Despite Honey and Haruhi's efforts, I still ended the day with a massive burn that stretched across basically every part of my skin that had been showing, and yes, that included the part in my hair and the tops of my feet... Needless to say, by the time the sun was setting, the pain was starting to set in, but I wasn't about to let that determine my ability to have fun for the rest of the day, though I knew that I would be paying for it in the days to come.

Currently, I was watching the hosts attempting to scare Haruhi with great amusement, already the twins had taken her and a few of the others girls into a dark creepy cave (The twins tried to get me to go as well, but I ignored them and went later when I was in no danger of having the crap frightened out of me), Honey locked himself and Haruhi in a dark truck, only for things to backfire on him, and Mori tried to frighten her with a really cool looking weapon.

The best part about all of this was seeing Haruhi's complete obliviousness to all of it; no matter what was tried, she looked at them and asked a naïve question, not catching on to the fact that something was off with the hosts. I watched this from a distance, not stepping in until I saw Tamaki carrying a bucket full of something that was writhing. I was curious and horrified at the same time, if those were what I thought they were, I was going to smack Tamaki upside the head.

Cautiously, I stood up from my spot under an umbrella, wincing as I stretched my sunburns and made my way to the blond idiot, "Hey, Tamaki," I called, and he swung towards me, a huge smile stretched across his face, "Wha'cha got there?"

Eager to explain his 'brilliant' plan, he ran towards me like a puppy dog, I could practically see the long tail wagging happily behind him, "Ah, Jessica, you are just in time to witness my brilliance, for you see, while the others have stuck to very mundane ways of scary our Haruhi, I have considered my options and found something that will be sure to win this contest!" He showed me the bucket full of snacks with a flourish, obviously unaware of the fact that they were becoming agitated, and therefore, more likely to bite. "I have found a group of rat snakes, surely she'll be frightened by these!"

I took a step closer and examined the snakes that Tamaki was so proud of, "Well Tamaki, I have to give you partial credit, you probably could scare Haruhi with these, but I wouldn't recommend it."

"Oh?" Tamaki looked between me and the snakes in confusion, "And why would you say that?"

I shook my head and grabbed a snake that was lunging to bite Tamaki, being careful to hold it right behind the head so it wouldn't bite me, "For one, these aren't rat snakes, they're venomous," I showed Tamaki the snake I was holding, pointing to it's extended fangs, "I don't think the aim of this contest is to poison Haruhi."

Tamaki's face turned as white as a sheet and I gingerly reached out and took the bucket of snakes from him as I saw a panic attack coming on, "What do I do with these then?" He me hysterically, not realizing that I had already taken the bucket away from him.

"You aren't going to do anything," I said, turning away, looking for a safe place to leave the little critters, "I'm going to make sure these guys get to safety."

I took a few steps, but was stopped by Kyoya, who was looking at me with interest, "I was unaware that you knew how to handle snakes, Miss Parrik."

A laugh forced its way out of my mouth as I looked behind the shadow king to see Tamaki and the twins staring at me with a mix of awe and horror. "Yeah, I volunteered at a zoo for several years in America, handling animals has kinda become second nature to me since then." I said this as casually as possible then looked back to the increasingly irritated snakes I was holding, "Now if you would hold your questions for later, I really don't want to get bitten; I'm pretty sure this is a viper and I've heard that their venom does nasty things to a person that I don't want to experience these first hand." Once again, I gave this aspect of myself to Jessica, I actually did work at a zoo, in fact, snakes were my favorite animal to handle, just so you know.

I gave them my best closed eye smile and began walking towards a grove of trees a little way away, doing my best to give the snakes as little room as possible to bite me.

"Remember, the rest of the girls are going back to their hotel in ten minutes, Miss Parrik, you'll be staying with them, so be sure to be at the pick-up point." Kyoya called after me, though I gave no outward appearance of hearing him, I was just glad that all the girls got their own room, not that I didn't like the hosts' customers, but I didn't have the mental reserve to deal with their constant prattle on top of my sunburns. I really just wanted to be alone.

I carefully walked far enough into the trees in hopes that the snakes wouldn't follow me back to the beach and set the bucket down on it's side, releasing the snakes and jumping back in one fluid move, "Back home you guys, sorry about Tamaki, he's an idiot, I hope you make it back home okay" I murmured, and turned away to go grab my bag, "How did Tamaki manage to capture that many snakes without getting bitten anyways? Maybe the snakes sensed his idiocy and decided to give him a break."

The beach was just out of sight, but it still surprised me how far I had walked in so little time, I started to step over a log, when my foot got caught on something and I fell forward, right onto my sun burned face. Yeah, that was painful, but it was over shadowed by the panic I felt when someone grabbed my arm and hauled me up, looking at me rather maliciously as he spoke to the two other guts behind him, "Well, well, well, it looks like we've got ourselves a girl to play with. I wonder if the other three had any luck.

I feel like I pause the story really quickly to explain something to all of you readers who are out there telling me to kick him and run; I'm not judging you, I've been you many times before, both in reading books and watching movies. In fact, if I were the one reading this right now, I would probably be yelling for me to get out of there, especially since I've repeatedly said that I enjoy studying self-defense; so, if this cut scene bugs you, just pretend that this is Deadpool or something!

The thing that you need to understand about this moment is that regardless of any skill I have with fighting, I also have a crap panic response. Yes, you heard that right, when I'm startled, I often freeze in place, sometimes my knees will even give out, and I'll collapse where I am. My friends back home find it hilarious, but you can see how problematic this would be in a moment like this, right? Just call me Jessica the fainting goat I guess, because if you scare the crap out of me when I'm otherwise engaged, and I'll freeze for several seconds, possibly falling on the floor in the process, giving you time to do whatever you want to me.

This is relevant because the instant I was pulled up roughly, my legs stopped working and I was leaning against the beer-soaked man who was saying something that I couldn't quite hear, completely in their mercy, "... want me that bad? Boys, I think we need to give her what she's asking for, doesn't that sound fun, doll-face?"

Ah heck no. I tried to push him away, but the feeling was only just returning to my legs and I knew I would be unsteady if I tried walking now. The other two boys moved to surround me, grabbing me around my waist before picking me up.

At that moment, my tongue returned, and I was finally able to start thrashing in their hold, "Let me go you drunk whore!" I said loudly, hoping someone would hear and come to my rescue.

A hand was slapped over my mouth and they all shushed me, "Quiet girl, someone could hear us!" I hissed against their hand as where they were grabbing began to burn, but I didn't stop struggling.

"Oh really? I never would have thought that we could be heard, why in the world would I want someone to hear me in this effing situation!" I suppose the panic in my brain short-circuited my ability to speak Japanese and I began spewing out all sorts of insults in English as soon as I worked the hand from my mouth.

I wasn't sure where they were taking me, but I had no intention of finding out, the feeling in my legs was fully back, so I ripped one of my arms out of it's captor using the weak point in their grip and jammed it into gut of whoever was nearest to me. It quickly became apparent that at least two of them were drunker than skunks, so it was an easy matter for me to get out of their grip. As soon as I was free, I began running, not bothering to stick around to see if I had taken them out, I had been taught over and over again that adrenaline was not my friend in a fight; my goal was not to beat them until they submitted, it was to get free and get gone.

I only made it a couple of steps before my klutziness got the best and I caught my leg of a sharp branch; I went down hard and struggled back to my feet, doing my best to not pay attention to the pain coursing through my body. I tried to take another step forward, but apparently the branch had gotten me worse than I realized, because I went right back down.

Where the flip were the hosts? I swear I had only been gone for a few minutes, surely, they all wouldn't have left in that time, why would they? A quick glance behind me confirmed the fact that I was being pursued (admittedly it was at a slow and drunken pace, but it was still enough to worry me), so I pushed my self up onto my good leg and began to limp towards the beach, whimpering with every jar against my other leg.

I was doing my best to go quickly and safely at the same time, but I suppose that wasn't in the cards for me when I went down for the third time. By now I had just given up, I knew that it was unlikely that I would be able to get up again, especially when I caught sight of my poor leg (I won't even describe it to you, just know it's gross), so instead, I did the only thing I could think of to do gain some attention to myself, "HELP ME!" The scream had just left my lips when a rock crashed against my scull and the world went dark.