Love For Sale

Chapter One

Muffled shouting echoed through the thin, damp walls as Tegan bent down to tie the frayed laces of her docs. Her fingers pausing as a woman's scream pierced the air and rendered the typical mayhem of the squat silent. She quickly sat up and waited for what would come next, brushing her long, mousey, blonde hair back behind her ears as if it would help her to hear better. She held her breath and waited.

"One... Two... Three..."

She began to count the beats of her racing heart as the stillness continued to stretch on, only broken by the door flying open and bouncing back off the wall with a bang. She gave a shriek and scurried back onto the heavily stained mattress, as the doorway framed H, a guy that frequented the squat regularly. His dark hair hung in loose curls to his leather clad shoulders as his cool, green eyes swept through the shadows of her room until they landed on her shrunk into the corner of her bed. At first, she thought he was going to dismiss her and keep walking, but as he turned away to move on, he hesitated as his shoulders dropped with a sigh and he looked back with a frown.

"Kid, you need to get out of here... there's some serious shit going down."

Tegan clenched her jaw. She wasn't a kid. She was nineteen years old and could handle any kind of—

Two-gun shots suddenly rang out, making her scream again and cover her now ringing ears. She crushed her eyes closed tight and started to count again.

"One... Two..."

She gasped as a strong hand wrapped around her wrist and pulled her to her feet. "I said you need to get out of here... Now!"

He snatched her back pack up from the floor and didn't let her go. He dragged her with him out into the hallway that was alive with fear as people scurried in every direction, running into each other in the blind pursuit of escape, like rats on a sinking ship.

His grip was so tight that it pinched her skin as she stumbled every other step to try to keep up with his long, purposeful strides. Even in their mindless panic, people seemed to instinctively move out of his way and part a path for them as H moved from room to room, checking inside each of them until he came to one that was locked and thumped his fist against the wood.

"Jayl?... Jay?!" Still not letting her go, he raked his free hand through his hair and cursed under his breath, "Son of a bitch!" He reached up to the top of the door. His black shirt was riding up to unveil what looked like a laurel tattooed on his hip, as his fingertips danced along the top of the door frame apparently looking for something. His frantic eyes swung down to her. "Look for a key. It's a silver key!"

Released from his hold, she dropped to her knees to check under the door, finding nothing until she saw a book under an old table leg beside her and pulled it out. There, cut into the pages was a silver key. H's fingers hungrily snatched it from her and hurriedly unlocked the door.

The room beyond was empty of people, but the window was wide open and a dirty, grey rag of a curtain billowed out into the inky, dark night. He quietly closed and locked the door behind them. He ushered her forwards until they peered down at the alley way at least four storeys below. The screaming and shouting grew louder from the hallway behind them, making Tegan's hair stand on end, as she stared at the blank wood of the door. Another gunshot had her lungs fill with air ready to scream again, but in less than a beat of her racing heart, H's hand quickly clamped over her mouth, her back pulled tightly to his chest. "Shhhhh," he soothed, "I got you. We're going to get out of here. Just trust me, ok?"

The entire building suddenly felt too quiet, too still and heavy. She swallowed hard, blinking back tears that she refused to shed, as she realised she had no other choice but to trust him, as he carefully removed his hand.