Oh look! Chapter Two!

Review Replies: (Erica xDD)

4star: Obviously we stopped there just to torture our dear little readers~ And I'm terribly offended that you were only GOING to say that our darlings are funny. D: Of course they are! Else we wouldn't write them so much, or update so regularly. (It will happen. I promise. Meet us next week?) Anyway, thanks for reviewing! Aaron gives hugs to reviewers~ 3


Liv woke slowly, feeling groggy and stupid. Her head was pounding, and there was a painful, crusted scrape on her cheek.

She was also laying on an unfamiliar hotel bed.

Without meaning to, she clutched a handful of the blankets. The room appeared to be empty, but seeing as she couldn't remember why she was here, that was not at all reassuring. The last thing she remembered was heading back from the pokemart...no. The clerk. The clerk had followed her.

She jerked upright as soft footsteps sounded in the adjacent room, her heart beating a mile-a-minute.

Elias' ponytailed sibling was standing in the doorway, holding a mug and looking at her with equal parts amusement and resigned expectation.

She just stared, eyes wide and stunned, clutching the blankets like a lifeline.

Now, he knew better than to laugh at the predicament. Or to encourage her line of thinking too much... But he might a little.

Softly, and with as much worry as he could allow without cracking up, he asked, "Hurting anywhere?"

Ok, so now she was panicking and confused. She wasn't sure why she was knocked out by the clerk, and woke up to a slightly smirking red-headed pony-tail boy. Were they in cahoots?

And more importantly, what exactly happened while she was asleep?

Unable to help herself, she glanced down. Her clothes were a bit dirty, but definitely still there. Even her socks were intact, though her shoes had been removed.

"...That doesn't make any sense..." Her damn traitorous voice pulled up tremulously at the end, turning her statement into a question.

And also, she was pretty sure that the only thing hurting was her head and maybe her back, where the clerk had slammed into it.

That was good, right?

He took a sip of the coffee before placing it down on a small table, moving forward and watching her warily. Yes, it was a bit ironic she was the one he saved, but he knew she didn't trust him and one wrong move could cause problems.

If he got to know her a bit better, he'd be able to figure out how to push her buttons without problems but right now, he had to tread carefully.

"That bastard in the alley. Do you know him?"

There. Surely she couldn't take that wrong. Besides, he genuinely wanted to know.

She backed up a bit, till she was pressing up against the headboard. Sure, he was acting alright, but she still didn't trust him. At his question though, she frowned, and shook her head slowly.

"No...Well, yeah, but...no. I mean, he was the clerk at the pokemart. Come to think of it, he was staring at me a bit funny, but I figured it was cause...you know..." she looked down, "cause I'm so short." How it rankled to say out loud.

He narrowed his eyes, "An effin store clerk? From a pokemart? Where kids go? Damn it." He glared at her and wondered if he could leave and search the man out before she flipped out. Instead, he settled with the unhappy, "I shouldn't have let him live then. He's got targets everywhere."

Liv could practically feel the blood running out of her face.

"Oh my god. What if...what if he's done it before? I mean, how long has this guy lived here? He could've..." She shuddered, and hugged herself. How many women were in this town? What if he went after the children? She herself was short enough to pass for twelve.

"You. I don't know your name. Stay here. I'll be back." He met her eyes, trying to convince her to at least trust him with this. "Whether it's wrong or not, I can't let a flippin child-molester to roam around. Do you know what he used on you? He put a cloth on your face, right? What if he's been doing that to women-children over and over and over and over again. He shouldn't even be able to have that.

"I'm going to deal with this since the city obviously can't. Again, don't leave here. I have more questions for you-especially if I can't find him." He reached around the corner and pulled out a bag. He couldn't believe he was doing this. He took out one of his guns. "Here. Take it. If he comes back, think of what he was going to do to you and shoot. It'll be over in no time. Got it?"

Liv nodded weakly, and took the gun. She was holding it like it was a dead rat, but she took it nonetheless. For one crazy second, she had the urge to use it on the now dead-serious red-head, but she shook it off, dismissing it as shock.

There was no way she was shooting anyone. But the man with the pony-tail-she still didn't know his name-was already out the door, leaving her huddled at the head of a stranger's bed holding a gun and debating whether to cry or scream.

Liv listened to his footsteps all the way out of the hotel room and down the stairs, until she couldn't hear anything at all.

She carefully, and quite calmly placed the gun on the bedside table as far from her as possible, and just...sat.

Simply put, she was scared. Terrified, in fact. There were so many possibilities-the rapist could come looking for her-the strange man might be in league with him after all. Or perhaps the strange man was worse than the rapist.

She wiped at the tears that she only now realized were running down her face. That was strange. She didn't feel sad at all.

Not even for all the unknown victims of the rapist clerk.

Nope.


Aaron held the other gun in his pocket and moved quickly through the streets, staying near the place he'd first seen the man and the pokemart. Damn rapists.

There would be a death tonight.

It was about forty minutes after his searching began when he caught the man trying to lurk around an alley. He narrowed his eyes. There didn't have to be some huge confrontation, nope. Not here.

He positioned the gun, checked his aim, and released the shot.

He missed the man's vital areas but he hit his arm. Looks like he'd have to shoot him again.

Oh well, more pain for the bastard. He readied himself again and, making sure to get a good spot this time, fired again. The man dropped. Aaron glared at the corpse and simply walked away. Someone would find the body but the only evidence they'd have would be two bullets.

Besides, he'd be long gone before they suspected him.

Now to go check on the girl-and get her damn name.

When he finally got back in he found the still as-of-yet-unknown-named girl sleeping again, this time with the slightly red eyes and wet pillow as warning enough for what happened.

Well, that was one left rapist in the world.

Feeling that it wasn't right to let her sleep without covers-Hey! She's almost been raped!-he cautiously approached the bed before moving her around to fit her under the covers. Noticing a couple drops still stuck to her lashes, he brushed those away with a scowl and turned back to his coffee.

It was cold.

That was depressing.

So, he did what annoying brothers did best, he called Elias. "Hello?"

"I think I have someone involved in your little plan..."