AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I need to do the floors now,” I tell her, my voice blank and my face devoid of emotion.
My matter of fact tone appears to stop her in her tracks because she stares at me silently for a few minutes before she closes her mouth and struts angrily out of the dining room.
The money I earn from this job is only going to get me by for the next two weeks. Maybe the next three weeks if I skip dinner and don’t buy the new pair of shoes I desperately need.
Hopefully I’ll find another odd job within the next week or two.
Because if I don’t, I’ll be totally screwed.
I finish up my chores, leaving the kitchen, dining room, and grand hall spotless and shining, and collect my day’s earnings before I leave to walk to the lowtowns.
The nighttime air is cold and brisk when I leave. I shiver slightly as I stick my hands into my jacket pockets, doing whatever I can to keep warm.
The distance between the hightowns and the lowtowns is quite wide, and I inhale deeply as I prepare myself to walk through the entirety of Pyrthos before I am able to get home. Hot tears spring to my eyes at the thought of walking that distance, but I wipe them away angrily.
My body is so sore, but I don’t have a choice.
So I set off into the darkness, clutching my money and walking as fast as I can so that I can make it home before morning.
* * *
He’s following you. He has been following you for the last few blocks.
The voice in my head is my own. She is unemotional. She is simply stating facts.
And the fact is, I am being followed.
Tonight I decided to take a shortcut through the theater district and across the river. My spirits were exceptionally low tonight, and I thought that listening to the latest songs written by Pyrthos’s best thespians would help cheer me up. The only problem with this shortcut is that it isn’t exactly the safest route.
The dark elf, an older man who I spotted in one of the bars attached to the theater, is clearly unstable, and his drinking habits show on his face.
He is also tall and thin, and every few seconds I hear electricity crackle in the air.
He knows that I know he is following me. That’s why he’s showing me his magic, showing me how powerful he is.
I am close to the river, and if I can just make it across and escape into the farmlands that are on the other side, maybe I can make it home without being raped tonight.
I’ve heard horror stories from other women in the lowtowns – my neighbors – about violent encounters they have had with dark elf men.
There is no going back from something like that.
I speed up, my breath forming clouds in front of me, but I am not fast enough. A hand grabs my arm, and I am jerked backwards, my head snapping forwards painfully.
The dark elf shoves me up against a wall, and I can smell the alcohol, stale and bitter on his breath.
I cannot stop myself from gagging, and as he gets closer, my skin starts crawling.
“A pretty little thing like you shouldn’t be out here alone at night, darling,” he croons. He is slightly unsteady on his feet, but even that doesn’t help me. He is still stronger than I am.
I shove and kick, but he laughs as his hand, which was around my neck, moves downwards to cup my breast through my clothes.
“I like a fighter. And look, it’s just the two of us here now. We can have some privacy, and I can do… whatever I want. I guarantee you’ll like it.”
“No,” I whisper, my voice strangled as I choke on the word. “Please,” I sob. “Please no.”
His other hand is on my thigh, and he leans forward. His hair is long, and it tickles my neck as he licks my cheek.
He smells like a bar floor, and I gag as his warm, wet tongue makes contact with my cheek.
