The alley was an infamous section of the neighbourhood, know to be frequented by drug dealers and their customers, prostitutes and their customers and lost holiday travellers whom stand out like a sore thumb, the victim of choice for one of the many muggers who live on the city's tourists like a parasite.

One such parasite was known on the streets as Boris the Blade, a vicious mugger who left a mark on each of his victims using his switchblade to cut them somewhere that leaves a scar. He would call it a ‘souvenir' telling his victim that they "won't need a t-shirt now," before fleeing with their property. On this night, he had spotted an Indian family wandering away from the bright lights of the city through the back alleys while they argue over the map. When Boris stepped out, switchblade already in hand, they froze on the spot, too afraid to run.

This is too fucking easy, the Blade thought. What he said was "Give me all the fucking money and jewellery," gesturing with his knife towards them, even pointing it at the smallest child, a girl of 6 who was staring through the mugger, apparently 6 inches past his right ear.

"What you looking at, you fucking little…" but before Boris finished, the shadows seemed to darken around him, closing in around his body and outwards over a 16-yard area, swamping the family and Boris in complete darkness. A whisper is heard, a voice so low that it is almost drowned by the erratic breathing of the mugger, who starts to panic and spin on the spot, his blade ever extended in front of him, the family gone from his vision.

The voice breathes into Boris' right ear that stops him dead and tells him a tale which causes Boris to soil himself in disgrace.

"Once, a young boy went to a river and found an egg. He didn't know who it belonged to and so he took it home. Impatiently, he tried to prise open the egg with his fingers but in doing this, he caused the death of the creature growing inside. Seven years later, the same boy went swimming in the same river and came across a snake. It asked the boy about an egg, one that went missing many years before. The boy denied any knowledge of such a thing and swam to the river bank, dried himself and ran home. Seven more years passed when the boy, now a man, came to the river with a gun. You see, his fear had led him to a world of pain and he wished vengeance on the cause of that fear. He fired seven times into the river, causing its creatures to flee. ‘I took the egg, monster' he shouted, ‘and now I come for you.' The boy stopped shooting and glanced behind him as a hiss emanated from his right ear, the figure of the mighty Naga rising to its full height. In that hiss, the Naga warned, ‘the monster has returned, and I will protect the world from its predations.' The Naga then bit the boy's head off and to teach him the lesson he never learned 14 years before."

"This is what I am going to now do to you," Jayant Nagaraj declared, sinking into the mugger's throat with his teeth and drinking until he was as weak as a newborn cobra.

When the shadows cleared, the Indian family ran from the sight of the mugger, crying on the cold floor with his underwear stained from his own urine and faeces.