Tonight [Annie's Darkest Desire]
“Annie!”
She had just passed the dark alley when the half-whispered voice hit her like a brick.
“Annie! You gotta help me!”
Annie took a few steps back to get a better view of the voice’s owner. It was a boy her age whose face she recognized but name she never bothered to memorize. Feeling socially unfamiliar with the caller, silence was her only response.
The boy, reading Annie’s vague frown as a demand for a reason, looked over his shoulder in utter worry before staring back at the petite girl to tell her what she needed to hear. “I don’t have time for this, you gotta help me!” Seeing Annie making no reaction, he finally picked the French bread that lied right next to him and showed it to her. “This bread is all I have for dinner. I stole it from the bakery at the other end of this alley and now, the owner is after me. I ran as fast as I could, but then I tripped myself off and my left leg hurts so badly I can’t even stand by myself. I think I managed to lose that fat woman to buy some time, though, but if you don’t hurry, she might catch up. So please! Help me! We can share the bread once we escape, I promise!”
Just when Annie tried to process the boy’s long, rushed explanation, a loud yelling came from behind one of the walls of the building in the marketplace. “I swear I’m gonna make you piss in your sleep tonight, you shitty brat!”
The boy panicked and even attempted to drag his leg to get himself closer to Annie. “It’s her! It’s her! Argh!” he gritted his teeth as he endured his pain. “Please, Annie... I know you’re a good girl. And I know this bread will suffice to keep us warm tonight. Help me...”
Despite the raising chaos around her, the flaxen-haired remained stoic and eventually made her way toward the hurting kid. She then bowed to grab the bread and brushed the sticking dust off, but instead of giving him a hand, she turned around and started walking away. “Thank you for your hard work, I’m not gonna let its fruit left unappreciated.”
When she heard the bakery’s owner’s voice finally blended with the poor boy’s desperate cry, Annie quickened her pace. Her shoulders made contact with the hips of several adults on her way home, her tears threatened to burst behind her eyes, yet her tight clutch onto her only dinner never ceased.
Tonight, she and her father would survive. Tonight, she made herself proud. Tonight, she proved that she was capable of betraying her conscience in order to ensure her own safety along with her beloved one's.
Tonight, she had fulfilled her darkest desire.
















