than the previous one, bringing the man to his knees.

The other thug still standing doesn't have enough time to react before I complete a crescent kick, hitting him in the side of his head. His eyes roll back in his head and he collapses like a rag doll to the pavement. Welp, I hope he has a nice sleep. One thing is for sure, he is going to wake up with a raging headache.

I dust my hands off by brushing them against each other and turn to the last thug struggling to stand. "Don't call me missy!" I snap at him. I kick him across the face, and he grimaces in pain but refuses to lose consciousness. Fine if hitting your thick head isn't going to make you faint then I'll hit you where it hurts, I think.

I back away from him and once he gains his footing I sweep my knee up bringing it to his crotch. He stumbles away howling in pain. Still not enough? Fine. I spin on my heel, and perform a spinning hook kick aiming for his injured arm. My foot makes a satisfying sound when it comes in contact with his arm. The pain of me shoving my foot into his laceration if finally enough to knock him out.

I quickly assess my condition, my head is bleeding. It is entirely possible that I might have a concussion. A few of my ribs throb; okay might have fractured some of them. My feet ache but it was worth it for the satisfaction of kicking those men. And I am shivering completely soaked through in the rain. Hospital here I come.

I look over towards the man I saved and see he is covered in blood and bruises. He has passed out again on the side of the street. I'd better take him with me. On second thought I don't think I can pick him up, I'd better call an ambulance. I look for my discarded purse and flip flops but it takes me a while to find them in the darkness.

The next morning I wake up in a hospital bed to the sound of machines beeping. Next to me sits a man who seems familiar. My mind takes a while to process where I had seen him before. Scenes of what happens last night roll through my head and my memory clicks into place. He's the drunkard I saved. He is cleaner than when I saw him last night that's why I didn't immediately remember him. He is about my dad's age with brown hair and a mischievous spark in his eyes.

Noticing that I was finally awake the man thanks me profusely and introduces himself. "My name is Noah Carter. May I ask for your name?"

"My name is Sierra Johnson."