You Pierce Me

A/N: Beta'd by the lovely and talented TenshiYoukai. Thanx love.

You Pierce Me

"Get him!"

Blood pounded in my head and my breath came in gasps. They were gaining on me, and no matter how much I pumped my legs, I knew they would catch up to me. It was only a matter of time.

I was dizzy with fear, stumbling every once in a while as my vision clouded with it. They couldn't get me. I had to out run them somehow. I zig-zagged through streets and alleys, desperately trying to shake them off. I kept turning this way and that, but the pounding of their feet stayed behind me.

I made another turn and found myself looking into the unforgiving wall of a dead end. I almost fainted with disbelief. I realized with dread that they had me. The sound of their pounding foot falls ceased. I could feel their hungry gazes on my back, like a pack of wolves.

I turned to face them; backing up with each step they took towards me. I was almost hyperventilating with fear. My back hit the wall and my legs buckled. I slid to the ground as they advanced. Evin, the leader, a big guy with a nasty reputation for smashing heads, came forward and leered down at me. I grimaced.

"You gave us a good chase there, didn't you?" He motion with his head to Jimmy, a skinny boy who was rumored to be skilled with a knife. Jimmy reached into his back pocket and pulled out a switch blade. I shivered at the wicked looking blade and silently prayed for lightning to strike me now.

Evin's eyes took on a maniacal gleam as he rubbed the scratch on his neck where I had dug my fingers into his skin to get free from him before the chase began. "You weren't really thinking we'd let you off easy after all the trouble you caused." He nodded to two other guys in the group. "Hold him down. The storm is coming and I don't want to be caught out in it."

I struggled as hands gripped painfully hard at my arms and legs. I twisted around trying to bite and scratch at anything that I could, but all my efforts earned me was a hard slap across the face. Too stunned to move I lay there, staring up at the darkening sky.

"Let's begin."

******************

Those fucking bastards.

I licked at the blood dribbling down my split lip and clenched my eyes to stop my tears from leaking out. I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of crying. They weren't worth my tears.

The rain beat down around me, the storm already well underway. The wind was bitingly cold, and I shivered violently from the onslaught of wind driven rain. Cautiously I reached out, patting the mud covered ground for my glasses. It took a while but finally my hand closed over them. The left lens was broken but the right was fine, if a little cracked and dirty. Wiping the lens on my school shirt, I only succeeded in smearing the dirt around. I pushed the glasses onto my nose.

Looking around me half blind, I was hit with the overwhelming urge to cry, to ball my eyes out at the unfairness of everything. I had done nothing to deserve this. In fact, I tried to avoid Evin and his gang at all costs, even to the point of taking a new route home everyday. But they still got me.

My throat clogged and insistent tears gathered, but I wouldn't cry. I'd never cry because of those fuckers. I've endured shit like this most of my high school life and I've built up a sort of tolerance for pain. Either way I'd kill myself before I'd shed a tear in their name.

They hadn't gone easy on me either. It seemed that today they decided to go all out, attacking with more vigor than usual. But I never just lay back and took it like a bitch. I got a few punches in too. I smiled with grim satisfaction, feeling slightly better, as I remembered my kick to Jimmy's nuts. I hope they relocated into his spleen.
After beating the shit out of me, Evin thought to leave me into the middle of the road and had started dragging me there. But the rain, thank god for small mercies, started pouring and lightning struck. They dumped me here at the end of the alley, half conscious and battered, while they high-tailed it home.

Grunting, I tried to stand but my ribs protested where Evin had landed a vicious kick. My right ankle felt swollen and hurt like a bitch when I tried to put weight on it. It was probably, at the very least, sprained which meant that I was pretty much stuck here, in the middle of a storm with nothing but my torn uniform to protect me.

God! It was cold! The freezing rain pelting my skin felt like the jabs of knives. I leaned against the wall at the entrance of the alley near where they dropped me, huddling into myself, trying to generate as much warmth I could. My teeth were chattering so badly that I feared I'd bit my tongue off if I wasn't careful.

I choked back a sob. It was dark, so dark. I don't like the dark and the emptiness of the streets, the shear deserted and isolated feeling that came from it was frightening. I was going to die here because no one was coming to save me. No one knew I was here. No one cared, or the few that did had no clue what had happened to me. I was going to die here. I wanted to die here, to end my suffering, to finally be at peace. That was what I wanted.

I have no idea how long I sat there, shivering in the biting cold, slowly losing feeling until I went numb, when, suddenly, the bright lights of a car blinded me. I closed my eyes and heard the clicking of a car door opening and booted feet made splashing noises on the pavement.

The steps came closer and I tried to stifle a whimper as I curled into myself. I really did try to stay quiet but the horror of what happened before didn't let me. I was terrified of being hurt more and so I tried to bring myself in an even tighter ball, trying to blend in with the wall behind me; to become invisible to this new and unknown threat.

The being hunkered down and I could feel eyes on me, not doing anything but looking. Trying to figure out if I was already dead or if there were more spoils to be reaped, I thought sarcastically to myself. I jumped when I felt rough hands gently, yet firmly, turning my face.

I tried to pull away, another pathetic whimper escaping my damaged lips, but the grip on my chin never wavered. I squinted into the still bright lights of the car, trying to make out the face of the being that held me now, to see if he was friend or foe. It was a man who held my chin, his form too big and unmoving to be a woman's. I could feel his eyes on me, searching for something - I knew not what - and uncaring that he was now soaked from the downpour.

As if having come to a conclusion, he nodded curtly and gently gathered me in his arms. As he gingerly picked me up, I flinched, partly in fear and partly because of my injuries. As if sensing my pain, his hold became gentler still, and he lifted me as if I weighed no more than a sack of potatoes. I bit my lip to stop myself from crying out for mercy from this stranger. I tensed as he carried me over to the car, I could do nothing to stop him. No one was here to hear me cry for help.

My well-being relied on the kindness of this man, this stranger. I just hoped that it would be kindness that he would offer.

A/N: Next chapter up soon!