Her POV

It was all because of daddy's new girlfriend. "Of course I'll marry you darling, but I have no interest in caring for another woman's daughter. Get rid of the brat and I'm yours."

Any loving father would have told her to get the hell out of his lavish home, but not this man; he was no "loving father". He had never even wanted a daughter, but the woman he knocked up had enough money to force him into marriage, before dying after thirteen years. But this woman was giving him an opportunity! He could erase that whore, get rid of the girl, and gain an unimaginable amount of money by taking over her publishing company; now he'd be sure to get his stories published without all the hard work, he'd be even richer!

So he hired some thugs. "Take that brat, do what you will with her, just make sure she never comes back to ruin my life, again."

And so it came to pass, as his daughter walked home alone from her favourite book store, there was a bag placed over her head, ropes bound her wrists and ankles, then pain and a whirlwind of sensations as she was tossed haphazardly into the back of a carriage, and taken for a rough ride before being pulled from the cart. She'd been thrown down, kicked several times, felt something akin to a pipe smash through one of her calves, before the ultimate humiliation as three men deflowered her before further violating her innocence and finally left her, beaten, bruised, bloody, and still bound to die, on a hard, crunching unfamiliar surface she wasn't even sure people traveled across.

Yes, that was the end for her. She would die alone and lost, bound hand and foot with a bag over her head, and no one would know anything about it.

Or so she believed. As she fought with all her strength to move, pain slicing its way through every nerve in her body, luck let her wrists run over something sharp and freed them, blood rushing back into her hands, making them tingle and ache. After a few more minutes she found the power within to try to work the knot holding the bag in place to no avail. Too exhausted and in far too much pain, her limbs collapsed to the cold surface she lay on and quietly cried for a moment before consciousness slipped away.

She awoke again as pain shot through her arm and she cried out. The pain was now familiar and this was one she recognized; a boot, kicking her arm. Her assailants had come back to do worse?!

She curled tighter as best she could to defend herself. "Please! No more!" Her voice was cracked, weak, whiny, pathetic, nothing like the pretty, dulcet tones she had learned to use in public. She didn't care, as long as these madmen didn't lay into her with more trauma inducing pain. She cried and begged a little longer before she felt hands at her neck. She was going to be strangled! Weakly, she lifted her arms catching his wrist, attempting to resist her fate. It had no effect, he simply knocked her hands away, and went back to her throat; "Don't fight, it'll be over soon."

Feeling him lean in over her, she lifted her arms again, finding a firm chest, she tried pushing him away. Again, it was pointless, "Hold still, dammit", and she felt her wrists bound again. She began crying harder, "Please, don't kill me."

The hands stilled, "Kill...you? Huh? I'm not tryin' to kill you; now hold still, I've almost...Damn!...got this...oh! Come on!...knot...grrrr!... loose- hmm?! There!"The bag was suddenly pulled away and her wrists were once again free, even so she jolted and winced as gentle fingers brushed her cheek. "You're gonna be alright, I promise."

Her eyes, having been blinded by the bag and the night that now surrounded them, were blurry. She had a headache, most likely from being kicked in the head more than once, and from the hunger, she hadn't eaten since noon and from what she had learned from sneaking peeks at astrology books, by position of the cloud covered moon it was close to midnight or later. She heard a rustle, feeling his body lean over her again, she stiffened, and then tensed more when her ears heard a soft click. Then there was light, blinding to her depraved eyes, but as they adjusted, she saw green, the prettiest shade of glowing green and she was momentarily hypnotized as she watched the light move.

But the spell was broken as pain shot through her leg and she cried out before gasping in relief when the pressure vanished and she fainted.

When next she woke, it was to the soft sound of singing. Was it a chorus of angels? Had she finally died? No, it was still cold, she was shivering, and aching, and she was still laying on the hard ground. She moaned quietly, her empty stomach hurting, and the singing halted. "Are you awake?" Her companion softly ran a hand through her hair, as she twisted her neck slightly to see him in the dull moonlight, before an onslaught of discomfort hit her, crashing like waves rolling off a tsunami.

Cold wind rushed over her body as her stomach growled loudly and painfully against her other obviously damaged organs and she curled tightly into a ball, whimpering. Her companion gasped and kneeled over her, his eyes glowing green, and laid a warm hand on her arm. A moment later his hand was gone and quickly replaced by a soothing heat covering her body. She had just realized the warmth when she heard rummaging through pockets. "Ah-ha!" The sound of plastic wrap being torn open and then, "Can you sit up?" She struggled to do as she was asked, but found no strength left in her. When she stopped moving she felt his arm slip under her shoulders before he seemingly, effortlessly pulled her into a sitting position, moving to her back, and propping her against his chest. He pressed the plastic-wrapped something into her hand before remembering her powerlessness, wrapping his hand around hers. "C'mon, eat this! It's not much, but it's something."

She had no power to resist, he had been kind enough, and why would he bother to poison her now? He could simply have broken her neck while she slept. And so she allowed him to feed her. With her stomach momentarily satisfied and her body warm and beginning to relax into the feeling of safety, no sooner had she swallowed the last bite of the sweet bar he had been feeding her, did her head fall to the side against his chest, already asleep again.