Leona Evelyn Carter was walking home by herself after dark. She’d gone to the arcade with a couple of friends and was now headed home to spend the evening with her two brothers and three sisters. At fifteen she was the youngest of her dysfunctional family. Her parents had split, leaving her and her other under-aged siblings with their eldest brother, Nick. She’d shoulder length brown hair, with blond and red highlights in it and she stood about five feet two inches.

“Nicky’s gonna kill me for not calling him,” she told herself, shaking her head. “But I need time to myself every now and then, and I won’t get it once home, as everyone always seems to just barge on into my room.”

“Talking to yourself, are you?” A voice commented dryly from the darkness.

Leona’s head snapped up, as she looked around frantically. “Whose there?”

“Someone who thinks you’re stupid to be walking alone after dark in this town,” the voice answered, as the person reached out to grab hold of her. “You scream and I’ll kill you, got it?”

Leona nodded silently, her eyes wide with fright. “What-what do you want?” She managed to ask after a moment.

“Something I’m sure you’re not willingly going to give me,” the voice in the dark replied huskily.

Leona struggled with him then, upon realizing just what he meant, and seeing that he was leading her into a dark alley. “Let me go!” She hissed panicking, as she was dragged further and further into the alley.

“Not until I’ve gotten what I wanted,” was the reply she received.

Leona struggled with all her might, though not very strong she was determined to get away – but, alas, not even her determination could stop this evil person from getting what they wanted from her. She cried and squirmed quite a bit, though that only got her blows to her face and a few other areas she’d rather not mention. She lie there sobbing, wishing with all her might for one of her brothers to come looking for her, and stop this evil man from doing what he was about to do. She gave a small, shrill cry of pain as she felt him enter her, and knew now that her struggles had been futile – he had gotten what he’d wanted from her after all, and she could do nothing to stop him, though she had tried her damnedest.

Eventually, the man got up and glowered at her. “You breathe a word of this to anyone, and I will come back and kill you!” He threatened, as he zipped his pants back up once more.

Leona nodded tearfully, as she lie there, a blubbering and bloody mess. Once she was sure he was gone, she slowly began to pick herself up, deciding she’d never breathe a word of this to her siblings. She felt like such an idiot for letting this happen and for being stupid enough to walk home alone after dark, despite Nick having had told her numerous times not to do so. She continued on her trek, though painfully now, a must in order to get home – she’d stupidly forgotten her cell in her room in her haste to get to the arcade.

Thirty minutes later, she finally limped through their front gate, tears still streaming down her face from the pain. She’d gotten about halfway across the yard, when the front door suddenly flew open.

“Where in God’s name have you been, Young Lady?!?!” Nick demanded, coming out to tell her off. He’d gotten a call from her friends asking if she was home yet, and he was none too happy to discover she’d decided to walk home alone. He paused, midst his lecture as he noticed her limping. “What’s wrong?”

“Nicky,” Leona whimpered as she stumbled a bit.

Nick moved quickly to help her, as he knew that tone of voice all too well by now. He frowned when he realized just how beat up she was, and that her lip was bleeding. “Leona, what happened?” He asked, as he helped her on into the house, leading her to the bathroom so he could fix her up.

Leona gulped, as she tried to think of what to tell him. It had to be logical, but it could not be the full truth. “I got beat up, she answered.

“Well, that much is obvious,” Nick commented. “But by who?”

“I-I don’t know,” Leona replied softly, relieved she was still telling him the truth. She could never lie to him, and every time she tried too, she got caught.

“Was it more than one person?” Nick questioned, as he made her sit down upon the toilet seat lid that he’d put down. He then went about getting a face cloth, so he could clean her cuts.

“I-It was some-some kids from school,” Leona lied, knowing if she said just one guy her brother would demand to know if he did anything sexual to her. “I-I kinda made some people mad…”

“Then give me their names so that they can be charged with assault,” Nick stated, as he firmly pressed the cloth to her bleeding lip.

Leona winced. “No. That’ll just cause me more trouble. I can stand up for myself.”

“Leona,” Nick began, only to be cut off.

“No, Nicky,” Leona insisted. “Just let it be. If Aaron can get into a fist fight and nobody gets charged, then I should be able to do the same.”

“This wasn’t just a fist fight,” Nick argued. “You were purposely jumped when they knew you were alone. This was well thought out beforehand.”

“I’ll be fine, I promise,” Leona assured him, though she wasn’t so sure about that herself.

“But-” Nick protested.

“Nicky, I’ll be okay,” Leona replied, giving him the best puppy-dog look she could at the moment. “I just want to shower and crawl into my pajamas, okay?”

“Fine,” Nick sighed heavily, then gave her a stern look. “You are to never walk home alone after dark again! You hear me, Leona?”

“Kind of hard not to, when you’re right in my face,” Leona quipped, giving him a small smile, despite how she truly felt. She’d learn to mask her feelings at a young age – even when she wasn’t happy, she still managed to act it, not wanting to worry anyone.

“Don’t sass me,” Nick replied, though a smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Promise me you won’t walk home alone after dark ever again.”

“Promise,” Leona said, meaning it more than ever. If only her brother knew what had really happened – but she couldn’t tell him! She just couldn’t!

“Alright,” Nick replied. “I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”

Leona tried not to flinch as her brother kissed her forehead. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her – not ever – but because of that evil man, she was quite shaken up. Soon as her brother had left the bathroom, she left as well to go fetch her pajamas, returning moments later. She ran the taps, making the water hot as she dared, not wanting to scald herself – no matter how dirty she truly felt at that moment. Once it was hot enough to her liking, she climbed on in, letting the rest of her tears fall – she’d pushed them back before, as to not worry her brother anymore than he already was. She scrubbed her body like she had never scrubbed before – she scrubbed and scrubbed until the water was cold and her skin red and irritated.

“How could I let Nicky touch someone so filthy?” She thought to herself as she dried off. “Why didn’t I wash more? So what if the water’s cold? Dammit, I need to wash!”

She was about to climb back in again, when there was suddenly a knock on the door. “Yeah?” She called out warily.

“Hey, you almost done?” Leslie’s voice answered. “I wanna take a shower – unless you used up all the hot water.”

“Um…I used it all,” Leona admitted sheepishly through the closed door. “Sorry.”

“Um…yeah….sure,” Leona replied, sounding a bit unsure.

“You okay Leo-Lee?” Leslie queried, using the nickname they’d given Leona years ago. “Nick said you got beat up.”

“I’m okay,” Leona managed to state, as she began to dry herself off with the fluffy blue towel she’d wrapped around herself. “Just – daydreaming, is all.”

“Well, I’m gonna wait for you, so don’t daydream too long,” Leslie teased. “Air-Boy’s making some popcorn under Angel’s supervision – between the two, we should get something decent enough to eat.”

Leona gave a small laugh, as she knew how Aaron liked to burn popcorn to get on everybody’s nerves, as it stunk up the house horribly. Once dry, she opened the door and stepped out of the bathroom after hanging her towel up on the one rack.

“Alright, I’m ready,” she told her favourite sister. She hated to admit she’d a favourite, but she and Leslie had always been rather close. They just seemed to understand one another better, and knew when to back off and give the other space when necessary.

Leslie smirked upon seeing Leona step out of the bathroom. “You and those crazy footie-pajamas,” she laughed. “I still can’t believe Nickers had them specially made for you.”

“So I like to keep my feet warm and wear Chipmunks pajamas, big deal,” Leona shrugged, moving to step inside her bedroom and grab hold of something that lie atop her bed.

Leslie raised her eyebrows upon seeing just what it was her sister had grabbed. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, why?” Leona asked, hugging to her chest what she had grabbed.

“It’s not often you decide to carry Simon around the house,” Leslie pointed out, gesturing to the stuffed Chipmunk in her sister’s arms. “You usually only do that during thunder storms.”

Leona shrugged, as they began to descend the stairs. “Yeah, well, I did get jumped and all….”

“Yeah….” Leslie trailed off as well. “I guess that’s reason enough to need him….”

Once Leona and Leslie had made it down to the living room, they all decided to watch Shattered Trust: The Shari Karney Story. The movie was all about incest, and rape and such, but they were all intrigued to find out how it ended – all but Leona.

As her siblings all settled in various places to watch the movie, Leona stood watching them all, not sure where to sit. She usually sat with Nick or Aaron, but she still felt dirty, and she didn’t want her filth to rub off on them – it was bad enough it was rubbing off on her beloved stuffed Chipmunk.

“C’mere, Hunny,” Nick told her, patting the spot next to him. He knew his baby sister well enough to know that she only carried Simon around when scared, and when scared she loved to snuggle with either him or Aaron.

“I-I can’t,” Leona protested. “I just – I can’t.”

“Why not?” Nick asked, looking and sounding confused, as the others looked at her oddly too.

“I’m…” Leona trailed off, deciding she’d best not tell them she was dirty, or they’d know for sure that something else had happened. “I’m being dumb….”

Aaron laughed, shaking his head. “Dumb is Nick admitting he’s still afraid of Gremlins.”

“Nicky’s not dumb!” Leona snapped somewhat, feeling protective of their eldest brother like always. “Gremlins are scary!”

“C’mon, Leo-Lee, take a seat already,” Angel whined somewhat. “We want to start the movie!”

Leona swallowed hard, hoping no one else would notice how nervous and uncomfortable she felt about sitting with one of their brothers. She slowly made her way over to the couch, and sat next to Nick, though she didn’t dare lean on him.

“What’s with you?” Nick asked, raising his eyebrows. “I got cooties or something now? C’mere.”

Aaron snickered. “I can just imagine all the cooties you have, Nick.”

“Shut-up Aaron,” Nick replied, flipping the younger boy the bird.

“Cooties were, like, the second grade, Nick,” Angel added, shaking her head.

“Well, that’s just Nick for you,” B.J. smirked. “He still thinks we are in the second grade.”

Leona eyed Nick out of the corner of her eye, and figured she’d best do as told, or the others were going to become highly suspicious. Especially since they all knew her too well when it came to how much she loved Nick – Aaron too.

Nick smiled and wrapped his arm about her, once she’d finally snuggled into him. “There, that’s better,” he said, hugging her close and kissing the top of her head. “Start the movie, Beej.”

The movie started, and before it even had a chance to get interesting, Leona was fast asleep snuggled up against Nick, in the safety of his loving arms.