For the fraction that extended between the moment of stepping out of the cool interiors of the elevator to the underground, Anna remembered a poetry book she had once read in High school.
She wasn't a fan of it, but the Literature teacher, an orderly man from Kenya, with his bright smile and enthusiastic effect of teaching made it stick too well. That and the fact that he always ensured Anna did the opening of each poem.
It could have been because Mr Eyem knew she found poems boring or because he had caught her copying the homework of a friend.
The poem was simple. The first two lines, intimately stuck to her memory.
'There is no sanctuary for brave men
Danger allures them like it were a sun.'
As Monique Salslova's cackling died and she harshly dragged Anna to one of the abandoned stores on the sixth floor of the underground mall, she slipped into regret of her earlier bravado. She should have taken a bolt for it.
