In the movies and books, they talk about death in an intriguing way. They talk about how your spirit basically leaves your body the same way your best friend leaves your house after a sleepover; you want them to stay, yet you know it's time for them to leave, however much you would've loved it, you know they can't stay forever. Some even go as far as saying that angels dressed in white wait for your soul with open arms, and that there's always a beautiful white light at the end of the hallway.

What Scarlet has seen in the road of death so far is said bright light, which apparently isn't permanent as it disappeared as fast as it had come. Leaving Scarlet with the conclusion that either she's not dead, or she is and the above theories are nothing but that.

But she can't be dead...or well, dying!
There's a whole lot of stuff she has to clear up before she does die. If at all.

And Celine. Oh god Celine!

But then, the eerie silence, the bright light, however shortlived, was there. What has happened to Gold and Co.?

Maybe Scarlet really is dead.

Don't they say that when you see the white light others can't see you're dead? But she thought that is supposed to happen to good people, something she most certainly isn't. With her amount of sins, she sure as hell can't be welcome to heaven.

Wherever that is.

And then she hears it...

"No!"

No? There's a distant voice protesting. She's not certain whether it's hers or someone else's.

Do people scream in heaven?

Maybe she is in hell after all.

When her head starts spinning from the effect of being hit with an extremely hard piece of wood, Scarlet realises that maybe she's not dead, rather, she must have passed out. This can't be happening! She has a responsibility, she has to find her.

Celine...

That's all the reminder Scarlet needed; her baby girl. She pries her eyes open, gathering all the strength she has left to stop the rapists, it doesn't matter whether they've had their wicked way with her already while she was out. She's going to kill them, get out of here and deal with the consequences later.

Did she really pass out?

Or did she imagine it?

Yes you did idiot! Who passes out for two seconds?

Scarlet. That's who.

She groans as she shoves her hands forcefully forward to push whoever is on top of her off.

But her hands shove her forward instead.

Scarlet's hands hit the wall, a sharp pain cutting through them. There's no one on top of her. She blinks away the bleariness in her eyes, her head is spinning with squeaky noises of friction inside. She tries to force her mind to calm down and concentrate.

She blinks again.

That's when the noises begin again.

With her head still spinning, she turns to the direction where the voices are coming from, People are fighting.
When Scarlet looks closely, she notices a newcomer, he's just joined in on the party. Gold is in the corner leaning against the couch, his face is bleeding.
He's been beaten severely, much to Scarlet's satisfaction. All the while, newcomer is stuffing the other junkies with a punch-salad, maybe he isn't on their side after all. Scarlet's guessing the main course is done with but when she checks her jeans, the belt is still in place.

Thank God!

She exhales deeply.

Run!

With shaky legs, Scarlet staggers to her feet. No way in hell is she staying in this room any longer, she needs to find Celine and for all she knows, Newcomer may look like the epitome of perfection in his blue suit, but that doesn't make him the good guy.

He may have saved her from Gold and company so he can have his way with her without sharing. What else could a person dressed like him be doing here? Or maybe...No don't go there Scar!
And she sure as hell can't fight him in her current state. Scarlet groans as she gets up, clutching at her head.

It hurts like a bitch.

When she places a hand on her back, it burns, as if someone just placed burning coal on it. She quickly removes the hand and the burning ceases immediately.

If her temperature is this high, she must be running a fever.

Just what she needs.

Newcomer pauses, staring intently at Scarlet.
Beardy;Gold's friend, seizes the opportunity to punch him across the jaw. Newcomer doesn't even flinch. He's busy staring at Scarlet.

Creepy thing isn't he?

Absent mindedly, with his eyes focused on her, he backhands Beardy, making him hit the wall.

"Son of a b- ow!" Beardy doesn't get to finish his insult before landing himself another punch from his more than willing opponent. Newcomer keeps his unwavering gaze on Scarlet.
The way he seems to be fighting; throwing punches almost blindly is quite impressive. More the reason she's got to run out of here.

He can't be some random knight in shining armour.

Scarlet has just found a new talent.
She is one hell of a multi-tasker.

She's watching the interesting Newcomer and jumping her way past the junkies on the floor and out of the room. Scarlet can't openly stare back at him but she's positive he is probably wondering how the person he's rescuing is supposed to be running off without as much as a thank you.

Or he's making her think that so she doesn't leave already.

Well he's going to stare forever.

Scarlet all but stumbles past the door to the steps, clutching one of her shoes in one hand and the backpack in the other. Descending the stairs is much easier and faster than the climbing part, especially if user is taking them two at a time. Before she can breath in and out, Scarlet's down in the hallway of the ground floor.
Weed invades her nostrils much worse than earlier. She can't ignore the smoke anymore. Scarlet can't breathe. She chokes on the smoke, and starts coughing like a maniac. Clutching at her stomach for dear life. She's hungry, thirsty, tired, head is on the verge of exploding and her vision is blurred. Again.

Not forgetting the part where on top of all the above she's smoking weed.

How fucking great is that?

She can't walk anymore, the coughing continues and Scarlet stumbles and hides in a dark but weed free corner. In case the smart newcomer follows her down, even he won't find her.

Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

"Celine! Where are you baby?" She mumbles, her voice groggy, cue the tears. Leave it to freaking tearducts to choose the day when she's this dehydrated to break lose.

Great.

Scarlet cries while sipping on her water bottle, unsure if she's really drinking water or her own tears.. How is she going to find her poor girl? Her lungs are on the verge of closing due to Scarlet trying to suffocate her cries.

Breathe Scar. Don't forget to breathe. Nosy subconscious does know how to be useful. Sometimes.

A few minutes have passed, after breathing in some fresh air and water, she feels slightly better and can see clearly. Given the newcomer did not follow her down. She decides to get up and go.

But where?

Scarlet has no idea. She can't go home. Home is not home without Celine.

"Miss?"

Scarlet is on the second of about seven steps leading down to the front porch of the building when a deep voice startles her, but a pair of strong hands in a suit encircle her waist from behind. Preventing her from falling.

What the hell?

She doesn't bother to look him in the face, she doesn't want to but she's sure it's him; the Newcomer. You don't just find people in suits everywhere in such a dumpster.

She groans.

"Miss are you okay?" He asks, it's really laughable for his voice to sound genuinely concerned to her ears. Genuine or concern isn't something Scarlet gets to see every day. These kinds of things don't happen, at least not in the real world. Strangers don't just be concerned about other strangers.

Scarlet nods. Not trusting her voice not to crack. Her eyes are full of tears. Good enough he isn't seeing them.

"Miss, you sure you're okay?"

"I said I'm fine!" She snaps. He's holding her freaking waist! "Now please let me go. I can stand on my own perfectly fine thank you very much!"

He lets her go immediately, almost on impulse, as if her body just burned him! What the hell?

Shut up Scar! You asked him to let you go remember? Her subconscious scolds.

Yeah. Of course she remembers that part.

So why are you complaining? Nosy subconscious asks again. She really needs to shut up. Scarlet isn't complaining. It's just unnerving how he let go of her waist as if he was waiting anxiously for that moment.

Scarlet shouldn't be standing here, in fact, she knows she shouldn't even think about anything except Celine. And then this strange man shows up, he could be an assassin, or the kidnapper or a spy? The possibilities are endless.

When he lets her go Scarlet falls successfully past the remaining steps onto the dirty tiled porch floor.

Thump!

"Uurrrghh!" She cries.

"May I?" The newcomer reaches out with his hand, but not before laughing at her. Scarlet has no option but to look up at him as she gives him her hand. She didn't want to, she didn't want him to have an even closer look at her face.

But now, Scarlet regrets whatever reasons she had given herself for not wanting to see his face. Newcomer has dark brown curly hair, gray eyes staring down in hers, beautiful thick brows and a perfect razor-sharp jaw, no wonder he never felt any of Beardy's punches. And extremely attractive chiselled lips. His navy blue suit is perfectly fitted on the lean muscled body and the shirt is partly unbuttoned at his chest, allowing a faint glimpse at a tattoo.
That does it for Scarlet.

She really is a sucker for some ink.

She gulps.

Newcomer is hot. That goes without a doubt.

Scarlet can now die in peace knowing that she's seen all there is to see on earth.

"You could take a picture," Newcomer suggests. "it'll last longer." Chuckling, he hoists her off the ground. Scarlet rolls her eyes. He's full of himself.

She should've known.

"Is that all there is?" Scarlet asks, gesturing to his full frame. "A very lame cocky line?"

He just keeps chuckling as she dusts off her jeans and starts on her way.

He follows.

Great. What's his deal? He must be a spy. Assassins don't try to befriend their mark.

She sighs, forcibly turns around, and bumps into him intentionally. "What do you want? !"

"Whoa!" Newcomer growls with a grin. "Slow down there. Are you running from someone?" He raises an eyebrow.

"No shit Sherlock!" Scarlet claps. "I mean who would run away from a dumpster with psychopaths trying to rape them?" She raises an eyebrow too.

Perfect excuse Scar, but we know you're not exactly running from the junkies. That nosy thing called a subconscious again.

"You are strange." Newcomer says, stroking his almost nonexistent stubble while carefully studying her with narrowed eyes.

"Pot calling the kettle black?" Scarlet retorts under her breath.

He chuckles for the nth time.

"And by the way, the name's Shirley not Sherlock." He grins with those perfect white teeth and reaches out to shake her hand while she rolls her eyes.

Yep! He is a spy.

Does he think she's going to tell him my name? It's bad enough that he's already taken a close look at her face.

"Whatever Sherlock." Scarlet rolls her eyes again while gripping his hand to shake it. "I wish it was nice to meet you Shirley. Unfortunately, it isn't."

He grins, it takes everything in Scarlet not to reach out and punch the stupid grin off his annoyingly gorgeous face.

"You know?" Newcomer speaks. "For someone with a steel-hard grip, it's hard to believe you couldn't fight a bunch of junkies who can't even stand up straight!"

He's studying her with his intense gaze again.

Scarlet looks him straight in the eye. Her expression giving nothing away. Hopefully. She calmly lets go of his hand and turns around to leave without another word. Glad he isn't trailing along.
When she's past the dark alley her phone starts ringing in the backpack so she stops to pick it up. It has to be the psychopaths that took her baby.

"Boo!"

She jumps, irritated when she recognises the voice.

"Jesus Christ! What are you, five?" Scarlet shouts, frustration clear in her voice.

"Close." He grins. "I'm twenty five though." He grins again. The hell? He's really starting to piss her off. Her call is urgent, but she can't take it in front of him. The kidnappers were clear when they told her not to involve anyone else.
Not that Scarlet is afraid of a bunch of cowards who feel the need to kidnap a little girl.

"Please leave me alone!" She yells, desperate to get rid of him without actually having to relieve him of his breath.

Restraint Scarlet. Control.

With this frustrating man around, she needs to keep reminding herself that she's not a murderer, she can't just kill him because of a feeling in her gut. Oh no, there's a huge difference between murder and what she does.

Tears start brimming in the corners of her eyes. On a normal day Scarlet would be hating that she actually wants to cry in front of him, but right now, maybe tears could really come in handy. If this man is a spy, or an assassin and is well informed, then he wouldn't picture her getting sentimental, more less shed a tear.

"Do you follow strangers for a living?" Scarlet crosses her arms across her chest and bites down on her lip to stop the tears. But she fails miserably as the tears spill all over her cheeks.

Pathetic.

She secretly stomps her feet, knowing she looks like a certain petulant five year old she knows but can't help the frustration she's feeling right now.

Who has her kind of luck?

"Are you listening to me?" Newcomer, whose name is Shirley asks as he gently shakes her shoulders. Scarlet doesn't have the time to listen to him anymore. Every single minute she wastes is a minute Celine spends with her kidnappers.
"Why are you crying?" He presses when she doesn't talk back.
"Just so you know," he frowns. "I don't follow strangers around for a living. I was just wondering what a girl like you was doing in that building, in that strange room."

Ha! A girl like her. Scarlet snorts. He sure doesn't know her. Maybe the tears have worked after all!

"Strange?" Scarlet ignores his first words and asks. "What's strange about it?"

"The fact that it is a baby room?" He shrugs. "You know, perfectly furnished,clean and all that shit? Come on, that kind of place isn't something you find in that kind of a building every day."

Scarlet nods.

"So?" He presses.

"Wh-?" Her phone rings for the forth time. She freezes, glancing at Shirley.

Shirley raises a questioning brow. "Well, aren't you going to get that?"

Scarlet sighs and bends down to get the phone. Her heart is almost jumping out of place. She doesn't know how to handle the situation of picking up the phone without raising more suspicion in this stranger's already nosy head.

But she's also not dumb.

She can do this.

Her daughter's life depends on this phone call.

She can.

Scarlet's heart stops beating, literally, when she sees the caller ID, the same phone she's been calling relentlessly for two days, the same phone that would head straight to voicemail every time. Her eyes flicker from her phone to the stranger then back, her heart beats a million times faster and louder than normal, and before she realises what she's doing, Scarlet touches the green option.