It was still dark, and he was only a few blocks from his apartment at a stop light when he spotted a figure. It was a young dark haired girl no older than fifteen, and she appeared to be in a hurry, walking hastily down the empty sidewalk across from him, clutching the strap of her backpack in one hand and looking over her shoulder every couple seconds. He followed her line of sight and it took him a few moments to understand why. A guy in a hoodie half a block away followed in her steps, moving equally as fast in an effort to catch up.

Marcus waited impatiently for the light to turn green. His knee bobbed up and down as his sights remained on the girl. When she rounded a corner out of sight, he felt a cold feeling run down his spine. The guy in the hoodie started to round the corner too, picking up his pace before he disappeared out of view.

Shit.

Fucking shit.

The streets were still deserted. It wasn’t even 6 in the morning. Typical of his neighbourhood to still be sleeping. Bunch of intentionally unemployed drugged-up bastards, like him.

“Just turn fucking green already,” Marcus growled at the light.

The second it did, he pressed down on the gas and his sedan sped down the street, turning the same corner the girl did. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, unsure of what he’d find as he went.

Then it hit him like a bucket of ice had settled into the pit of his stomach. The girl’s backpack was on the ground and she was feet away, her back flush against the front of the man. She didn’t make a sound, and he found it odd, until the man turned just slightly in his direction, and Marcus saw the hand over her mouth as he began dragging her into a nearby alleyway.

Without thinking, he opened the glove compartment and pulled out his pocketknife. He usually kept it on him in case some dickhead tried to car jack him, but with Kate close last night, he didn’t want to carry any weapon in case she noticed it and got spooked. He left the car running as he stepped out and hurried to the alleyway they were in. He slowed down just as he approached it, and peeked his head into the pocket of darkness.

“Just stop moving,” the man’s voice hissed as he shoved her up against the wall.

“Fuck you,” she snapped against his hand.

“This doesn’t have to be a fight. Just stop moving and we’ll be done.”

But the girl wouldn’t stop moving. She flailed her body around, and then the man suddenly howled out in pain. His hand dropped from her mouth, shaking it in pain from the bite she’d given him.

“You fucking bitch!” he growled, slamming her face against the brick wall. She cried out, but kept fighting. “Fucking bitch!”

Anger flooded Marcus as he moved in, opening his knife. It was a fast blur of events. He grabbed the man by the hood and pulled him back, shoving his weight off the girl. The man was still holding her hair, and as he got shoved back, she fell back with him, landing over his body. She struggled to get free, and by then Marcus had knelt down and set the knife on the man’s throat, causing him to completely stiffen to the ground.

“Let her go,” he demanded the piece of shit.

The man immediately did, and the disoriented girl crawled to the wall to catch her breath.

“I let her go,” the man told him, raising his arms up in surrender. “End of story now. I’ll go.”

“I don’t fucking think so,” Marcus retorted.

He was just a puny man compared to Marcus, but he would have easily taken the tiny girl down, and exerting that control over a defenceless woman set Marcus off. He pulled the man up to his feet easily and took his mangled hair into his grip. The man fought, but he was overpowered as Marcus brought him to the same spot he’d smashed the girl’s face against.

“You like hurting girls?” Marcus asked him. “Well, I like hurting pieces of shit like you.”

The man let out a cry before his face got smashed into the wall, painting the brick in red blood and flesh. Instead of stopping there, Marcus did it again, harder than before, and it was always in these moments, when he was up against another man, he felt a buzz unlike anything else. It was a mixture of anger and adrenaline merged into one, and he felt unstoppable. Nothing could distract him. He needed that buzz like his next breath, and it was intoxicating the way it flowed through his bloodstream, making him hazy on that dreamlike high.

After that second slam, the man’s body went limp and Marcus let go of him. Knocked unconscious, he collapsed to the ground. The buzz quickly died off in Marcus soon after. He stepped over him and saw the girl standing now, looking down at the mangled body with empty eyes. He paused right then and there as he watched her. She was a striking young girl. Very tiny with jet black hair and dark eyes. When he spotted the blood on her face, he approached her slowly.

“You alright?” he asked.

She looked away from the body and up at him. “Of course I’m alright,” she retorted angrily. “What a stupid thing to ask.”

His jaw nearly dropped from surprise. What the fuck? “Don’t give me attitude, girl. I just saved you.”

“I didn’t need your help.”

What in the fuck? “What in the fuck?”

Brushing her hair out of her face, she turned and sped out of there. He followed straight away, hardly believing what he was hearing. Here he thought she would be fraught with trauma over the attack, and yet she walked away unhindered by it!

“Are you having some kind of post trauma reaction that’s going the opposite way or some shit?” he asked her. “Are you in denial that you were about to get raped?”

She ignored him as she grabbed her backpack off the ground. She picked it up the wrong way and her contents fell out of the unzipped compartment, landing in a scattered heap on the ground. She cursed and bent down, picking up her things hastily.

Marcus knelt down too, grabbing at a few things of which she angrily ripped out of his grip.

“I don’t need your help,” she practically spat at him. “I’d appreciate it if you just fucked off.”

“Just another snotty little teen, huh?” he countered, uncaring about her demand. He grabbed at her shit and stuffed it in her bag. “A fucking thanks wouldn’t kill, princess.”

She paused and scowled at him. He tensed at the blood that was literally covering half of her face. She looked almost sinister and beautiful…very fucking beautiful.

“I’m not a princess,” she bitterly said. “I’m a hood rat. Just like you.”