A street lamp stands tall on the cement, its foundation nailed down into the hard stone to insure that it's firmly set in position. The bulb attached to it hangs like a spotlight, shining brightly and giving light to the area around it.

A tall man in a black jacket walks towards the shining beacon, stopping directly underneath the bulb.  Nervously he stuffs his hands into his pockets and touches a piece of paper with the tips of his fingers.  He closes his eyes for a moment, and quiet beeping slowly starts to fills his ears, getting louder and louder with every beep that sounds off.  He shakes his head subtly to try forcing the noise away, not wanting to be burdened with the thoughts that came with it.  He opens his eyes again and looks over at the dark alleyway hiding in between two brick buildings. Darkness fills the end of the alley, letting anyone or anything hide in its dark covers. Nervous, he takes a deep breath, letting the cool night air rush into his lungs.  An anxious tingling fills his gut as he stares down the looming alleyway, wanting him to turn back and try another way; but his brain and heart quickly interjected that there wasn't another way...that there wasn't enough time for any other alternative.  He slowly exhales trying to calm himself before walking to the dark alleyway.

Silence echoes through his ears as he enters into the dark crevice.  The various objects outlines highlighted with the help of the nearby street light.  Trash fills the large dumpsters and trash cans, and small amounts of litter decorates the ground like it was a speckled carpet.  The bricks decorating the walls of the alley were mainly a crimson red color, but switched to a charcoal black and a bleached red fairly often; but this was mainly noticeable in the light, now the colors all seemed to blur together.  Doors sit encrusted in the brick walls of the dark alley, their entrances dark and seemingly empty before leading into either building.  Like any other building in the city fire escapes decorate the outskirts of the walls, starting to rust from the lack of maintenance.

His hood was pulled over his face to hide as much of it as possible, not wanting to be seen by any prying eyes.  As he walks further into the alley his shoulders start to slump over, the weight of his thoughts sat on them like barbells. He turns his head left and right like he was looking for something...or someone.  "Hello?" He asks, confusion coating the simple word.

Garbage rustles and he spins on his heel towards the sound that erupted behind him. "Hello?" He questions as he walks towards the noise. His heartbeat quickening as he gets closer to where it sounded off.  Attempting to see things clearer, he squints his eyes; but nothing out of the ordinary stands out: wrappers were laying about on the ground; pieces of cardboard were leaning against the wall; and tall silver garbage cans were proudly standing full of trash bags, their lids propped up like silver hats. Suddenly he stops, and his heart skips a beat as two small red eyes look up at him.  A huge black clump of matted fur scurries out. The rodent looks up at him with a curious stare and cocks its head.  He freezes in place and stares back at the rat, his heartbeat going faster than it should, and his mouth going dry.

He watches it open and close its mouth like it had something to say.  It's tooth glinting off the light, highlighting a chip on its right edge.  

"I don't think you came here for the rat." A voice scratchy and feminine states, an English accent underlying the words.

The black rat twitches its nose at him before scurrying towards the voice.  The man trials the rat with his eyes, turning around slowly.  He watches the rodent crawl towards the shadow cast by the tall building, its hind end swaying back and forth rapidly with every step.  As the rat scurries into the shadows, the man's eyes land on a white running shoe peeking out of them. Nervousness starts to fill up like a reservoir in his gut as he starts to look up, and the person covered by darkness starts to dramatically emerge from them.

He clears his throat and stands up straight, his nerves turning into courage as he did his best to forget about the black rodent.  "Are you the dealer?" The man's voice comes out professional, even under the circumstances.

"That depends doctor." Her voice strains his ears as it goes higher with each word, causing him to flinch.  They continue speaking, but unlike before their voice goes low and dark, making the shadows that they were stepping out of seem like a joke. "Did you bring what I asked for?"

"Ye..." The doctor's voice gets caught in his throat when he sees them.  A hood was pulled over their head, drawing anyone's curiosity to their face; but instead of a face...it was a mask.  The soulless eye holes in their white mask were staring at him, unblinking like a lifeless doll, the darkness in them spreading out onto the white mask like a running liquid.  He takes a step back, and a shiver crawls up his spine when he sees a little worm peeking out of one of the eye holes. He shutters even more as he realizes that it was dead...a dead pink worm. He lowers his eyes and looks at the simple nose and sad frown of the mask; but it didn't help ease his discomfort.

He nods his head and clears his throat. "Yes." He says, as he fixes his posture again.

He unzips a front pocket on his jacket and pulls out a small tube. "Did you bring the cure?  He asks with desperation dripping off of every word.  The small glass vile was being held carefully between all of his fingers.

The figure snickers while pulling her hands apart, and holds one of them out; there was a vile laying flatly on the palm of her dainty hand.  A clear liquid sways inside the vile, like a calm tide from the ocean.

He could feel his heart skip a beat, a small dose of hope was being shown to him; so like a string being dangled in front of a cat the man reaches forward to grab it, but she quickly snaps her hand shut and retracts her hand.

She wags her pointer finger while slowly shaking her head.  The skin compressing tightly around her finger made the existence of its bone known, as if the bone was just painted over with a pale flesh coloring. "Tsk, tsk, tsk.  Give me the vile first, and then I'll give you what you desire." She says playfully, her voice almost taking on a melodic tone.

Carefully he looks around the alley, straining his eyes to make sure no one else was there; but it was hard to see if anyone was hidden in the dark shadows.  Defeated by his inability to see anything, he brings his focus back to her and looks her in the eye.  She cocks her head at him for a second like a cat, and he knew that he was the mouse she was studying.  He licks his lips nervously and fixes his posture once again, not wanting her to see how uneasy he was feeling.  "How do I know that you won't just kill me after I give it to you?" He asks, his voice carrying that formal tone.

A chuckle drips from her lips with the same consistency as honey. "You can't believe everything you see in movies.  Criminals do have some honor," she quietly chuckles again and continues, her voice taking on a darker tone, "at least with each other." She shifts on her feet and stares at him, catching his gaze

He couldn't look away, it was like he was getting swallowed up by the black holes in her mask.  A sensation of falling overcomes him, and the area around him starts to sway like a boat at sea, making his head spin.  This feeling shrouds over him like a dark cloak with the hood pulled over the wearer's face, it didn't seem like there was anyway to make it stop.  After a matter of seconds he drops down to his knees, and his breathing grows heavy.  He finally tears himself away from her gaze and looks down at the ground, the swaying slowly coming to a halt as he focuses on the nausea churning his stomach. 

"Are you okay?" She asks, the words clear and coated in her laughter.

He forces himself to slowly nod his head, the nausea going away slightly.  He takes a deep breath and holds the tube up to her, keeping his head down as he did so.  His arms and hands were getting weaker by the second, not wanting to hold onto the small vile any longer. 

She eyes the vile, and her arm cracks as she extends it.  Her fingers gently grab the vile as she takes it from him, not wanting to get a scratch on it.

As soon as the vial leaves his hand, the weight of the nausea dissipates until it's only the feeling of throwing up.  He could feel his strength slowly return, and he weakly tries to stand back up. His body was shaking from trying to stand, and he could feel the clamminess of his skin as his fingers brushed against one another.  As soon as he gets on his feet he rests his hands on his knees and takes a deep breath, his body slouched over like he had thrown out his back.  He slowly looks up at her, sweat dripping from his forehead. She was gradually rotating the tube, eyeing it in awe, like it was the most amazing and interesting thing in the world.

He takes another deep breath before standing up, and then tries his best to regain his composure.  He looks over at the women wearing the mask, who was still studying the seemingly empty tube.  He clears his throat and she turns her gaze to him.  After a moment she nods her head, and lets out a small chuckle while holding the vial out to him.  "A drop on the tongue daily until it's empty." She focuses her attention back on the tube he had given her, and continues to speak, "Then, and only then...will the disease go dormant."

The doctor snatches it out of her hand before she says the last word.  He eyes the small vial being held between his fingers, and smiles to himself, his strength unknowingly coming back to him.  It was a solution for the pain, and soon everything would be fine.  His smile quickly turns into a frown, and his eyebrows narrow as her last word sinks in...as the meaning of that last word sinks in.  He looks at her, his eyes blazing.  "What do you mean dormant?  You said that you could get rid of the disease!" He yells, and his hands start to shake with anger.  

She shakes her head slowly, not taking her eyes off the tube in her hand.  "Nooo.  I said that I could take care of the problem, not get rid of it." Her voice was eerily calm, like his outburst didn't faze her, and then she looks at him.

Under her gaze, his boiling anger freezes over and is replaced with regret.  He averts his eyes over to the street lamp and shifts his feet nervously.  "How do I know it will work?" He asks, his voice quiet.  He forces himself to bring his gaze back to her, wanting to show her that he wasn't as scared as he truly felt.

She tilts her head down and the shadows overcome the mask, until he could only see the two black holes for eyes that closely resembled a shark's own, burning a hole into his soul.  "You don't." She states, and then turns to face the end of the alleyway that was swallowed up by the dark.  She starts walking away, and with a raise of her hand finishes, "Have a nice day."

The small black rat from earlier crawls out of the shadows, and scampers after her like a lost dog. 

The doctor looks down at the vile.  A small dose of hope poured into a small glass tube.  "Wait." He calls out. 

She stops and slightly turns her head.  The streetlight's bulb seemed to burn brighter than before, giving a brief wave of confidence to the doctor.

He motions at her uniform: the light blue hospital scrubs.  "You wear that uniform, but do you even know what it stands for?" An authoritative tone to his voice.

Without looking at him directly she calls back, "That's rich coming from the likes of you."  She turns around and looks at him, and he feels himself shrink under her gaze. 

The yellow bulb giving light flickers off, letting the darkness seep in and take over.  But even then he still felt her staring at him, like she could somehow still clearly see him.  He nervously swallows the lump that had built in his throat.  His heartbeat sounds off like a loud drum, and his breathing starts to sound louder than it should to his own ears. 

A few moments later the light flickers back on, and he can feel himself jump back when her face is just mere inches from his, when in truth he froze like glue was sticking him to the ground.  "The way I see it, we're one in the same."

As soon as she finishes, the faulty bulb flickers off again, drowning the doctor in darkness.  Laughter echoes around the alleyway, bouncing all around him until it slowly dissolves back into silence.  The light flickers back on a few moments later, and she's gone, with no trace of her existence.  Even his memories of her begin to blur, until all he could remember were the minor details, and the way they gave him chills with just a look.