Trigger Warning: Hints of Rape. You've been warned!
…
____
Z City, a year prior
Inside a posh hotel room reserved only for the elites, signs of passionate activity abound.
Upon entering, one would be met with a room oozing in the smell of sex. Inside, one would see the messy sheets, ripped clothes, and signs of blood in different parts of the room.
On the bed was the lone figure of a very beautiful woman. Her body was filled with bruises and dried fluids. There was even a loose handcuff on her hand, and reddish marks on the other appendages.
Her eyes were red and dull, looking at nothing in particular. It took a long while for her to absorb the reality of everything, realizing that this wasn't just a nightmare she was so unlucky to have.
She ran to the bathroom and opened the shower, drenching herself for a good ten minutes before she shook out of it. Feeling it wasn't enough, she ran to the sink to open the disposable loofah, scrubbing herself harshly.
She rubbed and rubbed until her skin turned red and it stung when the water touched it.
"Dirty… dirty…" she sobbed, trying to clean herself from the filth she was forced into. "No… so dirty… so dirty…"
But no matter how hard she scrubbed, it felt useless.
In a daze, she went out of the bathroom all wet, looking at the messy room, wondering what to do next.
Inexplicably, her eyes ended up on the broken bottle on the floor, right on the side of the bed. It was broken while she tried to escape, desperately yelling for help, but no one came.
She struggled for a long time until her cuffed hands bled but, obviously, she wasn't able to escape in the end.
There were three men who vented on her body the entire night, and recalling even a single scene made her skin crawl in disgust—feeling as if she had ants under it. It dominated her mind, much more than the pain under her crotch or the many bruises she had on her body.
It was too much. She just wanted the discomfort to end.
Her feet moved on their own, and she soon found herself right above the broken bottle. She flinched a bit as she accidentally stepped on a broken piece, but she moved forward anyway, her feet leaving a trail of blood on the velvety carpet that witnessed all her sufferings.
She leaned down, taking the biggest piece on her hand. It nicked her soft hands a bit, but she didn't mind. On the contrary, she found the pain and blood a little fascinating.
However, before she could do anything else with the shrapnel, her phone rang. It was thrown at one of the walls back when she was just pulled into the room, but it happened to be a very quality one Gill got for her.
Gill…
The ringtone was their couple song, and she immediately knew who was calling.
She let go of the sharp object and ran to her phone, shakily holding it up with her bleeding hand. However, she could not bring herself to answer it at all.
Her Gill…was finally calling after nearly a month of absence. She knew that he must've returned from his mission.
Normally, she would be jumping for joy, excited to finally hear his voice again.
Now…, she could only sob in despair.
______
Altera Village, Present
"So, what do you think, Gill?" Althea asked, and the man in question turned to Juni.
Gill's sharp eyes met her gentle ones, and for a moment it seemed they were communicating through them.
"Can we talk? In private?"
She nodded and the two excused themselves to talk in one of the private rooms.
Gill sighed as he closed the door, looking at the woman who was standing gracefully on the other side of the room.
"Look, there are plenty of ways to handle this."
"I want to do this, it's not just because of you," she said with a seductive smile, walking towards him. "However, if you decide to get back with me, I might change my mind indeed."
Gill frowned as he caught her hand which was about to touch his face. She shook her head and took her hand back.
Could she blame him? Of course not.
At that time, she broke up with him in a hurry after her infidelity.
He tried to talk to her, to figure out what happened, but Juni couldn't face him at all. She did something stupid then—when she saw he was calling, and she happened to have been at a party, she seduced a man.
She let him hear their flirtations, just so he could give up on her completely.
When he hung up, she also left the man alone, just locking her up in her room to cry.
But after experiencing so much life and death in the two subsequent disasters, she didn't want to have any more regrets. She just wanted to be with him again.
But that too, was too late now.
But she still wanted him to know everything.
She didn't know what would happen in this mission. At the very least, she wanted her story to be known—at least by Gill.
"That night we broke up, there was a company party."
"What is this about?" he asked, impatient, though Juni just went on and told her story.
"It was led by a man named Cain. It started pretty standard, a little flirting that I had to endure, but nothing serious," she told him. Gill's eyebrows began to furrow as he looked at her, though not interrupting her anymore.
"But I started feeling groggy, and I soon lost consciousness. The next thing I knew, I was doused in aphrodisiac and chained to bed."
Gill turned pale as Juni looked at him.
"I broke up with you because I was molested, chained, and taken advantage of by several men."
"What?" Gill exclaimed, eyes straightening as he looked at her with furrowed eyebrows. He looked at her to see if she was joking, and when he figured out she wasn't—his eyes turned red in anger.
Juni raised her head to look at his red eyes. The wall was of a strong system building so it was undamaged, but she had felt the vibration signifying its strength.
She met his eyes directly, looking at the anger—the anger for her sake.
Even if there was no romantic affection in his gaze anymore, at least, as a friend—as a person—he felt for her.
That was enough.
"What're their names? Who were the bastards?" He asked, his voice deep in anger, but he caught himself. "Why… didn't you tell me?"
"Shame," she told him. "I was too ashamed."
Gill's lips pursed, understanding her movements a bit. Silence passed by them for a while until Juni gained enough composure to speak.
Juni pushed down her tears and looked at him, stance still filled with poise. "I don't know where they are, but I'll deal with them myself."
She looked at him, pleading. "I really want to do this. It makes me feel more powerful, more significant. I feel that if I can make those bastards— who had done the same with countless other women—suffer, I can move on.
"Let me do this," she told him, her words gaining some sternness. "I can do this."