Chapter Five

She could still feel his hands touching her – cold and clammy against her feverish skin – as he marked her body with bruises and cuts, each of her small cries of pain seeming to give him pleasure. He had ravaged her body at least three times that she could remember. She had tried to block it out, erase his lustful eyes as they stared down at her, his smile leering. But she found that every time she closed her eyes the images would come back to her with vivid clarity.

“No.” She sobbed into her pillow as she attempted to muffle her cries of emotional anguish from her five cellmates who had all been fast asleep for hours now. Danni clenched her hands into tight fists at her sides, her nails cutting into her skin, causing her beaten down body even more pain.

She had to get him out of her head. She had to eliminate the control he held over her now, his evil maniacal laughter haunting her every thought. “Go away.” She whispered fiercely to herself, forcing her mind to dwell on more pleasant times.

‘The mall.’ She thought to herself. ‘Gotta remember the mall. And Bray.’ But thoughts of Bray only brought more pain. The buggy – Lex’s failed escape. She had seen the cart roll, dashing onto the sharp rocks. There was no way Bray could have survived, could he have? And if he did survive, what would the Guardian have done to him? Bray, the brother of Zoot, the leader of the Mall Rats, the bane to The Guardian’s existence.

“Hey, you okay?” Danni was jarred from her tormented thoughts by the sound of a young female soft-spoken voice.

“Wh-who’s there?” Danni clutched her scant blanket closer to her, knowing that it had to be one of her cellmates but still being terrified by the thought. Her eyes scanned the darkness in a vain attempt to place the voice, tormented thoughts of the last time someone who had spoken to her in the darkness creeping inside her mind.

“It’s me. Jenis.” The voice responded, sounding closer this time. Danni wracked her brain, trying to remember which one was Jenis. If Danni recalled correctly, Jenis was the only one she had not yet spoken to. Aya had explained to her that Jenis was in pretty bad condition when she was brought in and seemed to prefer to keep to herself.

“Oh.” Danni bit on her lower lip, trying to calm her nerves that were brittle to the point of snapping.

“Are you okay, Danni?” Jenis continued and Danni was now able to conjure up a mental image of the petite young woman with sandy brown hair and sort of funky chunky orange highlights. “I heard you crying…”

“I’m fine.” Danni lied, wiping away her excess tears with the back of her hand. “I was just thinking, that’s all.”

“Can I come up?”

Danni was startled by this question, and even more so with her response. “Uh, okay.” Danni found herself mumbling, raising herself into a sitting position as she hugged her pillow against herself.

Moments later Danni heard the soft squeak of the old rickety bunk moving as Jenis climbed up the ladder. The mattress gave just a little under Jenis’ slight weight and Danni could sense the other girl settling herself onto Danni’s bed.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.” Danni apologized, tucking a piece of her grotesquely cut hair behind her ear. It was too short, though, and was falling back in front of her face seconds later, much to Danni’s frustration.

“That’s alright. I’m a real light sleeper.” Jenis responded. “And I hadn’t actually fallen asleep yet. It takes me awhile to get used to new places.”

“Me too.” Danni nodded her head, remembering how long it had taken her to actually be able to get a full night’s rest in the mall. It had been such a strange place, much bigger than her father’s old apartment. And the normal nighttime noises the mall made had scared Danni half to death. The first night there she hadn’t been able to sleep a wink.

“So you’re a Mall Rat, right?” Jenis question gently.

“Yeah. Or at least I was. I really don’t know what’s been done to my tribe.” Danni admitted, feeling a deep sadness creep into her. She had never really gotten close to many of the other Mall Rats. Mainly just Bray and Salene, and even she and Salene had begun to drift apart after the fear of the Chosen began to fade.

“You’re lucky then.” Jenis said softly. “I know exactly where all of my tribe is.”

“What do you mean?”

“They’re all dead.” Jenis informed her, her fragile voice sounding on the verge of tears. “He killed them all to get back at me.”

“Who killed them? The Guardian?” Danni felt anger and hatred towards the man begin to build up inside of her.

“That’s what he calls himself.” Jenis murmured bitterly. “But when I knew him he was Jaffa.”

“You knew him before the whole Zoot thing?” Danni stared across at the face of Jenis that was just now beginning to take shape in the darkness. “Before the virus?”

Jenis nodded slowly. “Yeah. He once dated my cousin for about a week. His family was on holiday and they hooked up. Her boyfriend was out of town and well, when he got back, my cousin broke up with Jaffa. Jaffa was really upset and things just got ugly from there.”

“So killing your tribe was his idea of revenge?” Danni gasped, momentarily forgetting about all her own problems and issues with The Guardian.

“Yeah.” Jenis bit her lower lip, her voice quivering with emotion. “Katy was the first person killed. Jaffa strangled her to death himself, laughing the entire time like some sick twisted fut.”

Danni crept her hand across the covers and gave Jenis a tight squeeze. “Are you okay?”

Jenis was silent for several seconds, obviously battling with her own personal demons. “Yeah, I’m okay.” She sniffled at last, then started to chuckle. “Look at me. I came up here to find out if you were alright and you end up comforting me.”

“Hey, that’s alright.” Danni smiled, her first smile since she had seen Bray’s buggy crash. “I’m just glad I was here for you.”

“And I’m here for you.” Jenis affirmed, gripping Danni’s hand tightly. “So if you ever need to talk or anything, just remember that.”

“I will.” Danni assured her, momentarily wondering if she could tell this girl all about her not so squeaky clean past. A small tremble ran over her as the reason she had been crying in the first place washed over her and she struggled to control her emotions.

Jenis, sensing Danni’s sudden mood swing, moved a little closer, wrapping her arm around Danni’s shoulders gently. “You alright, Danni?”

Danni squeezed her eyes shut, flashbacks of The Guardian’s leering face less than an inch away from her crashing into her mind, making her feel dirty and violated at the same time all over again. “No.” She whispered, pulling her legs up closer to her chest. “I’ll never be alright again.”

Jenis sat in silence for several seconds, offering Danni her shoulder to lean on while she rubbed the brunette’s back soothingly. “He’s a bastard.” Jenis stated. “Whatever he did to you, it was his fault. Not yours.”

“I know.” Danni looked up at her, tears streaming down her face. “I know, and yet at the same time I feel like such a wh0re for letting it happen. I couldn’t stop him, Jenis. I knew it was coming and I couldn’t do a thing.”

“What did he do, Danni?”

Danni bit down hard on her lower lip, the warm metallic taste of blood on her tongue. “He raped me, Jenis.” She whispered. “He raped me.”