This surely isn't normal.

The alleyway was dark, dark and silent. Not a rat or a water drop or, well, anything frankly, was making a noise. It was queer.

Unsettling.

Bloody annoying. Lillian hitched her bag a little higher and moved a little faster down the curb and resolutely decided not to investigate it.

It wasn't worth her time.

It wasn't as important as the documents held in her bag.

It didn't exist. No one else on the road seemed bothered by it, so she wouldn't be either.

And it was with that firm resolution that she tripped off the edge of the curb and fell right into a puddle.