Warning: Violence, blood and attempted rape (nothing graphic).

Chapter 19: Close call.

"Hans." I say with my voice full of terror, because he is behind me. With a knife pressing on my back. And we're alone.

"If you scream, I will kill you." He threatens me. "Now, do exactly as I tell you and you won't be hurt… much." He adds, his voice full of malice, and I close my eyes for a moment trying to calm down, to figure a way out of this situation. But all I manage is to panic even more.

"P-please. Don't do this." I say, even though I know there's no way in hell he's going to listen to my pleas.

"Oh, Anna." He says in a fake condescending tone. "You don't think you'll stop me with some pretty words, do you? Besides, you don't even know what I'm going to do with you. I promise it'll be fun… at least for me." He adds, whispering so close to my ear that I can actually feel his breath.

"Please Hans, you may be a bully, but you're not a murderer." I try to reason with him.

"You're right, Anna. I'm not a murderer, and I don't want to become one, so please cooperate and don't force me to kill you, will you?" I swallow, looking frantically to each side, searching for someone to help, but right now we're alone in the street. And Elsa must be far away at this point. "Now walk." He orders with a stern voice, pressing the tip of his knife more firmly into my shirt, so it actually touches my skin. I don't have an option; I have to obey and do as he says, at least until I find a way to escape.

He leads me through a deserted street, and then we turn to another one, darker and emptier than the last, and then another even creepier one. I don't like it; and all I want is to run, to scream. But I'm afraid that he's probably faster than me, and he has a knife. I just hope he won't do anything too bad. Maybe he's just trying to scare me? I mean, he wouldn't kill me right? He isn't a criminal.

Yet.

The thought gives me chills, but I don't have time to dwell on it because in that moment my cellphone (that I'm still holding on my hand) rings, startling me. I stare at the screen, seeing the caller is Elsa.

That's it! Elsa! She will save me. I just have to pick up.

However, just as I'm about to bring the phone to my ear, Hans takes it from me and tosses it to the ground.

"You didn't think I'd let you tell your pathetic excuse of a girlfriend about this, did you? I don't want anyone to interfere with my plans." He says, and all I can do is stare at my broken cellphone for a moment before resigning to my fate and continue walking.

After two more turns, we find ourselves in a dead end, a dark and dirty alley full of trash that smells like it has been used as a bathroom a lot. Just the type of place you'd expect to find a crime scene in. I guess he picked it well after all, I mean, I don't know what he's gonna do to me here, but I bet it's nothing legal.

He pushes me forwards when he realizes I've stopped at the middle of the alley, making me trip before regaining my balance, just a few feet away from the wall. He's at my back again in an instant.

"I was expecting for our first time to be in a nicer place, but, I guess this will have to do."

I chill runs through my spine as I understand the meaning of his words.

Our first time?! Oh god, he's going to rape me! This is much worse than I thought.

"Help!" I scream at the top of my lungs without thinking it twice, only to end up colliding with the wall a second latter as his body presses tightly against mine, pinning me there. However, I'm still not going to give up. I won't let him rape me. "Help! Please!" I say again, before I'm effectively silenced by Hans hand covering my mouth.

"Shut up, bitch." He says, his voice now having a predatory tone that makes me shake in fear. "No one is going to help you. No one can hear you." I start to tear up because he's probably right. I should have screamed sooner, regardless if there was no one around. There were more possibilities of someone hearing me then, but I guess I didn't think that trough; I thought Hans was just trying to scare me, I never thought he'd rape me. And now I'm screwed. I'm so stupid! However, I'm not going to give up just yet. If no one's going to help me, then I guess I'll have to help myself.

First, I carefully analyze the situation. I'm pinned against the wall, Hans has his whole body pressed against my back not letting me move, and has one hand on my mouth and the other one pressing a knife against me. This means that, if I somehow managed to turn around and punch him, he wouldn't be able to block it. However, to do that, I have to make him separate from me, but how?

Suddenly, a very crazy idea comes to my mind and, before I can better think of it and decide it's suicide, I just bite down in his hand, which he immediately retreats, and before he's able to recover, I trample on his left foot, making him stumble back, giving me enough room to quickly turn around and punch him with my left hand (my weaker one, unfortunately, but the only one I can use right now) with such strength, I send him to the ground. Seeing this, I don't waste time and just try to run away, only now registering a sharp pain on my back, but I decide to just ignore it. However, just as I'm passing at Hans' side, he grabs my ankle and I fall. In my broken arm. And it hurts like fuck. I scream in pain.

For a few moments I'm not able to even breathe, as the pain blocks everything else. I'm not able to move, I'm not able to fight when a very angry Hans grabs my hair and pulls me into a standing position, and yells something at me before he starts repeatedly crashing my head against the wall. My vision starts to fade. Everything is blurry, and I know I'm going to pass out at any moment. I know I should resist it, I know that if I lose consciousness now, when I wake up (if I wake up) I won't like what I see. However, I can't help it and soon everything turns black.

The last thing I hear before I'm completely submerged in darkness is Elsa's beautiful voice.

The first thing I register is that there's a huge drum inside my head. Or at least that's what it feels like. My broken arm also hurts, just as it did yesterday. And there's a sharp pain at my lower back, on the left side, extending towards my abdomen. Everything hurts. I wish I had just stayed asleep.

Wait? Asleep? No, I wasn't asleep… I was unconscious!

I open my eyes with a start, and the first thing I can think of is that it's a good thing that I still have all my clothes on. However, the relief I felt at first doesn't last long, as I hear light panting at my side and I turn to see Elsa lying on the ground, firmly clutching her stomach. And there's blood in her hands. And for the expression she has on her face I can tell that she's in pain.

"Elsa!" I scream as I run to her, ignoring my own pain to go and ease hers. I kneel at her side and notice that there is a huge stain of blood on her shirt, her hair is messy, and her face sweaty, and with signs of bruises that get darker and darker every second. "Elsa, are you okay?!" I say frantically, almost hysterical, trying to keep myself from panicking, because that's not going to help Elsa. She looks up at me with eyes almost closing, but I can see that, despite the pain, she's happy to see me.

"Ah… A-an… A-Anna." She manages to say with a hoarse voice before she closes her eyes and her whole body relaxes.

"Elsa!" I scream before leaning in to feel if she's still breathing. She is, but it's very slow and weak. I'm sure this isn't normal.

Damn! Why did she have to come? Why couldn't she just take her time retrieving her notebook? I will never forgive myself if she dies for trying to save me.

I notice that tears are already falling in torrents from my eyes, but I ignore them as I search in Elsa's pants to see if she brought her cellphone. She did, fortunately, so I take it out and quickly dial 911. The few seconds it takes before they answer are the longest of my life.

"Hello? 911, what is your emergency?" I voice says at the other end.

"H-hi." I answer, cringing when I notice my voice (as well as my hand holding the cellphone) is shaking, and my throat is painfully swollen. I just hope she can understand me. "My friend and I were attacked. I'm fine, but she's bleeding… she has a wound at her stomach." A sob interrupts me, but I fight to keep myself from crying. "She just closed her eyes and went unconscious." I'm hyperventilating now, fighting the urge to cry, but it's getting harder every second.

"Breath." She instructs me. "Please, calm down. I'll need you to tell me where you are." At least she gives me something to focus on, to distract me from Elsa's bruised face and from Elsa's bloody clothes. I search with my eyes the name of the street and soon find it.

"We're in a dead end, which leads to a street called South A-133."

"Alright, can you tell me the name of the streets between where you are?" I don't want to leave Elsa's side, but I know it's necessary, so I get up and quickly run to see both names, then say them to the woman before returning to Elsa, kneeling beside her. "Very well, the paramedics should be already on their way. They'll be there shortly, but I need you to do something until they arrive."

"O-okay." I say with a shaky voice.

"Can you see the wound?" She asks. I want to say no, but I decide it's for the best, so I just lift Elsa's shirt until a small but deep hole full of blood is shown at the right side of her stomach, near her belly button. It looks bad.

"Yes." I say.

"How is the flow of blood?"

"It's… steady. The blood is slowly coming out. It doesn't stop." I say, chocking a sob.

"That's a good sign." She says, her voice sounding relieved. "But I still need you to press strongly just above her wound until the bleeding stops, can you do that?"

"Y-yes." I say as I put the cellphone on my shoulder before pressing my hand on her wound, grimacing when I feel the blood. After applying a little more pressure, the bleeding stops.

"Alright, now don't hang up until the help arrives." She says before proceeding to ask for my name, my age, emergency number, as well as Elsa's. I answer to all absentmindedly, just wishing with all my heart that the paramedics arrive soon, so Elsa will be okay and this whole nightmare will be over.

I'm now at the hospital, sitting next to Elsa's bed. She's stable now; they already closed her wound and she's received a blood transfusion. However they don't know yet if they can release her; she hasn't woken up and it's already been an hour. They think she hit her head when she fell to the ground. Oh, and there's also all those punches and kicks she received on her face and stomach. I hate to see her like this. I should be in her place. Why is she always the one getting hurt?

They say she'll probably wake up soon, though. Or at least they hope.

I, on the other hand, am okay. Well, as okay as I can be. They gave me painkillers for my arm, bandaged my head (which is still throbbing painfully) and put some stitches on my back, because apparently Hans knife cut me when I turned around to punch him. It's going to leave a huge scar.

This time, both of my parents are here with me. They came running as soon as they heard about what happened. They haven't said anything, probably seeing me so stressed over Elsa, but I guess as long as we reach home, they won't ever let me out again. Not that I blame them; I was an oblivious fool.

I haven't told them yet that Hans was going to rape me, actually I haven't told them any details, just that he attacked me and Elsa saved me. That's the only reason they let me stay. They are drinking some coffee right now, but they should be back soon, as well as Kai and Gerda, who almost had a panic attack when she saw Elsa here. I bet it was kind of a dèja vu to her, since Elsa is here again because of a severe loss of blood. I hope Kai was already able to calm her down.

I'm so caught up on my thoughts that when I hear a soft voice calling my name, I almost jump.

"Anna?" Elsa says, her eyes finally opened and looking at me intently.

"Elsa!" I exclaim, surprised and relieved as I jump on her bed to kiss her as hard as I can, until we both are left breathless. It's a desperate kiss, one that doesn't exactly say 'I love you', but 'I don't want to lose you'. And suddenly, I'm tearing up, and I can't help it, because this is probably the happiest moment of all my life. I don't know what I'd have done if Elsa hadn't woken up. "Elsa." I repeat, trying to contain my sobs, so glad to be feeling her warm body again, her arms wrapping around my shoulders, glad to see that she's okay.

"A-are you alright?" She asks, and I can't help laughing because it's ridiculous that she's asking that question.

"You're asking if I'm alright?" I say chuckling. "I wasn't the one who spent an hour unconscious! Don't ever do that again, you hear me? Don't do that again." At this point I'm not sure if I'm laughing or crying, or trying to do both at the same time.

"I'm sorry." She says.

"Don't apologize, you idiot." I answer, separating slightly from her embrace to look at those beautiful eyes. "You saved me, and I'm eternally grateful for that." I pause, trying to gather my thoughts, to tell her why I'm not glad that she showed up. "But nothing in this world is worth losing you."

"Well, I feel the same way about you." She says, blushing and smiling and, despite her hair is a mess, and her face still looks a little pale, I think she must be the cutest thing I've ever seen. And I can't help leaning in and giving her a small peck before letting her continue. "And there's no way I was going to let Hans kill you."

"He wasn't going to kill me." I say before I can think better of it. And then I bite my lip, regretting having open my damn mouth.

"But I thought…" She pauses, taking a deep breath. "What was he trying to do?" She asks, worry clearly manifesting on her voice.

"H-he…" I start, but reconsider. I don't want to distress her, it can't be good for her in her current state. "Nothing, he was just trying to scare me." I brush it off.

"Really?" She frowns. "Because to do that he didn't need to smash your head against the wall until you fell unconscious."

Crap! Why does she have to be so smart?

"Uhm… yeah… Well, maybe he was trying to do something bad." I speak again without thinking, but quickly try to correct it. "He probably wanted to beat me and that's all." I cringe, because in the tone of my voice, is obvious that I'm lying.

"Anna…" She gives me an intense stare, one that says she isn't going to accept another lie, so I just spill it up without being able to contain myself.

"Okay, maybe he wanted to rape me." I admit, and saying it out loud actually makes it sound even more awful than in my head, and suddenly I'm remembering with a lot of detail what happened between my meeting with him and the moment I passed out, and I realize that, if not for Elsa, I'd probably be naked in some dark alley, having been raped by Hans, and then I'd have to spend countless days trying to get over the trauma that such situation would've undoubtedly caused me (that is, if I was lucky and he didn't kill me). The worst part is that it's all my fault. If I hadn't talk to Hans that first day of school, if I hadn't agreed to be his friend with benefits, none of this would've happened.

Suddenly, I'm crying. I'm crying because I'm just a fool, an idiot, a danger to myself and to others. My parents were right to lock me up for ten years, I…

"Anna?" Elsa's worried voice pulls me from my depressing thoughts and I look up to see her concerned expression as she softly touches my cheek, wiping my tears with her thumb. "Don't cry. It didn't happen. You're safe now." She tries to reassure me.

"Yes, but because of my stupidity you got hurt." And suddenly I'm crying even louder, because it's not the first time Elsa suffers because I'm not smart enough, the first being all those times I bullied her.

"It wasn't your fault." She says with a soothing voice. "It was Hans'."

"Yes, but if I had figured out he was a bad guy since the beginning, then…"

"Anna, you weren't the first to be tricked by Hans' charm." She says in a very serious tone. "You can ask anyone at school, and they'll all tell you that he had many lovers the past years, and each one of them was left alone and emotionally destroyed."

"Yeah, but I bet he didn't rape any of them." I protest.

"You don't know that." She answers in a sad voice. "But even if he didn't, that'd be only because they all submitted themselves to him, only to be tossed in his "trash can" as soon as he'd used them. You weren't stupid; you were smart. If you had continued in that sick relationship any longer, you'd be more damaged than you are now." She pauses. "And so would I. Maybe not physically, but emotionally. I can't stand seeing you suffering." At this, tears appear at the corner of her eyes, before she pulls me close and holds me as if there's no tomorrow. Honestly I'm concerned about her wound for a moment, but since she doesn't seem to care, I decide to just hug her back, letting her give me the warmth and comfort I so desperately need right now.

And we stay like that, crying at each other's shoulders for a few moments, until our sobs finally start to subside.

That's when the door opens and the doctor enters.

The doctor chastises me for not calling him immediately when Elsa woke up, and also for upsetting her. I apologize and decide to leave him alone with Elsa while I go tell Kai and Gerda that she's already awake. I do exactly that and they gladly come to see her, as well as my own parents, who insisted they wanted to thank Elsa personally for saving me. Honestly, I was worried that the doctor was going to say that she needed to be alone, but fortunately, he let us all pass to see her.

The first one to run towards Elsa and practically crushing her in a hug is Gerda. She was so relieved when I told her Elsa was alright! Seriously, she seems to be her adoptive mother. And Kai was also very glad to see her already partially recovered. Elsa was a little uncomfortable though, probably because she isn't used to someone caring about her (someone who is a parental figure, at least), which is really sad if you think about it, but at least now she has them, and seems to be at least happily surprised that they both came to see her.

The next ones to talk to her are my parents. They thank her profusely for saving me and also ask her to testify against Hans when we go to trial (yes, the police have already find him and put him in custody, but for some reason, there still needs to be a trial). I just hope he goes to jail for the rest of his pathetic life. He's already eighteen after all.

However, the Hans topic leads to questions, and Elsa seems like she's not going to lie. Oh well, I guess my time as a free human is over now.

"So, Elsa." My father asks. "How did you find Anna?"

"Well… first I called her, after some girls from high school told me Hans was going to do something bad to her, but she didn't answer. I kept calling her though, and it turned out to be a good thing, since I was able to hear her cellphone when I started to search for her in those dark streets. Then I heard screams and ran into that direction until I finally found her."

Wow, I was lucky Hans took my phone and tossed it to the ground.

"When I found her…" She pauses swallowing. "Hans was smashing her head against a wall…" Her eyes start to tear up, probably not ready yet to remember that without crying just yet. It's too soon for both of us, so I don't let her continue.

"It's okay." I say. "You don't have to describe it." I'm glad when my father agrees, nodding and placing a hand on Elsa's shoulder.

"Anna is right. All that matters is that you saved our baby and we'll be eternally in debt with you." He says with a gentle smile, and I'm glad Elsa's already in my father's right side.

"It was nothing." She answers politely. "I couldn't just let him ra…" She stops, her eyes widening, before looking at me with doubt in her eyes. Honestly, I don't want her to tell them, but I know the truth will still come out in the trial so…

"It's alright. You can tell them." I sigh, looking at my parent's confused faces. Elsa sighs too and her shoulders drop, like it's physically exhausting for her to bear that knowledge.

"From what Anna told me… he was going to rape her."

"WHAT?!" I'm sure the whole hospital heard my parents scream. Not that I blame them; it must be pretty shocking to know that your daughter has been mere seconds away from being raped. I still try to focus on the important details.

"But he didn't. And he's surely going to jail, so…

"But why would he try to rape you?!" My mother says with an overly concerned tone.

"I don't know." I shrug, looking to the ground. "Maybe because I was the first one who didn't want to have sex with him."

"We have to make him pay." My father says rather angrily. His face is now red with rage and his veins are protruding. He's also clenching his fists, like he wants to beat Hans into a bloody pulp.

"We will." My mother says, trying to placate him. "At the trial." She remarks with that stern voice that usually gives me chills. Father seems like he wants to protest, but fortunately he stays quiet; we both know this is a battle he won't win.

"Alright." He agrees, clearly fighting to calm down. "Meanwhile, Anna will stay at home all the time. I don't want another incident."

"WHAT?!" This time is my turn to scream. "You can't do that! I'm about to finish this year!"

"I won't let you be in danger again." He argues, and suddenly tears are falling dawn my cheeks and my jaw is clenched so tight I think I might break my teeth from the pressure. The strong headache is also coming back, but I don't' care about any of this; I'm not going to let them lock me again.

"Well, I don't care what you say, I'm not spending another decade talking to paintings just because you don't deem the world to be safe enough for me! I can take care of myself! If was ever in danger it was because I didn't know anything about the world thanks to your stupid actions!" I spat, being incredibly disrespectful and not caring the consequences. All I want is to let them know I won't give up without a fight.

"We will discuss it later." My mother tries to intervene, but unfortunately for her, I have the same temper as my father.

"No!" We both yell. "We'll solve this now!"

"Uhm… excuse me." A shy voice rises in the middle of our screams, and I turn to look at Elsa, still lying on her bed, seeing the whole scene unfold in front of her. I feel bad that she had to witness this. How inconsiderate on my part. "If I could give you my opinion…"

"Look, I appreciate that you saved Anna." My father interrupts her. "But this is a decision that we…"

"Let her talk." My mother cuts him off, raising her hand. He looks at her for one moment before sighing and turning to Elsa. Now we're all waiting for her to talk.

"Uh…" She fidgets, clearly nervous. "Well, I know you probably already know this, but I still want to point it out." She says almost too formal, like she's giving a speech in front of thousands of people. "The reason Anna doesn't want to stay at home is not only that she likes being outside, but that she's afraid of being alone." My eyes widen. How did she even know that?! "Not only afraid." She continues after a pause. "She's terrified. Being locked in again would destroy her, and I'm sure none of us want that." She looks at them with pleading eyes. "You don't want her to get hurt, and I get that… but by locking her again, you'd hurt her more than anything Hans could ever do." She pauses, swallowing and taking a deep breath, like she's about to say something important. "Besides, she wouldn't be alone. She has friends now, who will look out for her and keep her out of trouble, and…" For a moment it seems like she isn't going to continue, but after only a second of hesitation, she seems to come to a resolution. "She has me. And I will protect her with my life if necessary; she helped me when I needed her most, and now I'm forever in debt with her. I won't let any harm come to her if it's within my power to stop it, I promise." There's not even the smallest trace of doubt when she says this, so strong is her conviction, and it leaves my parents speechless. I, on the other hand, am already able to feel tears accumulating in my eyes. I never thought I would hear such words from the person I care about the most, and it's so overwhelming I feel the urge to cry, and I do so after throwing myself into Elsa's arms, saying "thank you" over and over again, trying to somehow be able to express how grateful I am, because I know there's no way on earth I will ever be worthy of Elsa, and I'm just so glad she chose to give her heart to me.

Her words seem to also have touched my parents, because just a moment later, my mom also comes and hugs us both, and so does my father after a few seconds of hesitation. At first Elsa tenses at this, but slowly she relaxes and lets herself be held, especially after my father says, with the gentlest voice he's used today:

"Thank you, Elsa. I'm happy to see that Anna is now in good hands. I trust you."