XIII
Saving Grace
~~~

WARNING: MATURE CONTENT AHEAD

"Ack!" He immediately covers his mouth as he winces from the pain. He cut his hand on the the extremely abrasive rope and now he's bleeding. "Damn it!" He whispers.

C'mon, Gar. Work through it. Bloodloss be damned.

He continues to tie knots into the rope, now with bloody hands, letting the blood soak into the fibers.

He sneezes then has a coughing fit. His lungs burn, his throat aches, his head hurts, and his body crumples onto the floor.

He's exhausted. Now that he's lying in the ground he can hardly move. The bandages wrapped around his arms have started to peel off from the amount of sweat he's producing. The room isn't hot. He hasn't done much work.

I can't do this anymore...God...

I have to get out of here.

After a little more work, a barely conscious Gar gets up from his seat on the floor and takes the bloodied rope with him.

It all happens so fast. The window opens, and he's gone.

~~~

Raven wakes up, tear tracks on her cheeks. She's completely disoriented, but soon gets her bearings. Her brain doesn't even want to consciously think in fear of making herself upset.

After school I'm giving Ike a piece of my mind. She growls.

She quickly gets herself into the bathroom to shower as if water will wash away all her problems.

Unfortunately for Raven, it's just the opposite. The shower makes you think more. But she already knows that.

The words "I don't understand" repeat to her like a broken record.

"Why? Why? Why?" replicates itself over and over.

Why would he leave her on purpose?

Her salty tears mix with the shower water raining onto her face and she begins to cry like she did last night while trying to hide it from Kai. It didn't work and he saw her, got immediately worried, and Raven lashed out at him.

"Leave me alone!" She exclaimed. "I don't need you!" That was the loudest she had spoken to him and that is what she said.

"Alright..." He had said simply. His dour voice broke her heart, hurting her just as much as she may have hurt him. Guilt had overwhelmed her. But she was so overtaken by emotions that she couldn't even think straight enough to find the words to apologize.

She thought about texting him, but she could hardly even bring herself to pick up the phone to do it. She was too embarrassed to.

She really wishes it were Saturday and not Friday. She wouldn't have to confront anyone if it were tomorrow. She could just stay in bed and wallow in her own pain and anger.

She gets out of the shower and stares at herself in the mirror. After coming to the decision that she's bringing the transcript to school to show her friends, she leaves the bathroom to go and change.

She puts on her clothes quickly: A black T-shirt, jeans, her purple sweatshirt; she goes downstairs and bolts out the door, grabbing her backpack and the transcript on the way out.

She doesn't even stop to remember if Arella needs the car today. She drives off, but not to the High School. She drives up to and parks in front of Gar's house.

Rita and Steve's cars are still in the driveway and Gar's car is forever parked in the half opened garage.

Raven gets out of the car and looks up at the house in all of its grandeur. She hasn't been here in a long, long time.

Her throat tightens up, a lump forming right at its base. She attempts to swallow it, but it's persistent.

She clutches the transcript delicately in her fingers, moves one foot, then the other follows. At the door, she rings the bell and the door opens almost immediately.

"Oh, Raven! I wasn't expecting you this morning." Rita exclaims. "Steve! It's–"

Raven rushes past her through the door.

"Who is it?" Steve calls from his and Rita's bedroom. He comes out of the room just as Raven gets to the top of the steps. "Oh! Hey, Raven." Steve greeted happily.

She feels bad about what she's about to do.

She pulls Steve into the living room and Rita naturally follows.

"Woah woah woah! What's the matter?" Steve straightens out his shirt.

"I know you have to get to school, but just relax, sweetheart. You've still got a half hour. Just tell us what you have to say."

"Rita, you know she hasn't been talking."

"Yes, but Arella told me that she was getting better!"

"Well obviously she's not in the mood right now to speak." After Steve's defense, Raven reaches out, giving the transcript to them. "What's this? 'Call from Domino Ivy to Garfield Logan at 7:14 PM on 8-XX-18'?"

Rita and Steve sit, beginning to read the paper in their hands. Raven waits there patiently. As they get deeper and deeper into the transcript, their faces morph and evolve right in front of her eyes.

They look at her.

"He did what?!?!" Vic outraged.

"I do not understand..."

Raven stares at her friends blankly. She's silent. Deafeningly silent.

Wally walk away to collect himself and Jinx follows him, Vic looks as if he may rip up the transcript, and Dick is pinching the bridge of his nose while Kori lightly grasps the paper, perpetually staring at it in disbelief.

"I do not understand!" She repeats. "Why would he do such a thing?!" Her yelling makes Raven jump a bit. Kori hardly ever yells like that. Not loudly, she can yell loudly quite well. No...her yell embodied utter confusion with a little bit of guilt. She is upset and had a disappointed lilt to it.

Nobody was going to have a peaceful lunch today.

"Selfish idiot!" Wally shouts making his way back to the lunch table. He refuses to sit like the others and instead he slams his hands down on the table. "All he cared about was his own f*cking self! He didn't think about Raven, he didn't think about us, he didn't think about anyone!"

"Ugh," Dick begins to speak. "Look, or of all of us, there's no way that, at the very least, Raven didn't cross his mind." He removes his hand from his nose. "And why he trusted Domino I have no idea," He holds up the paper. "But regardless of what this does to us emotionally, this proves that Gar is all but confirmed to be alive. Domino didn't kill him."

"So what?! We still don't know where the hell he is!" Vic exclaims.

"We don't know that, Dick." Jinx mentions.

"Well, it's reassuring at the least to know that Gar is most likely somewhat ok. Right, Raven?"

She nods solemnly.

"Hey, guys." Everyone jumps. They'd all completely forgotten about Kai. Raven looks up at him, and he looks down at her, but his normal smile is nowhere to be found. It's not quite a scowl, nor is it even a frown, but it's far from anything close to a smile. It's just his face. "What's the matter? Wally and Vic look like they're gonna break something."

Dick looks at Raven who's already gotten up from her seat and grabbed her backpack.

She did so in such a rush that she left Dick with the transcript.

"What's with her?"

"Dunno." Jinx shrugs.

"What's that?" He asks as he sits down, referring to the transcript.

"It's–"

"Oh, that's the paper from last night." He realizes, cutting off Vic's explanation.

"What?" Kori asks."Were you with Raven last night?"

"Her mom invited my family over for a dinner party." He looks at where Raven was sitting out of the corner of his eyes and then back at his drink. His eyes are cast downward and dull. "She left to go to the police station and came back with that." He points with the straw to the transcript. "Her Arella said she is involved with a missing persons case, so I'm guessing that paper has something to do with Gar."

Kori's eyes widen and she gets extremely defensive. "How do you know about him?"

Kai says nothingand instead raises an eyebrow at Dick, immediately incriminating him. "We told him." He answers with a sigh.

"What? Why?! Raven is going to hurt you if she finds out."

"She won't find out." Kai replies monotonously before taking a sip of his drink. "I promised I wouldn't tell her."

Vic narrows his eyes at Kai.

"What?"

"What's with you?" He asks.

"'Scuse me?" He asks in an acrid tone, both words biting into the group as he puts the cup down with a little excessive force.

"Dude, what is your problem?" Wally asks truculently, wholeheartedly prepared to begin arguing as he himself isn't in a good mood.

"Nothing." He takes a sip of his drink. "Raven just...pissed me off..."

"What did she do?" Dick skeptically questions him.

"She said–" He pauses. "Nevermind..." Kai makes a blatant shift from petty anger to honest melancholy.

"'She said'??" Jinx repeated.

"Kai, what did you do?" Dick asks accusingly.

"Nothing!"

"Well she seemed mad at you." Wally says, copying Dick's tone. "Why else would she have left like that?"

"I just... Ugh!" He throws his head and hands up and his head lands right in them. "I wish I could understand her better. But every time I try to help she gets mad with me or just doesn't answer me."

"Raven has always been like that. It is not just with you. I promise." Kori assures him.

"I get that but..." He never finishes.

"Dude, what did she say to you?" Wally, now impatient, subtly implores Kai to get to the point.

"She told me to leave her alone and that she 'doesn't need me'..."

"Ooooh..."

"Yikes."

"When did she say that?" Dick asks.

"After she had read whatever is on that paper. She started crying but she was trying to hide it from me. I got worried about her and that's when she said it."

"I do not think she meant it. She probably wishes to apologize." Kori advises.

"Then why didn't she do it already?" Kai asks crestfallen.

"Raven isn't fond of directly apologizing." Jinx informs.

"She does what we like to call: 'Silent Apologies.'" Wally informs.

"'Silent Apologies'?"

"Indeed." Kori begins to elaborate. "Raven does not apologize through words. She does so through actions. She will normally do something that will show you she's trying to apologize. You answer her with your body language, not your words."

"Sometimes she'll tell you something, but whatever she says is never a direct apology." Jinx adds.

"How will I know when she does it?"

"I think you'll be able to figure it out." says Dick. "Until then, maybe just leave her be and don't pester her. She'll come around when she's ready."

Kai sighs and looks at Raven's seat, cold and empty.

The bell rings and everyone gets up without hesitation. They all say their goodbyes as they make their sepertate ways to class. Kai is left alone.

Fine.

I'll leave her alone.

Throughout the rest of the day Raven and Kai would silently pass by each other. Kai would purposely ignore Raven every time and Raven continued to be mute. Every single time they passed or saw each other in the hall Raven was overcome with immense guilt, hightening her need to apologize, yet not overcoming her own embarrassment.

Although her crushing guilt was effecting her, she started to lash out at people when they provoked her even slightly. All without saying a word of course.

What Michael's brother had said to her the day before hasn't crossed her mind in the slightest.

As her mean streak continued, she had begun to isolate herself as people started avoiding her. Rightfully so being that it was clear she was in a bad mood.

Last, once again, was English. The one class Michael and his friends share with Raven. She still won't ever figure out how the three stooges got into an AP English course. Let alone how they were taken seriously in any respect. They are petty at worst and idiotic at best when it comes to their tactics.

And yet, they always prove somewhat effective on Raven.

She sighs as she marches to her death towards her seat right across from Michael.

"Hey, Rae~" He greets oddly flirtatiously. She promptly replies to him with a hearty slap on the face that echoes through the classroom. Every student in the class's head spin around on a turntable in reaction to the striking sound. Luckily, Ms. Lowe is not in the classroom yet. "F*ck! Ouch!" Raven glares at him and takes her seat. Murmuring ensues.

"Ok, guys, We're starting our new book today. I think I gave it to you on Wednesday." Ms. Lowe starts as she enters the room. "Though I'm sure you all don't remember that because of the Halloween assembly." She mutters.

"What happened to you at the assembly, Raven?" Michael coos.

Patronizing bastard.

She doesn't answer, nor even acknowledges that he spoke.

"I have a few discussion questions for you guys on the first three chapters. The book is small, but the font is spaced out and the chapters are short. You should get through it in the next forty-five minutes. After you finish I'd like you to discuss them with your group. I'll be grading your tests while you do that."

She leaves the kids to their own devices. Instead of working, Raven looks around inquisitively.

Her brain naturally counts the number of people and rattles off every junior and senior's name simultaneously as her eyes scan over them.

Suddenly, a gentle yet incessant tapping rips through her eardrums.

She lifts her head out of her book to the distracting noise and to nobody's surprise, it's Michael tip-tapping on the table with his fingers.

It's methodical, deliberate, almost musical. 1...2...3...4...1...2...3...4... Raven shoots another glare at him.

"What? Am I being annoying?" He sneers. Raven begrudgingly nods, not willing to communicate any other way. "Then you gotta speak up, babe."

Raven feels a twitch of annoyance along with weariness; she continues to stare at him, now in awe. Yes, she's ticked off, but she's more confused than the former. What is wrong with this boy today? How is she supposed to respond to something like that?

She decides to do nothing and gets back to the book.

Michael cracks an unsettling grin and Raven can feel it boring a hole into the top of her head.

There is no way he'll do it. He's not got that kind of conviction. She affirms to herself.

After about twenty minutes, the distractions commence once again, now becoming less clandestine and growingly incessant. Not only to her but to the rest of the innocents in the class who simply wish to complete their work.

He is now clicking his tongue on the top of his mouth. How Ms. Lowe is not hearing him is beyond Raven. She glances up, looks him straight in the eye, and mouths the words, 'Stop it' to him.

He mouths, 'No' and follows it up with that same distressing grin.

"Ms. Lowe," James randomly speaks up. "Can I go to the bathroom?"

"May you go to the bathroom?" She corrects him. "Yes." Lowe gets directly back to grading papers, not bothering to watch her knowingly delinquent student out of the class.

James gives Michael a copy of that smile on the way out. Just with a twinge of mischief added. Raven doesn't notice.

Later, the bell rings and Raven immediately jumps up from her seat. She wants out and away from Michael as quickly as possible. She's getting a horrible feeling from him in the pit of her stomach.

He's not going to do it. I don't believe it. She insists again.

"Hey, Rave, come back!" Mark calls out to her as she speed-walks out of the room.

As she continues to make her way down the hall, Kai comes into view at the end. He looks at her blankly. A sense of longing starts to tug at her, though she doesn't budge.

The halls quickly clear out, becoming desolate, mimicking the likeness of a ghost town. Kai and Raven still don't move. She takes a step forward, but it feels extremely heavy. The booming step echoes through the hall. It seemed like a trigger for Michael's voice that followed shortly after.

"Raven!"

She turns around, only because of a reaction to her name. She turns back to where her only saving grace was, or rather, where he used to be. He had disappeared from her, leaving her completely alone with Michael and his posse.

"Whatcha lookin' at, babe?"

She wishes she could tell him to shove it. Instead, she continues to stand reticent about her desire.

"Hey," James and Mark line up behind Michael, clearly aware that they know who's in charge. "He asked you a question. Answer him."

Raven blinks twice, taken completely unawares.

"Well?" They begin to march towards her in exquisitely intimidating unanimity.

"N-nothing..." She replies hushed.

She feels like she is unremittingly shrinking.

"Cat got your tongue again?" He reaches out and abducts her wrist, pulling it up and toward himself.

Some shadow appears behind her, slowly slithering up her back and over her shoulders. It grips her neck and then travels up towards her stolen wrist. Wrapping around Michael's hand, it locks her in his grasp. Her heart quickens and stirs within her chest. Her lips hang slightly open and Michael eyes them intensely.

"Answer me, bitch!" He jerks her arm as he yells. Raven just shuts her eyes and begs for him to leave.

Don't...don't do it. Please...

Raven don't you dare cry.

He chokes back her tears through clamping her eyes shut.

"C'mon, Rae, it's not that hard." Mark patronizes behind the large delinquent.

Raven's eyes pop open and she immediately goes to slap Michael just as she did last time she heard that nickname despite it being Mark this time. All that matters to her is that it was said and Michael is the closest person to punish for it.

When the slap landed, it was harder than before. Michael reels back and releases Raven in the progress. She siezes the opportunity and makes a break for the stairwell, still biting back tears.

No no no this can't be happening! This cannot be happening!!

Her mind races at the same pace as her feet. The heavy footsteps of the three boys aren't far behind her.

Somebody else has to be in the school! They have to!

Once she gets outside, she debates heading to her car and speeding away or running and trying to lose them. The decision is made for her as the front door opens and her brain picks an option.

It chose to run.

That was the wrong choice.

They catch up to her so quickly that Raven doesn't even make it off of school property. She still feels sick and running is a challenge.

Mark drags her back towards the area of the school that people hardly ever go. There are cars parked there but nobody is in them, and nobody ever comes out the doors in this area.

Raven is trapped.

Don't touch me! Get off!

He drags her kicking towards the school, but the only noise to be heard from her are quiet grunts. No matter how hard she tries, she can't figure out how to speak.

This is not happening... Tell me this isn't happening... Goddamnit, let me go!

If only they could hear her thoughts.

Raven is slammed against the brick and her wrists are firmly pinned by Mark.

"Scared yet?" It's written all over her face. Not only can Mark see it, but the other two as well. Anybody would.

Raven gives no response. She simply watches whilst the shadow begins to envelop her torso and tightens its grip around her neck. Her throat closes and her breaths become so much heavier.

Michael then shoves Mark out of the way and once Raven lays her eyes upon Michael's expression, dread fills her and the shadow spreads down to her legs. They go limp and she finds it extremely difficult to stand.

His face isn't angry, it isn't exciting, and no, it's not quite evil. It's more than that. It's hungry. Maliciously hungry.

"I'd say she's very scared, Mark. Why do you think that is?" He asks his friend while keeping eye contact with the mortified Raven.

"I don't know, Mike. Beats me." He feigns ignorance.

"Oh! Maybe it's us!" James answers.

"Really, Raven? Is that true? Are we scaring you? Raven Roth? The unbreakable chick that's never scared?" He speaks close to her. She can feel his breath and his contempt on her face. Yet she still says nothing.

"Heh, looks like you're right, James. It is us." Mark remarks.

"Huh. Guess we'll have to fix that then." Michael immediately begins to follow up on this statement and pulls a zip tie from his back pocket.

Her eyes expand into saucers and she starts to fight back, hitting him and trying to knee him as well as pushing against his shoulders and his chest, but it doesn't work.

She's still a little sick.

Michael easily gets by her attempts and easily ties the zip-tie around her wrists behind her back.

Stop! Stop it! Someone help! Sadly, nobody can hear her thoughts.

The shadow is starting to creep its way up her neck, and then jumps upward when Michael forces himself upon her lips. Its sinuous tendrils wrap around her head and assimilate into her, constricting her and squeezing the tears right out of her. She shakes her head in an effort to ward him off, and it eventually works and their lips disconnect, but not before he traumatized her lips with such a rough and abruptly unpleasant kiss.

"Oof, guess she didn't like that, Mike."

"Yeah! Look at her! She's freakin' crying!"

Michael scowls, shifts his gaze downward, and then smiles. Raven knows exactly what he's looking at and she shakes her head vigorously, pleading to him with her eyes.

"I can't read those sexy lips, Rae. You gotta say something if you want me to stop. C'mon, it's only one word."

"Ah..." Her apprehensive voice tapers off into nothing.

"Thought so." Using Raven's silence as a green light, Michael unzips Raven's sweatshirt, revealing her V-neck T-shirt. She becomes frozen with fear whilst Michael hooks his hands around the hem of the shirt and lifts it over her head, exposing her chest and her stomach to him as well as the crisp November air. The cold air makes her shiver and Michael's sudden touch makes her flinch. The tears stream down her face in torrents.

No! Don't touch me! Leave me alone!

Noah wasn't lying, much to Raven's dismay. He had heard his brother right.

Michael is trying to rape her.

He keeps touching her, feeling her; she, even with her best efforts, still cannot move.

Dick! Kori! Vic! A-anyone...?

Michael's hands travel down to the hem of her jeans.

Gar?

They grasp the two buttons keeping them up over her hips.

...

Kai?

"K-Kai..." She barely manages to squeak out.

"Ha. Bitch, you really thought someone would come and get you?" Raven's face has never been so mortified.

Raven shuts her eyes in defeat.

Michael, seeing full opportunity to proceed, wholeheartedly does so.

"Let's have some fun, Rae."

Michael advances and Raven braces herself for the worst.

But...Michael stopped?

"What the hell is it, dude?! I'm kinda in the middle of something here!"

"Uh, Mike," Raven opens her eyes and sees James pointing at something to her right. All the boys' faces exhibit the exact expression of someone who just got caught redhanded. Raven looks at where they are and Raven's face immediately flips to the exact opposite. Her saving grace has returned.

Kai!

"Raven?" He says in astonished disgust. "What the hell are you doing to her?!" He runs over to the four but stops about a yard away from them when the three of them get up and block his path, shielding Raven.

"None of your damn business. Why don't you just go home and play your little ukulele or something and pretend you didn't see anything." Michael suggests with his arms crossed.

"First off: It's a guitar. Second: The hell I will! I caught you and you know it! It's written all over your faces!" Raven slowly tries to get back onto her feet without the use of her hands as quietly as she possibly can. "You guys are sick! You're preying on someone you know for a fact is weaker compared to you and doesn't have the confidence to speak up and actually yell for help! And for what? Fun?! This isn't fun! You guys just don't know what to do with yourselves because you're too damn stupid and don't have anything better to do than mess around with her! Have some dignity at the very least."

Michael, fully enraged, clutches Kai by the collar of his T-shirt. "Listen here, Twig, you don't know what went on in this school. You don't know me, you don't know my guys, and you sure as hell don't know her." Raven falls down causing James and Mark to take notice of her struggles. They go over to her and stand over her, guarding her. Preventing her from going anywhere. "Don't pretend that just because you're the new kid I'm not going to f*ck you up for saying crap like that. "

Kai replies with his fist and clobbers Michael in the jaw. Kai is released and bolts to Raven. Upon grabbing her, James and Mark tackle him. To their surprise, Kai throws them off and grabs Raven, b-lining towards the school.

Without hesitation, he barges into the girl's bathroom and sits her down on the floor.

Kai stands over her, making an extended effort to ignore his teenaged boy instincts and masculine horomones and keep his eyes locked on her face.

Oh, wait. Her hands are tied. I have to look at the rest of her...

He hesitantly takes up the responsibility of fixing her up while he tries to soothe her.

Raven is visibly shaken. She's shaking, her eyes are fearful, and she's still silently crying up a storm. When Kai touches her -- albeit gently, especially compared to Michael -- she flinches and jumps away from him. "N-no... Don't..." She asks of him.

"Easy, Raven. It's just me. Nobody is going to hurt you anymore, ok? I'm just going to put your shirt and pants back on. Can I do that?"

After a moment, Raven nods. "Yes..." She says.

Kai reaches for her pants first. He pulls the pants from her knees up to her thighs and buttons them closed. He feels her trembling underneath his gentle touch.

Next, he pulls her shirt back over her head and straightens it out. Then he pulls her jean jacket over her shoulders.

"This is a cool jacket. You think it'll fit me?"

Raven smiles slightly at his lightheartedness. Kai then reaches around her neck to her hair and clenches it together. Then, using the hair tie around his wrist, ties her ruffled hair back into a sleek, neat ponytail.

"Why do you have a hair tie?" She asks.

"My own hair." He shakes his head like a wet dog. It's long enough to put it up after all. I always carry one around with me. Just never use it."

Raven seems a little calmer now, so Kai decides to dare and ask the forbidden question. "How are you feeling now? Are you ok?"

"I..." She looks down at her legs and clamps her eyes shut. "Just get me out of here..." She says warily.

"Do you want me to take you home?"

"No!" She replies with shocking fervor still with her eyes closed."No..."

"Then where should I..." Kai watches as she tries to move into a more comfortable position, again, without the use of her hands. "We don't have scissors..." He states. "Where are your keys?"

Raven realizes where her keys are and groans. "They're...in my backpack..."

"Please tell me that your backpack isn't outside."

Raven solemnly nods. "It's outside."

Kai sighs, "Damn. Rave, we need to go to guidance or the police. You could've been really hurt--"

"No! Just get me out of this school! Please!" She lunges into him and he reflexively wraps his arms around her to secure her.

"Please...just take me somewhere, anywhere else..."

Kai runs his hand down her back and he feels her body relax into his, their warmth merging together. He looks towards the door.

"Ok." He replies after a little time. He rises from the floor and Raven slips from his arms. She sits up and props herself against the wall again. "Stay here." His hand is on the door handle. "I'll try not to lead them back here. If anyone comes in, hide in the stalls or jump out the window. I'll be back in a few. Promise."

Raven's eyes follow Kai as he opens the bathroom door and leaves, leaving her alone. She eyes the half-opened window, her escape route, then turns her gaze back to the exit door.

"Promise..."

~~~

Sorry I didn't get this out last week. I made an announcement on my profile page to inform people. Obviously the chapter was important. The whole ordeal in this and the next chapter were supposed to be one chapter but clearly that didn't happen.

I hope nobody was made too uncomfortable. But that was, at the same time, kind of the point. You were warned after all (sort of...). I hope nobody ever has to go through something like this, and if you ever do, that you have a Kai in your life to help you through it.

~Rae

Word Count: 5028