A Coalition Story

Valentine's Day... Or the Day Alice Stabbed Her First Boyfriend

trigger warning: attempted rape depicted without much detail (it doesn't get past removing clothes) and blood

Alice wasn't sure how she let it get this far. Her relationship with Lev started innocently enough. He had saved her from some creep, and they became friends. Then they became closer than friends. Suddenly, they were dating, and now it was Valentine's Day. And they were making out.

Lots of couples make out on Valentine's Day, Alice had rationalized. She and Lev had kissed many times before. Nothing should have been different about them making out today. Except his hands roamed a little more than they usually did. And when Alice had tried to slow things down, Lev didn't react very nicely. He abandoned his flirty, charming attitude and replaced it with a controlling, obsessive nature that Alice had never witnessed. Of course, she had always heard that Lev wasn't a nice guy. But she had never seen that side of him and frankly seeing it now terrified her.

He had pinned her hands above her, with a grip so tight that it surely left bruises,he had ripped her blouse, and he had hiked her skirt above her waist. Alice wasn't completely naive. She knew what was about to happen. And the fear that coursed through her veins paralyzed her. Temporarily.

She felt his grip loosen on her arms as he worked on removing his pants. Wasting no time, she lunged forward, surprising Lev enough that she knocked him off balance. She grabbed the knife strapped to her thigh, that thankfully Lev had ignored since he had labeled her weak and nonthreatening.

Alice didn't think about it. She let her instincts take over. Thank God for Atticus' overprotective nature and the years of practice he had her complete with weapons. She felt a little resistance as the knife plunged through the muscle wall of Lev's abdomen. She heard a squish. She pulled her arm back before lunging it forward again. Another squish. And another. And another. Alice felt warm liquid trickling down her arms and hands. She heard screaming. She couldn't tell if it was hers. Maybe it was Lev.

Or maybe the string of yelled curses and threats and exclamations of pain in Russian were him. That made more sense.

Alice wasn't sure how many times her knife had met Lev's body, but with one final push, Alice sunk her knife in and shoved Lev away. She was on her feet, sprinting out the door without hesitation. No shoes, her purse still on his floor, her blouse and skirt all a mess, Alice didn't care. Her mind was blank as she ran. She just needed to get as far away from that dirtbag as she could.

She wasn't sure how long she had been running. Her feet were killing her. She was completely out of breath. The adrenaline left her, leaving her exhausted. She came to a stop, hands on her knees as sobs racked through her body. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't see. She couldn't think.

A few minutes later, Alice had caught her breath. She was still crying, but she could at least breathe and see through her tears. Looking around, she almost chuckled at the irony of where she was. In her adrenaline-fueled state, she had run straight to Ravyn. At least, to the dorm building Ravyn lived in. It was on the other side of campus than Lev's, and while it wasn't that far from Alice's it was still out of the way from her own dorm. But in her state, her first instinct wasn't to run home or even to run to Atticus. It was to run to Ravyn. Even after all this time.

Sighing to herself, Alice slowly walked inside, muscle memory taking her straight to Ravyn's door. Praying that Ksenia wasn't there, Alice knocked.

"Alice?" Ravyn asked softly, eyes furrowed at the sight of the girl on her doorstep. Alice was the last person Ravyn expected to visit her on Valentine's Day. She figured the girl would be out with Lev.

"What--Why are you covered in blood?" Her brain caught up with her eyes as she noticed Alice's appearance. Her blouse was torn, leaving her exposed in her pink lacey bra. Her skirt was wrinkled as if someone had held it up. Her shoes were missing. Her usually perfect makeup was in streaks and her hair was in complete disarray. Red stains covered her clothes and some blood was still dripping down her torso and arms. Despite the blood, she didn't appear injured from what Ravyn could see.