A Quiet Embrace

Chapter 1 : Lifesaver

A week after Roman Torchwick's Death...

Neo's POV

I always thought that I would be alone forever. After what happened to my family when I was young, all I wanted was to close my eyes and never open them again. I lost my voice and was never able to reobtain it after my parents passed away and now, I lost my boss. The one man who gave me a chance to shine is dead and now, I'm all alone yet again. It's been a week since he died, but the pain still hasn't gone away in the slightest. When will this pain go away???

I have been hopping from town to town, barely surviving since Beacon. The pain I feel is insurmountable and I have no idea how to make it stop. I barely have the strength to stand let alone fight. Maybe I should just give up. Maybe it should have been me instead. As I sit here in this crowded eating establishment and eavesdrop on people's conversations, it makes me miss having someone just to listen to. Someone who could tell me story after story and never stop. It's the closest thing that I can get to a conversation anymore. This place just doesn't help me out mentally at all so I'm just gonna go. I stand up and place my...Roman's hat on top of my head and walk outside.

It was a heavy downpour of rain so I popped out my umbrella and covered my head with it as I walked back to the cave I sleep in. I have nowhere else to go so why bother trying? I see some guys to my right watching me as I walk through town. They seem really sketchy so I'm gonna try to walk faster. I hurry into the woods, trying to walk as fast as I can until I finally arrive at the cave. I crawl under it and close my umbrella before setting it to the side. It's freezing cold, but at least this way I can feel something other than the pain of loneliness. I lay down on my side before I slowly but surely begin to fall asleep before I hear a twig snap in the woods. I shrug it off as it's more than likely being caused by the rainstorm until I hear it again but louder and closer. I'm so tired, but I need to get up. Those guys from earlier emerged from the woods and rushed towards me. I reached for my umbrella but I couldn't in time as it was kicked away from me.

"Sup girly." One of them said as I scowled in his direction.

"What's someone as pretty as you doing out here alone in a cave?" One of the guys asked. I couldn't answer them unbeknownst to them but they seemed to have been angered by my silence.

"Not a talker huh? That's okay. My name is Logan." He said as he smirked. I crossed my arms and looked away from him, hoping he would get the hint. He got the hint alright, just not in the way that I had hoped.

"Listen, when the man speaks to you, you speak back. Got it?" His buddy asked. I can feel the tension beginning to rise and it's irritating me. I want to kill all of them and get them away from me but I don't even have enough energy to climb to my feet.

"Come on, let's get you out of the rain and into someplace warm." Logan said. He reached his hand out to me but I angrily slapped it away. This seemed to have upset him as he grabbed me by my hair and slammed me against the cave wall.

"Just a helpful hint. Take the help next time." Logan said as he began cutting my clothes with a knife. I need to fight back but I can't. I'm frozen stiff and it's like I can't move. What is happening? Is this...his semblance doing this to me?

"You're so pretty...you know that?" He asked as he grabbed my throat. I could barely breathe as it was and this obviously wasn't helping. Suddenly I see a flash of black energy fly past my face and I drop to the ground once again. The guys who confronted me were no longer there but instead, they were reduced to ash. I see that black energy materialize into a human being. He had longer black hair and had a mask on so I couldn't see his face. He wore all black as well, making all of this very nerve-racking.