Greetings: I’m so proud of myself for updating after only three days! **pats self on back** Anywho, not much to say on this chapter. I had well…I don’t want to say fun, but it was interesting to write. Enough of me, carry on!
Warnings: A little foul language, a little bit of blood, and the horrible mistreatment of a chocolate bar.
Last Time: We were introduced to the main characters, Harlow and Sam! Two sisters that were raised by their Dad and Papa, aka: Shunsui and Jushiro! We also learn that Harlow’s only friend, Ggio, will be moving away.
03: Aren’t Clichés Seriously Overrated? I Want A Rewrite!
January 30, 2308
Visoreds Territory
“Dammit, Sam, you gotta pull yourself together,” I mumbled and gently laid a cold rag on her sweaty forehead. Another cough wracked her chest, and I winced at the horrible rattling sound of her breathing. Papa isn’t faring much better either. Somehow, the two of them always find a way to get sick. Never like this though…
“Sorry, Harlow,” Sam wheezed out.
“Don’t say sorry, idiot, get better,” I mumbled. It’s barely been two weeks since Sam lectured me about not wearing shoes and getting sick, and now she’s so sick that she can barely lift her head. The worst part? Dad left three days ago to go see Grandpa Yama, at his request. It’ll take him nearly a week to get there, and he won’t have any kind of phone reception unless he’s in a town or until he gets to Shinigami Territory.
“Do we still have those cough drops?” Sam was looking up at me with dark fevered eyes, and her cheeks were flushed pink. It wasn’t a pretty blush; it just made her look sicker.
“I’ll go look and see. It’s about time for some more medicine anyway.” I stayed long enough to brush a lock of hair away from Sam’s face, and my footsteps echoed loudly in the silent house. Our house should never be this quiet; it’s unnatural. It’s also kinda creepy. I hate silence. I hummed quietly as I got closer to the kitchen, and the medicine bottle was right where I left it. Next to the sink. Empty. Shit! How could I have forgotten? With Sam and Papa both being sick, the medicine hasn’t lasted long. The cough drops were all gone too. The empty bag was sitting at the bottom of the garbage can. So, what to do…
Six minutes later, I was hurrying down the street towards the only store open that sold any kind of cold medicine. It’s a good ten minute walk, but someone has to do it. Papa and Sam were both still asleep, so I left a note for both of them. I kinda wish Dad was here, then I could make him walk to go get the medicine. Not that I mind getting it. I want Papa and Sam to get better, and I never get sick. Well, not usually. I can’t remember the last time I got something worse than the sniffles. I kept my hum going as I walked down the empty streets, and I watched as the sun slowly sunk behind the buildings. It’s too cold for most people to be out, but the cold doesn’t bother me all that much. Hot, cold, it’s all the same to me. The bell over Samain’s jingled merrily, and I waved to the old man behind the counter before ducking into an aisle. I grabbed a pack of cherry cough drops for Sam, honey ones for Papa, a giant chocolate bar for myself, and some more cold medicine.
“Hello, Harlow! How are Jushiro and Samantha?” Samain asked as he rung up the items.
“Both sweating the fever out now. They should be up and moving in another couple of days,” I said with a small shrug. I like ol’ Samain, but Sam usually does most of the talking. What can I say? She’s the more social one. Something about a sweet disposition…
“Here, this should help with the fever and help them get to sleep,” Samain said and slipped something else into the bag, free of charge. I passed over the money I owed and smiled up at him.
“Thanks, Samain!” I called as I walked back outside. It was completely dark now, and I tipped my head back to look at the stars. I love the daytime and everything, there’s nothing like feeling the sun on my skin, but there’s something special about the night. It’s almost poetic.
A rough hand cut off my humming, and my vision snapped away from the sky as I was jerked backwards. My bag slipped from my fingers to land at the opening of the small alley, and I snorted at the cliché of it all. I mean, an alley? Two more sets of hands wrapped around my arms, and I rolled my eyes. I guess they were looking for some cowering little girl. Well, looks like they picked the wrong victim. My legs lashed out as my neck snapped back, and I smiled as I heard the crunch of a nose behind me. Both of my feet landed on something solid, and I heard muttered curses all around me. The hands holding me were loosened, and I dug my heels into the ground. I was halfway back down the alley when something wrapped around my ankles, and I threw my arms out to catch me as I fell. White hot pain flashed up my left arm, and I bit my lip to keep from making any noise.
“Well, well, looks like tha lil’ girl is a runna,” a rough voice said as a hand wrapped around my ankle. My flipflops were thrown to the side, and the man started pulling me back down the alley. I wiggled around and managed to flip over onto my back. A heavy chain was wrapped around my ankles, effectively locking them together. Dammit.
“Bring tha little bitch here. You two, get ‘er hands!” Two good-sized idiots stepped towards me, and I held myself still until they bent towards me. My right fist caught the one guy in the fleshy part of his throat, but the other guy grabbed my hurt arm. A yowl slipped from my lips, and I used the guy’s grip as leverage to swing my captured legs. My feet collided with his side, and his large body toppled to the side. I hope the fucker breaks something on the way down. Like his face. Three more men fell on me as the first two went down, and I lashed out with both arms. The pain caused black dots to crowd my vision, but I didn’t have time to worry about that. There’s only two reasons that people get dragged into alleys, and I don’t have a lot of money on me.
I kept struggling under the heavy bodies, and the stench coming off of them almost made me gag. A heavy hand fisted my short hair, and large knuckles cracked against the side of my face. Another pair of fists slammed into my midsection, and my body jerked as it tried to curl in on itself. Palms pressed flat against my breasts to hold me down, and even more hands were clawing at my loose pants. Blows rained down on my struggling body, but I couldn’t just give up. No, if I give up…I’m not gonna give up! My lips split open under another smack, and I heard my nose crack as it was pushed to the side. Blood coated the bottom half of my face and choked me, but I kept fighting. I had to keep fighting…I was yanked up onto my knees as two men grabbed my right arm and one man held onto my left one. For a brief moment, the alley was clear enough for me to see the end. To see out to the street. Large eyes met mine, but I couldn’t tell if the bundled figure was a male or female.
“Please…help me…” Holy Hell, was that my voice? I sounded like the lovechild of a crack-smoking frog and a dying cat. The eyes looked away and the figure quickly scurried away. Fuckin’ pansy. There goes the last time I ever ask for help. The only man to speak, besides the one that grabbed my ankles, stepped in front of me, and I glared up at the asshole. I’m guessing he’s the leader, since he didn’t step in to kick my ass. I’ll call him King Asshole for now.
“Lookit that, yer face is all dirty now.” A thick finger traced a pattern through the blood on my cheek, and I had to resist the urge to bite him. He looks dirty, and I don’t want any of that in my mouth.
“If you’re gonna rob me, how about getting it over with? I’m tired of smelling you,” I snapped. The man bent at the knees until he was kneeling down in front of me, and I locked my eyes with his dark green ones. I’m not gonna let some small timer intimidate me. So what if he has a small little gang with him? The man cracked a smile, and those fingers moved to grip my chin. My split lips puffed out at the move and fresh blood trailed down my chin.
“Rob ya? Who said anythin’ ‘bout robbin’ ya?” Fear slammed into my gut, and a harsh breath pushed past my clogged nostrils. The man kept smiling, and he leaned forward to flick his tongue against my ear. I flinched at the contact, but his hand had a good grip. Those fingers tightened just a bit as he pressed his lips against my ear to whisper, “A nice lil’ thing like you is hard to come by these days. Be a shame to waste ya.”
I slammed my head to the side and started thrashing again. I heard the man laughing as I bucked against the men holding me, but it wasn’t doing any good. I was hurt, and I knew it. I was hurt, and
he knew it. I twisted and bit into someone’s thigh on my right side, and I listened as the man howled. I jerked hard on my uninjured arm and was satisfied to see the man flip to the ground. His skull cracked against the hard ground, and I threw a fist into the crotch of the man holding my left arm. If I had more time, I’d happily rip his nutsack off. I threw back my elbow as a different man came from the side, and I felt the hit land. Just when I thought I might be able to get away, something solid hit the back of my skull. My vision went black around the edges as I slumped to the ground, and I felt hands tugging at my loose pants. I was groggy from the hit, and I couldn’t even manage a weak kick. The pants were pulled to my ankles because of the chain wrapped around my ankles, and a hand grabbed a handful of my hair. My legs and knees scraped against the ground as I was pulled upright, and I spit a wad of blood into King Asshole’s face.
“You might as well kill me, because I ain’t gonna let you touch me,” I growled. King Asshole just wiped the blood and spit from his cheek while smiling down at me. That hand tightened, and my head was forced back. I was pulled up enough to be at eye-level with his slightly tented pants, and I debated on whether or not I was strong enough to attempt to rip his cock off. Maybe when he whips it out. If this keeps following the cliché, he should try to get me to suck him off before starting the gang rape. Isn’t that how it usually goes? The world is still kinda spinning though…Do I need to be able to see straight to rip off a piece of male anatomy?
“Let me? Who said ya had to be conscious?” The man’s smile was lecherous, and his grip just kept getting tighter. My vision swam some more as hands pulled at baggy sweatshirt, and I shivered as the material was quickly ripped. My pants were around my ankles, my panties were a pair of thin white boyshorts, and my upper half was only covered by a thin white bra. I am, completely, metaphorically, and literally fucked. And there isn’t going to be a savior.
“It’ll take more than a hit to make me unconscious. You sure you pussies are man enough for the job?” King Asshole kept his grip on my hair as his fist crashed against my eye, and I felt another wave of dizziness come over me as my brain was knocked around again.
“Let’s find out, hmm?”
Omniscient
Ikkaku Madarame was having a bad fucking night. For one, it was cold. Ikkaku hated the cold almost as much as he hated…no, he hated the cold more than anything. For two, he was kinda homeless. He was helping out a friend…No, that wasn’t right. He was helping out a friend’s friend, while staying with someone who had been more than a little friendly up until…well, that’s not really important, is it? All that mattered was that he was cold and had nowhere to stay. He could go stay with his friend’s friend, but he didn’t really like him. No, he liked him alright, but he didn’t like the thought of sleeping under the same roof as the man. But at least it would be warm. So what if got experimented on in his sleep? He wouldn’t be in the cold…Dammit! Why’d that woman have to throw him out now? Couldn’t she give him a two week’s notice or some shit like that?
Ikkaku muffled a curse as he nearly tripped, and he looked down to glare at whatever had dared to trip him. A…medicine bottle? The bottle had rolled out of a plastic bag, which looked like it had been tossed there. He had just enough time to wonder why someone would toss medicine aside when a rough voice met his ears.
“Let’s find out, hmm?” Ikkaku was walking before his mind processed just what the fuck he was doing, and six pairs of eyes rose up to meet his own as he stalked down the alley. The men relaxed as they recognized him, and the man with his back to him looked over his shoulder. Dark green eyes met Ikkaku’s nearly black ones, and the man smiled. Ikkaku forced himself to smile back as he tried to figure out just what these idiots were doing in a fucking alley.
“What are ya doin’, Francis?” Ikkaku asked as he got closer. He heard a snort, but it was coming from somewhere close to the ground.
“Francis? What kinda fuckin’ name is that? There’s no way I’m gettin’ raped by some asshole named
Francis.” The husky voice was definitely feminine and coming from the same place as the snort. Ikkaku stepped around Francis and felt his eyes widen at the sight.
A girl, sixteen or seventeen by the looks of her, was kneeling at Francis’s feet. One of Francis’s meaty hands was wrapped around the girl’s short hair; one lock of curly dark brown hair rested against a bruised and bloody cheek. Her nose was crooked, and her lips were split in two places. Her left eye was slowly starting to swell shut. Her upper body was bare except for the thin white bra covering her large breasts. Bruises covered her tanned skin, and her legs were bruised and bleeding slightly. Her pants were tugged down around her ankles, and only a thin scrap of white cotton kept her covered from the mens’ greedy eyes. As Ikkaku was processing what he was seeing, the girl turned to look at him. Her hazel eyes were blazing as she glared up at him, and he saw her worn body tensing.
“You here to join in on the gang rape, baldy?” she growled. He ignored the jab at his lack of hair and turned to look at Francis.
“Rapin’ little girls now?” he muttered.
“She was jus’ too sweet ta pass up. Lookit ‘er. Doesn’t she just scream ‘virgin’?” Francis asked with a wide grin. Ikkaku saw the girl flinch out of the corner of his eye, and he felt himself tense. He had a job to do, he had promised to do that job, but it wasn’t worth this. He couldn’t just walk away when this girl was about to have her innocence raped away. What kind of a person would he be if that happened? Ikkaku rolled his shoulders and looked down at the girl again. She was beaten and she knew it, but there was still plenty of fight left in those flashing eyes. The thought of those eyes dulling and going dead as she was repeatedly raped made bile slosh in his stomach.
“Yeah, she’s definitely a virgin. Let’s keep ‘er that way.” Francis had just turned his head to ask what Ikkaku was talking about when a fist slammed expertly into his temple. His fingers slipped from the girl’s hair as he slumped to the ground, and Ikkaku readied himself for Francis’s men to run at him. It’d be a little tricky to take on six guys, but he could do it. He caught the first two as they ran at him, and he managed to catch a flash of bare skin as the girl started fighting. Ikkaku didn’t have time to watch her fight, he had his own goons to tend to.
He counted four men laying unconscious around him, and he twisted around to see where the other two were. Surprisingly, they were both laying facedown. The girl was standing over one of them, and a chain was wrapped tightly around her right fist. Her chest heaved as she struggled to breathe, and he watched as she slowly sunk down onto her bruised knees. The adrenaline was leaving her system now, and her eyes were fighting to stay open. Ikkaku cursed lightly under his breath and walked over to where the girl was kneeling. Those eyes flashed up at him, and he held his hands up near his face, palm-out. The girl kept her wary eyes on him as he knelt in front of her, but she didn’t move away or try to attack him with that chain.
“If yer nose stays like that, it’ll heal crooked,” he pointed out. Her eyes shifted from a dark green to something a little lighter, and she somehow managed to snort through her blood-clogged and broken nose.
“That your way of saying you want to pop it back into place? Then go ahead.” She closed her eyes, and Ikkaku took a deep breath to steady himself. He laid his thumbs on either side of her nose and let his fingers gently hold her head. He quickly snapped her nose back into place, and the girl groaned low in her throat as fresh blood spilled over her lips. Ikkaku grabbed a piece of fabric from the ground, realized it was from a gray sweatshirt that was probably hers, and pushed it against her flowing nose. Small fingers replaced his larger ones, and the girl offered him a wobbly smile. She was shivering like crazy, so Ikkaku quickly unzipped his jacket. The girl helped him maneuver it onto her smaller frame, and she stayed completely still as he zipped it. Her eyes closed as her right hand gripped the fabric, and Ikkaku got to his feet as he pulled the phone from his pocket. Two rings and his call was answered. Even though her eyes were closed, Ikkaku had a feeling that the girl was listening.
“Ikkaku! I thought you weren’t calling for another couple of days,” a smooth voice drawled.
“Yeah, about that, the deal’s off.”
“Oh, why is that?” “Because I just caught Francis and his little gang trying to rape a teenage girl. An
innocent teenage girl.” Ikkaku tried to convey his message without dropping the v-bomb again. The poor girl was already traumatized enough.
“Francis and his gang are…?” “Currently unconscious. Look, I said I’d help ya out, but I’m done now.”
“Understood. Thank you for all of your help. Where are you? I’ll send someone out to recover the bodies.” Ikkaku rattled off the address and then stuffed his phone back into his pocket. The girl was blinking up at him now, and he didn’t like the look in her eyes.
“You a gangster?” It looked like it hurt to talk. Considering the shape of her body, it probably hurt her to…exist right now.
“I was. A friend of mine asked for some help, but I don’t want to be a gangster anymore,” he mumbled and stepped in front of her again. Her head tipped back, but that one stubborn curl was still stuck to her bloody cheek.
“A friend asked you to sneak into another gang? Huh. I don’t know what kinda information you hoped to get from King Asshole,” she huffed.
“Nothin’ of value. My friend’s gang…they’re not like that,” he said and glanced over at the still unconscious Francis. The girl slid her gaze over to him as well, and a mixture of emotions ran through her too expressive eyes. Fear and defiance. It was a strange mix. Ikkaku reached his hands down and hooked them under her armpits while muttering, “C’mon, kid, let’s get yer pants up before they show up.” She shivered lightly as he pulled her loose pants up her shapely legs, and she leaned against him when he straightened up.
“You don’t have to help me, you know. I think I can make it from here,” she grumbled.
“Oh yeah? What if someone else sees how beat up ya are and decides you’re easy pickin’?” She stiffened at that and glared up at him, but she didn’t say anything as he helped her walk to the end of the alley. She stopped when they got there, and Ikkaku bent his head to look at her.
“I need to get my bag.” Ikkaku noticed the medicine bottle he had originally tripped over and the plastic bag laying not too far from it. He kept a steadying hand on the girl and then reached down to grab it up. The girl looped the handles around her right wrist and slumped against his side. He wanted to say something to her (
“Isn’t this the part where the hero says somethin’ reassurin’? Am I even a hero?”), but the sound of someone calling his name cut him off. The girl stiffened at his side, and he saw her glaring out into the night. The man approaching them was wearing a mask, and the two men behind him were wearing masks as well.
“Friends with the Visoreds? Not bad, baldy.” He growled quietly and was just about to correct the ungrateful brat when the man finally reached them.
“Ikkaku! What’s this about some girl getting raped?” the leading guy asked. Ikkaku went to answer, but he was interrupted. Again.
“Ha! Like those slimy bastards could rape me!” the girl huffed. Ikkaku shrugged. At least she wasn’t too traumatized and snotting all over his shirt.
“And who are you, kid?” Dark honey eyes looked down at the small figure huddled against Ikkaku’s body, and the girl glared up at him.
“None of your fuckin’ business and while you’re cleanin’ up, how about you make those fuckwads disappear? The next girl might not be so lucky.” The man bent down until he was eyelevel with the girl, and he searched her eyes for…something.
“You want us to kill them? Doesn’t bother you that you’ll be the cause of their deaths?” The girl rocked forward onto her toes until her nose brushed against the bone white mask.
“I’d go kill them myself if they hadn’t kicked my ass so thoroughly before trying to gang rape me. Tell me, Oh-Great-Visored, would you want to kill the men who almost raped you? Men that will go out and find another innocent girl to rape? Way I see it, I’m not gonna be the cause of their deaths. Their own stupidity is.” The girl sagged into Ikkaku’s side again, and the man straightened up. He locked eyes with Ikkaku and nodded once before stepping around him. Two men followed behind him, and the girl looked up at the man she was using as a crutch.
“I live that way,” she said and pointed. Ikkaku started walking down the street, and he wrapped an arm around the girl’s back. His fingers dug into a shapely hip as he tried to keep her upright, and he noticed how she was carefully holding her left arm.
“You gonna be alright, kid?”
“Probably not. So, what’s your name, my cliché savior?”
“Cliché?”
“My entire night has been a cliché. So, got a name?”
“Ikkaku Madarame. You?”
“Harlow Meadows.” The name tickled at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t figure out why. She was just a kid, and he didn’t think she was involved with any gangs. Nah, not this kid. She was tough, but she was still way too innocent. Maybe he’d just heard a similar name…
“Well, Harlow Meadows, let’s try an’ get ya home in one piece.” She snorted quietly at his side and let him guide her along.
Farewell: There’s the end of yet another chapter! It was a tad bloody, but I have a bad habit of abusing my main characters. I couldn’t let Harlow get raped though, and I love the thought of Ikkaku being a reluctant hero. He’s rough around the edges, but I think he’s a great big softy at heart. Moving on, I will skip around with the POV changes. I promise to always mark when the POV changes. As far as I know, it will usually be in Harlow’s POV or Omniscient.
In The Next Chapter: We take a small break from Harlow and what’s happening with her to meet a strange group of friends on the other side of the country…
