From the Beginning Ch. 01

This left Nathan to drift from conversation to conversation, most of them short as he realised that you couldn't have a decent chat with anyone when they were drunk at a party, due to both the music and the state they were in. He resigned himself to mainly observing, he was used to being a wallflower, and had hoped that it would change when he arrived at university, turned out he was wrong. After five minutes of sipping his drink and observing Connor bumped into him.

"Hey man!" Conner shouted, clearly drunk. "Enjoying the party?"

"Yeah, it's fun, not normally my thing but I'm enjoying it." Nathan replied honestly.

"You should chat to some of the girls, get laid." Connor continued to shout.

"I'm not drinking, and I won't take advantage of a drunk woman." Nathan had to shout to be heard over the music.

"Suit yourself man, enjoy!" Was all Connor said before staggering off.

Nathan decided to step outside to get some fresh air. A few people were smoking near the front door so he began to talk to them, the cool air had somewhat sobered them up so they could at least do some small talk.

Quite quickly, Nathan got sick of the cigarette smoke, another thing that he couldn't stand because of the past, and decided to go back inside to get away from the stench. As he started to turn, he saw something that startled him. The woman he had helped out earlier was being held onto by a large guy and led around the corner. She was staggering and it looked like he was just guiding her to the side of the building in case she was sick. As Nathan looked closer, he saw the grip the man had on her arm and the distressed look on her face, he realised something wasn't right. The way they turned meant that they had gone around the back of his flat, and his bedroom was on that side.

He pushed his way past the people standing by the door before entering his flat then his bedroom. He had closed his window before leaving for the party so nobody could climb into his room, now he parted it a crack so he could hear what was going on.

"Please, just let me go." The woman begged.

Nathan heard a slam against the wall and the woman cry, realising what was happening he opened the window wider and got ready to jump out.

"You were happy to tease and dance with me upstairs but wanna leave me with blue balls? Ain't gonna happen bitch, I'm gonna fuck you and you're gonna take it." The large guy snarled as she cried out again. "Shut up bitch or I'll seriously hurt you." He warned as he slammed her against the wall again. She only whimpered this time.

Nathan was halfway out the window when he heard the man say this and saw the second slam. When he saw how big the guy was up close, he realised he might be outmatched, despite his training. He realised he had three options, leave like he saw nothing, run and get help, or take the guy on himself. He knew that option one was out of the question, and when he saw they guy start to pull up the woman's' dress, he realised option three was his only choice of action.

Neither of them saw as he finished climbing out the window, and only heard him shout at the last second.

"Get off her!" Nathan shouted as he ran up to the man, putting as much power into his push front kick as possible.

The man let go of the woman and staggered back with a grunt. "You're gonna pay for that you cunt." He shouted as he threw a wild punch towards Nathan.

Nathan dodged the punch and realised something, this man was very drunk, which meant his balance was off and shouldn't be too difficult to beat.

"Run! Go and find some people to keep you safe!" He shouted to the woman before throwing a punch of his own, making the man double over winded. The woman had fallen to the ground when Nathan had kicked the man, now she got up and started to run as fast as she could in the state that she was in.

The man went to run after her, as soon as Nathan saw this he went and tried to punch him again. He missed. He had no defence, thinking the man wasn't focused on him he had underestimated his opponent, and took a punch to the nose because of it. There was no crunch as the punch landed, he felt the blood run over his lips. "At least it's not broken" Nathan thought as he took a step back to regroup.

The man cam lunging towards him, hoping to barrel him into the ground. Nathan hit him in the chest with a side kick, and this time he did hear the crack of bones.

He heard the shout of the woman he had saved, as well as the shout of security, however he wasn't finished with the guy yet. Nathan knew the man was going to rape her and wasn't going to let him get away with it without dishing out some of his own justice. As the man stumbled backwards, Nathan sent a front snap kick into his nose, followed by a spinning inside crescent kick to the side of his head. The rapist was out cold before he hit the ground.

Security rushed over and roughly grabbed Nathan as he stood there, staring at the man he had knocked out.

"Wait, he's the one that saved me." The woman that was nearly raped cried out.

They quickly let him go.

"What happened?" One of them asked as soon as he recovered.

Nathan explained what happened from his perspective, from seeing the rapist lead the woman around the corner right up to when then they grabbed him.

"I'm sober by the way. You can test me if you want." He added after they processed what he told them.

"We will need to take all three of you to the security office and call the police, they will test you if they think they need to." The other replied.

"Let's go then." Was all Nathan said before security called for a van to put the rapist in.

By this point the woman had grabbed onto Nathans arm and was clinging on for dear life.

"Thank you so much" she cried into his shoulder, "I don't want to imagine what he would have done for me if you hadn't seen."

"Don't worry about it, it's all over now, he can't hurt you." Nathan tried to comfort her as they made their way with one of the guards to the security office.

The police questioned all that had been nearby as well as both Nathan, the woman, and the security guards. They also did a breath test on Nathan to make sure he wasn't lying about being sober. The man woke up in cuffs while Nathan was giving his statement outside. he started to shout.

"This isn't over you cunt, I'm gonna find a way to get you back and then you and that bitch will regret everything."

The woman began to cry at this point. Nathan quickly finished giving his statement and she ran over to him, burying her face in his chest. The police cuffed the man and put him in the back of their car. Before telling security that they would need the woman to go to the station so they could take photos of the scrapes from being slammed against the wall.

"This is an open and shut case, Nathan can come as well, if it keeps her calm."

The woman agreed and the police called for a second car.

The same officers that arrived in the second car dropped them back on campus, it was late at this point, but they even took both Nathan and the woman back to their apartment blocks. The woman wouldn't let go of Nathan when he had to leave, so he took her into her apartment, where her friends were waiting worried for her.

"Florence are you okay!" One of her friends asked as they saw what state she was in.

Nathan realised he didn't know her name up until that point.

One of the police officers, a woman named Olivia, had come into the apartment as well and ushered both Nathan and Florence into her room before taking everyone else into the kitchen and explaining what happened. As soon as they heard they sent her best friend, Charlotte, to check up on her.

Florence was sitting on the bed, still holding onto Nathan when Charlotte entered the room.

"Hey babe" she spoke to Florence softly. "Let's let the man go now, we'll get you undressed and keep you safe."

Florence cried out at the thought of Nathan leaving. Officer Olivia rushed back in.

"What's happening?" she asked.

"She won't let him go." Charlotte explained.

The officer nodded, in many cases like this the victims cling to their saviours, they feel safe with the person that protected them nearby.

"I don't mind staying if she needs me." Nathan cut in, "However I think it's best if I leave while she gets changed.

Florence let out a wail at the thought.

"Okay Florence how about this, you let go of me and I'll turn around and face so you can change, you will be able to see that I won't be going anywhere and the I'll stay with you for as long as you need." Nathan offered softly.

Florence nodded to this and reluctantly let go. Nathan looked at the officer, then put his head against the wall and stared directly at it.

Once her friend helped her change the rushed over to him and grabbed his arm again.

"Okay Florence, get under the duvet and I'll lay down with you if you like."

She nodded again, after she got under the duvet Nathan pulled it over the mattress and lay over them.

"If you're worried about leaving me alone with her you can stay if you like." He offered to Charlotte.

She looked over to officer Olivia and shook her head. "I trust you, but I'm right across the hall, I'll leave both doors open so I can see and hear everything."

Officer Olivia nodded her head in approval. "I'll get everyone else out of the flat, so you get some peace." She walked over to Nathan and patted him on the shoulder. "Many people wouldn't have reacted in the way you did, well done." With that she left to get everyone out.

Nathan was shocked at the turn of events. He turned his thoughts to the scared woman next to him.

"It's okay, nobody's going to hurt you, I won't let them, get some sleep, you need the rest." He continued to comfort her until the sound of her breathing told him she had fallen asleep.

Even though the adrenaline rush had worn off at that point, he knew he wasn't going to fall asleep.

To be continued...

If you got to the end thank you for reading, I hope you all enjoyed this story, please do leave any advice below, no constructive advice is too detailed in my option, so don't hesitate to pick apart anything and everything, just make sure you tell me how to improve though, otherwise the criticism is useless.