Welcome to the Jungle, Sweetheart

No More Tears

            Slash took Duff's motorcycle and took off towards where he had seen Axl run. He had a few minutes head start, and usually that wouldn't matter when he was on foot and Slash was on wheels, but with Axl, that was enough time to get him anywhere. He drove down the streets, scanning every corner and peering down every alley to find him. But if Axl wanted to disappear, he was a ghost.

Hours passed, and Slash still saw no signs of Axl. By now Axl had to be at a stop, either his legs tired out, and he couldn't run anymore, or he was laying unconscious or maybe dead somewhere. The thought that something bad might've happened to him scared Slash so much he didn't even want to consider the possibility.

Axl was smart, he gets into trouble but he can also get himself out of it. But Axl definitely wasn't, well, Axl, right now. Before he left he looked utterly horror-stricken. Slash had no idea Axl even had fear as an emotion, but Axl was terrified, and Slash didn't have one clue as to what trouble that could mean for him. 

Slash drove off into a desolate alley and hid his bike, figuring he may as well continue the search on foot. If Axl was unable to run anymore, he was probably hiding somewhere that Slash wouldn't be able to see on his bike. He wandered aimlessly down some alleys, his hope dramatically faltering and his fear rising. His mind swarmed like a bee hive with confusion and fear. But he shook his racing thoughts out. He couldn't think about any of his questions or his fears right now. All his mind had to focus on was finding Axl.

About another forty-five minutes passed as Slash searched on foot, before he came across a stairway along an alley that disappeared to some dark storage room or something or other with piles of boxes sitting at the bottom and a locked metal door. But he hardly noticed any of that, he was far more concerned about the redhead sitting behind the boxes. "Axl...!?" Slash exclaimed in bewilderment and quickly made his way down the stairs. 

Axl sat behind the boxes, pressed to the wall, his knees firmly at his chest and he held his legs in his arms like his life depended on it. He stared in blank horror somewhere in front of him, and Slash could see by the painful, terrified emptiness in his eyes that his mind was somewhere else. He had bloody scratches in several places on his body, and his thin figure shook uncontrollably. He looked smaller and more broken than he had ever seen him before. 

"Axl! Axl are you okay?" Slash didn't try to hide the panic in his voice. Axl didn't look like he heard him. "Axl?" Slash asked, resting his hand on his scuffed shoulder. Axl flinched two inches away from his touch, his body trembling hysterically. 

"Axl what's wrong?" Axl didn't move his gaze from in front of him. His breathing was unsteady, his teeth chattered together, and Slash thought he was so horrified his eyes watered, on the verge of falling to tears. "Axl please say something..!" Slash begged in fear, his own eyes filling with tears and blurring his vision. 

Slash watched as Axl's head slowly turned his direction, and his intense eyes stared directly into his. He could hardly look at them, they were in so much pain, and they were filled with more sorrow than he had seen in anybody's gaze before. Slash's heart ached painfully as he watched tears threaten to fall from his eyes. None fell, but it was the most heartbreaking thing Slash had ever seen. Axl breathed unsteadily, his voice was nothing but a shaky, barely audible whisper. ".......He raped me, Slash..." 

Slash felt his heart shatter into a million pieces, and Axl shook more, his eyes staring at Slash with an almost pleading gaze. Begging him to take away the pain. Tears fell from Slash's eyes for him, and Axl didn't break his gaze. "Axl..." Slash murmured, resting his hand along the side of Axl's face, who flinched, his eyes filled with agony, but he let Slash's hand sit along his jaw.