Informing You

Chapter Three: Thunderstorm

"Hey there, little girl." the man sneered, his thick London accent almost unrecognizable to her. "Let's have some fun, shall we?" his mouth cracked into a no-good smirk. She gulped and quickly called Arthur's number, it was the first number in her phone, so it was easy to reach.

"I don't know about that, sir. I'm late for work." she said, hoping to discourage the men. But it seemed to make them pushier as several more came out of the alley. She gulped, she knew she was in trouble. She hoped that Arthur had picked up, that he was listening in. "Really, I've got a deadline on a paper."

"Surely you can be a few more minutes late, love. Some good old time fun is always worth it. Right, guys?" the others nodded and crossed their arms.

Anna stood firm, clenching her fists to hide that her hands were shaking furiously with fear. "You guys need to back off."

"Oh? Feisty. I like them that way!" the man walked towards her, she took two steps back before noting someone had stepped behind her. She screamed as a hand covered her face, a rag on it covered in chloroform quieted her.

"Anna?" Arthur answered. There was no reply, just still air. He thought it was a pocket dial, but then he heard her speaking in a voice that he'd never heard from her before. Hidden fear. He stopped dead in his tracks and listened. He heard a man on the other side of the phone and his heart sank from what he was hearing. He kept the phone glued to his ear as he ran, his suit jacket flapping behind him and his patent leather shoes clopping franticly with each step he took. ~This is bad!~ He thought, as he dodged pedestrians. ~What if I'm not quick enough? What will they do to her?~

He skidded to a stop when he saw some men walking into an alley. They didn't look like they were up to any good. He listened closer to the phone "The bloody cunt called someone!" ... "Chill out Craig, they probably didn't hear anything." then the phone cut off. Arthur cursed under his breath, hoping that they were in that alley, that he had found her before anything happened.

He turned down the alley, shrugging his jacket off as he did so and throwing it to the side. "Oi!" he yelled "Have you seen my girlfriend?" he mentally slapped himself for calling her his 'girlfriend' and hoped she didn't hear it.

"You mean this bint?" the main man called out, holding the unconscious Anna up by her hair. They seemed to have already beaten her a little - that made Arthur's blood boil.

"Yes," he responded, "Now give her back to me before I haven't teach you boys how to be a gentleman."

"Oh, I'm so scared!" one of the men mocked. "Go ahead and try it, shrimp!"

"Give her back." Arthur ordered, "Now."

"Can we teach the shrimp a lesson, Craig?" Arthur turned his attention from the chronie to the man named Craig, who seemed to be the pack leader.

Craig scoffed, "Go ahead, and while you do, I'll enjoy myself to the girl here."

Arthur was done. That right there was enough, enough to make him crack and become insanely furious. He would stop at nothing to get what he wanted; her safety. He could wipe these men's minds later, for now, he had to save Anna. He clapped his hands together with a deadly determination, chanting a spell as he did so. A spell he regretted knowing. A spell he swore never to use way back in the time of Camelot.

His appearance changed, a flaming sword appeared behind him. His green eyes glew with rage, with a primitive protection instinct all that remained of his mind. Everything else had left, all self restraint, all that remained was the single goal of saving her. His body was one with the sword as he effortlessly swung it at the mesmerized men. He was dead silent, no war cries, no grunts, silence. This scared the men more than the magic, more than the strength, more than the sharp blade of the flaming sword. He swung, he killed, he attacked, he was a force no one would dare to reckon with. The magic wore off when the threats were gone, the once clean cobblestone stained red of the blood of the evil men. He collapsed to his knees, out of breath, covered in blood, sweat dropping from his brow.

Tears welled up in his eyes and he cried, he clenched his fists and punched the ground, "I didn't want to kill them!" he yelled angrily. Thunder roared in the distance and rain began to fall steadily, washing the blood down the way and into the storm drain.

He picked Anna up bridal style and carried her to his home using backstreets and roofs, tears never ceasing. America would have said Arthur looked like a superhero, jumping roof to roof in the middle of a thunderstorm...but Arthur didn't have time to think of that as he scurried to his house.

He placed her on his bed and unbuttoned her lavender blouse. A slight blush came to his face when the realization hit that he was undressing her, but he shook it off knowing that she needed help. He opened the shirt and examined her rib cage - forcing himself to look at it rather than her white and purple bra. His eyes shifted to two large scars, one located on her right side, reaching from her bottom rib to her belly button, and the other starting just below her bra and ending just past her last rib. He wondered almost aloud how she got scars like those. He took off her pants as well, to check her legs and ensure nothing was broken or cut on them. He held back a gasp at how toned they were, smooth, beauti-no, he was getting side tracked. He frowned at the bruises he saw forming on them. He gritted his teeth at where they were.

To break it down, she had a broken rib, a broken finger, and a busted up face and bruises on her upper thighs. Arthur, after spending ten minutes trying to find it, fixed her up with his medical kit. He wanted to stay low, if she came into the hospital like this, surely they'd ask questions. He wondered if he did the right thing as he tucked the covers around her, being extra careful around her broken bones and bruised areas. He couldn't help but think of how fragile humans are...how easily they could be overtaken and hurt...or killed even.

Arthur bit at his fingernails as he waited for her to wake up. Sitting down after some time and eventually falling asleep, his head resting on his crossed arms which laid on his bed. When Anna woke, she was disoriented and in pain. She cracked her eyes open, it was just bright enough in the room for her to see clearly enough. Her vision seemed hazy, but cleared up after some heavy, rapid, blinking. She gathered her thoughts, she knew she wasn't in her room. In fact, this room was foreign to her all together. She noticed that she was also in her underwear, not her clothes. Her heart jumped when she remembered the men who attacked her. Was she kidnapped? Did Arthur get her call? She looked around some more, and then saw Arthur. A sigh escaped her lips, she was relieved. She attempted sitting up, but in doing so, she discovered just how sore she really was. The dull aching she felt before, was nothing compared to the pain that threatened to make her scream now.

Her movement woke Arthur, who opened his eyes quicker than he ever thought possible for himself. "Anna?" he questioned, alerted but also slightly groggy. He ignored the pain in his neck from sleeping the way he had and looked at her worriedly. "How do you feel, love?"

She opened her mouth to say something but shut it quickly, her lip was busted and swollen. She tried again, speaking very lightly. "Do you have any pain killers?"

"I take it you're sore." he responded, standing up and walking to his bedroom door. "How bad?"

"Gimme the whole bottle." she paused, "Of whiskey, preferably...actually, make it a case."

He chuckled, "I'll get you something; but not whiskey."

"Hey, Arthur," she said so lightly he almost didn't hear, "I want to ask you some things when you get back. Okay?"

"Aye." he nodded, "I'll be back in a minute."