Hey! I wrote this story a long time ago but lost it. I have four chapters ready so all I have to do is type them up and post them! Reviews are welcome but NO flames.

It was a hard day, but they were always hard. With the rain pouring down so violently it hurt, soaking her clothes and further dampening her spirits. She was grateful, however, for the water making the blood running down her arms and wrists fade to a light pink, it made her feel a little more normal.

Aria felt like crying, besides the gnawing hunger in her stomach, the bruises, sprains, and gashes (some obviously self-inflicted) scattered across her body, she was about to collapse. Just give up and die, what was there for her to live for anyways? Her family hated her, hell, her dad even tried to kill her! Then when she FINALLY escapes, going across the entire country, she realizes that things are brutal everywhere.

Aria could handle the beatings her father doled out, but the one that happened just a short time earlier seemed worse in a way. Whenever her father beat her, it was because she was bad, horrible, and a disgrace to the family. Aria deserved those punishments. But the men who jumped her? They didn't even know her; they had no reason to hurt her, she wasn't confronting them and obviously had no money to steal. They had done it for their own sick pleasure, and that was so much worse.

"I'm sorry." She gasped, a new wave of tears forming, "I'm sorry, I just want to get away." Almost immediately though she snapped out of her self-pity, 'first sign of insanity is talking to yourself'. Deciding to shut up the voices in her head she focused on looking for a place to crash for the night.

'Let's see…where to go next? It's NYC so pretty much all the abandoned buildings will be taken, and crazy shit goes down in those places. Parks are a no-go, cops hang around there just trying to bust runaways and no doubt dear old dad has reported me missing to keep up with appearances. Already tried the alley but look what happened! Guess I'm going to have to go to the rooftops then.'

Not a lot of people thought of sleeping on rooftops. It probably had a lot to do with heights; nevertheless they were an awesome place to hide. You needed to look for the right building though. The building always had to have an open dumpster on one side of it, just in case you needed to get away fast, hitting garbage is always better than hitting cement. That being said the building can't be more than four stories, too hard to get down from and falling that far garbage and cement feel the same. Also, there needs to be a wall…obviously so you don't fall off when sleeping.

But god she hated sleeping on rooftops. Even though they were the best place to sleep it was always freezing, even in the middle of summer. Currently it was early December…cold as hell. Aria rested her head on her backpack and pulled on another pair of socks, she tried to sleep.

It was a few hours later when she woke, the rain had stopped but there was another noise coming near. 'What the hell?' she thought. Quickly and swiftly she jumped up and slung her bag over her shoulder. Crouching down to hide herself more she stared intently at the ladder. 'Please don't come up here. Please don't come up here. God don't let them come up here! I'll just freak out and then…', too late. An old, ragged man jumped up from the top rung of the rusted ladder, smiling at her in a deranged sort of way.

"Hey honey!" Surprisingly he wasn't drunk. "Saw ya come up here! Thought ya might need a little company, know what I'm saying?" God his laugh was gross, smoked a little too much meth maybe?

"Go away, now." Aria shot back, putting the menace she could into her voice.

Then Mr. Stinky pulled out a knife and shit hit the fan.

Coming out of her crouched position she sucker-punch him in the face. But he was a big man and she was about 20 pounds underweight and looked it, he tackled her and pinned her wrists down against the gravel. Using her size to her advantage she tucked her legs to her chest and pushed him off. Running the few feet to the ladder she grabbed onto the top and scaled down, really just falling and catching herself a few times on the ladder. When Aria hit the ground she rolled and stood up, bad move. Having not eaten a proper meal in months her body was too weak for this kind of exertion, the world started spinning as she stumbled forward only to hit the alley wall a second later, she was all turned around.

"Haha, you playing hard to get?" Creeper taunted as he made his was down the ladder. Aria desperately tried to calm her beating heart; she knew what she had to do. She had to get closer to him, going against all of her instincts she stayed still as he made his way closer; this was the hardest part, facing one of your biggest fears and knowing that you can't run away. He was finally close enough to touch now so she forced herself out of freeze-mode and grabbed his face, hard. A look of confusion spread across his face, then it spazamed as electricity pulsed from her into him. Het hit the ground before Aria did, she tried her best to stay awake but it was really hard and she knew she had to get somewhere safe. Crawling across the alley onto the sidewalk she limped about a block east then collapsed behind a dumpster.