I run the rest of the way back home. I'm confident that no one else will stop me again, but I can never be too sure. I reach home safely and without further incident. I go straight to my bedroom and flop onto the bed without changing.

I'm still a bit doubtful about what they said in the alley. I mean, it all makes sense, in a way. And they knew about my little... incident with that car. But I am not going to just follow them somewhere and live there like a good little dog, oh no. I don't trust them. They cannot expect me to believe them completely. It's downright stupid.

I lay there like that for a couple of minutes, then get up again with a groan. I have to be at my first kid's place in half an hour. I'm tutoring him English. You can really earn a lot from tutoring, especially when you tutor 3 different kids every day. I've got a nice little sum in the bank already.

After hours of tiring tutoring, I go home, thinking of a wonderful dinner and a quiet night. But the moment I open the door I can feel that it'll be anything but quiet tonight.

"Richie?" I call out, hearing giggles from her bedroom. I'm renting one of the bedrooms in her house as I don't have anywhere to stay. "Richie?"

The giggles stop. I hear unsteady footsteps come stumbling out of her room into the living room.

"Oh hey there Adri-drienne," she hiccups. "D-didn't think you'd b-be back so s-soon!" She swoons and a man--- a hot one--- appears from nowhere and catches her smoothly.

"Watch your step, Richie-baby," he murmurs. She hiccups and giggles again.

"Richie, are you drunk?" I ask wearily.

"Yes, I think she is," the man replies for her, frowning slightly.

"You her new boyfriend?" I ask him as I trudge towards my room.

"Yeah, you could say that."

"Alright. Just don't come into my room, okay?"

Richie changes boyfriends more often than I can count. It's already routine to see her drunk with a stranger in the house. I ignore them as long as they ignore me, and up till now it's been a pretty practical deal.

Richie starts snoring softly. I look back in surprise.

"Didn't think she was so drunk."

"Neither did I," says her new boyfriend. He dumps her unceremoniously onto the couch and sticks out his hand. "Name's Kai."

"Adrienne," I answer, and shakes his hand. He pulls me closer and I drop my bag in surprise.

"Wha---" He stares into my eyes deeply, smothering me. I feel my pulse speeding up and my cheeks warm. I can't seem to look away from those deep, dark brown eyes---

He grabs my arms and pushes me gently but firmly until my back is pushed against the wall. He leans in even closer until all I can see is the bottomless pools that are his eyes. Our foreheads touch. He sighs and I can smell his breath, faintly sweet. I swallow.

"So..." Kai says softly, eyes never moving away, "are you free tonight?" He his lips.

I force myself to close my eyes. This is not right. This is Richie's boyfriend, and therefore off-limits. No matter how drunk-asleep Richie is right now or how seductive Kai is. I take a deep breath and open my eyes again.

"Yes, I'm very busy tonight. In fact, I need to go out again." I say quickly, pushing him away and picking up my bag. I almost run to the door. "So bye---"

Kai materialises in front of me. "Not so fast, Adrienne," he smirks, seductive play all gone.

How did he--- He grabs my arms, roughly now, and forces me to drop my bag. "You're coming with me, girl---"

Instinctively, I jerk my leg up and knee him in the groin. He yells out a string of curses and releases me. I run in the direction of my room. Kai appears in front of me again, looking angry now, but still in control.

I try to change direction quickly, but my foot slips and I fall, right into his arms. "I've got you now," he says, smirking.

Without a thought I throw a punch at his stomach and that wipes the smirk off his face. I throw in another punch for good measure, this time at his pelvis, and run towards the kitchen.

I randomly pull open a drawer and start throwing stuff at him with anything I can lay my hands on. Turns out this is the plastic drawer, and I find myself throwing plastic bowls at him. I curse and move onto the next drawer.

I've just opened it when Kai materialises behind me once again. This time he kicks the back of my knees and my knees buckle and I fall down hard, my hands still holding onto the drawer. I think I hear something break. My legs aren't working properly but my arms still are, and my hands flail around the drawer desperately. My fingers close around a slim can, and I realise with joy it's my pepper spray. He knocks me in the head twice, hard, and I'm seeing stars and my head hurts and I'm dizzy, so dizzy, I can't focus on anything but if there's anything I can focus on it's the feel of the pepper spray still held in my hand, and I don't know where Kai is but he's probably behind me so I turn around, and spray randomly everywhere, and I must've hit my target because I can hear him screaming, and yet I continue to spray because if I don't I'm afraid of what he'll do to me, I don't know, I don't want to know, he must be one of those bad guys those two dudes, Tai-or-something and that shorter ice dude, were talking about this afternoon, and all of a sudden I believe them completely. The sounds of the spray stops and with horror I realise I've used up the whole can, Kai has stopped screaming too, and suddenly I'm scared and with the adrenaline pumping through my body I manage to struggle to my feet despite my shattered kneecaps, and I swing a punch wildly but I'm still dizzy and I lose my balance and fall back down. A little voice inside me urges me to get up again and escape before Kai can do anything else to me, but my body won't obey and I just lay there pathetically, my head ringing and legs useless.

Suddenly I hear voices, more than one, and a lot of swearing and yelling, and then I hear the sickening sounds of bone snapping. I cringe and try even harder to get up and move, but all I can do is crawl so crawl I did, crawling to find a door, any door.

Footsteps next to me. I ignore them and crawl even faster. My headache is becoming worse and my vision more and more blurry. Hands grab hold of my hands. I instantly start to struggle but a voice says soothingly, "it's ok... it's alright now... you can relax, no one's gonna hurt you anymore... I promise... just relax, ok? You're safe..."

And somehow, I do. But my headache is becoming even worse and I have a hard time staying conscious, but with that soothing voice in the background I relax, and I slip into darkness.

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heehee I had sooooooo much fun writing this chapter! In the middle of the night, no less! :P I am such a SICKO. But I seriously love to write stuff like this. muahahahahhahaa xd hope you liked it!:D