Something was wrong when she awoke. It was silent, as usual, but there was also a subtle banging sound. She checked the clock and found that she'd only been sleeping for an hour or so. With a yawn, she stood up and went to her door. She was almost expecting to see one of the younger children knocking lightly on her door but was even more surprised to find the noises were coming from Yuffie's room.

"Yuffie?" she stepped out of her room and began to feel as if she was breaking some sort of rule. She had a feeling she that she was not supposed to be in the hall, yet her feet kept moving towards Yuffie's room. As she moved closer she could hear the younger girl's muffled shouts. Yuffie was in trouble and she knew that checking on he would get them both into even more trouble.

She reached for her door and was surprised when someone grabbed her wrist, "Are you crazy?" the person pulled her back towards her room and closed the door.

"What?"

"What do you think you're doing?" Zack let her go and leaned against the door.

"Move Zack, Yuffie's in trouble." she demanded, but her voice didn't hold any power to it.

"There's nothing you can do." he sighed, "Not until he's done, you know that."

"Is she in trouble?" she asked.

"I don't believe so, but he's angry. I saw his face, he didn't just want sex, he wanted to make someone hurt." Zack closed his eyes, "And Yuffie wasn't the first girl he's seen tonight."

"Tifa?" she whispered and Zack nodded. Maybe he'd overheard their talks of escape, she didn't doubt that someone would tell on them. But even then, if this was a punishment, it was light compared to what she'd endured during training.

"Aerith?" Zack moved away from the door, "It's alright, you know that." she was crying, and she didn't know why. Maybe she was scared, maybe she was happy. After all, it wasn't her facing Don's wrath, she was safe. Yet the small amount of happiness was smothered by guilt. How could she think that way? "Aerith."

"Don't. Stay where you are. I don't want you near me." Aerith sat down on the bed and continued to cry. It had only been 14 days, yet she'd changed so much. How could she be happy about someone's pain? She felt his hand on her shoulder and she jerked away, "Don't touch me, Zack." she hissed, "I've been touched all day by strangers, I don't need you touching me."

"I was trying to comfort you." he said. He didn't let her hostility faze him, he instead smiled at her and took a step back, "But I guess I am being insensitive to you." he admitted.

"Yes, you are." she curled up on her bed. She wanted him to leave, but at the same time, she would feel guilty if she threw him out.

"I have to finish work, goodbye." he murmured as he left the room. She heard footsteps that she recognized as Don's and for a moment, she was afraid that he was coming to her room. But the door shut and the footsteps faded. She breathed a sigh of relief and decided that she would check on Yuffie in the morning.

0.o.0.o.0

He'd let Aerith know that Don was done with Yuffie. She didn't move, but he could see she was a little relieved.

He didn't like Don, the man was a creep. He usually tried to ignore the things that Don did, but there were times when it was hard to ignore. Sometimes he would catch the older man coming from a girls room and he'd freeze up. He couldn't say why, he was far bigger then the man.

He made it back to his room in the basement. The "room" was really just a corner of the basement separated by sheets. That was how every room looked down there, it wasn't much, but it allowed a little bit of privacy. As he walked by the other beds, he could see that most of the other workers were asleep. There were a few adults, but most of the workers were children.

Zack sighed as he went to wake them up. It was late, and they were exhausted, but he knew they'd get in trouble if they didn't finish their cleaning. He shook each child awake and they hurried off to work. One boy, Denzel, woke up kicking. Zack held him down and eventually the boy calmed down, "Geez Denzel, you almost kicked my head off." he said.

Denzel stared up at him and blinked, "Sorry." he whispered before crawling out of bed.

"Was it a nightmare?" Zack asked. Denzel nodded and headed up the stairs. Zack sighed again and found his broom they needed to clean the bar before it opened.

"Zack?" a young voice called.

"Marlene?" He turned around to see the young girl standing behind him. She had something in her hands but he couldn't tell what. "You better put that away and get upstairs."

"Okay." she tucked the object under her pillow before turning towards the stairs. She was young, one of the youngest girls there. And he felt it was his fault that she'd ended up there in the first place. Don wouldn't have needed more workers if he'd done a good job in the first place. "You know, tomorrow is Denzel's birthday." she mumbled, "He told me about it before."

"Interesting." he nodded.

"And I have money." she started, "I think it's enough to get him a cupcake." They walked into the bar and he began to sweep the floors. Marlene followed behind him, "Can you get one for him?"

"Me?"

"I'm not allowed to leave." she said, "And if I did, I would get lost."

"I can try." he said. There was a good chance that he'd be able to get the cupcake, nut he never made promises. There was always something that got in the way when he did. He would definitely get the boy a cupcake, maybe even a whole cake. He wasn't doing anything with the money he made. "Do you think he likes chocolate?" he asked.

"Yeah." Marlene nodded, "We should get chocolate."

They cleaned the area quickly. They made sure there was no dust, the glasses were spotless, and that any cans or scraps of paper from the day before were gone. The place needed to shine and if it didn't, they would all get in trouble. And that was the last thing he wanted. They'd been beaten before, when they'd first arrived, but he'd do his best to make sure they weren't beaten again.

"It's clean." he said, "Good job."

"Should we go help in the kitchen now?" Marlene asked.

"Yeah." he nodded. His eyes flew to the clock, the bar opened in an hour and if he hurried, he could get the cake before then. "I'll get the cake now, just hurry to the kitchen and get to work." Marlene smiled and rushed to the kitchen. Zack hurried to get his money.

0.o.0.o.0

Woop