Sorry, where?

Trigger Warning: some references to sexu@l ass@ult

Lina gasped loudly as she opened her eyes. She didn't know where she was, or how exactly she got there.

She stood up off of the cold, hard ground and reached for her forehead.

"Ah!" She winced in pain. When she brought her hand back down, she saw a dark red liquid on the tips of her fingers. She smelled it, still unable to identify it. Then, she stuck her tongue out and licked one of her fingers clean of the substance. Lina recognized the metallic taste from before, from the guard.

"Bl-blood?"

She shuffled to the wall in front of her. Lina scanned the room for an exit. It was small, gray, and poorly lit, but she was able to find a doorway. There was no actual door, but through the threshold she saw a hallway that reminded her of the Chapel's corridors. She shuddered.

She peeked her head out the doorway and looked down the hall for any sign of...well, anything. Just then, she felt something rough force her back into the room. She thought it was a piece of wood at first, then realized it was someone's hand.

"Hey girlie. Hey..."

Lina winced at the words, only because she didn't hear words. It was like they were holding a megaphone to her ear and yelling into it. She stumbled before looking around the room, trying to find who was speaking. A man, significantly larger than her. His face was stained, defining his wrinkles and making him much more intimidating.

"Quieter...Talk quieter." She pleaded with her hands over her ears.

"Sure thing, miss." He lowered his voice to a growl and stepped closer. "You looked lonely. Figured we'd pop in, see how you were doing."

The words still stung Lina's ears, but it wasn't as bad as before.

"We?" Two more men, one smaller than the first stranger and the other even larger, entered the room and stood on either side of the man. They were wearing oversized coats and pants and hats, just like the other person in the room.

"You see..." He slowly moved his hand onto Lina's hip, then used the other to tuck her hair behind her ear. She didn't want him to touch her. She didn't want her hair behind her ear, she'd rather it hang in her face than have this man touching it. She wanted to push him away, hurt him like she hurt the guards. "You're new here, " he went on, "we wanted to help you move in. Get comfortable."

"I don't want help. Leave." Lina pushed his hands off of her and tried to back away, only to feel the wall directly behind her. The two men in the back walked around who was apparently the leader, and smirked at her. They eyed her up and down as they tilted their heads and smiled to one another. Each man grabbed one of Lina's shoulders and wrists before she even saw them coming. They pushed her even tighter to the coarse brick wall, holding her hands excessively hard, digging their nails into her shoulders.

"We aren't asking sweetheart." The leader of the group stepped toward Lina. He wrapped his hands around her waist once again, only much rougher than the last time. He moved his head closer to Lina's and began kissing her neck. No, this wasn't even kissing. Biting. Slobbering on it. Not kissing. Not what Lina knew to be kissing. Was this really what it was? No, it couldn't be. Even if it was, she didn't want to be kissed. Not by this man. Not now.

"Get the fuck off of me!" She tried to lift her knee to the man's stomach, but one of the others put his leg over hers, preventing her from moving it at all.

The man slid his hand further up from her waist and into the bottom of her shirt. Lina started shaking her shoulders and head, screaming as loud as she could to try and deter him. Maybe if she was lucky, someone would hear her...but was anyone there? Would they help if they were? Did they even care?

"Hey!" When she heard another man shout from across the room, Lina lowered her head in pain from the loud ringing of his voice. His young voice. Much younger than these bastards.

Not long after, she couldn't feel any of the men's hands. Couldn't hear their voices, couldn't smell that awful, stingy smell of theirs.

She wanted to puke, wanted to run, wanted to go back to her star. To Chase. He'd know what to do. He'd help her. Console her at the very least. And who knows, these new voices might not be here to save her. They could want her like those men did. She needs to get out of here, now.

...Only...she couldn't. Instead, she sank to the floor and held her head tightly between her knees. Everything hurt. She was so sore, so tired.

A few moments later, she felt a warm hand on her knee. "Are you okay?" A woman. Lina was able to tell by the soft tone of her voice, but there was more to it than that. It wasn't just soft, but Lina couldn't tell what it actually was.

"Are you alright?" She repeated.

"Yea-yeah." She cleared her throat and started to stand up, but stumbled and started to fall instead.

"Hey, it's okay." Someone else caught her. That voice...She looked up to see another man, the young one that scared the others away. He was cleaner than them, looked...kinder. Innocent even.

"Thank you."

"Of course." He replied. I'm Caden, this is my sister Achelle.

"Achelle," she whispered to herself, "that's a beautiful name." She looked over to Achelle and flashed her a smile.

"We were coming from our apartment and heard you. Those guys are thugs, but they're here all the time. Been here for years." Caden explained.

"And you fought them off?"

"Yes, he did." Achelle crossed her arms and grinned at her brother.

He looked up at her nervously before looking back at Lina.

"You're bleeding..." He reached for the side of her head out of concern.

She pulled her head away and glanced at the floor.

"I'm fine."

"Then at least come back to our place. You need new clothes and luckily for you, we have lots." Achelle led them out of the room and down the hall to the elevator. They went up two floors before getting off and walking to their apartment.