Destroying Hope chapter 9

A/N: Okay guys this chapter was a little hard to write and it borders on M but it is really a high T. There are implications of rape, prostitution and abuse. It is not graphic so don't stress too much but just a warning. There is a lot of background information about Hope and this explores a little Hope and Connor's relationship in Quortoth. Enjoy :)

Flashback

"Hope!" her mother called sounding furious as usual. Hope trudged soundlessly into the room. Her mother stood and stalked towards her, blonde hair swishing side to side, "There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you! Mr. Worthing said he wouldn't pay us if something like that happens again!" Hope looked her mother in the face with a hard expression, "I am sick of doing this! Do you realised how many lies I have to tell to stop my friends from asking where I am at night and why I am so tired all the time? Do you realise how all this is affecting me? Do you even care?" Hope's voice rose to almost a scream.
Her mother slapped her, "Hope of course I care! I am your mother! That is why I do this, so I can give you and your sister's a better life!" Her mother sat at the small table that was sitting in the middle of the dark room.
Hope wiped the blood from her lip and straightened her form, "How can you say that? I'm glad I did what I did with ! I am sick of having to pretend to like these men! I hope now because I said what I really think of him he will never come back! I can't believe you do this to us! We are your daughters and you make us be whores so you get the money!"

Hope blinked those terrible memories away and smiled slightly. That was the moment when things started to get better.

As her mother stood to attack her again Hope disappeared into a screaming hell of blood and fire, which she would come to know as Quortoth. The air was almost unbearably hot and there was no life in sight. Everything was red and black. She walked aimlessly through the place trying to find someone that could help her. She soon began to feel like someone was following her. She chanced a look behind her, saw nothing but as she turned back around she came face to face with a terrifying creature. It raised it claw to strike and she closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable pain but it didn't come. She opened her eyes and saw a boy cleanly cut the head off of the creature.

Hope smiled fully at that. When he took her back to their camp, the next few weeks (What felt like weeks to her) he was so curious of her because she was different and not like him. Holtz was wary of her at first but then grudgingly embraced her into their 'family' and trained her with Connor. Her and Connor's relationship was very innocent to say the least. With Holtz around basically 24/7 there was no time for kissing and everything else that goes with that but they were together. They knew it; it was like an unspoken agreement. There were no fumbled proposals of having a relationship or requests of courtship. They just knew.

That isn't to say she has never kissed him because that would be silly. No, they definitely had a few stolen moments when Holtz had gone to find food or to fetch water but their kisses were always chaste and short. Now with Holtz gone Hope had no idea how their relationship would be. They were both practically adults and Connor was beginning to understand about this world but Hope wondered if she would be brave enough to let a man touch her like that ever again. All the times she had had sex before it had felt disgusting and cheap, She had felt disgusting and cheap. All of those men were always a lot older than her and were never gentle. She remembered her first time vividly. It had been terrible. The man did not even give her time to adjust to his size and just thrust into her over and over until he was finished and spent. Later Hope stood on shaky legs and she screamed as she looked down at the mass of red liquid between her thighs. That whole night she cried in the shower washing the blood and that man from her body. The next day she went to school and laughed with her friends but it was all forced.

Hope once more looked at Connor. How could she tell him? Would he understand or throw her out? She sighed shakily and carefully clambered into his arms once again. They tightened around her comfortably and she leaned back into him. She breathed out softly. Tomorrow she would try and tell him, for now she relished this rare sweet moment in her life.

Connor woke feeling more rested than he had in over three months. The reason for this was lying in his arms. He smiled softly. He did not know how he would have turned out if she had not joined him in Quortoth. His smile faded as he remembered the truth he has learned the other night. From anyone else he would not have believed it; in fact he hadn't believed Angel when he told him he did not kill Holtz. From Hope though, that was one person he would never doubt and it hurt him to realise that he had hurt his own father, his real father and he did not deserve it. He was snapped out of his melancholia by the flash of beautiful blue eyes staring up at him. Hope smiled up at him sleepily and reached up and kissed him softly. She felt him smile against her lips and when she pulled back she was amazed. She could always see it even though he tried to hide it. When he thought she was not looking he had such a deep sadness on his face but it all faded away when he looked at her. She was forever in awe that she had this much control over him and his emotions.

Hope got up off of the bed slowly with Connor's help and she frowned. She did not have any clothes to change into. This only strengthened her resolve to go to Angel. She took a deep breath and turned around slowly, "Connor, I know you're not going to like this but we need to go to Angel," His face went through a mixture of emotions. He breathed out heavily.

He knew she was right. He wanted to apologize to Angel. It would be hard but he also needed to do this for Hope. She needed clothes and he could tell she wanted Angel to help her. It hurt him that she was not going to accept his help for her training but he would deny her nothing. He walked to her and pulled her into his arms, "Ok let's go." She pulled back and smiled at him and they left their home into the streets of L.A on their way to the Hyperion.

It was nearing nine pm and Angel and his team sat in the hotel in a circle. They were all holding hands and the bottle in the middle of the circle began spin wildly. A type of mist shot out of bottle and into the six people sitting in the circle. Cordelia began to sway on her feet and in her confused state shattered the bottle under her boot. Ironically at this moment Connor and Hope walked through the door and in a second they were slumping to the floor with the rest of the team…