“You know I don’t even know your name,” Elena said, looking at the man beside her as he drove down the street seemingly without a direction in mind. 

“It’s Nick,” he replied, keeping his eyes on the road. 

Nick had absolutely no idea where he was going, just like Elena was starting to think. He knew he couldn’t go back to his mother’s house, and he couldn’t think of somewhere else safe to go. 

“Nick, are you taking me home?” Elena asked hopefully but the look on his face told her otherwise. 

“I can’t,” he told her honestly, “Your entire house is crawling with cops. They’ll arrest me and I’m sorry but I just can’t.”

“I’ll tell them you found me!” she promised him, wanting more than anything for him to start driving towards her house. 

“That won’t work,” Nick sighed, “They’ll find a way to frame me for the whole thing!”

“The cops?”

“My friends.”

“Some friends you’ve got there,” she scoffed. 

Nick nodded, “Yeah I just discovered that recently.”

“So where are we going to go?” Elena questioned, looking over at him curiously. 

“I can only think of one place,” Nick sighed and made a right-hand turn in the direction of a friend’s house. Patrick wasn’t really a friend, not even an acquaintance but he knew that if anyone would take him in no questions asked, it would be him, “We’ll lay low for a little while then you can just walk away and show up at your house with no memory of what happened.”

Elena looked down at her hands and sighed, as much as she wanted to go back home right then she didn’t want her rescuer to end up in prison, “Alright, but not for long. I really want to go home.”

“You’ll be home before you know it,” he assured her as they continued their drive deeper into the slums of the city. After a few minutes they pulled up in front of a rundown looking house in a neighbourhood that most people of Elena’s stature would not even get out of their cars.

“Where are we?” Elena asked her voice lined with nervousness, making it apparent that she was afraid of the area.

“I know someone here. He’ll put us up for now,” Nick said, leading her out of the car. They walked up to the dilapidated house and Nick knocked soundly on the door. They waited for a few moments before the door was snapped open only enough for the door chain to be taut. 

A rough looking face appeared in the open space, looking at them sceptically. Though he looked like he was easily over 40, in reality the man on the other side of the door was not even 30. His skin was pale and sallow, his green eyes sunken and bloodshot and a mop of ginger hair atop his head was greasy and unruly.

“Long time no see,” Patrick said gruffly. He grinned at Nick, showing off a set of rotten, stained teeth.

“Yeah sorry I haven’t been by in a while,” Nick shuffled his feet and looked down to the ground, “Do you think I could crash here for a little while?”

“That your girlfriend?”

Nick shook his head and made sure to keep Elena slightly behind him, “No, she’s just a friend. We just need a place to stay for a bit.”

“You got cash?” 

Nick sighed, “No, but you know I’m good for it Pat.”

Patrick looked from Nick to Elena and gave her a very obvious once over. He didn’t seem too shocked to see Nick standing at his door accompanied by a girl wrapped in a sheet and covered with bruises, and had a hard time believing they were just friends, “Yeah alright.”

Nick was relieved when the door shut and they both heard the chain being unlocked. Nick held a hand under Elena’s elbow and pushed her into the house, ignoring the overwhelming smell of dirt, body odour, and drugs. 

“Where are we?” Elena asked, looking at Nick with wide eyes. 

“She wasted?” Patrick asked and Nick looked back and forth between them before nodding.

“Yeah, look I can’t really go into details but we need to lay low for a bit.”

“Cops aren’t looking for you are they?” Patrick was quick to ask.

“No, no, nothing like that,” Nick dismissed, “You won’t even notice we’re here.”

“Why am I absolutely sure of that?” Elena muttered, glancing around into the dirty kitchen where a foot tall pile of dirty dishes was teetering perilously over the sink.

Patrick nodded then slunk back to the other room, “Your old room is free!” he said behind him and Nick started leading Elena by the elbow again, this time upstairs.

Nick made a pit stop on their way to the bathroom to grab a towel and soak it in water to clean up Elena’s face.

“What the fuck is this place?” Elena asked once they had walked into a bedroom which she was sure hadn’t been cleaned since the last time Nick had apparently stayed there.

Nick sighed; “I used to hang out here sometimes…” he trailed off.

“Is this a crack house or something? Did you hang out here sometimes to do drugs?” Elena exclaimed, trying to keep her hands off of every dirty surface around her.

He was going to deny it but it was pretty apparent just by their surroundings that he would make a liar out of himself. The dresser had burn marks all over it from hot spoons, and an ash tray filled with spent roaches was sitting next to the bed, “Fine, yes, I used to hang out here sometimes and do drugs. What are you, my mother?”

Elena’s faced showed nothing but disgust as she looked over at Nick, “She obviously didn’t do a very good job if she let you come to a place like this.”

Nick glared at her and moved away to sit on the bed, but not before brushing the comforter clean, “You don’t know jack about my mother or why I would have found myself in ‘a place like this’ so mind your own fucking business!”

“Sorry, I’m sorry,” Elena held up her hands in defence, “I’m just a little overwhelmed by this whole situation. I was kidnapped, then just when I thought I was free I end up still kidnapped and being held in a house that smells like an armpit!”

Nick chuckled sarcastically and shook his head, “Newsflash baby but you don’t smell a whole lot better than this house.”

Elena gasped incredulously, “Excuse me?”

“You’re standing there in your week old panties and your dirty, sweaty tank top wrapped in a blanket that was on my fucking bed for a good month before we wrapped you in it and you think you smell like roses and potpourri? I’m sorry if you don’t smell it, but I do and it smells like shit.”

Elena pulled the blanket off of her with a squeal of repulsion, balling it up and throwing it at Nick’s head, “You’re disgusting! At least I have an excuse for smelling bad, kidnapper! What’s yours?”

“I don’t smell,” Nick corrected with a shrug as he leaned up against the wall coolly. 

Elena grunted then reluctantly moved to sit down next to Nick on the bed, making sure she grabbed the sheet back from him so she could sit on it, not knowing what could possibly be on the sheets on the bed, “Fine, you’re right, you smell fucking great.”

“How’s your face?” Nick changed the subject, turning his head to look at her.

“Gross,” she pouted and reached up to touch the tender skin under her eye. 

Nick picked up the towel he’d grabbed earlier then reached over to wipe away some of the blood from under Elena’s nose. She recoiled quickly, pulling away from him. Without words Nick held up his hands letting her know she was okay then handed her the towel so she could do it herself.

“I’m so sorry they did that to you,” Nick said with a sincerity that she could never deny was the absolute truth. 

Elena gingerly wiped her nose clean then looked over toward her so-called captor, “Where were you? You disappeared.”

“It’s a long story. Basically, I left because I was being cheated. I had no idea that they were going to do this. If I had known, I wouldn’t have left.”

“It’s not like you would have stood up to them,” Elena muttered, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.

“No,” Nick stopped her, reaching over to put his hand on hers, “I would have. I’d have killed any one of them who I saw lay a hand on you.”

“Thank you,” Elena said, looking down at his hand on hers. Her mind suddenly took a turn from grateful to scheming and she started thinking of how she was going to get herself out of this mess, “It wasn’t too different from my regular life though.”

“What?” Nick asked his eyes wide with surprise.

Elena quickly formulated a lie in her head, using her best acting skills to look solemn and forlorn “My dad…he’s got a terrible temper.”

“He hits you?” he questioned, his hand moving to her arm protectively.

“Sometimes,” she whispered, squeezing out a lone tear dramatically.

Nick’s eyes glazed over with a strange expression as he held back his anger about this new information. He was completely unaware that Elena was lying through her teeth, and his insatiable urge to help the damsel in distress clouded his thought.

“Then why do you want to go back there?” 

“It’s…” my home, my family, my dog, my money, my car, “My mother. I can’t leave her there alone. I can’t just leave her!”

“I’ll try to get you home as soon as I possibly can,” Nick assured her, rubbing her back soothingly.

“Thank you,” Elena choked out another tear then threw her body against Nick, hugging him tightly.

He was clearly shocked at first, but understanding where Elena was coming from knew that she was afraid for her family as well as herself. He hugged her back, pressing his cheek to the top of her head.

“As soon as I can,” he promised her softly.