Salvation At Your Hands { Anna }

[Arthur Woodson]

Anna flinched at the ruckus again and again. Her eyes clenched tight as she tried to wish it all away. But it wasn't going away. The sounds of men fighting and possibly dying continued to invade her mind as the scene around her began to unfold. And despite her better judgement she had to see it. She had already seen it, but she needed to see it with her own eyes.

Slowly she opened them and turned around, raising up to peer over the edge of the cover she was using to see the first would be rapist coming to her would be hero with a broken knife. Once more she found herself unable to shout out a warning. Looking around frantically for something smaller than the pan she had. She grabbed an empty can and threw it at the man's head. Hoping that if nothing else it would make her protector notice him and buy him a moment.

[Kyrie Blaze]

By the way the man below him was going grey and his struggles were lessening rapidly, it would only be a few more moments until he was dead.

The heroine steps up..!

...and misses.

The empty can sailed in front of the man. It clattered, drawing her saviour's attention even as it drew her assailant's. He snarled and lurched against the rack, making even more of a ruckus as he dropped the knife. He lunged, cursing at her, aiming to fall on top of her and use his last few minutes clawing and tearing at her clothes. One hand was completely bloody, the other less so.

He tried to touch her, to grab and grope and fondl--and was flung off her by a boot to his head and the crash of the steel racks.

[Arthur Woodson]

When he lunged for her she fell back onto her butt and scrambled back, the pan clattering to the ground loudly as panic filled her eyes. She made a mistake. Now the guy was after her. But if she hadn't the guy would have gone for her anyways. Thoughts were just racing in her mind mixed with silent pleadings to God to spare her and let her wake up. Back at home with her Mom and her Dad. That this was all just a bad dream.

But it wasn't.

However her prayers were answered by her savior! Kicking the man away from her she looked up at him with grateful eyes. Her heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest, and tears were openly streaming down her eyes. She didn't want to be here. She didn't want this life. She wanted everything to go back the way they had been before.

[Kyrie Blaze]

The man couldn't blame her for her tears or her fear as he looked down at her. Swaying, he set his hand against the rack for balance...and slowly, after watching her for a moment, extended his hand to her as the man he'd just booted convulsed...and went still.

"...I gotcha, kid..."

He seemed a bit reluctant, all things considered. But in looking around...when his eyes turned back to her, they softened.

Just a little.

[Arthur Woodson]

Trembling she slowly extended her hand to take his. Flinching as their skin touched, expecting another vision to assault her mind. More darkness, more pain. Or something equally unpleasant. But she was shown him for a reason, and he had protected her. She needed to trust in God's plan.

She was meant to be with this man, whoever he may be. And he already showed himself to be an agent of God. At least in his act to protect her. He was a good man with a good heart. She needed to trust him.

[Kyrie Blaze]

It happened slowly as Anna's hand touched his, and he wrapped his fingers around hers. It was another split vision. One had the man carrying her passed out form, the feeling warm and the outdoor light soft. The other...had her alone. Desolate. Crying amidst the bodies that Leo had just snuffed the life from.

When it ended, Anna would pass out.

The man would curse under his breath as the teen went limp. He caught her...and then eased her body to a position where she was laying down. The decision would have to be his and his alone. He watched her after looking around once again, at the reminders of what had just happened...

[Arthur Woodson]

The visions assaulting her mind had worn on her along with the excitement from the events that had just happened. Her body just had nothing left to give at the moment. And as the visions flashed past her eyes she felt light headed before the world turned black and she was completely helpless and at the mercy of this man.

A man of God? Or another man of the times. Desperate and brutish. Her fate was in his hands. It was in God's hands.

[Kyrie Blaze]

...when Anna woke...

It wasn't to the scent of blood and death, or to the dim and dank kitchen. It was to fresh air and soft sunlight. The man sat nearby, watching over her. He'd had enough time to sober up.

His eyes were closed, mostly, and he didn't seem frustrated.

[Arthur Woodson]

The soft sunlight was bright to her eyes and she covered it with her arm as she rolled over looking for the man who had become her savior. Smiling softly when she saw him, relieved that he was still there with her. She crawled her way over to him and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug.

Tears once more welling up in her eyes. She didn't want to think about what would have happened to her if it wasn't for him. She was eternally thankful to her hero. For the first time since the bombs dropped being unable to talk was no hindrance to her. For words could never hope to express the gratitude that she had for this man here.

[Kyrie Blaze]

His eyes opened further as he spotted her move. To his surprise, she clambered over to him...and hugged him. He grunted, gruffly, but curled an arm up over the young girl's back and shoulders.

It was a bit awkward for him...

...but he patted her shoulder and rubbed her back.

"You saved me...and I don't even know your name."

He spoke quietly, remembering and reliving once again...how she had told him without words of the danger and death. How she had - foolishly, but bravely (and with terrible aim) - thrown the can at the other male. Leo had seen the knife drop.

He knew.

[Arthur Woodson]

She pulled back and smiled at the man when she was thanked. Beaming under his praise. She didn't think she had done anything that special, he was the one that did all of the hard stuff! But she appreciated it all the same. Turning and looking around outside she ran over to the nearest patch of dirt and squatted down.

Using her finger to dig into the dirt hard enough to write a message she would write down her name. If the man didn't follow then she would wave him over and point to it before pointing at her. Afterwards pointing to him.

She didn't know his name either. And every hero should have a name!

[Kyrie Blaze]

With a grunt that was more for the effort and effect, Leo would clamber to his feet and wander over...looking down at the name she had scrawled in the dirt.

He blinked, a bit taken aback as she pointed excitedly at him.

"Leonard. Leonard Edgar Graham. But, I prefer just Leo... Thanks, Anna, for saving my life."

. o O ( Anna has acquired a Staff-granted PNPC. He doesn't count towards her allotted PNPC limit. Stats are as follows:

STR: 14
DEX: 14
CON: 16
INT: 13
WIS: 13
CHA: 10 )

[Arthur Woodson]

She smiled brightly at Leo and jumped forward to wrap her arms around him again. He was the one who had saved her. And she was eternally grateful to God for leading her to this man. It had been scary, but she was no longer alone in the world. And that was something. It was more than she had in months.

She burrowed his face in his chest and just let herself relax for the first time in what felt like years. She didn't have a home anymore. Her family and friends were all dead. But she wasn't alone. She had found a good man with a good heart. In a world like this she couldn't think of anything more that she could ask for.

[Kyrie Blaze]

This girl liked her hugs. That was something Leo noted, anyway. Still awkward, he wasn't really one for displays of affection...but maybe with time he would get over that.

If only for this girl, this Angel that he now felt was right to protect. And that would mean teaching her skills she would need to survive. To even, perhaps, save his life again. Whether she knew it or not...she had saved him from so much more than death at the hands of those three men.

She had saved him from himself.

/thread