Excerpt: The Walk

...I saw the woman from that morning lurking in an alleyway, beckoning to me.
Now, I am not a complete idiot. The woman had tried to steal from me, and had fled when I showed more of a threat than she’d expected. That didn’t imply it was a good idea to meet her in a dark narrow place (I might’ve been new to cities, but I’d been introduced to ambushes at the age of about five). Still, there was something about the situation that intrigued me. Just the fact that she was trying to talk to me, given…well, it was odd. And I walked over.
She tried to beckon me into the alleyway, but I shook my head. Not an idiot, see? She looked very unsettled, but came a little closer, and said “Please…help.”