Claudia Brown put a tired hand to her eyes, rubbing them in an effort to stay awake. She was waiting for a train. She sat down on the nearest chair. It was hard and dirty, but Claudia was too tired to care. She'd had a very, very long day. And it had been alot to take in. Prehistoric times...Anomalies...Dinosaurs: And to think, Jurassic Park used to be her favourite movie.
"This seat taken?" A voice asked and she looked up, suddenly, to see a dark haired, tanned man looking down at her. He was about her age and had a gentle smile. She shook her head, smiling graciously. She couldn't, however, find it in herself to think of this man as 'attractive'. For some reason, it was as if there was something blocking that part of her mind. Absently, she reached up to touch her lips, thinking about earlier that day.
**Flashback***
"...No ones as pretty as yours I must admit though, I've never seen you around here myself. And hey, why don't we have a drink afterwards" Claudia zoned out, glancing around the bar as the man speaking, who was wearing what had to be the worst toupee she'd ever seen, and caught sight of a blond man. He was looking at something in his hand. She recognized him instantly.
"Sorry," She spoke for the first time and the man looked surprised, as if remembering she was there, "Sorry, but that," She pointed to the man with the blond hair, "Is my boyfriend, and I have to go!" And she stood up to leave, rolling her eyes when she felt 'Sleaze bags' following her movement. She was lying through her teeth, of course, but she would have done anything to get away from this sleaze of a man.
"Excuse me!" She said to the man, who she knew was Nick Cutter, and as he turned, she hurriedly pulled him into a kiss that felt as passionate as she hoped it looked. She pulled away and blinked, "Don't panic!" She said, sitting down, "I just told that slimeball over there you were my boyfriend, one more sleazy chat-up line and I was just going to have to kill him!"
"Well, I'm glad I was here to help," The man said with an amused look on his face, "I'm Nick Cutter..."
"Actually I know who you are!" She said, smiling, "I saw you up at the hotel and I was hoping you could do me a favour, professor!" She spoke with the taste of his, lips on hers and was suddenly very aware of herself, reaching around into her bag and pulling out a white envelope.
"Another one?" He joked, and she laughed showing him a photograph.
"I expect...this is why we're both here?" She asked, looking at his expression as he studied the photograph, "We get dozen's of rogue animal sightings every year and you'd be doing me a great favour if you could just confirm that this is all just...nonsense!"
"I can't dismiss the evidence out of hand!" He said, with a smile as she took the photograph back and she smiled.
"Surely you're not giving this whole 'monster' story any credibility, Professor?" She said, putting emphasis on the last word. He smiled and looked as if he were fishing for something to say.
"Just trying to keep an open mind!"
"People always say that as if it's such a good thing!" Claudia said, sounding amused.
"Well, see, that depends on how you define, monster! A wild panther might look pretty terrifying on a dark night!"
"Is that what we're dealing with?" Claudia asked, suddenly very business-like.
"My best guess, if it exists at all!" He looked at her for a moment before speaking again, "The last sighting was somewhere near the forest, care to join the search?"
"I suppose I owe it to the tax-payer to do more than sit in my room and suck the mini-bar dry!" She said, causing him to laugh.
***End of Flashback***
Sitting in the poorly lit station with the attractive yet completely un-interesting man beside her, Claudia leaned her head back and closed her eyes. Nick Cutter. He was on her mind...and had been for the entire day. He was smart, funny and handsome...granted he was also slightly excentric and unconventional in his methods, but that added to the spark he held for her. She thought back to when the Gorgonopsid had attacked...
***Flashback***
Claudia was clutching Nick's upper arm, trying to make him focus on the medic in front of them. The anomaly was gone and Ryan and Nick looked breathless. It looked like the first contact had been successful and she, along with Nick and a few other people, gave a nervous laugh. Claudia saw Abby go over to a tree and bend down, curious, she watched but was terrified when a loud roar sounded. Everyone scattered.
"Ryan, clear the area!" Claudia shouted, before Nick grabbed her arm and made her run. It was complete chaos and as she ran, she heard screams of the people and the Gorgonopsid, and stumbled, falling to the floor. She turned, gasping as the dinosaur caught her in his field of vision. Her eyes widened and she scrambled backwards.
"Claudia!" She heard a yell and felt Nick's strong hands reaching and dragging her to her feet by her arms. She, somehow, couldn't make her legs work, though and just kept scrambling backwards. Somewhere, the sounds of an engine erupted out of the darkness and headlights appeared, the 4x4 storming through the trees, Stephen at the wheel. Nick's hands relaxed and rested on her shoulders as the Dinosaur fell, unconcious, after being hit by the truck. Stephen climbed out of the vehicle and started to walk towards them. Claudia began to get to her feet.
"Stephen!" Nick yelled, suddenly, causing Claudia to jump and fall, in her attempt at pushing herself to her feet. She turned in time to see Nick fling a gun at Stephen, who shot the Gorgonopsid that was attempting to jump to his feet. Stephen caught the gun and shot the predator. Blood spurted, wildly, out of several wounds and the hideous beast lay motionless...Claudia leaned back, suddenly exhausted, against Nick's legs and felt him put a hand to her shoulder.
"You OK?" His voice said in her head and she nodded, weakly, taking the hand he offered and getting to her feet. Despite her situation, she managed to do it quite gracefully!
"I'm alright..." She said, gasping as she straightened out to fine their faces inches apart. He kept hold of her hand, holding it between their forms and staring into her eyes. She felt her breath catch and he snapped out of his trance, blinking and dropping his hand away from hers. She turned, hurriedly, and walked in the direction of her car.
***End of Flashback***
The train pulled, swiftly, into the station and Claudia got wearily to her feet, stumbling slightly as she did so.
"Whoa!" The man said, gripping her upper arm and stopping her from falling over. She thanked him and boarded the train, still thinking about Nick Cutter. She sat in a seat and leaned her head against the window. The train was pretty much deserted. It was the last one, and Claudia could feel it. She was completely exhausted and soon enough, found herself drifting off
"Well, 'aint you a little piece of something!" She heard through her light sleep. Her eyes fluttered open and she saw people looking at her. Men actually. Boys, really. They had to be seventeen, eighteen and Claudia felt uncomfortable under their glares. She shifted, slightly, in her seat, pulling her skirt - which had ridden up her legs as she slept- down. Casting an un-easy glance around the carriage, she saw that it was deserted aside from her, the gang of boys and a man. The man was at the other end of the compartment and from his posture and the angle of his neck, he was sleeping. He had his head turned away
"I said, 'aint you a little piece of something'!" The boy who had spoken repeated. Claudia rolled her eyes, trying to look blaze and pulled her mobile out of her pocket. The boys all shared a harsh laugh and Claudia felt the unease bubble, once again, in her stomach.
The gang were all dressed similarly, in black tracksuit bottoms and hoodies. One wore sunglasses, another wore a balaclava. The one who had spoken was blond. He didn't wear a balaclava, or sunglasses. His hair was long, greasy and dirty. He was smiling at her and revealed dirty, yellow teeth. She was repulsed and focused on her phone.
"You ignoring me, Ma'am?" He said it mockingly and his friends laughed. Claudia raised her eyebrows.
"Pardon me?" She said, putting the courage of being faced with prehistoric monsters behind her words. But they weren't monsters, they were human beings. Teenage, male human beings. And she was alone. The boy who had spoken stepped towards her, so close that if she had stood up, they would have been pressed together.
"Whats your name, suga'?" He said, and she was replused even further.
She could smell his body-odour and it made her gag. She wanted to cover her mouth and nose and push past the boys off the train. She could also smell alcohol and wasn't surprised. She was scared. This was London, not exactly a safe place in the middle of the night, especially on the tube. She scrolled through her friends list on her phone and found herself drawn to calling one number. Her finger hovered over the 'dial' button.
"I said," The boy stepped even closer and raised his voice slightly, "What's your name?"
"Excuse me!" Claudia said, attempting to get to her feet and push past the boy. She managed to get as far as the end of the seats before the boy got to her. He pushed her against the wall, pressing himself against her. Terrified, she struggled.
"Let go of me!" She said, pounding his chest with her fists. He just laughed and the horror inside her continued to grow. She aimed a kick at his groin but he moved in time. One of his cronies grabbed her leg but she pulled it free, aiming a kick at him instead. It caught his chest and he cursed, winded. Her eyes widened as he stepped forward, his fist raised. One of the other boys stepped forwards and put a hand on his chest, whispering something in his ear. The expression on the boys face made Claudia even more scared. His lips curled into an evil smile and he took a seat. Her attention was drawn back to the boy in front of her when he leaned towards her and kissed her, roughly. She didn't have time to react and could do nothing...except remember her phone. Quick as anything, she whacked it across the boys head. He cursed and let her go.
Fear mingling with adrenalin, she ran to the door. The boy she had kicked grabbed her ankle and sent her flying. She whacked her head on one of the seats and, confined to space, tried to scramble backwards, as she had done earlier that very day, in the forest. Before she could do anything more, the boy was on top of her, straddling her. She tried to force him off, but he was strong. And she was scared.
In one last effort, she punched down the dial button on her phone and waited, slamming her eyes closed as the boy precoded to push her skirt up her thigh, causing her heart to beat faster in her chest and her breath to come out in tiny whimpers. Then something miraculous happened. From nearby, Claudia heard a noise that sent her heart into somersaults of joy. A ring tone...The ring tone of the most ancient of Nokia's. As one, Claudia and each of the boy's heads snapped towards the man.
What Claudia saw served to make her even more scared, but at the same time it made her want to cry with joy.
Nick Cutter.
He was staring at them with an expression of complete shock on his face. His hand was curled around his mobile, his hair tousled from the way he had been sleeping. Claudia saw his eyes flick, quickly, between her and the boys.
"S'that your boyfriend?" The boy on top of her whispered in Claudia's ear, making her heave from the disgusting smell of his body. She looked at Nick with pleading eyes and watched in horror as two of the boys went towards him. Completely convinced that there was no way Nick could 'fight' all of them, she turned her head away, condemning herself to her fate. When an ear-splitting crack echoed through the compartment, Claudia looked up to see Nick standing, unharmed, tensed. The two boys were laying on the floor, rubbing their temple's. From the look of it, Nick had banged their heads together.
In a dangerously low whisper, Nick spoke.
"Get. Of. Her!" He said, but the boy on top of Claudia didn't move and she saw Nick'd hand curl into a fist, "I said, Get. Of. Her!" The boy smiled, cockily, and laughed.
"Say please!" He said, and his friends, the one's not nursing giant lumps on the side's of their heads, laughed.
"Please!" Nick yelled, and with that, he pulled his fist around so that it connected with the boy's face. His other hand reached for Claudia, who took it and quickly stood behind him, clutching his shoulder. She had always hated the way all men seemed to think that women needed to be protected, but now she was grateful for that particular stereotype. She did need protecting. And Nick was going to do it for her! Nick, who still had one fist pulled up, stared around at the boys.
"You were saying?" He spoke in the same dangerous whisper and glared around at the company. There was a moment of tense, icy silence and Claudia could hear the blood pounding in her ears. All was still. Then, the train stopped, the doors opened and the boys began to leave. The one Nick had punched turned around when he stood at the door.
"See you around!" He said, to Claudia, and she cast her glance away, feeling ashamed. Then he left, stepping onto the deserted platform and the train started up again.
Nick turned to her as tears finally began to form in her eyes. He looked at her and then, wordlessly, pulled her into a hug. He held her as she wept into his black top and she gripped the material, desperately, trying to calm herself down. Whenever she thought she could form fully articulated words, the tears started again. Nick sat down, pulling her with him and cradled her head against his chest, whispering sweet nothings in her ear and comfortingly stroking her hair. Eventually, the tears stopped, but still she sat there, leaning against Nick and taking comfort in his presence and his scent. The train stopped again and he took her hand, pulling her to her feet, wordlessly.
They decended from the train and walked, hand in hand, through the deserted station. Claudia kept her eyes on the floor, her other hand dangling, aimlessly at her side. She felt weak and helpless and walked, leaning heavily, on Nick. Eventually, he untwined their hands and wrapped an arm around his shoulder.
"You can't go home!" He said, "Not in this state! I have a spare room, you can stay at my house!"
She didn't have strength to argue.
A short while later found her sitting in Nick's lounge, holding a mug of steaming hot chocolate and staring aimlessly at the television screen, not seeing what was on. She felt humiliated and mortified, she didn't feel like she could look Nick in the eye without seeing disgust and repulsion. She heard footsteps behind her, but didn't turn around.
"Here," Nick's soothing voice said, and she saw him lay a sheet of white across the arm of the sofa, "It's one of my old shirts, it'll be big, but it's the best I could find!" She nodded in thanks and he sighed, sitting down on the opposite sofa. They sat like that for a while before Claudia got up and went to put on Nick's shirt, feeling like her clothes were contaminated. She could still feel the pressure of the boy on her stomach and felt dirty, wrong. When she walked back into the Lounge, barefoot and clad in Nick's shirt, which reached her lower thigh, she avoided his eyes as she made her way across the room. He looked up at her as she sat beside him and leaned on him. Just because it felt right, he put an arm around her shoulders.
There, in Nick's lounge, laying on him, watching a pointless and cheesy gameshow, Claudia felt safe and, without the worry of waking up to the same nightmare, she slept.
The End.