AN: Sorry for the wait! I was away on vacation with my family, and had a spell of writers block. So here is the 4th chapter! The next will be soon to follow~ -AR
p.s. I'd looooooove to hear some feedback from you guys about the story. Good or bad. :)
Her vision blurred as tears continued to well up in her eyes. The light on the ceiling fractured into a webs of light, marring her vision. She didn't care to blink away her tears to clear her sight. She didn't want to see. She didn't want to witness what would happen to her... how he would abuse her and get off on her helplessness. If only she could will herself into unconsciousness, so she didn't have to feel anything, didn't have to hear anything. Greif, loathing, and despair rolled through her, replacing her initial horror and panic with an endless void. Jade had tried to move, she fought for control, but she was helpless to put up any resistance… she was trapped, her own body betrayed her.
Jade blinked a she heard a surprised whisper to the side of her.
A creaking of a chair sounded and the fractured light was blotted out by platinum hair. He was leaning over her again. She darted her eyes to his face, searching for his intentions. He looked… concerned. She stared up at him until movement caught her eye. His hand was moving towards her! A scream of terror shouted in her mind and she flinched involuntarily. His outreached hand stopped its movement towards her, as if the force of her gaze held it there barely a foot from her.
For a moment, they hung frozen in tense silence.
Something in his mind clicked, she saw it in his face. He moved back, hands rising away from her.
" Whoa! Hey, I'm not the bastard here! There is no fucking way I'd sink so low as to drug a chick to get pussy."
'...What?'
Jade was caught off guard, by his barrage of vulgarity coupled with his statement. He… he didn't drug her? It was a hopeful thought, too good to be true. But he could also be lying through his teeth, messing with her head to get her guard down. But… she was already incapacitated so… why-?
"Look. I frequent the club you were at, it's like my second home and I DJ there sometimes. I saw that you were kind of a newbie, so I kept tabs on you because you looked kind of oblivious."
So he was watching her?! He watched her and found the opportunity to slip something in her drink! He was right about her being a "newbie" though… and he took advantage of it!
"No offense." He quickly added.
She took offense.
If she could she would have rolled her eyes and socked him in the face right there for the BS that was coming out of his mouth.
"Yeah. I know this sounds like a load of horse shit, but the bar tender is practically my uncle so I kind of help keep an eye out in the place and shit."
This story kept getting better and better… but- he sounded sincere. She studied him… he was keeping his distance from her, voice low and steady, as if he was trying to reassure her he wasn't dangerous. Well… he hadn't done anything to her… yet. She paused in her thoughts… he actually seemed to be a little flustered.
"But anyways, the name is Dave, Dave Strider..."
'Dave….' She mulled over his name for a bit. Was he trying to pull some James Bond level aloofness with how he introduced himself?
"… and since you currently can't talk, I can either guess your name till monkeys fly or I can just look at your ID and solve this mystery."
He proceeded to lean over her, reaching out for her bag that she just became aware of resting beside her on the bed. She felt her fear and anxiety rise again; she watched him like a hawk. He paused and looked at her reassuringly.
"Don't flip your shit, I'm not going to do anything, ok?"
She mentally sighed, and retorted.
'Ok… it's not like I can do anything else…'
She calmed herself … trusting him for now. He paused for a moment before moving again. Lying there, observing, was all she could do at the moment as he hovered over her and rifled through her purse. Now that he was closer to her, she could see that freckles dotted his sun-kissed skin, primarily on his nose and cheeks. He had some sort of colongne on... Old Spice or something like that. His moving shoulders paused for a minute, she assumed he was looking at her ID now, before moving again.
"So Jade…"
Dave drew himself upright as he spoke her name.
"I don't know how long it will be until the drug wears off… I don't know how much or what that fucker gave you…"
The venom in his voice pierced her, stirring her own rage towards what had happened… the suddenness of it surprised her. Even though he wasn't looking directly at her, the seething disgust in his eyes and face was prevalent.
"Don't worry… my uncle carded the guy, so he'll get shit for what he pulled."
'Good.'
Righteous fury rolled through her mind, though she felt that the punishment given wasn't enough. Frankly, she wanted whoever did this to her to have his ass thrown in jail. A punch to the face and a kick to the balls felt like righteous justice too. She would gladly deliver.
"So… you might be stuck here for a bit until you can talk and sort of function."
'Well, yeah. I can't exactly catch a bus back to my dorm like this.'
The harsh sarcasm bled through her simmering mood. Too bad he couldn't hear her; he might have laughed at her snippy commentary. She surmised her assumption of his personality from the Sparky quips he'd thrown around so far.
"It's almost 3 in the morning… I suggest you try and sleep it off."
'Um… sleep….here?'
Granted, she was pretty exhausted from everything that had happened today but… she wasn't exactly sure about sleeping in a strange bed. Let alone a guy's bed- a guy she had just met who she thought had drugged her and was going to rape her but apparently seemed to be a nice guy who swooped in like a knight or something and saved her from being dragged off to some dark alleyway and had taken her up to his apartment and made sure she was okay just because he noticed her coming into a club which he was at a lot. God, she was embarrassed.
"Don't worry, just crash there. I swear my sheets are clean.
If she could, she would have face-palmed at that comment. Oh god she hoped she wasn't blushing.
"I'll just crash here, it's no prob. Oh! And your friends have my number, so they know where you are. I'll be able to take you back… wherever, your dorm? When you are feeling ok."
'Oh yeah…' She almost forgot about her "friends". She felt resentment towards them rise in her mind but she pushed it away. It wasn't their job to look after her… they were out to have fun, not to babysit a country girl in the big city. Crap, she felt guilty towards them now too. She hoped she hadn't worried them... because of her carelessness.
Dave went silent for a bit, sitting there as if waiting for her response. He twiddled his thumbs then cleared his throat.
"So, yeah. Um… Do you want me to take off your shoes…? Those look like a hella nightmare to sleep in…"
Jade attempted to look down at her shoes, only to see her knees peaking out from beneath her dress. Well… she wasn't uncomfortable. She found his request kind of odd… and a tad charming, that he'd think of that. Mentally she shrugged.
'Ok…. I guess.'
She attempted to give a nod of approval, barely managing to twitch her head. He disappeared from her view as he knelt, and she felt his fingers at the straps of her shoes. She tensed at his touch, still uncomfortable with the current status of his mobility and her immobility. Dave handled each small buckle deftly, gently holding both shoe and foot as she felt each one come off. He stood back up and returned to the red butterfly char that was to the side of the room.
"Ok, so don't worry about me creepin' up on you or anything. My Bro is out of town, so you don't have to worry about his naked ass showing up here suddenly either. Just konk out for a few hours… I'll be here chilling when you wake up."
He had a brother? Ok... She wondered at the choice of words he had used to describe said "Bro" but pushed that detail to the side. Dave stood up and turned off the lights, causing stripes to appear in the room from the filtered light through the blinds. Her eyes followed his dark form back to the chair were he sat, shuffled a bit, then soon went slack. She felt a little bad about taking his bed as she heard him breathe deeply, snoring a bit. He was going to have a hell of neck-ache when he woke up.
Jade lay there, gazing at the ceiling and tried to relax. This whole fiasco seemed pretty odd. Why would he save her? She was incredible grateful for his involvement, no doubt about that. She shuddered at the thought of how close she had come to having something truely horrible done to her. She was lucky… sooooooo lucky. The type of chivalry, (as coarse and slightly awkward as it was) Dave had shown to her was exceedingly rare nowadays. People usually just stuck to their own business, and if they did get involved, there would be some kind of gain in it for them. She looked again at Dave's huddled form in the dark before shutting her heavy eyelids.
'Why would you be interested in me?'
