Candy?s feet beat a path away from the Red Dragon Inn, heading off towards the crumbling, abandoned church in which she was squatting. On her mind were Jay and his incoming migraine. She?d never had a migraine herself, only seen a few have them. There was a chemical her mother had shown her that could induce a migraine, the results hadn?t looked pretty. Pain. Mother explained it was a pain that shot from the head and weakened the entire body, twisted the world and rocked the gut. The pain could get so great as to make one physically sick and that only added to the whole overall ordeal. A frown tugged the edges of her mouth as Mother?s guinea pig turned into a vision of Jay in her mind, curled up into the fetal position with his eyes scrunched shut under the glare of the light, nervous shakes overtaking his body. She stopped and looked back the way she?d come.

Quiet. The inn and its noise were far behind. Darkness surrounded her but for the few lights that cast their glow into the street at intervals. The fingers of her left hand became aware of the glass beer bottle she still held and brought it to her lips. Jay would be fine, she told herself. It?d just be more trouble if she went back. She turned again, back to the direction she had been traveling and continued on.

---

Alone with her thoughts, she strained to think of other things. A job would be wanted and a better place to stay, eventually. Not the inn, too crowded and too noisy. Plus she didn?t like the idea of making it any easier for someone else to note her coming and going without sticking out like a sore thumb. Anyone in an inn could be that person, but else where they had to work harder to blend in.

She took another swig of the beer and a man?s voice cut into her train of thought.

?Hey, baby, where you going??

He was standing at the side of the road to her right, would be well out of arm?s reach when she passed him unless he moved. She didn?t move away from her path, didn?t show signs of weakness that would only encourage him. Keeping her eyes on him as she walked by, he smirked at her and held his arms out.

?Care to dance, sweets??

Care. Why did she care? Unbidden she frowned as she looked at the man and thought about Jay?s question. The answer was in the question itself, wasn?t it? It wasn?t why she cared, it was that she cared. Problematic.

Without a word she turned away from the man and went on with her trek back to the church. Beer brought to her lips for another considering sip. Where had this problem started? She wondered, keeping the beer lingering in her mouth a second before swallowing. She had managed to get past his defenses in The Pit and somehow in return he?d gotten by her defenses in a completely different way. Maybe it was because she had taken him down that time, she?d let her guard down in return.

The man?s hand clamped down on her right wrist, tight. ?I said, care to dance.? Jay was all sorts of screwing with her guard tonight. She turned to look at the man, this time truly taking him in as she drained the last drop from her beer. He was a few inches bigger than her. Muscular, but it didn?t look like he actually trained. He was nothing more than a brute who liked to intimidate others. His eyes were a gray that begged to be blue and failed, dirt blonde hair shorn short. A black t-shirt stretched against his chest and developing gut, black jeans and boots that were more for show than use. The man had scars and marks aplenty. Sickly green ink stained his bared arms, tattoos from a stint in the joint. He looked at her with anger in his eyes that translated itself to the grip he?d taken. He meant her trouble?and that was his first mistake.

His second mistake was not grabbing the hand with the beer bottle in it.

Her blank, thoughtful gaze changed just as fast as she moved. A flicker of welcoming to the violence at hand, it showed in her eyes half a second before she brought the base of the bottle crashing down on his nose. Flesh, cartilage and bone erupted under the impact, sending blood streaming in waves. His hand released her wrist as he brought both to the damaged nasal cavity. Several steps taken back and away from her, he muttered and cursed and called her names.

?No. I don?t care to dance. Thanks.? It was the same hollow ?thanks? that she offered to nearly anyone, given to the man as she wore her animalistic smile. He was down but he wasn?t out and she waited for him to show signs of further trouble.

Expletives, followed by, ?I?ll make you pay,? followed by more expletives.

The threat was good enough a reason for her, she was finding frustrations that needed to be worked out and it appeared that he was begging to be that punching bag. The beer bottle was dropped. She took several steps towards him, lifted her booted foot and used it to send him from his feet as she knocked the wind out of him. Going after his fall, she moved to his side and planted the heel of her boot into the soft flesh of his stomach. Holding it there as she removed the switchblade knife from her jacket and held it for the choking man to see.

?If I ever get a whiff of trouble from you again,? pausing in her speech as she let the little light there was catch off the spotless blade. ?It will be the last bit of trouble you ever cause. Got it, baby?? Her tone hard and mocking at the pet name he had first used for her. He might have still been mad, she knew, but he wasn?t in a place to do much about it. He nodded to her in response. It could have been a lie, but she would remain true to her word on the threat.

The boot removed from his stomach, he was given a moment of reprieve before she kicked him squarely in the head. His head lolled to the side as consciousness left him. Switch blade put away, she leaned down and checked his pockets. Kicking him onto his stomach as a kindness to keep him from choking while he was out, she also checked his back pockets. A bit of cash was tucked into her jacket and a pack of smokes with a red lighter was retrieved and held in hand as she looked them over. The pack, white with a green clover on the front, was nearly full. A cigarette was brought out as she stepped away from the man, placing it to her lips and lighting up. Pack and lighter then put away into an inner pocket, she exhaled. She?d be spared stealing smokes for a day or so, maybe.

---

A block away from the scene her thoughts returned to Jay, despite how well the distraction worked for her last time. Candy could understand why he wouldn?t want to get into a relationship if being unprepared and unaware of your surroundings was the result. Relationship.She stopped, muttering her own expletive into the air. Head shaken lightly before she took another drag. Ash flicked off as her walk picked up again. It wasn?t like she wanted a relationship from him or anything. He was forgetful and irritating. He kept calling her ?dude? and she hated that. Really hated it. Still? She liked that he let her do as she pleased at times. Touch him and not do anything in return. Sit there and not respond. No demands made on her. She liked that, at times, he grew a spine and put his foot down. She enjoyed talking to him. She liked? crap? him.

A breath of air was snorted out of her nose. That she liked him filled her with further irritation rather than warm fuzzy feelings. She wouldn?t admit any disappointment that he hadn?t seemed to care when she told him they would never kiss. She refused to regret giving him the idea that she was not interested in him in that way. He said it himself, it didn?t matter, it was a bad idea. Besides, he has a thing for blondes.

Candy was counting on his poor memory to spare her from ever answering his question. Why did she care? Well, she didn?t. Even if she did, she didn?t. Should it fall out that he did remember to ask her, she already knew what she would do. She?d look him in the eyes and lie. Mother had taught her that, eye contact always made for truth. Another drag taken then she carefully scratched an itch at the side of her chin. If he asked, she?d lie. Surely, he?d do something out of line at some point and she would get over the notion. Surely...

It was a bitter hope that Candy kept in mind as she continued on into the night.

The knife bit painfully into the flesh beneath the right of her chest, the palm of his left hand placed over the side of her lower back. Cruel and kind, the touches were at odd against one another. She could feel the curve of his lips against her cheek, he was smiling. His voice was even jovial when he asked her in a lover?s tone, ?Do you know what I?m going to do now?? Candy could only guess, she didn?t want to find out. Eyes were squeezed shut, almost as tight as the line of her jaw. She didn?t whimper, didn?t cry, and didn?t beg. The blade moved in a curve downwards, over the side of her ribcage and back towards a kidney. She tensed, braced against the movement but did not scream. That satisfaction was one he would not be getting, not tonight, not ever. Even as her mind swam in a drug induced fog and her body felt dulled beyond the pain, she fought to keep control of what little she was in control of.

?Sweet little Rabbit.? The hunting knife came away from her back, as he brought the cold steel to rest flat against her face. At the edge she felt the red heat of her blood. ?Should have listened to Daddy.?

---

She sat on the squat bed in the small studio apartment, an ashtray within reach and a cigarette in hand. The sun was rising and she had been up most of the night. Jay?s white Black Flag t-shirt still covered her torso. The faint scent of him was on it. The jeans and socks had been ditched when she tried to sleep, only to find herself in the nightmare again. After waking, sleep refused to come again. She was smoking with her left hand and in the right she held the cold black gun her father had given her. The silencer dipped towards the ground as her wrist dangled backwards over a knee, a finger curled about the trigger. It was clean, shiny black, but in her mind?s eye it was flecked once more with red. Beyond it she registered the faint mirage of the gaping hole burrowing in a forehead, just between the eyes.

For what seemed like forever she stared into that phantom face before clicking the safety back on the loaded weapon. Her half-finished cigarette was abandoned into the glass ashtray, recently swiped from a local billiards club. She turned to look back at her bed and knew sleep was a lost cause as the sun sent her silhouette falling against the blankets and mattress. Life could be heard overtaking the city once more as the new day arrived. Candy stood up, going through the motions of readying for the hours ahead until she could try sleep again, the shadows of her past followed in her tread.

Candy awoke from her spot on the floor to the slow sensation of pain in her lower right arm. Twisting in the dark, she squinted at the uncovered flesh. From the darkness she could barely make out the line of red that was blossoming on the side of her arm, it started at the wrist and kept moving towards her elbow. No weapon could be seen, only the result of the cut.

?Time to get up, Rabbit, you don?t belong here.?

His voice sounded near her ear, so close his lips should have been brushing against her hair. Out of the corner of her eye, however, nothing was there to be seen. Warm heat dripped down her arm, onto her own clothing. Ears strained for the slightest hint of movement in the room, but nothing could be heard over the bulldozer rumbled of Jay?s snoring from the bed. The arm screamed in pain as the cut grew further and Candy found enough sense to move. She gained her feet, stepping back towards the door. Her mouth opened with the idea to try and wake Jay, but she was cut short.

?Rabbit. Don?t make me hurt him too.?

Her voice lost out to a painful twist of her heart. Left hand wrapped to stanch the trickle of bleeding from her arm. Still, her eyes could not find anything. Invisible hands grasped her shoulders, holding tight and pulling her back against the door closer than she had been before. The unseen hands grasped and massaged the naked skin of her upper arms.

?Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit. LEAVE. NOW.?

With the same force of the voice, the hands pushed her towards her pile of belongings. Her hands searched about, finding an abandoned shirt on the floor and grabbing it to press against the wound. Bracing it against her leg, she knotted it twice in place with basic survival instincts. A low creak was heard just under the snoring, close to the bed. No, no, no, she thought, not Jay. Without another thought she grabbed her belongings and made for the door, slipping into the hall as quickly as she could. Stillness surrounded her and she waited.

?Good.? He stood at the end of the hall, his cold grey eyes edging out from the shadow. A cruel smile graced his face. There was a step in her direction as his body peeled away from the darkness and he started to close the distance between them. ?Now, Rabbit?. Run.?

Same as before, with fear in her heart, Candy ran from the man she once love.

Sitting at the end of her bed, a cigarette was held between the index and middle finger of her right hand. Her knees were up, legs parted and an ashtray rested between her feet on the floor. Time had passed after her arrival home from another visit with Jay. She?d showered, changed into a black tank and loose sweats of the same shade. Food had even been consumed, though there wasn?t much pleasure in it. Her thoughts were mixed, a jumble between what to do about the phantom Jesse and what to do with the very real and nearly as untouchable Jay.

She?d returned his shirts, the Misfits tee he had gifted her with and the bloody black tank top he?d left behind after that bad night of his. Reminders of him that she wasn?t sure she wanted about. She wondered what he would make of it, as she exhaled into the air. He hadn?t said anything at their return, not that he was in a very talkative mood anyway. He had rough days ahead, she thought, and she further wondered if she?d be around for any of them. Though, she had agreed to watch his rabbit if things got? hairy.

I want you around?

Somewhat of an answer to the question she had in her mind. He wanted her around, but as far as the emotions that formed that desire she remained unclear. A friend? More? She hadn?t found the voice to ask and the moment had passed. She?d done something though, a small risk. In leaving she?d kiss his cheek, placing her lips to the skin of his cheek closer to his mouth than his ear yet still not touching. Beneath her lips the ridged marks of his scars were felt. Then she left.

It was as far as she would go to tell him. If he didn?t get it?maybe he didn?t want to know?

The cigarette was stubbed out, ashtray pushed away. She turned and crawled under the assortment of blankets on her bed.