Chapter Text
Ding a ling a ling!!
The jingle of the doorbell to the coffee shop, signalling the exit of the final customer of the day was like music to sweet Marjorine’s ears. She had spent hours on end serving clients; making drinks and wiping tables, to the point where she could barely keep her eyes open. The warmth and sweet aroma of sugar cookies and cinnamon rolls that surrounded the shop had not helped her in that aspect, further persuading her to accept the inviting embrace of slumber.
The coffee shop was already open that evening for much longer than it was meant to be. Marjorine didn’t understand how anyone could be craving caffeine at 7:00pm on Friday night as opposed to going out with their friends and taking shots until the cows come home.
Well…
At least that’s what she thought would be a better alternative in the eyes of a regular person - if she was being completely honest, she had never really done any of that stuff yet.
Oh Marjorine… she was so eager for excitement yet never dared stray from the pages of the rule book. Having being underaged, more specifically 18 (going on 19 in a few weeks might I add). She never once tried to sneek into a nightclub, nor taken a sip of alcohol or tried a cigarette. There is phrase one might use to describe Marjorine..
What was it again??
Ah!
A grade 5 goodie-too-shoes.
———
Marjorine was just about to close shop when a large group of people that looked slightly older than her decided to knock on the door and ask if they could a place a “quick” last minute order. And as you would expect, she just couldn’t say no. Having being raised in a strict household, she had grown to think that saying no to a stranger was incredibly rude.
But to be fair, Marjorine had never really said no to anyone who was asking for a favour. Which is one thing that she loved but also hated about herself. On the one hand it made her seem like a kind and easy-going person that’s alway there to help, however on the other hand it gave people the impression that she was a giant pushover. However, deep down, she knew that she was just that.
Anyways, that “quick” last minute order that I had mentioned earlier actually took the poor barista half an hour to complete, considering the fact there was around 10 people in said group, Marjorine should’ve known that making up their orders would’ve been anything but quick. On top of that, they all mostly paid separately so that took EVEN MORE fiddling with the card machine and register to get them working at the right times. The blonde had only been working there for a few months since moving back to town. Meaning that she had not quite mastered swift control of the machinery just yet.
Somehow she had finally managed to take everyone’s payments. The last treat - a frosted cupcake - was placed into a brown paper bag and handed to its respective buyer.
At long last the group began to shuffle their way out the store, along with a few stragglers who seemingly ignored the sign reading ‘closed’, rendering the girls efforts to ward off any new customers in vain. Rude much?
Marjorine managed to maintain her sappy customer service smile until she had closed the window blinds. Once she was certain that she was out of view, her face quickly dropped into a scowl as she slumped herself into a nearby chair. She needed to sit down for at least a few minutes, her feet felt like they were on fire from being up on her feet for almost the entire day.
——-
The blonde woke up with a start.
A faint string of curses could be heard coming from her mouth as she lifted her head in a daze. She must’ve fallen asleep whilst resting her burning feet. Her hand scrambled into her pocket to pull out her phone. Her fingers twisted and played with the dangling hello kitty phone charm that complimented its matching phone case.
8:47pm.. shit.. the shop was meant to have shut over an hour ago. She was in so much trouble.
She stood up quickly and began to rush around the building switching off machines, wiping down surfaces and placing chairs on top of tables. The whole process took her another good hour. Perhaps it wouldn’t have taken so long if she hadn’t insisted that she could handle closing alone to her colleague Tweak, who she convinced to clock out early and go home due to a migraine. Maybe she should’ve let him stay after all? This was another rich example of Marjorine not having a god damn backbone. Insisting she was fine, opting to suffer in silence as opposed to asking for help.
By the time she was done it was almost 10pm. She knew for sure that her boss will have a few words with her next time she sees him. However he’s pretty reasonable and kind hearted so Marjorine was sure he’d understand. Hopefully
———
She stepped out into the darkness of the street. Whatever tiredness she was feeling was quickly stripped away as her face made contact with a gust of icy wind.
Locking the door behind her, she trotted her way down the street. Buttoning up her baby blue duffle coat and tightening her pink scarf around her neck as she went. The walk was far from quiet,
After her years of absence from the town she had noticed it had changed quite a bit. What was once an obscure little mountain town was…
Umm- Still an obscure mountain town I guess… but decently larger.
The population had risen quite significantly as consequence of newcomers wanting to live in the idealistic scenery of a quaint, snowy little settlement in Colorado. Due to this sudden growth, the town naturally had to expand to fit its capacity. Marjorine passed the bright glow and chatter of nightclubs, bars, stores and restaurants that she had never seen before. The town was far from quiet on a Friday night that’s for sure.
Marjorines pace slowed slightly to admire all those who passed her, elderly couples on their way to dinner; teenagers definitely out passed their curfew; gaggles of young women on a night out… The blonde took particular time admiring the outfits of all the women she saw, just wishing she had the confidence to sport clothes as risqué as the ones she glanced at.
The air was cold, the blonde could see her breath escape her mouth in the form of warm mist. She was so focused this fact that she hadn’t realised that she had made a wrong turning into a dark alleyway that had a significantly less welcoming essence to it than the one she had experienced in the hustle and bustle of the town centre just a few seconds earlier. Despite this, she stubbornly plodded on. The chatter from the street next door soon faded, the only sound left was her footsteps tapping against the hard concrete ground.
Ping!
She stopped walking for a moment to check the text message she received. Letting complete silence consume the alleyway.
Or not,
that’s… strange,
she’s not walking and yet she can still hear footsteps? And rather loud ones at that.
Unfortunately, her string of thoughts wasn’t fast enough to react to this new information before feeling the stiff chill of the gun barrel against the side of her head.
—
She froze. The numbness that consumed her body made it seem like time had stopped completely. She was trapped inside her own head.
Oh hamburgers, wait no, let’s rephrase that…
FUCK
Out of ALL the people in this god damn shit hole of a town. Why does it have to be her?
She did everything she right; followed all the rules; rarely ever stepping out of line. Yet this is what god.. or whoever was in control up there, was giving back to her.
The light blonde didn’t have a ton of self empathy, she was already cursing herself out in her mind, scanning through all of the various different scenarios where she could’ve done something different so that she would’ve never ended up in this situation.
—
The only sounds that could be heard now were click of the handgun and the shaky inhales of the poor girl that it was threatening.
“What’s a pretty little thing like you doing out all alone at this time of night, hmm?” a scratchy voice cooed mockingly “Surely it’s past your bedtime”
Marjorine didn’t move
She couldn’t speak.
—
“I think ya know what we want, the standard procedure”
We? .. there’s more of them??
Marjorines unspoken question wasn’t left lingering in the air for to long before she heard several voices coming up from behind her.
“I bet cha she’s got a few things on her that are worth a pretty penny” one of the voices sneered “just look at that fancy ass coat”
She opened her mouth to speak; to beg; to cry, anything.
But all that would come out were a few pathetically suffocating ‘I-‘s and ‘ah-‘s
“PAH, cat got your tongue?” yet ANOTHER voice chuckled casually like she wasn’t being held at the mercy of a killing machine.
The poor girl wearing the pink scarf let out a sharp gasp as she felt hard snow boots colliding with the backs of her knees, causing them to weaken and consequently making her fall due to her body weights now lack of support.
She could feel her sheer black tights rip, allowing her to feel the stinging pain of her bare knees grazing the cold concrete.
The armed thug lowered his weapon, seemingly at ease, probably realising she wasn’t going to make any attempts to fight back.
“Get up bitch” the still armed man scowled menacingly as if she had not just been physically forced down by one of his accomplices.
She obliged. Using her jittering arms to push herself up onto her also trembling feet. Once she was up, a brief moment of unnerving silence fell upon the dark alley. But only for a moment.
—
The blonde felt hands grip her shoulders tightly as she was span around and rammed into the wall beside them. A roaring jolt of pain cascaded through her spine and spread across her entire body.
It was then when she finally made a sound, a loud screech of agony that echoed through the narrowness of the alley.
“Don’t make this any harder than it needs to be, let us have our fun”
It was like someone had clicked the ‘unpause’ in her mind that had made her stay silent up until now.
“God p-please don’t hurt me” she cried pathetically, knowing that her protests wouldn’t change a single god damn thing.
She sobbed as her bag was aggressively ripped from her shoulder. The girl could only watch pitifully as its contents were invaded. Items such as her mobile, headphones and purse were confiscated as she detected icy hands reach up to her ears and neck tugging at her jewellery that she took great care in selecting that very morning.
She made a few useless attempts to break free but was stunted by a fist yanking at her hair forcing her face to look upwards at the gap between the two buildings. Tears streamed down her face as she looked up at the night.
—
On a normal night in the town centre, light pollution made it impossible to see anything but black. However from this dark pathway, where no lamppost could interfere, you could just make out the faint glistening of the stars scattered through the night sky like silver confetti.
Even if the vision was blurred from the tears that continued to form in her eyes.
It was beautiful.
Beautiful in a way that was almost mocking. Giving her such wondrous elegance to gaze at whilst she suffered. The twinkle and flicker of the stars above almost made it seem like they were laughing at her misery. The universe seems to have ways of making you experience pure beauty and agonising torture at the exact same time. Marjorine had gone through this mixture of emotions a fair few times but not something as literal as this.
She was entranced by the sight, so much so that she somehow was distracted enough not to notice that she was no longer being prodded and held down.
Looking away from the sky, she turned her attention back onto the thugs who were now gathered to inspect their ‘earnings’.
Marjorine must’ve not been the only one to run into them today because she saw serveral different valuables that she knew for a fact didn’t belong to her.
She couldn’t help but let her heart ache for those who were forced to go through what she was going through right now. Knowing they had done this before yet had not been served justice made her angry.
But really, what could she do? She had always been weak. All her life she had been reminded of that in some way or another. Her gullible and naive nature had set her up as the perfect victim of manipulation and humiliation, as proved by a certain fatass on numerous occasions during their childhood.
Hell, she wasn’t being held down anymore yet hadn’t thought to make another attempt to make a break for it.
She rapidly shuffled her back up the wall to stand up from the leaning position she was in, dried up spray paint from the graffiti that decorated the side of the building, rubbing and staining the back of her ‘fancy ass coat’. Heals turning as fast as they could, she bolted.
No.
No she didn’t.
She was yanked - hard - by the ends of her hair and thrown against the side of a nearby dumpster.
CLANG!
BANG!
Her heart pounded in her chest as she felt the vibrations of the bullet that had landed just a few inches away from her ear and indented itself into the side of the dumpster. She let out another sob filled scream. Her mouth filling with the disgusting taste of rotting garbage and cigarette smoke.
“Try to pull that move on us again and see what happens cunt” said the armed man, malice and cruelty laced in his voice.
“Ya know i think we have enough time to teach her a lesson” the thug holding her phone and purse said.
Grins plastered their faces as a few of them stepped closer.
To where Marjorine was sitting after she had been thrown.
“Pat her down”
Her legs and arms kicked and thrashed to keep them away but to no avail. She was outnumbers 4 times over.
A new wave of tears fell down her checks as she let out loud cries of discomfort. Feeling unwelcome hands move around her torso.
Her body was dragged forward to allow her coat to be ripped away, leaving her to shiver in her rosy pink babydoll top and pleated denim skirt.
“We’ll take the coat too, it’s probably expens- ARRRGH!?”
Marjorine had used this moment of respite to send a powerful kick right in between one of her assaulters legs.
Said criminal hunched over in pain, leaving the rest of his accomplices in temporary shock from the unexpected resistance.
The light blonde used this moment to her advantage. Clambering to her feet and again bolting through a leeway between the thugs bodies.
Her heart pounded,
Threatening to burst right out of her ribcage.
She sprinted closer and closer towards the yellow tinged glow of the street lamps.
Closer.. she was almost there.
Along as she was in the view of just a few witnesses, she knew they wouldn’t pursue her and she’d be safe.
But alas, the shock had worn off and she was now hearing loud footsteps steps getting very close behind her.
All that she could focus on was the main street, her feet were still burning and it felt like the tear stains were about to create a thin layer of ice over her reddened cheeks. Her heart and lungs working overtime in order to accommodate the running. She took deep, sharp breaths in between steps.
Just 5 more steps.
5…. Breathe….. 4….. 3… Breathe…. 2-
“GOTCHA”
The heavenly light of the street before her got smaller and smaller as she was seized by her forearm and dragged backwards, further slipping out her grasp as she was returned to the darkness.
The yellow light turned into a fuzzy blob as her vision was blurred from salty water slipping down her checks and into her slightly agape mouth. Her voice now horse from all the screaming.
In one final desperate attempt to break free she span around, lent down and sank her teeth into her captors wrists as hard as she possibly could.
A stabbing hiss was heard as his fingers loosened their tight grip on her. She hadn’t even made it two steps forward before a different yet familiar set of hands grabbed the back of her top. The grip he had was so firm that top in-fact tore almost halfway during her attempt to break away.
She soon realised it was the armed man from the beginning with his grip on her, most likely the leader of them all.
“What did we fucking say about trying to escape” he said lightheartedly, although the tone also wore a veil of annoyance and anger.
“You know what they say, aargh-, the prettiest ones are always the most difficult” said the bastard who had the misfortune of being the one to be kicked just a few seconds earlier.
She felt a chill rush through her body, she was trembling so aggressively that it became harder to keep herself up. This was partly due to the fear but also the fact that part of her body, from her right shoulder to just above her waist on the same side was left bare. She tried to cover her bra from view with her arm but was tugged away and forced behind her back. Her throat was scratchy but that didn’t stop her from crying out. The handgun was raised so the end of the barrel rested on the front of her neck.
“Let this happen” he said in a way that was sickly sweet, clicking the gun, making the girl flinch as he lifted his hand towards her half exposed chest.
She’s shook, feeling disgustingly hot breath on her shoulders and light footsteps coming from behind her.
She squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for the worst.
However, nothing happened.
Suddenly, her body jerked backwards by a strong and strangely reassuring pair of arms despite the aggressive motion.
Her bottom was then met again with the concrete. She use her arms and legs to shuffle backwards in order to get a better grasp on what was going on.
All she saw was a hooded figure standing with their back turned to her. Though cascaded in darkness, the light blonde could just about make out the neon green question mark secured to the back of the hoodie via an embarrassingly sloppy attempt at sewing.