Nemesis: A Love Story

HUGH

He walks swiftly. His hands jammed into his pockets. Rain streaming down on him. Soaking his clothes, his hair, even down to his skin.
He doesn't care.
He doesn't feel it.
He's consumed by thoughts.
By fucking feelings.
He's seeing red.
He is shook. He is man enough to admit it.
None of this was turning out the way he'd expect it would.
When he's gone into the alley. He'd expected a confrontation.
A battle of will.
Words even.
But not that.
Not that.
He'd been impressed with her ability to catch him off guard.
His mistake for underestimating her.
When she had slammed him into the wall, while he'd been pissed, he'd also admired her.
Her ability to protect herself.
Her fearlessness to take on a male much bigger than her.
He feels a deep rooted sense of respect. Respect for her.
This one is a fighter. A protector.
His mother had cowered. Hidden in a corner as his father had beaten her and then moved on to Hugh himself. He hadn't gotten the chance to touch Claire.
His mother had turned a blind eye to his abuse, his fathers other women, the alcohol, the dealers, everything.
Lied when the police arrived.
Sobbed when he and his sister would be taken from the home.
Promise to change things.
Things would be different.
Better.
They never were.
Promises.
He frowns at the thought.
Promises are lies.
Actions are the truth.
Then back in the alley he's confronted physically by this wild thing with green eyes.
She threatens him.
He taunts her.
They tussle and that's when he sees it.
The long jagged scar that's she's managed to hide from him, from everyone.  Without thinking he moves her soft hair aside. To see if it's real and not a play of light and shadow. It reaches from the middle of her throat all the way to her top of her shoulder.
How the fuck had she survived that he thinks as he walks.
He'd seen the panic in her eyes then. A look he never wants to see in those cat eyes again. Haunted eyes.
She's haunted.
"Who hurt you?" He'd heard himself ask in a voice he doesn't know.
He saw it then.
The moment she mentally leaves. Physically she is still there but her body is shaking and he knows she is sinking, her legs shaking. He pulled her in tighter to him then. Holding her.
"Tessa"
He hears himself say her name. It sounds foreign to him. He likes the sound of her name.
It's that moment that she comes back from whatever her mind had taken her and there's a knife at his throat.
There's rage in her eyes.
There's fear.
"Back off"
If it were anyone else they'd be on the floor begging for mercy.
Instead he loosens his hold. She has control now. As much as she can.
But she looks wrecked.
Drained.
"Tell me who hurt you"
She looks at him them.
The knife pressed harder
"Stay the fuck away from me"
She pushed him away. With such force.
He stumbled.
She runs.
He doesn't follow.
Now he walks. He doesn't know to where. No clear destination. He just needs to walk. To try to control his circling mind.
He needs to know what happened to her.
Who did this to her.
So he can make them pay.
And pay. 
And pay.
But how?
She won't tell him. Definitely not now. Not after how he's treated her. How she's treated him.
How?
"Hugh?!"
He looks up at the sound of his name.
He sees a figure rushing towards him.
Soft hands on his face.
"You're soaked."
The voice. The hands. He feels like he's choking.
"Hugh. What happened?"
He looks into Megan's dark worries filled eyes.
Confused.
"You're bleeding!"
He lifts his hand to this throat
His finger tips come off it red.
So he is.
She's nicked him with her blade.
It's not too deep.
It's ok.
It doesn't hurt.
He lets Megan drag him inside her office building.