Page 1 of Rue

Chapter 1

“PLEASE!” Sailor begged, “I don't want this!”

The man holding her bent over the back opening of his SUV snarled as he pinned her down, shoving her pants down. “It ain’t about what you want, bitch! You need to learn your fucking place! It’s about what I want! That’s ALL that fucking matters! I’m all that matters!” he yelled in her face. His fingers were rough, painful as they dug into her pussy lips, pushing and prying as she screamed wordlessly. “Shut the fuck up, or I end you when I finish with you!” he grated, finding her entrance and shoving a long, slender finger into her as she sobbed into the rough carpeting in the back of the SUV.

Pulling his finger out, he pressed his cock to her opening.

Sailor screamed and sat up in bed just as he rammed into her, her heart racing as she broke down in tears. The nightmare was typical, an almost every night occurrence. Usually, she didn’t wake up until the end, though, after he’d tossed her into a window well to the basement floor of the apartment building her grandmother had lived in. Naked, alone, and bleeding, she’d had to go up 14 flights of stairs, shaking so bad she’d vomited twice.

Getting up, she paced, then went to the bathroom. The light was harsh and bright, and she flinched from it but lookeddown at the small swell in her belly as she sat on the toilet.

That had been four months ago, and she was now four months pregnant. Another girl would hardly be showing, but Sailor was 4’9” and 65 pounds soaking wet. She’d been showing for a month. The swell is what had made the pregnancy obvious; she was too lost in her head to realize no period had come in that long. She didn’t have money to have it taken care of, and by the time she’d be able to scrape together enough, it would be too late. Her friend Janine had googled how to do a hanger abortion, but Sailor couldn’t go through with it.

She was traumatized enough.

Going back to bed, she sat up and checked her old phone. It wouldn’t charge past 36% anymore, but she couldn’t afford a new one. It was all she had, and between her mother and grandmother, she couldn’t get a job to get a new one. Her grandmother had stayed weak and sick after getting COVID, and she refused to move out of her apartment and in with Sailor and her mom. Not that there was room. Sailor shared a bed with her mom, and they used to take turns. Her mom worked janitorial at the hospital, night shift… then her mom had gotten sick, something worse than COVID. Now, she lived on the couch, never moving from it. Her grandmother had no room either in the tiny studio apartment. Her bedroom was her living room and kitchen. Both women were too sick to work and Sailor was all there was for them.

She came home from school, checked on her mom, and made her dinner. Then, she took some dinner to her grandmother and helped as best she could there.

That was how she had run afoul of him.

She remembered the night vividly: she relived it multiple times a night… even if she didn’t have a terrifying reminder growing inside of her.

She’d been used to the thugs and drug dealers all along the block and in front of the building; they usually never bothered her. She’d told them to fuck off often enough, and they all smirked at her as she went through to go up.

This man was new but a thug, just like the others. Tatted up, even his neck, with a close-cut haircut, trimmed super straight to frame his face. He was standing in the doorway, yelling at one of the thugs who was always there, and she’d waited patiently for over ten minutes before saying, ‘Excuse me.’ She waited, then repeated it, more loudly, then again, moving closer.

The man had acted like she didn’t exist at all as he continued berating the much larger gang banger who was looking down mulishly.

She was tired and had finally lost her temper. “Get the FUCK out of the way, shitstain!” she’d yelled at him.

A dozen eyes swiveled to her, including the new man, who’d cocked his head and raised his eyebrows.

She’d known immediately from the reaction of everyone who’d been ignoring the scene until that point that she’d fucked up.

She wished a million times over again since that night that she could have those words, that moment back.

But she couldn’t.

He’d turned and looked at her, his eyes assessing her quickly before he turned and stepped up to her to look down at her.

She hadn’t backed down or run like she should have; her blood had been up, and she was tired and done with the world and the day. She wasn’t about to back down for another slimy drug dealer.

When he’d grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off her feet, that was the first time fear had even touched her that night.

One of the other thugs stepped up quickly. “Geo, she ain’t no one, man! She’s just a kid! She just takes care of her grams up on 15, the sick old lady?”

“She sure fuckin’ thinks she’s someone, don't she?” the man had asked quietly, looking Sailor over with a curl to his lip as he held her off the ground. “How ‘bout I show you your place, bitch?”

Sailor had screamed then and tried to fight, but the man was wiry and incredibly strong.

She pushed the memory away for the thousandth time, wiping tears out of her eyes.

Chapter 2

Going to the front, she checked on her mom, then looked out at the gray light outside. It would be sunrise soon, hours before she had to be at school, but she couldn’t go back to sleep. She couldn’t even go back to bed now.

Instead, she went to the table and did some homework she was behind on. She had found her janky old laptop in the trash outside an electronics shop and had managed to get it working. Enough to write papers and essays on, anyway.

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