I was attacked....

.
He came towards me. Fast, determined and in seconds I was lying down helpless on the hard gravel. Let me tell you what happened..

I had just finished with the gym. Walking to my mom's car which I had borrowed for the day, I was lost in my own thoughts. I had just promised 2 sets of people that I would pass by and already I was near my curfew time of 9:30! How the hell would I make it in time? It was already 8 pm. Oh well, I thought to myself, I hope my mum is out with some friends, maybe she won't notice if ......

"Excuse me!" I heard him say. At that point I was a few meters away from my car, which was parked behind some bushes. My heavy gym bags (yes plural) weighing me down,I turned to see who had addressed me.
Oh it was just another African American dude, probably had his eye on me in the gym and wants to buddy buddy, I thought to myself. Those guys were always so friendly and would strike up a conversation out of the blue. I didn't recognize him though, I looked at his face, into his eyes, and I saw it. A look of frenzy. I knew I was in trouble.

This all took a split second, and within a few more, I would be on the ground.

He caught the look of fear in my own eyes, and came towards me. Fast. His trainers crushing the gravel and his thug-like baggy jeans making that whoosh whoosh noise as he walked faster. He looked like he was holding a knife, but he wasn't.

I wanted to run and jump into my car, but I stood there frozen. I didn't think I would have time, and besides how would I run with my bags anyway. I debated in my mind while mesmerized by his absent face coming closer and closer to mine. And just like that he reached me and threw me to the floor.

I looked up at my tormentor's angry muscular face shouting at me. He pushed and shoved me with his feet, madly exclaiming how I should have obeyed his orders. When I tried to talk, he told me to 'shut the fuck up!' Then he brought his foot up, about to kick my face in and time froze as I thought to myself,

'See Miya, this is why you should have taken self defense class. What can you do now Miya? What can you do? You always thought you could take care of yourself, or at least use psychology but where is that now? Even your mace is tucked away safely in your drawer at home. And here you are, on the ground with a madman about to crush your face and you don't even know if he wants to rape you, torture you, or just steal some money'

I quickly brought one hand up to my face to protect it, 'Don't hurt me' I pleaded. He stopped his foot hanging mid-air. Then, I blurted out, 'What's your name?'

He got angry, thinking I was trying to get his name to tell the police. He took his shoe off for some reason and again his foot was aimed at my face. I was going down and braced myself for the pain. For the crunching noise and excrutiating agony of my nose breaking and my face caving in. I had to stay awake and alert though, I had to, if I wanted to survive the night.

That was when I woke up and realized it was all just a bad dream. Allahuma Ij3alaho Khayr. Yes, I woke up and wrote this. Why? Because I realize that in that situation, I would act exactly how I did in my dream. Which is not a good thing. We girls and guys too, need to arm ourselves with information and techniques to use when faced with such a situation.

It really could happen to anyone.