Framed By Silence || AOT

V

Irina felt a tough hand seize her skinny arm, causing her to lunge forward. She stopped herself by planting her feet steadily on the cobblestone floor. Her first instinct being to tighten her grip on the flask and pull herself away from the iron grip that clung to her.

She looked up at the one who had placed hold of her. It was a man, which didn't surprise her for a start. He held a wooden toothpick in his grimy teeth, and his face was punchable. He was rather overweight, and stunk of body odour. It made her grimace at the sight and smell.

Irina tugged herself away from the man, but his clasp on her arm only tightened, causing her to let out a soft cry. She soon found herself being pulled to the side of the rabble, into a much less populated area a short distance from the market stalls.

"Fuckin' thieves think they own the place." He said, looking down onto her stone cold facade. Irina made another attempt at squirming away, by holding the flask under her arm and using her spare hand to psychically pry his hand off of her. Her weak attempt in comparison to his strength was laughable. The man countered her attempt by taking hold of the flask she kept under her arm.

"No! Stop!" Irina spoke in a tone of desperation. She felt panicked, but kept her cool, Mila told her not to show any signs of weakness in situations like this, no matter how scary the opponent.

The brute only chuckled in response. His laugh caused his putrid breath to fill the radius around him, the scent of it could knock a sick child dead. Irina stopped her breathing through her nose, and transmitted to her mouth instead, striving to disable her nasal senses.

"You stealing food, eh?" His disgusting voice began, "I watched you do it from a distance. You're pretty sneaky, but too obvious, causing a scene like that ain't the best way to do it. Fuckin' amateur." He chuckled again, finalising with a wheezing cough, an evident smoker.

The helpless girl didn't say anything in response, all that ran through her mind was how she could escape this situation.

Luckily for her, Ri would prepare herself for these circumstances. A stab wound in the hand wouldn't be too fatal, just enough for him to let go and spare a few precious moments so she could continue on her escape.

She carried a paper knife on her, one you would use to slit open envelopes. Sharp enough to pierce through skin without causing any lethal damage, the perfect trouble-safe weapon.

While emerged in her thoughts, two more men who looked rather alike to the one with control over Irina had made their way over. They most likely knew one other, and because of that, Riri didn't expect anyone to be saving her soon.

Irina had her plan set in place now, with her free hand, she'd slip the knife from her back pocket and thrust upwards into his hand, causing him to retract and she'd make her escape. Foolproof, right?

Wrong. Two other guys were situated there now, an advantage in numbers for them, acting only as obstacles in her method of breakout.

"Shit.." She spat to herself, as the others conversed in tones of aggression towards her. She had decided to block them out as soon as they arrived, until forced to listen.

One of the other men approached, eyebrow raised as he trudged towards her. And without hesitation, he took hold of her free wrist, and with his other hand, he lay on her chin, angling her face upwards towards him.

In retaliation, Irina gathered saliva in her mouth, only to expectorate it onto his cheek. She psychically watched the anger raise in him, as the others reacted in hilarity. He dropped her face and wiped the fluid from his face, his expression raised in disgust and vexation.

He did not resist in resorting to violence, as expected. The man's frustration brought him to forcing Irina's face down onto his knee with his hand, both body parts connecting together like hitting a drum, inflicting momentous pain onto her forehead. She felt her skin split above her eyebrow, the warm sensation of blood streaming down and entering her eye, blazing her nerves.

Irina bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself crying out in pain, conserving most of her will into holding back her tears. She stay silent as she watched how the men interacted.

"Get what you deserve you dumb prick." He said, pushing away her wrist and stepping back, repeatedly wiping his face with his sleeve.

The fat guy still kept a hold on her, conversing with his gang of two men.

"We'll turn her into the Military Police first, they'll lock her up for a while."

"The Military Police? Lazy buggers, having us do their job for them."

"All our taxes going to waste, I say." He snorted.

"Alright, go fetch one of 'em anyway, they'll sort this runt out no matter."

Irina listened, her head hung low. She payed attention to the sounds of footsteps walking away, which narrowed it down to two men, both rather large and both posing problems for her. She watched from the corner of her eye as the one that left searched for an MP.

She expected that to be the last of him for a while, which was one less problem, until he would returned with an MP. But she promised herself it wouldn't happen, on her accord anyway.

Irina saw this as her opportunity and began to reach for her knife, her fingers going unnoticed amongst them as she traversed her hand towards her back pocket. She intertwined her fingers around the thin handle of the paper knife, and then slowly began to pull it out from the pocket, her eyes discreetly fixed on both men at the same time.

She inhaled slowly through her nose, and then drew the knife to take action, until a certain sound stopped her instinctively in her movements. She tightened her grip and kept the weapon by her side, and out of sight. The sound was no other than a man hitting the floor heavily. Likely, the same man that had left a few seconds earlier to fetch an MP.

As Irina looked over, she saw a figure standing over the body, a blade of his own held in his fingers, and his arm extended out.

She was, to say the least, confused. The figure grew closer and the remaining guy returned his movements, walking towards him.

The man holding her watched in disbelief, and she had noticed his grip weakened. And with that information, Ri thrusted her knife upwards, causing it to streamline through his flesh and just as expected, he pulled away and clutched onto his freshly-opened wound.

Meanwhile the stranger almost mimicked her actions, except discharging a dangerous blow to the abdomen with his blade.

The fat guy looked between our straight-faced and unfazed emotions, and whimpered in pain as he held onto his lesion, making the decision to retreat back to the crowd, leaving only Irina and the unidentified figure alone.

He approached her, and his face became a lot clearer. He owned short, straight black hair styled in an undercut curtain, as well as narrow, intimidating dull grey eyes with dark circles under them and a deceptively youthful face. He was quite short, but his physique was well-developed in musculature. When looking upon his face, he seemed to only bare an expressionless emotion yet conveyed an extremely calm demeanour.

Irina stared back, her facade displaying the same emotion as his, almost identical. They fell into a circling around each other, slowly examining one another in a weary sense, like how two dogs would when curious.

She stopped before he did, and looked at him once more, before approaching closer to him. He showed slight aspects of surprise as she moved, but only to watch her bend down and pick up her flask, before straightening her posture and getting one last look at him. He returned the look, surveying the blood that trickled down her eye and reached her jaw.

What a strange encounter this was.

Irina looked away, and began on her way once again to return to Mila.