look of fury in her eyes. What nerve? She stared at him for a few seconds and was about to turn around and walk away as she was grabbed from behind by someone else who covered her mouth with a hand. Shock came over her as she found herself in the dim lit ally with the five guys. The youngest was about eighteen and the oldest that had approached her was in his early to mid twenties. She bit the hand that was covering her mouth but before she could scream the oldest guy slapped her hard across the face and two of the other guys grabbed her on both sides while the first guy was cursing and nursing his hand where she had bitten him. The oldest guy pulled out a knife and pushed it against her throat. “If you scream I‟ll cut you” he said with a sneer. Then he unzipped her coat and cut her yellow top off with the knife. He fondled her breasts as she squirmed to get loose but the grip of the other two was too strong. She tried to kick the guy with the knife but he jumped out of the way and shook his head at her. “A feisty one, she must like it rough” he stated. He pointed at the other guy and then at her left leg. The guy nodded and lifted the leg while he lifted her off the ground by the right leg. Then he nodded to the guy who was finally composing himself after trying to shake of the bite. They spread her legs and he moved her skirt up. “She‟s not wearing underwear” the oldest guy said, “she must be really hard up for some.” The guy she had bitten dropped his pants and stepped closer; she wrestled violently but could not get free. She tried to scream despite the earlier warning but her mouth was covered again by one of the guys holding her arms. He penetrated her and raped her. Then he pulled up his pants and took over from the guy holding her left leg and he took a turn while she still resisted with all her might but was completely powerless. Then the next one took his turn and by now she had lost all strength to fight and all she could do was weep softly. The fourth one took a turn and when he was about to take over from the oldest guy. The oldest guy said “I said I wanted some of that ass.” The others looked at him and smirked. They turned her around and he raped her violently from behind. The pain was unbelievable. When he was done they let go of her and she fell into a small heap on the damp ground sobbing. They stood over her and laughed. “Does anyone want to go again?” the oldest guy asked. “I wouldn‟t mind” she heard some of the others say and she shuddered crawling further into her fetal position. As she felt someone grab her by the arm she heard a shout. “What are you doing? Get away from her!” blasted though the alley. The guys startled and looked up toward the end of the alley. The one let go of her and they all started running for the other end of the ally. She looked up and saw Jake running toward her holding a gun in his right hand. As Jake reached her he put a hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him. When he saw she was not in life threatening danger he got up and ran to the other end of the alley just as the others rounded the corner and out of sight. Jake got to the end of the alley and stopped looking in the direction they had fled and raised the gun and fired two rounds. It was loud and deep down she prayed that two shots could be enough to kill five people. As she saw Jake run back to her she tried to get up and collect the artichokes. Shock was setting in and she couldn‟t think straight anymore. Jake got to her and covered her up with his coat. Then he took the grocery bag from her and tossed it aside. He picked her up and asked if she was ok. She shook her head and dug her head deep into his chest as she sobbed quietly. He carried her home. When they got back he put her down on the couch and went into the bedroom to get some clean, warm and dry clothes. When he wanted to get her torn and dirty clothes off she jerked and got up. She couldn‟t have anyone touch her. She walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. She needed to get clean; she just wanted to wash it all off her body she thought as she stepped into the shower with all her clothes on. Then she stripped the clothes off her and threw them in the trashcan that was way too small. Then she sat down hugging her knees rocking back and forth. Her brain was on overload and she just wanted it to stop, to shut down. She wanted to die right then right there. She grabbed the razor she used to shave her legs earlier and tried to cut her wrist but the guard on it prevented it from doing more damage than some superficial bleeding. Then Jake walked in with the clean clothes and took the razor from her without saying a word. He rinsed the blood from her arm and pushed some tissues against the cuts. Then he turned off the shower and threw a towel over her back. He dried off the arm and found the first aid kit under the sink in the bathroom and bandaged the cuts. Then he helped her up and dried her off ever so gently never saying a word. Finally he got her dressed in some long comfortable pajamas carried her to the couch in the living room where he laid her down but she sat up immediately. “We have to call the police” she said. He shook his head. “We can‟t he said or I will be in serious trouble and will go to jail for a long time” he said. She gave him a puzzled look not being able to think straight. “They will do a rape kit and find out that we had sex earlier. I will be arrested for statutory rape and I shot one of them. I am pretty sure I hit him” he explained. “But that would be self defense” she argued, “they can‟t arrest you for that.” “Shooting someone in the back when they are running away would not be considered self defense, even after what they did. If he dies, which I hope he does, I could get life for second degree murder” he countered. She leaned into him and he embraced her. They sat there for what seemed an eternity. Her brain was still on overload and she couldn‟t process anything. He was right she supposed. Then they were startled by the phone. He told her to let it go but she said she had to get it unable to explain why or even to make sense of why. She answered the phone and said hello. Her mom was on the other end and immediately sensed something was wrong. “What‟s wrong?” she asked, “are you ok?” “I got raped mom” she said sobbing. “Oh my god” was all her mom could say. “Did you call the police?” she continued a few seconds later. “I can‟t” she said, “They will arrest Jake.” “Jake was there?” her mom asked loudly. “Yes” she said as she nodded sobbing. “I‟m coming home right away. You need to call the police. I knew that Jake was going to cause trouble” her mom said. “I can‟t” she pleaded, “I love him and I don‟t want to lose him.” “I am calling the police right now, stay there I‟ll call you right back” she heard her mom say on the other end of the line and she hung up. Kim started crying louder, more for her brain to process and she couldn‟t handle this. Jake had heard it all and comforted her. “We can run off together. I don‟t want to lose you” he said. He had been there for her and her mom just wanted to rip him away from her. “I‟ll go to the police with you if you want” he said, “but they will make you relive it over and over and the chance they catch these guys is small and even if they do rape is always hard to prove especially the way you were dressed. They will say it was voluntary and you got regrets and then yelled rape. And they will take you away from me.” She looked at him and said “Let‟s go.” “I have a place in Chicago we can stay” he said and he walked into her bedroom to pack her clothes. The phone rang and she answered. It was her mom again. “The police will be there in a few minutes” her mom said. “I am leaving now and will be there before morning. Sit tight, we will work it out.” “I won‟t be here” she told her mom, “I can‟t give up Jake. We are leaving. I‟ll be ok. Please don‟t come looking for me.” “No, don‟t” her mom said, “you are in shock and not thinking straight. Wait there for me.” Kim sobbed and said firmly “Tell Ally I love her….. I love you mom” and she hung up the phone. Just then Jake came out of the bedroom carrying two big bags in which he had shoved everything that had appeared to be Kim‟s. “We have to go” he said, “the police will be here soon.” They quickly left Kim still in her pajamas and got to the car. He opened the passenger side door and she slide in. He moved to the back of the car and threw the bags in the trunk while she closed her door. Kim curled up in a ball in the passenger seat as small as she could as he drove away. As they left the street they saw a police car pass and stop at the apartment building. The officer had not taken notice of them and they kept going. She was shivering in the seat hugging her knees still softly sobbing and still not being able to make any sense of anything. He pulled something out of his pocket. Kim saw a small pill bottle and he took two small white round pills out and handed them to her. “What‟s this?” she asked out of habit not really caring. “It will calm you down and allow you to rest” he said as he handed her a half empty bottle of water that had been in the cup holder. She took the pills and washed them down. At this moment she would do anything for any kind of relief. He cranked the heat of the car and they drove in silence. It took about 5 minutes before she noticed the effects of the pills. She was getting really tired and her eyes were getting heavy. She tried to stay awake not knowing why but drifted off shortly after. Chapter 11: She woke up in a strange bed in a small bedroom in bad repair. The paint was peeling of the windows, the wallpaper had not been in style for several decades, pieces were missing in places and the plaster on the ceiling was cracking. She was very groggy and vaguely remembered Jake having given her something in the car. Jake walked in with a steaming cup of coffee which he handed her. She took it and took a sip. The coffee helped clear her mind which brought back all the horrors from last night. She shuddered and started to cry again. Jake took the coffee before she could spill it and put it on the nightstand. Then he hugged her as she cried and stroked her hair. As all of last night‟s events flowed back to her she was getting overwhelmed again and started to shake as all the physical and emotional pain came back to her. “Wait here” Jake said and he got up and left the room. He came back three minutes later with a small bag, a hand mirror and a dollar bill in his hands. He put the mirror on the bed and poured a small amount of white powder on it from the bag. Then he used the dollar bill to form three neat lines of the powder on the mirror. Kim looked on, puzzled first then shocked. He rolled up the bill and offered it to her. She backed away from it. Her mind was still fogged but she had seen this before on TV. It was cocaine and drugs were bad she had always been told. He looked at her and then said “It is fine, it will make you feel better and you will get some relief from the hurt for a bit. It won‟t hurt you. I promise. Here, I‟ll show you.” Then he took the rolled up dollar bill and snorted up one of the lines. After he did it he shook his head and pinched his nose. “See, I‟m fine” he said offering her the rolled up bill again. The shock of the scene was already being driven away by the pain of last night. “What the hell?” she thought; anything to not feel this pain. Hell, if she was lucky it would kill her. That didn‟t seem too bad at this time. She had tried herself last night but was past the point of doing it herself now. However if she were to just die right now that would be good. She took the bill and snorted up the first line. It burned going in and she found herself to have the same involuntary reaction that Jake had. She shook her head and pinched her nose. It was weird, the burning sensation. She snorted the second line with her other nostril for good measure. She didn‟t care. If it would kill her fine, if it would make her feel better fine as well. She couldn‟t imagine feeling and worse than she did. So she figured she had nothing to lose. The second line went easier now that she knew what to expect. “Now what?” she asked. “Just give it a minute” he responded as he put the mirror and the bag away. She sat there looking at the ceiling waiting for something to happen. Then all of a sudden she started feeling something. It felt warm and good. It felt as if she had been wrapped in the blanket of ice and someone was freeing her from it and lifting it off her. She felt herself starting to smile. Something she had not thought would ever be possible again. She started to feel happy again and it felt so good. Then her brain started to clear. The clouds in her brain were lifting and she could think clearly again. In fact she had never felt this sharp. She though this should scare her. The fog in her brain had been all that had saved her from thinking about the rape and now that fog was gone. She remembered everything clear as day but it didn‟t seem to bother her. When she thought about last night it had almost seemed like she was watching a movie. It was still a disturbing image but not one that was giving her more thoughts then when she would have watched it in an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit where they often had cases like that. It was great, she could actually think about it and not be the blubbering mess she had been earlier or she could just tune it out and focus on something else. Focus, that was it. She could focus like she had never been able to before. The happiness started to grow into some kind of euphoria. “Are you feeling anything yet?” she heard Jake ask. “Right” she thought. She was with Jake, everything was perfect. Last night after the rape she had shuddered at his touch. The sex that had seemed so wonderful was instantly changed to something she could never imagine ever doing again