Yes

"Now I'm going to leave this alley, but I don't want you trying to see where I go. As a result, I will be checking back over my shoulder. I don't expect to see you come out of this alley for the next... let's say two minutes. If I do, you will regret it. Is that clear?"

Her eyes were on the knife the entire time he was speaking.

"Yes." Her voice came out as a hoarse whisper, but he seemed to hear.

"Very good."

And just like that, the man left. Emma was frozen to the spot, shivering gently as she cupped her hands over her breasts. Now that the man was gone, she could see out from the dark alley onto the lit street again, with just enough time to see two Ubers, a regular and an XL, pull away out front of Constantinople kebabs. They haven't noticed, she realised. One person between two Ubers, and I'm usually quiet anyway..."

Emma sniffed. She stood there in just a royal blue thong. She also had on blue heels and her dangly earrings, but somehow, they only served to make her feel more naked. She was small in the alleyway. A pale white shape in the cold oppressive darkness. The cobbles and walls around her were hard and cold and dirty. That too seemed to make her feel more naked. She was a single slither of soft pale flesh, painfully apparent in a world of hard stone and grubby shadows. This was not being naked in her bedroom, or a bathroom, or even the communal changing room at the tennis club. This was the street.

It occurred to her as she stood that she had no way of knowing when two minutes had passed. Where men with knives were concerned, she did not want to take any risks.

She cried more openly now. It was her way of dealing with even small stresses, let alone something on this scale. The tears ran hot down her cheeks. What am I going to do? She thought. She couldn't go to the clubs to find her friends or carry on her night, that much was obvious. I'll have to walk home, she realized. That filler her with dread. Like all of the students, she lived on the outskirts of the city. Home was a forty-minute walk away.

I could run? No, that was preposterous. It would only draw more attention to her. Far too undignified. Although, there seemed to be few options on offer to her as far as dignified was concerned. She looked around. There was nothing in the alley she could cover herself with. It'll have to be walking. Her stomach was a sinking pit of anxieties. The panic of the mugging had given way, leaving only clarity on the nature of her situation. It was bleak indeed.

Still teary-eyed and sniffling, Emma stood there shivering for at least five minutes. When finally she decided that enough time had passed, she crept to the end of the alleyway, hands still covering her breasts. poking her head around the corner, she scanned the street. She looked left and right and saw no sign of the man, or anyone else for that matter. That was something, at least.

She could feel the hardness of her nipples beneath her fingers, and the goosebumps that pricked her milky white skin. It was not a warm night. I need to get home quickly, she thought, or that could be a real problem. Just the thought of leaving the relative secludedness of the alley for the orange glow of the streetlights made her stomach turn with anxiety. It wasn't like she had a choice. She couldn't exactly wait a day.

Tentatively, Emma stepped out onto the deserted street. The sound of her heels clicking on the hard paving stones seemed far too loud to her and redoubled her sense of exposure.

She took a deep breath to steady herself. And another. They were shaky, but they made her feel a little better. She started to walk.

She walked quickly and awkwardly, her body moving in a strange way to accommodate her keeping her chest covered. Emma felt her face flush. She felt as though a thousand eyes were on her, though there was nobody else on the street. Her breathing quickened again as her heart pounded in her chest. She shook as she walked, and felt her eyes get wet again. The jangling of her earrings and clacking of her shoes both seemed impossibly loud. People will hear, she thought. People will notice. Emma walked even faster, as fast as her heels and immobile arms would allow.

Once at the end of the road, she turned right, past the desolate husk of Constantinople kebab. This road was larger than the one she had come off, and now she was not alone. About 100 meters Infront of her she saw a group of men, probably in their 20's. They looked like they had been drinking. Emma's courage left her.