Standing Tall: Stela's Brave Resistance

Stela Jones felt like a moron. She hadn't meant to provoke him into action, he'd been calm and collected while she was busy talking to that guy Erik. She'd looked over at him after Erik had walked away, she said "Hey" and then he grabbed her by the collar. That's when she knew she had made a mistake.

He was stronger than her, which was probably why he had won every fight between them. He picked her up by the shirt and threw her against the wall of the building behind them, she hit it hard but it didn't stop her from trying to get back up again. His fist was still in the air after hitting her in the face, she tried to duck out of the way but it was too late. His knuckles slammed into her temple and everything went black.

A man was shaking Stela's shoulder, calling out for someone to call 911. She heard him say as he leaned down next to her, "Are you okay?"

She nodded weakly, but couldn't summon enough strength to speak so she just coughed instead. The man continued his own plea for help as he waved around his phone hoping for service. Stela wasn't sure if the cell tower would work here, but decided not to mention it till he asked.

She opened her eyes slowly and saw two faces looking down at her with concern etched into their expressions. The man who had shaken her awake earlier was looking at another person near him; they both spoke to each other but all Stela could hear were muffled voices.

The second face that had joined them belonged to a young woman with long brown hair that flowed down her back and stopped right below her shoulders. Her eyes looked sad as they stared down at Stela, there were tears welled up in the corners of those eyes but none fell down onto her cheeks yet.

"Stela," the woman began speaking louder than before but still quiet enough so only Stela could hear what she said next, "are you okay?" Her voice cracked as soon as she finished asking the question so she took a deep breath and tried again as if that would help calm herself down better this time around: "Did you get hurt?"

Stela found strength somewhere deep inside of herself and sat up quickly despite how dizzy she felt from getting clobbered a moment earlier. She rubbed at her temple where he punched her and tried to remember what happened before that one moment when everything turned grey for a split second before darkness overcame her senses completely for an unknown amount of time, "What happened? Did I pass out?"

The two people sitting on either side of Stela looked at each other before turning their attention back towards Stela, they both spoke quietly again like they were afraid of being overheard somehow even though no one else was nearby at all now that they were all sitting close together on the cold sidewalk outside of where they were just standing moments ago because...

"Are you okay?" The girl asked again after staring back down at Stela who seemed lost in thought rather than paying attention to their earlier conversation about what happened just moments ago when...

"Yeah." Stela answered quickly without thinking about it first. She didn't feel fine at all but said it anyway because she didn't know what else to say when...

"You're bleeding." A drop of blood rolled down from where his fist hit Stela's temple and rolled down onto the bridge of her nose; it left a mark on it there when...

"That guy punched me." She wanted to ask more questions now that someone else had joined them since that might be important so...

"I know." The girl replied quickly, too quickly for how bad off Stela seemed based on how much blood was running down from where he hit her with such force that it knocked her out cold when...

"Where is he? Where did he go?" Stela glanced around at all the empty streets surrounding them now that...

"I don't know." The girl started crying then when...

"Erik!" Erik walked up behind where everyone was sitting on the sidewalk outside where...