Touched Her.

Warning: Triggering content ahead (No Rape)

"Brian, why were you so lat—" she began to ask, her jaws dropping in shock when she turned and saw the face of the person standing beside her.

It was unfamiliar…and scary.

"W–who are you?" she stuttered, her voice betraying her anxiousness.

"Me, Darling? I came to pick you up," the man replied, breathing into her neck as he spoke.

Avery felt the hair on her neck stand straight, shivers running down her spine. His breath reeked with the smell of cigars, increasing her fear.

"Did Brian ask you to pick me up? Tell him…"

"Now who is Brian? I am only picking you up today for both of our enjoyment and of course, with my friends over there."

Avery eyes followed the direction his hand pointed to, her heart sinking at the sight of two other men grinning sheepishly at her.

'How did you get yourself into this mess, Avery? These men do not seem nice,' she said inwardly. As she attempted to remove the hand placed around her shoulders, the man's forced embrace only tightened all the more, dashing any hope she had previously harbored of escaping easily.

"I..Mr, I am much younger than you think I am. You can't–Your friends won't…shit!" she let out a string of curses beneath her breath, before trying another approach, "How about I pay you instead, Mister? Just name an amount—"

Ignoring her blabbers, the man waved his friends over and cut her off, "I don't need money, Darling. And you said you are young? That's what makes it all the more enjoyable for I and my friends."

"What?" she muttered in disbelief. "I—I will scream. People will help me!"

"No one will, Darling. Try it, and more people will only join us."

It was the last Avery heard before she threw caution to the wind and began fighting against the men, kicking and throwing her fist at anything in sight alongside her screams. Of course she was no match for three men who were more than twice her age and soon, she found herself cornered into a dark alley a distance away from the bar.

'This cannot happen,' she assured herself inwardly, looking around for anything that might work as a weapon, even though she knew there was zero percent chance she would be able to use it.

"Wow! Such feisty little thing you are," the man commented, displeasure evident in his voice. Even though the area was dark, Avery could feel his glare boring into her body in the most uncomfortable way.

Her attention was diverted when one of the man's friends replied, "That only makes it more delightful, doesn't it?"

"I guess it does," the other man agreed.

Together, they closed in on her with the creepiest smirks on their faces, prompting her to let out the loudest scream she could muster.

"Aaaaaahhhhhh!"

A slap landed on her face, "Shut it, bitch!" one of the men—she had no idea which— spat.

Another one pulled him back. "Let's just get this over—"

"Who's over there?"

"Help!" Avery yelled, before the men could clamp her mouth shut.

"A lady? Hold up. I will get back-up and be back," the voice returned.

Avery almost let out a sigh of relief, except that the men didn't get scared and run away like she thought they would. Weren't they scared of security? Perhaps, they were a gang sure they could take out the security men?

She had no time to dwell on her thoughts before a loud sound rang out and one of the men in front of her fell unceremoniously to the ground.

"What is…?" In the twinkling of an eye, the remaining two men had their faces kissing the ground too. "... going on?"

"Are you alright, Ava?" she whipped her head up at the familiar voice, barely able to make out the face of the man approaching her through the dark alley.

But she knew who it was. That voice, though she had only heard it once, and the name…Ava.

"Archie," she gasped, when he was close enough to hear her, her legs finally giving way for her body to sink to the floor. "What did you do to them?"

"I killed them," Archie deadpanned.

Avery was speechless. He killed them…just like that?! Plus he seemed to bear no remorse for what he did.

Just then, Avery heard the voice that had promised to go for backup earlier approaching the alley. Her thoughts in a frenzy, her eyes went from Archie to the bodies lying on the ground. The security men would report him to the authorities…but she could not allow that.

"Archie, we have to leave here…" she trailed off as the man appeared at the corner with two other men behind him, stopping dead in their tracks when they saw she had company.

Bang! Bang!

Before she could say anything, Archie had raised his hand and shot them down.

"What did you do?!" she was almost screaming, wide-eyed in shock as she just realized she had witnessed the murder of 6 people.

"I killed them too."

Avery scoffed in disbelief. What kind of man was this? She could understand him killing those r**pists but the man who had gone to get help for her? That was a no!

"You killed—Doesn't that word faze you at all? You just ended some people's worlds, Archie! You don't know if those men have children or wives waiting for them back at home and you make it seem like their lives are worth anything!"

Archibald frowned, his brows furrowing in confusion as if he had no idea why she was so angry.

"They harmed you, Ava. They wanted to touch you," he stated, adjusting his glasses.

"I…" she sighed loudly. "They harmed me, yes. But…fuck all this!"

She rose to her feet, dusting her dress while he patiently waited at the side for her.

"Don't tell Arthur and Emma this happened," she implored, and when he nodded, continued, "Thanks for today but you know what? I hate you!"

With that, she stormed out of the alley, breaking into a run when she got out to the front of the bar.

It was the incident which began her mutual hate relationship with her brother's best friend.