The Moment You Realize You Might Not Be Safe

By Michael Kelman Portney

It happens in a flash. Maybe it’s a look, a tone, a movement too deliberate or too sudden. Maybe it’s the slow-building realization that the situation you’re in is not what you thought it was. One second, you're fine—navigating the normal chaos of life, dealing with the usual frustrations and disappointments. And then something shifts. The air gets heavier. Your body tightens, muscles bracing before your brain has caught up.

Something is wrong.

Maybe it’s a stranger, maybe it’s someone you know. That’s the worst kind, when it’s someone familiar. The gut-punch of betrayal mixes with the raw animal instinct screaming at you: This is real. This is happening. And you might not make it out.

The mind works in fragments when survival is at stake. One part is analyzing everything—exits, weapons, numbers, angles. Another part is trying to stay calm, not to escalate, not to panic. Then there’s the part that wonders how you got here. The replay of small warnings ignored, gut feelings brushed aside, misplaced trust now coming back like a freight train.

If you’ve been there, you know it’s different from fear. Fear can be irrational. This isn’t. This is clarity. This is certainty.

It’s the moment you realize someone wants to hurt you. Not just emotionally, not metaphorically—physically.

Maybe they’re saying it outright. Maybe they’re just standing too close, fists clenching, something in their eyes that wasn’t there before. Maybe you’re outnumbered. Maybe it’s a place you can’t just walk away from. Maybe you thought you were safe, but you weren’t.

Time slows down. Or maybe it speeds up. It depends. You’re processing so much at once that later, when you replay it, you won’t even remember how long it took.

Some people freeze. Some people run. Some people fight.

But in that moment, when it hits you—that sudden, undeniable Oh, fuck, I am not safe right now—your body and mind split into two possible futures. The one where you make it out, and the one where you don’t.

And the scariest part?

The choice might not be yours.