Red, White, and Blue
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Kali ran as fast as she could, but she feared that it wouldn't be fast enough. They were right behind her…
Kali was 16, very pretty, and smart. Unfortunately for her, she lived on the bad side of town. Tonight, when she was walking back from her friend's house through the woods, a group of six or seven boys—she hadn't stopped to count—had started to chase her. Now she had to run for her life or be subjected to gang rape…
She tripped. Wincing in pain as blood poured from her knees and palms, Kali realized that that had probably cost her dearly. How right she was.
"Well, well, well," said the tallest boy—he looked about 17 or 18 and was probably the leader—"What have we got here? Chad, Nick, hold her."
Two lanky boys strode over to where Kali lay on the ground; eyes shut tight, wishing she would just disappear. The boys grabbed her arms and pinned her to the ground. She could hear the leader of the gang laugh—it sounded as if he was swallowing pins. She struggled, trying to get free, but it was useless. However scrawny the boys holding her might seem, they held on with grips of iron.
There was a hurried quiet discussion, and then Kali felt someone removing her clothes. She gasped, tried to sit up, and opened her eyes. Bad move. She saw the gang leader laugh cruelly at her, then... In her distress, she picked her head up and slammed it against a rock, knocking herself unconscious.
So it was that Kali did not see the gang run in fear from attackers in the forest, nor the gang leader's death. And so it was that she did not notice someone carefully carrying her to a horse, and riding to a strange place in an alien world.
***
"I'm not sure that was a good idea," a male voice said.
"So you would rather that I left her to die in the wilderness? Or that I let the gang have their way with her?" came the angry reply.
"All right! Don't bite my head off! I'm just saying, what will she think when she wakes up?"
"I don't know… That's what I'm afraid of."
Kali stirred and the voices ceased. Moaning, she opened her eyes. Though her vision was slightly blurry, she knew she wasn't in her home, or even a hospital. But, where was she?
"Here, sip this," a dark-haired woman came up to Kali with a glass. Kali gratefully sipped the liquid inside, though she had no notion of what it was.
"Wh- where am I?" she managed to croak out. Her chest hurt every time she took a deep breath, and she had a splitting headache.
The woman looked over at a man standing in the corner of the room. He nodded, and she said: "You are in Rivendell."
"Rivendell…" Kali whispered, disbelieving. Then she fainted.
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