Charlie

*graphic*

Charlie watched in horror from thirty feet away. He had heard the struggle before he saw it. A girl with a torn t-shirt was trying to move out of the grasp of a buff frat guy. Another girl in a pink dress, Charlie realized it was one of the girls he had met in the dorm earlier,  was trying to pull his arms off of her friend. Roughly, the jerk flung her to the side and she fell down in the grass and dirt and rolled to the side. The impact of it had sent her a couple feet from the attack. The girl still fighting to get free had a bloodied lip and her shirt had been ripped off completely. 

Charlie started to run toward them as the girl on the ground struggled to her feet. He remembered her name suddenly. Liana. In a flash she was on the guy's back. She was tiny in comparison, but she clung to him and wrapper her arm around his neck so that her elbow was under his chin.

"Run!" she screamed to her friend.

Their attacker was trying to shake off Liana who clung to his back tighter than ever. Her blonde friend was scampering toward the nature trail. Suddenly, the dude slammed himself backwards into the wall of a dormitory. Liana's head cracked against the brick and she slumped. Her arms became like wet ropes and slid from his neck. She fell to the ground, unconscious.  

All of this happened within the seconds it took Charlie to reach them. The frat guy was attempting to remove articles of clothing from the unconscious girl with a pocket knife. Charlie grabbed his knife arm and twisted it behind his back, then proceeded to pull him off of Liana.

"Leave her alone, asshole!" he yelled.

The guy turned and glared at Charlie for interrupting his work. He snarled, "Fuck off," and resumed cutting. Charlie grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him backwards. The guy whipped his knife across Charlie's upper arm. The gash stung and he was more surprised by the amount of blood than the pain. With his right arm Charlie took a swing and punched the guy in the face as hard as he could. The assailant jabbed again with the knife and Charlie leaped backwards to evade it. They both stood and faced each other. Charlie dodged another swipe of the knife, but then kicked it out of his attacker's hand. Disarmed, he decided to run for it. Charlie debated following him, but thought he should check on Liana.

She was stirring a bit, but had some bruises forming on her arm and one blooming below her collar bone. The blonde girl had crept back silently, her face was covered in tear stains. Charlie moved a hand under the arch in Liana's back and scooped her into a half sitting position. Her friend crouched down beside them, grasping the scraps of the shirt she'd been wearing in an attempt to cover herself.