Chapter 1

The two sneak into her house and Jenos gently lies Raine down on her bed. She quickly moves to get the blanket over herself, but doesn’t do it quick enough for her to hide the stain from Jenos. “Hmm?” He blocks the blanket from completely covering her up and looks at her white shorts. “Raine, what happened?” His voice taking a harder tone as his gaze goes from the red stain to her blue eyes. As he looks at her, he sees bruises on her face that had been hidden in the dim light at the alley. Raine pulls the blanket to cover her face and turns away from him.

Jenos sits down on the bed and pulls her back to look at him. “What happened.” She looks away and then closes her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about it yet…” He moves his hand to her jaw and lightly turns her face. She opens her eyes and looks at him, seeing that his eyes had gotten softer. “Raine, I can’t hide this from your parents if I don’t know what I’m hiding. Please, I can’t help you if you don’t tell me.”

She turns her eyes to the wall before looking back at him. “I… I was raped…” Jenos’ eyes go wide as he looks at her. “What?! Raine, how… how did it happen?” Raine looks away and closes her eyes, pulling the blanket closer to her face. “Some guys followed me after school. They started talking to me then asked if I would hang out with them. I told them no, but they didn’t like it.” She sighs and curls into a ball. Jenos places a hand on her shoulder and lightly rubs it. Raine looks at him and continues. “They forced me into an alley where they had beaten me then raped me.”

Jenos moves more onto the bed and hugs her tightly. She stiffens at first then relaxes a little and leans into him. They stay like this for a few minutes, until the door opens a crack and a face looks in. Jenos hears the noise and jumps off the bed, the knife hidden at the small of his back in his hand. The door opens more and a tall man with black hair and brown eyes comes inside. Jenos relaxes and puts the knife back at his back.

“You found her, that’s good… but why didn’t you come through the front door instead of sneaking in? We wanted to know when she was found.” Jenos nods lightly. “I know, but she was very tired and I was going to explain as soon as she was asleep.” The older man nods. “Okay. Get some sleep Raine, you seem very tired. As for you, Jenos, come and explain…now.” Jenos cringes inwardly, Raine’s father having obviously seen through the half lie. The two men walk out of the room, Jenos closing the door behind him. Raine pulls the blanket tighter over her and soon finds sleep.

Jenos and Raine’s father go to the living room, where Jenos takes a seat on the sofa with Mr. McLeod taking a seat in a recliner. “I know that what you said wasn’t the whole truth Jen, and I want to know what happened.” Jenos stiffens slightly. “I told her I wouldn’t tell you, sir, but leave it to her when she’s ready.” Rostan sighs and raises his right hand to his forehead. “You may be my nephew, but there are times I want to wring your neck.” Jenos lightly laughs. “Probably, but my mom wouldn’t be too happy about that.” Rostan smiles slightly. “And if your father was alive he’d probably help me.”

Jenos smiles and tries not to let the memory of his father bring him down. “I won’t force you to break your word to Raine, besides, I’m sure your mom and sisters would want to know what happened.” Jenos arches an eyebrow at his uncle. “So you can get the information out of them instead of me? Not too sneaky Uncle.” Rostan lightly shrugs. “I tried.” He gets up and looks at Jenos as he gets up as well. “Tell your mother hi for me.” Jenos nods. “And give Aunt Darlene my regards.” They shake hands and Rostan follows Jenos to the front door, nodding to him before the younger man leaves.

Rostan watches until Jenos had disappeared from sight before going back into his house. He goes to Raine’s room and opens the door, looking at her sleeping form. He sighs lightly then goes back into the living room, taking a seat in the recliner. The holodrama on the projector had been going on for only a few minutes, yet Rostan turns it off. He leans back into the seat and scratches his chin in thought. He sighs then gets up and goes to bed.