MAJOR TRIGGER WARNING. THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS A R*PE SCENE. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
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There were so many things wrong with the world. If you aren't even the slightest bit depressed then you're ignorant to the world around you because nothing but bad things happen every day; famine, corrupted politicians selling stuff to illegal organizations for extra cash, terrorist attacks, slaughters occurring all the time in the middle east. Everything was going to hell and Allura had been aware of it since the day she watched her parents die in the car crash all those years ago.

She had always known that there wasn't enough good in the world to balance out all the bad and as time progressed and hate crimes began to rise once again, her little heart sunk deeper and deeper into her chest. She often wondered if there would ever be a chance that enough good would come into the lives of the many and give them something to smile for but she never seemed to be able to see if that rumored 'joy' could even exist.

Sure, when she was around Shiro one could say she was as joyous as one could be but when he left her side and left her alone with that shadow who breathed its poisonous words against her neck with its hot breath, her paradise ceased to exist until next time. Shiro was like a drug to her, she could never get enough of him and when she couldn't have him she would kill to have him back at her side just playing with her short hair.

She quietly stared down at her book and found herself barely even able to keep a firm grasp on what was going on in the chapter she was on. She was sure it was the part where Martine had found her best friend dead in the bathtub but at the same time, Allura couldn't seem to recall much of anything else she had read earlier like why Martine had even gone to the woman's house, to begin with. Allura winced as a splitting headache made its presence known to her, it honestly felt like her head was being crushed between two bricks and it made her vision become blurry for just a second.

She frowned as she pressed the ball of her wrist against her forehead and closed her book as she sat up in bed. God, she absolutely needed to take something in order to stop it from killing her. She glanced around her room and found her pill bottles for all sorts of things ranging from allergies to cramps and even her prescriptions. She managed to get herself out of bed and hobble over to the little area on top of her dresser and lazily scooped up the ibuprofen before she popped the cap off and carelessly dumped two into her palm.

Nothing really seemed to be registering in her head right now; she hadn't even realized how chilled she was wearing only a tank top and a pair of red sweatpants for her PJs. Her arms had little goosebumps decorating her skin as if they were some sort of Pollock painting and she was the canvas. She took the pills using a water bottle next to the bottles and swallowed down hard, her throat stinging slightly from how the pill was washed down.

She tapped her chest roughly with her fist and coughed a little before she went to take her antidepressants only to find that shaking the little bottle produced no noise. She stared down at it with a frown and wondered how long it had been like that or when she had last taken one but she couldn't remember anything for some reason probably because she was just so mentally drained.

She groaned to herself as she tossed the bottle into the tiny trash bin in her room before she grabbed a blanket to wrap around herself so she could do see Coran about refilling her prescription. As she opened her bedroom door, however, she found Coran gathering his toolbox along with a few other things used in his shop with this serious and concentrated look on his face.

"Uncle?" She raised one of her eyebrows curiously as she watched the ginger man rush about in the kitchen area.

Coran stopped just for a second in order to look at Allura, "Oh Allura!" He exclaimed almost as if he had even forgotten about her existence in this world. He made his way over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders gently, "I had an emergency call from one of my regulars, they broke down on the interstate so I'll be heading out there to fix their car so I can't fill your prescription up tonight."

Allura cocked her head to the side, "Broken down?" She said the words slowly, "Prescription?" It was almost as if each question she spoke contained foreign words in them. It was confusing.

Coran laughed slightly and rubbed the top of her head as he went back to gathering his stuff, "You asked me to fill it up yesterday before you went to bed but I don't have the time to go get it," he explained as he grabbed his wallet and pulled out some cash, "This is enough for the medicine and a couple of snacks in case you want to invite a friend or two over here while I'm gonna but no boys! I don't want you children doing anything I wouldn't do!"

Allura laughed in amusement as she blushed slightly, "Don't be so gross Coran!" She gently punched his shoulder as she adjusted the blanket around her, watching as he uncle put the money down on the counter. "I'll be sure to pick you up some of your York mints you love so much," She smiled gently at her uncle.

Coran nodded slightly as he smoothed out his mustache. "Ah yes, those are my favorites aren't they? Also, don't act like I wasn't your age at one time Allura," he pointed his index finger into the air and began reminiscing about the old times before he took her in as his own. "I remember when your father and I were just young whippersnappers in high school ourselves, Alfor was the jock and I was the waterboy but we had the best relationship in the entire universe!"

She heard the story countless times but it never got old. Her father, Alfor, had been the quarterback of the high school while Coran was the team manager or the waterboy for the lack of a much better term. They became friends because Coran had introduced Alfor to Allura's mother, Bisera, who happened to be a foreign exchange student from Bulgaria. She was beautiful, she had such beautiful mocha colored skin, her platinum blonde hair would reflect the sunlight in such ways that could put models to shame, her grey eyes were like storm clouds, and she was just stunning all around; or that's at least how Alfor would always describe Bisera to Allura when she was a child.

To Coran, Bisera apparently looked like a 'stunning swordfish from the great Pacific ocean'. Allura could barely remember her parent's faces from before without looking at the photos in her apartment or her room so hearing Coran go on and on about her parents back when they were her age was something she would listen to as many times as she could until the day she croaked. She loved and missed them so much.

"And that's the story of how Alfor's pants fell off his waist in front of your mother when he tried to ask her to prom," Coran finished with a snicker as he played with the end of his stache.

Allura found herself giggling a little bit as her uncle finished telling her about the time Bisera knew she would marry a goofy guy like Alfor. "I love that story," she said fondly before her expression darkened ever so slightly, "I just wish that mother could tell me it herself."

"You'll be reunited with her when the time comes Allura," Coran smiled gently as he leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "But only when you're old and wrinkly will you meet, I can't have you biting the dust before you're at least in your seventies!"

Again, a smiled painted Allura's face as she began laughing at her odd uncle she loved so much. "Let God be the judge for how my life plays out," she joked. She really wanted to live to grow old and see her children have children but there was always that little thought in the back of her mind that questioned whether or not she'll ever be able to get that far in life.

"If I could choose your fate I would have given you something much different from the life you've lived," Coran said gently as he hugged his niece closely and sighed.

Allura found herself furrowing her brows slightly as her blue eyes stared up at the water-stained ceiling. "I wouldn't ask for anything else, we're family and I couldn't imagine a life without you with me," She whispered quietly and felt Coran squeeze her gently before he pulled away.

"I must go now," He sighed deeply before he grabbed his jacket, "it's rough being the best mechanic around, also bring a jacket when you go to the pharmacy since it'll rain soon; don't want you getting the sniffles!"

Allura nodded slightly as she waved him off as she went over to the door he hurried out of, "I'll be sure to wear a hoodie, be careful out there Coran!" She called out as he left through the small door inside the garage.

They kept the garage doors closed at night for obvious reasons but there was a little problem with the actual door to the shop that they used as their front door. It wasn't completely straight and leveled so one had to lift the door itself using the handle before pulling or pushing on it in order for it to open otherwise it wouldn't budge. She watched quietly as Coran disappeared into the night after closing the door behind him with a little struggle.

She stood in the doorway of her home with her blanket still covering her shoulders until she heard her phone chime in the other room which made her sigh a little bit and her shoulders sagged ever so slightly. She gently closed the door before she dragged herself into her room, blanket dragging behind her on the freshly swept floors.

She scooped her phone up carefully and hummed slightly in content when she saw Shiro's name in her notification bar. She opened the message and the smile that had disappeared from her face when Coran left reappeared slowly as her blue eyes roamed over each word carefully.

Takashi: are you feeling any better? I'm sorry we couldn't do anything together after school but I'm with Keith right now along with Matt and we're just playing Uno. Matt won't stop trying to speak in perfect Spanish to us, he claims that's how you play uno since it has a Spanish name for the game's name but Keith is struggling... he can't even say hola.

This is just me complaining so how are you? Is your stomach ache better? Did you take your medicine? Do you need to have someone over?

Allura laughed slightly to herself as she read about Matt and Keith. She couldn't imagine Keith being able to speak any other language outside of English since he barely understood trigonometry half the time which was probably the easiest thing to learn in high school math. Imagining Matt speaking fluent Spanish in front of a very confused and concerned Keith made her sides hurt as she began to snort from amusement. She typed her reply to Shiro making sure she answered all of his questions and gave him the basic rundown of her day. They did this a lot at night before one of them went to bed, it was like their way of saying that they weren't going anywhere anytime soon and she liked it.

She grabbed her black hoodie and zipped it up over her tank top before she reached up to pull her hair into a bun out of habit only to find that she had cut it. She still wasn't used to this, the whole having short hair thing, but it made her feel better about herself because she cut off something Lindon loved. Anything he loved about her she hated.

She quietly grabbed a pair of her old and tattered shoes and slipped them on as she hopped back into the kitchen to grab the money and stuff it into her pockets along with her phone. Before she could leave though, she noticed how Coran had left a vase on the table and smiled slightly at the white roses in the vase. He loved roses.

She flipped her hood on over her head and quickly bounded down the stairs from her home down into the workshop below before she struggled slightly with the door having to hold her breath as she lifted and pulled it open in a gross sounding squeak from the hinges that definitely needed some oil. It was dark outside and moths bounced on and off of the street lamps over and over like a ball being dribbled on the pavement. The air smelt like cement meaning that the rain Coran had spoken of was definitely on its way here soon so she had to make her trip quick or she would risk getting a cold from something as pathetic as rain.

The sounds of her shoes scraping across the cracked pavement echoed throughout the night as she quietly jogged down the sidewalk following nothing but the map inside of her head. Something about the sound of her breath being exhaled, the feeling of her heart racing inside of her chest, the ways her calf muscles burned, and the way her throat ached made her feel so alive and it made her smile widely as she picked up the pace while ignoring the cars that drove by her probably thinking she was some kind of weirdo.

She felt like running across the entire country, all the way to Canada if she could, as long as she could keep this feeling of excitement inside of her. She never felt like this without the help of her medicine; did this mean she was finally beginning to recover? The thought of actually being able to move on with her life made her do a little hop in the air as she laughed out loud in excitement as her hood slid off the top of her head allowing the breeze to push past her face. She wanted to get better, she wanted to be able to see things that reminded her of her parents without feeling that feeling of immense guilt pressing down on her body as if the gravity had increased suddenly.

She glanced over her shoulder as she giggled to herself to check and see if anyone saw her but she only saw a car in the distance slowly driving. She shrugged it off as nothing as the local Walgreen's came into sight, she tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear and held the door open for a mother and her two rambunctious boys as they left the story and of course thanking her along the way.

She got her prescription first, she gave the pharmacist her full name and birthday and quietly thanked him as he handed it to her with a kind smile on his face. Then, she allowed her growling stomach to guide her through the store, grabbing Twizzlers, York Mints, and even a liter of Coke to quench her addiction. Her phone buzzed in her pocket again as she tucked a chocolate bar into her basket she had in the crook of her elbow.

She managed to dig the phone out of her pocket carefully without dropping anything and saw that Lindon and Shiro had texted her. There was a long moment where she stood there with a frown wondering what she should do or rather, who she should reply to first. She let her heart guide her thumb as she deleted Lindon's text without even reading it before she opened Shiro's.

Takashi: So you're feeling better then? How was the book you got to read, I heard that it was an older one probably from when we were around twelve so I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on it Allura :)

Keith says hi and that he's feeling extremely hyped about being able to get surgery tomorrow and hopefully come from it cancer free. He and Matt have been playing on Matt's Nintendo switch to settle the argument of how one would say Fanta and this is the most furious I've ever seen Keith because he's losing against Matt who is just saying "lol" out loud. Keith said he was going to dye his hair after the surgery BTW.

If you need someone to keep you company just tell me <3

Allura didn't reply at first as she tried to think of a good response before she finally decided to not have him come over and visit her; she respected her uncle's wishes since she lived under his roof. She found the whole 'Fanta' thing quite amusing since Keith was probably the only person in the world she knew that pronounced it the way he did. She went up to the checkout area and paid for all of her things as the young store clerk made conversation with her, complimenting her hair with bright brown eyes sparkling in admiration.

"So where did you go to get it done?" The short girl asked in interest as she slowly rang up Allura's things. She had long brown hair that was pulled back in a braid and freckles spotted her face. "I was thinking about chopping off mine into a bob cut but my mother would probably go mental, get me?"

"Haha yeah," Allura awkwardly smiled at the teen girl, "I cut my own hair and dyed it; it used to be down to my upper thighs and platinum blonde."

"Was it natural?" She asked.

Allura raised her eyebrows in surprise, "Why do you ask that?" She said in confusion, why did it matter whether or not she was a natural blonde?

The brunette girl turned bright red in embarrassment as she rang up the final item. "Oh sorry that was a bit rude of me, I just assumed because many people with darker skin don't have naturally blonde hair."

Allura let out a little sigh as she handed the money over to the clerk carefully, "Yes, it was natural," She stated bluntly. She hated it when she was boiled down to black stereotypes.

"Right, uh," the girl handed the bag and money over to Allura and kept her eyes off her, "Have a nice night ma'am. Be careful on the roads since it's about to rain here soon."

Allura politely thanked her for her service before she left the store and went to pull her hood up over her head but she froze halfway. Out of the corners of her blue eyes, she noticed a familiar-looking BMW parked where the lights of the Walgreen's parking lot barely touched it. She stared at it for a long moment, searching it for any signs of life inside of it but when she saw nothing she shrugged off her paranoia and chalked it up to just being her nerves from deleting her teacher's text.

"He's crazy but not that crazy, girl," she sighed deeply and flipped her good on over her head and stuffed her hands in her pockets to begin walking with the bag of stuff gently banging against her legs.

She quietly walked down the sidewalk on the street, humming to the tune of a song she had heard on the radio earlier that day when she was going to school with Shiro. It began to rain about halfway through her walk so she ended up having to run home quickly but she never noticed when her phone slipped out of her pocket and clattered on the cement landing with the screen facing the sky with its screen lit up with a new text from Shiro. What she also didn't notice was that the BMW from Walgreen's was trailing behind her quietly with its headlights off.

"Shit," She grumbled to herself as she kept her hood on and tried to run as fast as she could without dropping her bag full of food and her medicine.

She finally reached her auto shop and struggled to get the key to the screwed up door out of her pocket. She managed to find it and shove it into the lock in time to hear someone pull in behind her as the headlights to the car flashed on illuminating her in painfully bright light so that if she turned around to see who it was she wouldn't be able to make out a face.

Her heart started to slowly pick up its pace in her chest as her paranoia from the Walgreen's parking lot returned and her fears of Lindon coming to see her began to cause her hands to shake slightly. She swallowed down her nervousness as her eyes widened at the sound of a car door opening slowly.

If there was a time to panic, it was now. She knew who it was by now and the fact that Lindon was doing this definitely meant no good was to come from this. She began to forcefully push against the door, dropping her bag and forgetting about the trick to opening it in her moment of panic. The sounds of shoes scraping against the gravel she stood on made her nearly begin to hyperventilate as she remembered to lift up the door and push her body against it nearly tripping inside of the shop.

There wasn't any time to slam the broken door closed behind her and she knew this as the footsteps outside began to pound against the group in a sprint. Allura bounded up the stairs, sometimes using her hands on the stairs as she tried to not fall flat on her face from panic.

"Allura, come here!" His words were slurred and he sounded extremely intoxicated as Lindon tried to run up the stairs behind her.

She ignored her pedophile teacher and grabbed the doorknob to her home and slammed against the door before she pressed her body against it to make sure he pursuer wouldn't get inside with her that quickly. She looked around looking for anything that could help fend off Lindon from entering her house but she couldn't seem to find anything since her head was swimming in nausea and fear.

Then the pounding on the door began and her body was nearly knocked away from it since she wasn't physically prepared for how strong her teacher was. She sucked in a deep breath and pressed hard against the door and squeezed her eyes shut. "Open the fucking door you bitch! I just want to see you and show you what it means to rebel against me!" Lindon shouted harshly through his breath that probably stunk like liquor.

Allura tried to ignore him as she took in a long breath for four seconds, held it for eight, and let it out for seven seconds. This was something her mother taught her for when she was feeling frightened, angry, or even anxious. It was something that could calm your nerves down and help you look at a situation with a clear mind no longer hindered by your emotions.

She opened her blue eyes and it was like she was seeing her entire home in a different light. She was suddenly well aware of how hard the rain was coming down outside, how drenched her clothes were, and most of all, how evenly matched in strength she was with her attacker. If she was able to keep him out by simply pushing back against the door then it meant that she had a clear fighting chance so now it was all left in fate's hands.

She waited for the moment where Lindon realized that pounding on the door would get him nowhere in order to finally slide away from it and grab hold of the closest object to her; a broom. She silently cursed God for making her fend off her attacker with the handle of a broom as she made sure that she took the proper stance and prepared to swing it harder than Shiro had ever swung at one of his baseball games. She mimicked his stance and gave spread her feet out a proper distance before raising the handle into the air just in time for Lindon to kick open the door and come stumbling inside only to be whacked in the cheek with the wooden handle of Allura's weapon.

She was shocked at first that something like that even worked, it was almost incomprehensible that a broom could make a grown man stumble inside of a kitchen howling in anger but the moment she met her angry eyes she was snapped out of her surprise and brought back to the reality of her situation.

"You fucking cu-" Lindon couldn't even finish his sentence he was so angered and Allura saw a scratch on his cheekbone where she had struck him.

She felt hope beginning to creep into her heart as she dodged his lunge and nearly slipped on the floor as she ran around the table and caught herself on the fridge as she lost her footing from the rain that had drenched her shoes from earlier. She scrambled to stand upright just in time to duck out of the way from a coffee cup being hurled at her face that definitely could have dazed her from the force it was thrown with.

She was breathing heavily now from how quickly her heart was pounding inside of her chest but when Lindon moved to the other side of the table to stand across from her neither of them dared move as they kept their eyes on each other in a standoff. "Now Allura," He said in a raspy voice, his cheek bright red and now bleeding, "why are you doing this to me? All I ever wanted was to be happy with you but you keep fighting me and making everything harder than what it has to be."

Allura felt her eyes sting as tears threatened to spill over. How could he ask this? How could he not realize how badly he was screwing up her life? "If you call making other people's lives a living hell happy then no wonder your wife fucking hates your guts, Richard. I'd rather die than ever be near you again," She spat at him and placed her hands on the counter in case she needed to boost herself to run again.

Lindon leaned on the table with his face blackened in anger and hatred, "Why would you say that to me, you know you can't speak to me like this young lady, I'll make sure Shiro never leaves the slums where he belongs," he hissed, "I can make it so that your uncle's business fails and the two of you become homeless forcing you to come crawling back to me. Let me have you and I won't have to hurt people you care about anymore," He extended a hand out to her and smiled bitterly, "what do you say?"

He looked like the devil with his wicked grin and his bone-chilling glare. Allura stood there for a moment considering taking his hand and dealing with even more pain just to spare her loved ones and friends from the hell she had been living through for nearly a year now but she just couldn't. She knew that if she did this stupid thing and accepted his deal all of her dreams would be stripped away from her and he would still hurt everyone she loved.

She hardened her gaze, tightened her grip on the counter and quickly placed the heel of her shoe against the table, "Fuck," she grunted as she shoved the dining table into his gut with all her force pinning him between the kitchen island and the table, "you!"

Lindon grunted as he was pinned between the two things and gasped for air. The vase tipped over, spilling the water across the floor as it rolled across the table's surface with the roses still inside of it. Allura stepped away from the counter and tried to run to her room so that she could escape through her window that had the fire escape but as she took her first step forward she felt her stomach drop as her shoe slid in the fresh puddle of water and brought her down in one quick movement causing her to fall flat on her face.

She groaned as she tried to get back up, well aware of the fact her nose felt as if it had been crushed by a two-ton elephant. Her head was swimming in dizziness as she lifted her face up to stare at her door only a few feet away from her. Her body felt weaker than earlier as she tried to stand back up only to have her foot slide out from under her again accompanied by the screeching of the table against the floor signaling Lindon's recovery.

She knew she couldn't sit there anymore so she began to crawl away as fast as she could while still being in a daze. A hand grabbed onto her ankle and began tugging her backward causing her to dig her nails into her floor trailing scratch marks through the wood and actually pulling one nail out from her finger in a painful tearing noise.

She violently twisted about on the floor as Lindon pinned her down and held her wrists above her head. "No!" She screamed as he laughed manically above her as his free hand trailed down her body. He was truly the devil and no one could ever tell her otherwise especially with how insane he looked.

When his hand reached her sweatpants and he began to get started with what he wanted to do to her she slammed her knee into his groin and managed to crawl out from under him as he howled in pain. One would assume she would have learned from her previous mistakes of slipping in the same exact puddle but when your heart and mind are everywhere things like that tend to slip by you and she sure as hell didn't remember to step around the puddle as she stood up and fell flat on her face once more.

This time though, she didn't waste time crawling away from her attacker but instead stood up and stumbled into the wall to make one fatal mistake. She glanced over at Lindon just in time to see him slam the vase full of roses on the side of her head instantly knocking all of her fighting spirit out of her body and making her body collapsed on the floor while a loud ringing in her left ear sounded.

Everything seemed to feel so different now, it all felt numb almost like her senses had been scrambled about in her body and couldn't seem to react properly to anything. Her body felt heavy and weak as Lindon lifted her from the ground and began to Carry her into her room slung over his shoulder letting her head and arms hang there in the air.

She didn't have the energy for anything anymore, that hope in her chest was stripped away as her eyes watched the white roses fade from sight and Lindon's voice echoed about inside of her skull making the ringing in her ear even worse. There was nothing she could do, the force behind that blow had completely left her defenseless as she was dropped onto her bed where the man crawled on top of her and began to undo his pants.

Her entire life had led up to this point. Was she ever even meant to survive well into adulthood like Coran wanted to, no, fought for? He worked harder than anything to give her the life she always wanted ever since she was a young child. As she felt Lindon take away all of her hopes and dreams once more she felt tears beginning to slide down her cheeks with her breath that left his lips.

She hadn't ever felt so hopeless, so weak a day in her life except for the night when her childlike innocence was taken away from her forever. She squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to ignore the pain from reality hitting her like a truck as she tried to remember the night her parents died.

She remembered the smiles her parents had even when they tried to calm her cries from the backseat when she realized her favorite stuffed animal wasn't with her anymore. Bisera had been looking over at her from the front seat as Alfor drove them back to the amusement park, she had been smiling and reassuring Allura that they would get the stuffed lion back before she could say butterscotch. She told her to do the breathing technique to help her calm down but as she breathed in, her world was turned upside down as a truck slammed into their car trying to avoid hitting a deer.

Her mother's life was taken upon impact and when they crashed into the tree, a branch lodged itself into Alfor's shoulder and his head slammed into the wheel due to an airbag failure. She remembered the screams that left her lips as she stared at the back of her mother's chair, tears rolling down her cheeks from the pain she felt on the side of her head from slamming against her door.

Alfor sluggishly made his way out of the car in order to safely drag his daughter from the wreck, trying to not look directly at his dead wife as he choked back his grief-filled sobs as he managed to scoop Allura up in his good arm. He had pulled the branch from his shoulder and allowed the blood from his body to gush out and trail down his numb arm and tint the leaves below them in a dark crimson.

"Allura," he whispered as he placed her down under a tree and began to wipe away her tears with his good hand. "Hush sweetie, everything is fine I promise you this."

"Mommy, where's mommy!" She wailed through her ugly sobs.

Alfor's blue eyes flashed with guilt as he tried to keep himself from looking back at the car. "She's fine, she's just trying to calm down before she comes out here but listen," he leaned down to kiss her forehead gently, "daddy has to go help the other people in the other car okay? I need you to call 911 on his cell and just tell them that you were in an accident at six flags. Can you do that for me, sweetie?"

Allura stopped sobbing at the fake news of her mother and hiccuped as she nodded and carefully took the phone from her father and followed the instructions he gave to her as he rushed off, nearly passing out from blood loss. Allura didn't remember anything after that because she had passed out from her head injury and woke up later with a grief-stricken Coran at her bedside holding her hand tightly. Alfor had died in the ride to the hospital from blood loss and Allura had blamed herself for it all because if she hasn't brought her toy she would still be with them living happily.

She wouldn't be here.

Then, something inside of her changed. Alfor had risked his life to make sure she got to safety, he had died from blood loss from making sure he secured his child's safety. She couldn't allow his sacrifice to be for nothing. She would never be able to die guilt free if she didn't do something now. She regained her senses and felt the pain in her body and felt nausea from what Lindon was doing to her hit her all at once like an ocean wave crashing against the sandy beaches. His head was buried in her neck as he kissed her skin and she didn't even waste a second of her time to turn her head and sink her teeth into his ear and rip it away as hard as she could with all of the rage inside of her body, all of the guilt she had bottled up inside, all of the emotions she had been repressing for a year now be her guide as she tasted his blood in her mouth.

He shrieked in pain as she shoved him off of her body. He held his hand against the side of his head as his blood dripped onto the carpet permanently staining it crimson. She spat out the piece of his ear in her mouth and ripped her lamp from the wall before bringing it down to strike the side of his head knocking him flat on his face but she didn't stop there.

She crouched down above him and continued to strike him with the lamp repeatedly as her cries echoed through the house, drowning out the storms outside. She wanted everything to stop. She wanted her hatred to leave her body. She wanted to be normal again. She wanted her innocence back. She wanted to say goodbye to her parents and apologize to them but she would never have that chance ever again and all the anger she felt inside of her was being taken out on the man who had made her feel like nothing but an object for a year. She screamed and cursed and sobbed as her strength slowly drained from her body until she gave her one final blow before dropping the bloody lamp on the floor.

She stared at his limp body as she shook violently. She wished she had invited Shiro there, she wished she could have gone with Coran, she wished that she had just failed English class. She wished a lot of things in that moment but none of them would come true as she screamed her lungs out and felt tears fall from her eyes like the rain from the sky outside. Nothing was okay and nothing was ever going to be just fine anymore.

Her life would be different and she couldn't take it anymore. She slammed her fists against the floor and threw up stomach bile from the shock of everything. She never remembered getting up from that spot to get dressed and stumble out of the garage. She couldn't remember how Coran met her with tears in his eyes at the sight of her in a bloody mess.

All she could remember was sitting in the hospital bed a few hours later after she had been questioned about what happened at her home. She remembered the feeling of emptiness inside of her as she sat underneath her blankets with her arms hugging her knees tightly as Shiro sat on the other side of the curtain that had been put up to keep other people away from her that weren't the female employees at the hospital Keith basically lived in.

"Allura," Shiro whispered from the other side as he tried to keep himself from crying, "I'm so sorry I didn't come even after you said no, I'm so sorry-" his voice cracked as he allowed himself to cry like she had been doing earlier.

She just quietly sat there with her back turned away from his silhouette on the green curtain with the blanket pulled over her with one thought running through her head.

'You and I both.'

If you came to the author note hoping for me to lighten the mood, spoiler alert; I'm not. I find that the topic of rape/noncon isn't properly portrayed within literature and ever since the little idea for the book came to life; this scene has been part of it. This scene was going to happen no matter what and I would like to give special thanks to the people who helped me though they remain anonymous for certain reasons.

If you or a loved one had ever experienced something like this then my prayers go out to you for a well-deserved recovery. Rape isn't a joke and it should be handled with care when it comes to writing, I can only hope I properly showed it and if not I would gladly go back and fix it for the victims who feel like this wasn't properly portrayed.

https://www.rainn.org/national-resources-sexual-assault-survivors-and-their-loved-ones

This link will also be posted to my profile for those of you who want to have a website that can help you if you've ever experienced something like this.

Also, here is the suicide prevention hotline;
1-800-273-8255

You matter and do not ever let anyone drown out that little spark of life you have within you that keeps you going in this world. I know people who are victims of sexual violence, my sister was nearly one of them and I am one as well so I want to be sure that my readers are cared for. I want to be sure that my readers know there are options out there to turn to help them deal with this where they can get professional help.

I really love each and every individual who reads this whether you realize it or not. I don't care if I do not know you because every life in this world is precious and deserves nothing but happiness.