Warning: This chapter contains harassment, a bit of gore, blood, mature language and sexual assault (I won't go into full details). If you are not comfortable with any of those things, I recommend you not to read this chapter.
~
"Are you lost?" asked the man with a grin on his face. The wrinkles on his forehead dug deep, his nose was enormous, and his breath smelled like garlic. The blackness in his eyes reflected Xena like a mirror. She shook her head and attempted to push past him, but the sudden grabbing of her wrist made Xena look at him with irritation.
"Let go, you creep!" she protested and tried to pull her wrist away from him, but the difference in their strengths was prominent. Xena could barely remove the man's large hands from her wrist, no matter how much she tried.
"I was just trying to help you," he said, annoyed by Xena's reply. Xena knew better. Her mother had always taught her not to trust any stranger. She took her chances when Steven saved her, but this time she felt that this man shared not one bit of kindness as Steven. Xena glared at him, which unluckily provoked the angry stranger further.
"You fucking look at me like that again, and I'll kill you." The man forcingly began dragging her into an unknown alley. She yelled and screamed, but the empty street behind her provided no help. Her feet dragged against the cold concrete to stop herself. Yet his strength was much more robust.
"Let go!"
"Argh! Let go, please!" She tried her best to attract attention from anyone, anybody that could help her, but they were too deep into the alleyway that her voice only echoed slightly.
The man turned around, annoyed by Xena's loud, penetrating voice. "Shut the fuck up!"
Finally, the man halted. In front of them was a worn-down metal door that had rust all over its surface. Xena realized the door belonged to a building. Green moss covered its concrete walls, and its scent left a gross smell. She cringed at how stained the area was.
Xena thought she could escape, but the intensity in his grasp prevented her from doing so. An annoying, grating sound of the metal gate played when the man opened it. The opening of the gate revealed a medium-sized, empty warehouse. It was spacious enough to fit at least three large trucks in it. She struggled to release her wrist from his hand once again, but doing so provoked him to pull her arm even closer.
Inside, two men were playing what looked like a game of catch. One was throwing a small round toy while the other tried to catch it with a large, brown glove covering his right hand. The two halted when they noticed the man and Xena. Their faces turned sour while the ends of their lips curved down into a frown.
"I found our target for today," the man holding Xena's arm announced with pure excitement. Meanwhile, their faces shook with disgust.
"What the fuck, man. I told you to bring a fresh girl, not a child," the guy with the ball complained. He looked at Xena with grave disappointment. On the other hand, the man with the gloves glared at the man beside her.
He scowled, "Are you nuts? Why would you bring a child in here?" The man previously wrapped his arms around the man's shoulder.
"Told you. This guy's a fucking pedophile," he teased.
The conversation distracted the man holding her. Xena thought she could take this chance to escape from this dangerous situation, but weirdly enough, her guts told her to stay still. Today was the time she wanted to disagree with herself severely, but there wasn't anything else she could do.
The owner of the hand that held her arm huffed, "The fuck did you say? You guys told me to bring a fresh girl. And so I fucking did!"
The guy with Brown gloves stepped forward angrily and took full offence to what he said.
"Shut the fuck up. Know the difference between a child and a woman! Come on, man." Both exchanged nasty remarks at each other, which caused the man to let her arm go. This was her chance, and her gut was hurriedly telling her to run as fast as she can.
So Xena did. She jolted towards the metal door while the two quarrelled with each other. The timing was crucial in this situation, and unfortunately, Xena had been panicking too much to forget that aspect.
Before she arrived near the gate, the man holding the ball put her into a halt. He towered over her like a skyscraper and was much taller than anyone in the room. His head shook in disapproval and then raised it to look at the other two arguing with each other.
"Yo, Zed! Your prey is trying to escape." His voice echoed throughout the empty warehouse. Terror and disgust filled Xena's eyes. His opposition earlier made her think he'd save her, but she was wrong—dead wrong.
Now she understood why her parents rarely let her out. They protected her from the people as vile as these three men in the room. Guilt filled her from bottom-up. She regretted how she complained severely about not being allowed to go outside.
Before she realized it, the creep had already taken her arm once again. Their quarrelling ended way before she knew it. The man who had been actively opposing them looked defeated. The other guy's arm wrapped around his shoulder.
"Let him do his thing," the man mumbled. The guy with gloves glared at him. His mouth opened to let out a word of opposition, but the one with his arms wrapped around his shoulder quickly silenced him.
"If you want to live, then do as he fucking says."
He kept his mouth shut, but his eyes were on the girl in front of them. It had pity and shame written over his brown orbs. Before he could say anything else, the other guy already began dragging him outside.
Xena's eyes began tearing up. She felt desperate, clueless and useless, just like how she felt on the day her father died. She despised this feeling so much.
Xena wanted to escape, but how? The creep that brought her here overpowered her with his strength. How much more will she have to go through if those two intruded?
She looked around for clues. Xena was sure that the two were waiting outside, so trying to pry the door open would lead her to more trouble. She turned around, with no clues gathered, while her face soured with terror and fright.
"You know. Those two were right." A nasty smile showed on his face. She felt a pit in her stomach. The man continued rambling. All of what he said sounded as if she was underwater. Xena was panicking—deeply panicking that she could hardly pay attention to anything else.
"Since you're a child. I'll go easy on you." Little by little, he strolled toward her.
Xena backed away. Beads of sweat fell down her forehead. "Stay away!" shouted Xena.
She searched the area once more. On the very back of the warehouse stood a backdoor. Xena knew she had to find the right timing to escape through that gate. But when? When can she find the right time?
Everything else that transpired after felt like a blur. The next thing Xena knew, She was being pinned down on the ground, forcefully.
"ARGH! LET ME GO!" Her voice was brittle: it shook in terror. Xena wiggled her arms from the pedophile's clutches. Sharp metal edges covered a column that Xena was merely a few inches away. One wrong move and she could accidentally cut herself.
But Xena didn't care. She wanted to escape from the man so badly. She tried to kick her legs up and down, but he was too heavy for her frail frame.
"It'll be easier for both of us if you stay still." She looked away. His disgusting face was only 3 inches apart. Xena didn't listen to him: she kept moving and tried to make things more difficult.
She wiggled, tried to push him away, and wanted to kick him. The longer she did it, the closer her arms were getting to the sharp edges.
In one quick moment, Xena screamed. Not because she felt the man's hand on her leg, but because she felt an intense pain on her right palm. She spotted a cut about the size of her palm and blood dropped on the concrete floor like spilled water. There was just too much blood for a medium-sized wound--abnormally too much.
"That's what you fucking get!" he yelled at the poor girl. The adrenaline, the sheer panic, made Xena almost run out of breath. She watched the revolting man slowly unbuckle his belt. Her legs wiggled one more time, trying to find a way out of this crime.
'Dear God, if you're real. Please save me.' Xena prayed.
She had never believed in such things. Mostly because her parents taught her God wasn't real. But this time, she wanted to believe. Her life was nearing death, and she wasn't ready for it. Xena closed her eyes and settled down as if her body had already given up. There wasn't anything she could do.
Without her knowledge, her blood that had been spilling on the concrete floor moved hastily. The thick, red liquid had spikes moving up and down as if it was gravitating towards the air. Those spikes soon hovered over its liquid state, floating like gravity had no effect on them. Confusion and dread filled the pedophile's eyes.
"Hey! Hey, what the fuck are you doing?!" He ceased from unbuckling his belt and pointed at the droplets of blood in the air. Xena's eyes remained shut because exhaustion was all she felt.
The blood left on the ground gradually joined the ones in the air. It was hovering as if time had stopped. His sweaty palms touched the ground as he desperately tried to back away.
In a matter of seconds, the ball of blood gliding in the air turned into sharp icicles. Before the man could even react, those spikes flew as fast as a jet towards him.
"AHH!" Screams of pain and agony resounded through the warehouse. When Xena opened her eyes, the man was no longer pinning her down; instead, he was a meter away from her with his hands over his eyes. He screamed loudly.
She gasped and felt a pit in her stomach. Blood icicles stabbed through the pedophile's eyeballs like it was a sheet of paper. The red liquid from his body streamed down his face. Xena wanted to puke. She had never seen such a painful death. Quickly, her gut told her to run and Xena immediately took the chance to escape through the back door.
The man's agonizing screams caused those who waited outside to enter. Their eyes rounded at the shocking sight of him lying lifeless on the ground, along with two eyeballs coated with blood.
"ZED!" One screamed, his eyes turned towards the opened backdoor, outside he saw a little girl running swiftly.
"The girl…" The tone of his voice shook in fear.
"THE GIRL WAS AN ARKEN!"