Enlighten Me

Maya rubbed her face aggressively, trying to stop the tears that continued to stubbornly stream down her cheeks. Jack, her older brother, had kicked her out of the house again, purely because she demanded that he stop smoking in her room. Of course her father was too drunk to notice.

Sniffling, the girl leaned against the back entrance of the club "Bite Me." She had came here with Zach once, on his birthday. She sighed tiredly. How long had they been apart now? With Jack becoming more violent every night... Maya traced a large ugly purple bruise on the side of her pale neck with her hand lightly.

It was all becoming too much. It wasn't fair. She was a good person. Why did God give her such a terrible family? The young girl shook her head frantically at the thought. They were good too. Just...ruined.

A sob wracked her chest violently, and a terrible crack of thunder echoed into the sky. She flinched and buried her face in her hands. "Help, help, help..." she chanted, voice raspy and weak.

"Shut up." a deeper voice barked at her. "And give me whatever the fuck you've got."

Maya froze. Not now. She couldn't be attacked now-

The man snapped out his foot into Maya's stomach and she doubled over, pain spreading like wildfire in her lower rib. She whimpered and bit down hard on her lip, scrunching her eyes closed.

Focus on your breathing.

She could hear the stranger smooth his coat down and her body tensed at a long moment of silence. Maya dared to take a large deep breath in, only to splutter at the strong scent of liquor and tobacco. Her eye cracked open. He was inches away from her.

"Come now, sweet 'eart." he murmured, hand caressing her chin. The gesture could have been called tender, were it not for the malicious dark shine in his eyes that could even be seen during such a black night as this.

"You've got to be able to give me something." the stranger purred. Whimpering softly, she shook her head. There was nothing that the girl could give.

There was nothing she had even for herself, anymore.

Zach stumbled outside, his head killing from all of the shots he had taken. He was having a rough week, and deciding to end it in the typical way. Not for everybody else but it was the typical way for him. And that was booze; a lot of it. He looked around and saw a couple or something. Well that is what he thought he saw, and it took him a few seconds for him to realise the girl was being attacked.

He fumbled around, knowing he had brought him gun with him, he always did, but it took three tries before he found the right pocket. He lifted it up, but instantly realised it would be a miracle if he could shoot towards the pair, never mind at the attacker. "I hope you can shoot girly!" he shouted before sliding the gun over to her, knowing that would be the only way it would hit its target.

Unlike her attacker, Amaya registered the drunken's man presence almost immediately. He had a gun. But he was too drunk. Alcohol was always putting her in danger, it seemed. A drunk family, a drunk attacker, a drunk saviour.

And as quickly as the second man had arrived, he was sliding the gun towards her and shouting something she couldn't quite make out over the buzz in her ears. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, trying desperately to recall how Jack had showed her how to use one. She had only ever shot a rabbit before. A person was a different story completely and-

The weapon skid across the wet pavement, and Maya's thin, pale hands instinctively clutched the grip. Fueled with an almost unnatural adrenaline burst, she quickly kicked herself away from the man and aimed directly for his chest. The man, clearly baffled by the rapidly moving actions, lunged towards her.

Without a second's hesitation, she fired.

The bullet zipped across the small space between them and tore into the man's flesh, burying itself deep into his body. A gurgling noise escaped his throat and he collapsed onto the ground- just about as the same time Amaya dropped the gun.

"S-self." she stuttered, as if explaining herself. "S-self defense." Amaya backed away from the attacker- if he was dead or not, she didn't know and preferred to keep it that way.

But why did you aim for his heart?

Her body began to shake violently, wild blue eyes fixed on the body in front of her.

Zach stared in shock, as he saw the smallish girl kick away her attacker as if it was a piece of cake. Everything slowed down as he saw the attacker thrust himself towards her, and inside Zach thought it was it for the girl. There was nothing Zach could have done without wasting bullets, or shooting the girl herself.

Then it happened. Somehow, the girl fired a perfect shot straight into his heart. Somehow Zach managed to stumble his way over to the girl, but winced as she dropped the gun. "Be careful girly, the safety is off, and I don't think we want someone else getting injured..

"Woah calm down kid" he said, not knowing what to do as she began to shake. "Um, first, get my gun, erm, third, get out of here, then fifth, I need to talk to you about something." he said trying to work out if he said that right, but shrugging all the same.

Maya wasn't- physically couldn't bring herself to listen to him, because of the raging buzz in her ears. Something about safety. Her safety? His?

The man's?

Maya took a shaky breath, trying to steady herself. She would deal with the man's...condition, afterwards. She had to take care of herself for now- like Jack had always taught her to do. "Gun." she said softly, standing up slowly to pick up the gun tentatively, handing it back to him.

The gun had been loud. He was right- they had to move quickly.

"Wh-where?" she squeaked, suddenly in a frenzy. Could they just run off to leave this man to die? But the only other option was to be arrested, and she couldn't...

Dear God- what was she meant to do?

Not caring how hammered the other stranger was, so much to the extent his numbers were in the wrong order, she clutched his hand tightly, wide blue eyes pleading, trying to get through the haze of alcohol he would be under.

"Help." Maya choked out, hearing a crowd of footsteps beginning to advance in the distance at a hurried pace.