FicWad

The young girl shivered, pulling her raggedy woollen cardigan closer to her weak, hungry body tightly as if the thin coloured fabric would protect and shield her from the cruel, icy world.
“Hello there sweetheart,” a slurred voice that belonged to a drunken man with a tangled mess of blonde hair and lifeless blue eyes sneers. He was the wrong side of forty, tall and has a weathered face, aged by a lifetime of addiction to many undesirable things.
Ember shudders involuntary, as he stalks towards her, an evil glint in his eyes that made her blood run cold.
“Where you going darling?” he leans casually against the red bricked graffiti covered wall casually and takes another puff on a suspicious looking cigarette.
Ember gulps, not trusting this man or his intentions, knowing full well that he didn’t mean her any good.
“I`m leaving.” She mumbles, ducking her head, greasy strands of once gleaming and silky ebony shrouding her sickly pale face and amber eyes ringed with dark circles form lack of sleep. It was a pity; they had used to shine so unbelievably bright. But that was a long time ago now.
“No you bloody well aren’t, Sugar. I can`t allow that I`m afraid.” He grins and reaches out for the trembling teenager with a cubby, sweaty hand, the stench of alcohol and something even more horrid filling her nostrils, making her retch.
“Get off of me!” Ember lashes out weakly, and he chuckles darkly, loving her helplessness.
“Not gonna happen Sweetheart. So you may as well stop fighting me, it`ll only make it worse for ya.”
“Excuse me, but I believe that the young women asked you to remove your filthy hand from her person.” A young girl, even younger than Ember, and much, much younger than her attacker, with dark blue eyes that seemed to be gleaming steps out of the shadows, followed closely by a tall, lanky boy who looked slightly less certain.
“I said,” blue eyed girl narrows her eyes dangerously, taking another step forward, a commanding tone present in her polite words that rang with authority. It was the kind of voice that expected to be listened to and eyed without question or hesitation. “I do believe that you should release that young girl right away, otherwise I am afraid I will have to force you to.”
“Oh is that so?” The man sneers and pushes Ember to the ground, where she lands awkwardly on her left arm after trying to steady herself.
The lanky boy rushes to check she was alright, and takes a defensive stance in front of her.
“Now then, I do believe that you owe someone an apology.” The youngest girl points to Ember, who was watching on in horror as she removes a small, sharp dagger from her back pocket.
“Zora,” the boy warns sternly, shaking his head. “Just leave it.”
The girl, Zora pouts, abut puts the weapon away, smiling up at the attempted rapist gleefully, before swiftly aiming a sharp kick to his head, quite an amazing feet due to her height and weak appearance.
“Come on,” Her voice and face soften, turning to the trembling teenager who was hiding behind Mikey, rubbing her sore arm from where she had landed.
“We`ll take you back to our house and get you something to warm you up. You much be quite shaken after that.” Zora holds out her pale hand, which Ember slowly takes, despite the rational part of her brain telling her to turn and run.
But where could she run to? She had nothing, nowhere to go and none to help her.
“We don`t bite.” Mikey grins shyly, almost as though reading her mind, the teenage boy sensing her apprehension. “It isn`t safe for a young girl tom be out alone at night. Your parents must be worried sick.”
Seeing her face fall, he realises he must have said the wrong thing.
“My parents are dead.”
Zora rubs her shoulder gently. “I`m sorry, my dad died when I was little so u can sympathise.”
“So where do you live?”
“I was supposed to stay with my grandmother, but she went into a care home five months ago so I`ve been on my own.”
“You will stay with us then.” Zora decides, not thinking at all what consequences this may have on the family.
The three walk in silence, Ember following behind meekly, too weak and tired to put up a fight, knowing that if they were to harm her in any way, they would have by now. Besides, she had seen their faces before.
“Don`t you go to-“
“Yes.” Zora smiles, “We go to the same school.”
They lead her away from the main part of town, to secluded house half hidden from the road by a handful of oak and cedar trees that whistled softly in the late night breeze.
“You can have the attic room,” Zora tells her, opening the front door which had been left unlocked.
“I-are you sure your parents won’t mind? I don’t want to be any trouble, you already saved me from that man, I can’t possible expect you to-“
“Honestly, it is no trouble. Pandora, our…cousin who owns the house won`t mind. We never have visitors.”
That part, Ember knew to be true. She had never seen Mikey or Zora around other people at school, in fact they almost seemed cut-off from the other students, as though they were keeping their distance for a reason.
…
“Zora, you know Echo won`t be happy when she hears of an outsider being here.” a brown eyed girl grumbles, her eyes darting around the dark living room anxiously.
“Ember is already asleep. I checked.”
Pandora relaxes slightly, but not much. “You know what she is like; Echo will go mental if she finds out about us. Do you really want history to repeat itself?”
“No, but we will just have to make sure Ember doesn’t find out our secret, wont we? It surly can`t be that tricky.”
Oh how wrong she was…