The terrified girl Ti looked on as her maid was dragged away by several thugs, her clothes torn apart, exposing the flesh beneath, and being violated by the assailants.
Ti couldn't imagine such things happening to her; she had never witnessed any ugliness from birth up to now. The Shelter was like her paradise, where she was carefully protected by her father, insulated from the ugly faces of the powerful.
She naturally assumed that everyone in the Shelter was her family, that all were kind-hearted. But when chaos erupted, those she considered family, the thugs, broke into the living quarters of the privileged and committed heinous crimes.
She closed her eyes; she lacked the courage to resist, but she was also unwilling to be humiliated by the thugs.
She dearly wished for someone like the heroes in the novels she read, to emerge from nowhere, defeat the villains, rescue her from this torment, and end this tragedy.
