1:47 am. The cool autumn air was still. There was no sign of life. Except her. She was walking down a deserted street. The shops were all closed and their display case lights reflected off the worn yellow street lines. Her black knee-high boots click on the pavement as she walked, making her way home. The denim mini skirt was sticking to her purple fishnet stockings. She was carrying her leather jacket in her arms, folded across her black corset that was uncomfortably suffocating her breasts. Her vibrantly colored hair--royal purple, somewhat short and spiked in the back--shimmers in the full moon light as she tilts her pale heart shaped face towards the sky. The stars shined in her lucid green eyes, clouded over and submerged in her thoughts of the night. A few hours ago she had been loved, she had felt needed. A few hours ago she had finally found a reason to live in this insane, cruel, messed up world. Who she had thought was the best person that ever could have crossed paths with her failed her. Amy had been all she needed to make her whole and they were no longer connected. Nikhol could not feel Amy in the back of her mind. Her heart had been ripped in half. Instead of Amy stealing one half, Nikhol had both pieces lodged in her chest. It felt like two pieces of broken glass puncturing her lungs, digging though her body every time she took a breath. If only she could rewind time. If only she could have never dated Amy in the first place. If only she could go back in time. If only she could have seen before that Amy could not be trusted. If only, if only, if only...

---

Flashback

Inside the Lucky Clover, the air was filled with cigarette smoke. The only light was coming from the stage where strippers provocatively ran their all but nude bodies along metal poles to excite the perverted, hormone-enraged crowd.

Nikhol looked to the stage. Amy was not there, which meant that she was probably off giving some pervert a lap dance. Nikhol sighed and stared at the paper on the table. As much as she hated doing anything sexual with the opposite sex, this job seemed to be the only option to making a substantial amount of money to help Steven with the bills. It was money. She’d just have to search for jobs while working at the one she hated.

“Niki, hun.” Nikhol looked up to see her girlfriend standing next to her chair.

“What are you doing here? Go on, go back to work.”

“I got off early today. The manager said that since we’ve got a lot of newbies they need to train and so he let a bunch of us off early.”

“Oh, okay.”

“So, I’ll just be right back. I’ve got to go grab my stuff.”

“Alright,” Nikhol replied, taking a large sip of her margarita and getting annoyed by that damn mini umbrella that poked her in the nose again. She looked at it with distaste, going cross-eyed.

Having your girlfriend work in a strip bar is not what most people would find comfortable. Nikhol tried to convince Amy several times to quit and find work elsewhere, but Amy never did. That was one thing Nikhol didn’t understand about Amy. Why did she like the attention of men staring at her breasts and other subjective places when she was a lesbian? As much as Nikhol loved seeing her partner dance, she envied all the others that got lap dances every night. Maybe she was selfish, but it was what seemed right. Amy was too much of an attention whore.

Nikhol was lost in thought for a while until she finally snapped back to reality. Looking at her watch, she realized that Amy had been gone for over ten minuets. Nikhol decided to go look for her. She stood up and made her way through the crowd to the women’s restroom. She opened the door and was met with the awful stench of too many different scented air fresheners. As Nikhol looked around the small area, she saw that Amy was not there. Thinking that maybe she had forgotten something backstage, Nikhol walked down the hall and through the door with the ‘employees only’ sign, ignoring it. She would be one soon enough. As she arrived at Amy’s section, she saw that nothing was there that shouldn’t be. Just in case, she went to the costume room and opened the door.

The strait brown hair on the head of the women facing away from the door was all-too-familiar. As Nikhol entered the room to talk to Amy, a young woman came into view. She was holding Amy, caressing her breasts and kissing her while being fondled in return. Nikhol let the door shut behind her and as it clicked into place, the women looked up. The shock and guilt was plain on Amy’s face. The other girl looked confused. As she realized the relations ship between the two women, she felt ashamed. She would never have done anything if she knew Amy was dating someone.

All Nikhol wanted to do was strangle the girl Amy was with. She didn’t even look old enough to be in a bar. Only 16 or so. Rage tore through Nikhol. To restrain herself from hitting someone, she turned on her heel, marched through the clothes and out the door.

“Wait!” Amy was trying to catch up. As Nikhol stopped to grab her coat, Amy caught up with her. “Nikhol, sweetie, I can explain.”

Nikhol was outraged that Amy had the nerve to call her sweetie after when she had done. She took her coat and burst out the back door. The cold air hit Nikhol like a bucket of ice water. Before she had the chance to run, a hand reached out, grabbed her arm and pulled her around. She came face to face with Amy.

“Sweetie,” Amy began.

“Don’t you dare call me sweetie,” Nikhol yelled, yanking her arm out of Amy’s hold. “You don’t deserve to after what you’ve done.” The sourness and hatred in her words lingered in the air between them.

“Niki,” Amy protested, “I can explain.”

“Oh, can you? And how do you plan to do that? You’ve just cheated on me! That’s my explanation, plain and simple. You cheated on me. I thought you loved me! I thought you loved me enough to stop all this shit!”

Amy was crying. The young woman Amy was with came outside carrying Amy’s jacket.

“Here,” she said to Amy. “So you won’t get cold.” The young girl looked from Amy to Nikhol and back to Amy. She figured that this was all her fault and wanted to get away from the two women as soon as possible. The tears were gathering in Nikhol's eyes, but she would not let them fall. She was the one who was supposed to care for Amy. Not some 16 year old brat.

“I...I...” Amy couldn’t find the right words.

“You, you, you what? Am I not good enough? You still had to have someone better than me. Just like you had to have someone better than that redhead you were with before me. Now you have her," Nikhol pointed at the girl Amy had been kissing. “And you can keep her.” Nikhol threw an evil glare at the girl and she flinched. After giving Nikhol one last pleading look, the girl went back inside and left the two women outside to deal with their issues.

“Nikhol, I...I’m sorry. I know it was a stupid thing to do. But I still love you. I love you so much!”

“Then why were you snogging someone else, you whore! I don’t love you. I don’t know why I ever did. Fifteen months down the drain. I’m leaving and never coming back. Goodbye.” She turned around and walked sown the ally, leaving Amy in front of the bar with tears in her eyes. She thinks she can make everything better by begging for forgiveness? Fucking whore. A tear escaped Nikhol's over filled eyes but she didn’t wipe it away. She couldn’t let Amy know she had been crying.

---

Nikhol suddenly heard something that snapped her out of her horrifying memory. Foot steps. Ones other than her own. She looked behind her and saw a large shadowed figure. She started walking faster and the footsteps followed. Someone was following her. She could feel her heart beating in her throat. It was so loud that she could hear it and she was positive that her stalker could hear it too. She put her hand over her chest to muffle the sound but she noticed no difference. She could only feel the vibrations beating harder and harder against her chest. The footsteps sounded like they were coming closer. Nikhol broke into a run. Only a few more yards and she would be home. Suddenly an ice-cold hand grabbed her arm and she felt the cool edge of a knife on her throat.

“Hello, precious.” His breath, smelling of alcohol and stale tobacco, filled her lungs. Many thoughts ran across Nichols mind. This could be the last day she lived. Her girlfriend cheated on her, Nikhol dumped her and now she was about to be raped and murdered by some drunken slob.

He wanted her. She could feel his hand slide under her shirt, slowly, up towards her breasts. Nikhol could not stand this man. She tore away from him.

“You bitch! Get the fuck back here!” he yelled after her. She ran as fast as she could. All she had to do now was run up the steps and hope Steven had left the front door unlocked. But it was too late. Her stalker caught up to her again. He dragged her down the steps and into the alley across the street. Several times Nikhol had tried to run away from him but every time he would hold her arms tighter or slap her face. As they entered the alley, Nikhol could see the face of her captor illuminated by the moonlight. His hair was dark brown and very greasy. There was a scar on the bridge of his nose and his ghostly green eyes were blazing in the faint light. He backed her against the rough cold bricks that lined the wall. She stood facing him, silently struggling not to blink away the tears blurring her eyes. Her captor forced his lips upon hers. Nikhol was absolutely disgusted. As he tried to stick his tongue in her mouth she bit down on it and tasted his blood. It was a foul taste that made her gag.

“You better settle down you whore, or I’ll kill you.”

He continued on his exploration of her body, groping her. His hands reached under her skirt and felt through the holes in her fishnet tights.

“What a sweet little cunt you have. Let me taste it”

Nikhol stood, pressed against the wall with fear. Her hands were shaking uncontroably at her sides. As her stalker lowered his head to the bottom her skirt, Nikhol felt him release her completely. She looked down at him, confused. Why had he just let her go and why was he lying on the ground?

“Honey, are you okay?”

Nikhol looked up and found herself staring into the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen. Then suddenly she was on the ground beside the man that had just tried to rape her.

“Oh my gosh. Seriously, are you okay? You can barley stand.”

“Y-yeah. I’ll be okay. I think. Thanks. Why is he down?” The ruby-eyed girl kneeled beside Nikhol.

“I punched him. He fell over and I think he hit his head on a rock. He’s still alive. Unfortunately.” Nikhol let out a bitter laugh that turned quickly into a cough. “I’m Avari, by the way.”

“Nikhol.” With Avari kneeling down beside her, Nikhol could get a good look at her face. It was oval with short auburn hair framing it perfectly.

“Come on,” Avari said. “Lets get you home.”

“Okay.” Nikhol hesitantly got to her feet, leaning on the redhead for support.

“Are you sure you can make it?”

“Yes,” Nikhol replied weakly. “My apartment is right across the street.”

The auburn haired girl was surprised that Nikhol did not seen too shaken up by what just happened. As the two girls made their way across the street, Nikhol felt weaker and weaker. All of a sudden, she felt light headed and freezing cold as if someone had just threw into a lake of ice water.

“Are you going to make it?” Avari asked. Nikhol didn’t answer. After a few paces, she felt dizzy and the next moment she blacked out falling on top of the woman that had saved her.