Setting
INK
~ Vega Delacroix ~
What happened next was far from what Vega had been expecting, someone actually had come to her rescue, calling her Sally and saying things she would rather not have repeated. He’d claimed she was his girlfriend, and smacked her on her rump to make the act seem all the more true and real to the three men who had cornered her. In truth, it took all Vega had in her to not turn around and smack the man in the face for daring to even touch her backside. Truly, she was grateful for the fact someone had saved her from . . . well, does it even have to be said what she had been saved from? But Vega couldn’t have felt more embarrassed than she did then, she was sixteen and never once had a boyfriend so to try and act like what this guy . . . wait; she had caught his name from one of the losers who had tried to have their way with her.
Mitch, they had called him Mitch. she reminded herself.
It was just hard for her to go along with what Mitch was saying, so she remained hushed as he walked her passed the three, and into his apartment. Her arms were drawn up to her chest, her face red, and she still soaked to the bone. Vega stood there in the entranceway, still, all but for her head and eyes, which looked around her at the place Mitch called home. It was small, but this was Xibalba, so she wasn’t surprised. She was used to her home in Avalon; a place big enough to house a family of six with ease. And living in the too-large home was just her and her brother, Len, so space was something she was accustomed to. The thing that did give her a little bit of a surprise though, was the fact that the place was something of a mess. It wasn’t too horrible compared to places she had seen on television, but it was definitely not what she was used to.
Well, he is a teenage boy, I shouldn’t be surprised by this, guys ARE messy. I already know if I weren’t around, Len would have the apartment a giant two-floor pigsty. . . . she thought before hearing him say something about where the shower was, and that it wasn’t good to stay cold. Vega looked at him as he spoke and pointed, and realized he had stared at her chest for a moment.
A visible frown appeared on her already red face when that occurred to her, just what the Hell had Vega gotten herself into?
Keep yourself calm Vega, remember he is a teenage boy, they’re half hormones and half . . . something else that isn’t hormones. she sighed, looking around again. It was obvious at least that this guy wasn’t going to do anything to her, if he was, he’d have started as soon as he bolted the door of his. No way am I taking a shower or anything like that, besides, I don’t have a change of dry clothes, there wouldn’t be a point. What . . . what was she going to do now? She couldn’t go back outside, who knew what kind of trouble she could run into on her own, so it seemed she was stuck there until morning at least. There was no way she was going back outside, even if the rain let up. Vega Delacroix refused to set foot in Xibalba again until the sun rose.
As soon as the sun was up, she was gone. She’d gotten very lucky in being saved before, Mitch had enough of a conscience to him to help someone who was in trouble, but Vega’s luck had definitely run dry for the day. If she got into a sticky situation again, she doubted she would be saved once more. Luck just didn’t run its course like that. Vega really wasn’t happy being stuck with someone she didn’t exactly trust like this, Mitch might have saved her but she had her reservations about him.
He knew the guys who had cornered her; and that wasn’t a good thing! Geez, I just wanted to go to the store and get some ice cream, and what happens? I wind up in Xibalba, stuck in some guy’s apartment after almost getting, ugh, I don’t even want to THINK about that! Vega exuded a groan, and set her face in one of the palms of her hands. They said something about that one crime syndicate, right before I was inside, I barely heard it, but one of them said, ‘Machiavellies.’ Yeah, she knew of them and stories of what sorts of things they got up to in Xibalba. Vega knew it wasn’t good, those guys had some ties to them; or . . . Mitch did?
Why, just why? Weren’t things in her life already complicated enough? Vega already had to deal with things normal teens didn’t, being able to shoot fire out of her hands when she got upset; and now she had almost just got taken by force, and her savoir might have ties . . . to the Machiavellies. Just great, right? Sheesh, all of this happened because of her sweet tooth, and because she was too stubborn to let her brother accompany her.
She shook her head some; she’d told Len that she was just going out for, at most, a half an hour to run to the store for some ice cream. He had insisted upon coming with her, making sure she would be okay since he knew she couldn’t light up when it was raining. But no! Vega had to be little Miss Independent, confident in herself, thinking she would be totally fine. “Man, Len’s going to kill me when I get home. . . .” she sighed, taking her hand off her face, she looked up at the ceiling with a rather firm look etched upon her face. Len really WAS going to have her hide for getting into this big of a mess. . . . .
Look at her situation; she was sodden, her clothes were sticking to her, and her hair was doing the same; she was stuck with a guy she didn’t know. With a sigh, Vega leaned up against the door behind her and slid down to the floor, her knees pressed to her chest. She shut her eyes and knocked her head up against the door behind her, noting the hollow sort of clunk that followed. “My brother’s going to so kill me when I show up at home in the morning,” she laughed lightly, though it was a rather depressing laugh, followed by a groan. With a grave breath, Vega opened her sapphire eyes, and looked over at Mitch, moving her bangs out of her line of sight.
She stared at him in silence for a moment, listening to the rain pouring down outside, “. . . .I think I caught your name from those, erm, men,” she hissed out the last word with a rather revolted look upon her face before continuing, “It’s Mitch, right? Or did my hearing totally fail me under the terror for my life and virginity?”
Snickering at her own choice of words, Vega exhaled with a slight smile and looked ahead, “Well anyway, thanks for risking yourself to save an idiot who got in trouble all because she fell asleep on the bus, trying to go get ice cream from the store.” She looked back at him, a bit of a nervous smile on her face, “I really don’t want to think about what almost happened to me,” she threw her thumb up behind her, pointing to the door, “I have a feeling I would have probably died out there, on top of what they were planning on doing to me.” With that a shudder of disgust ran through the girl’s small body, and she put wrapped both of her around her legs, and set her head upon her knees.
“Anyway, my name is Vega, but you can call me Vee if you feel like it. Some people do, but some don’t.” She paused, “By the way, sorry about being an inconvenience, looks like your sort of stuck with me until morning.” Vega laughed, “Perks of being a hero right?” Whether this guy had ties to some unsavory bunch or not, he had saved her, so he couldn't be all bad.