Blood rushed in your ears, adrenaline surging through your veins as your legs continued their merciless pace. Guards shouted behind you, and a pained sigh escaped your lips. You hadn’t meant to end up in this situation. You hadn’t meant to anger the noble, but his touches, his voice… it made a shiver run up your spine. After you rejected his advances, the nobleman had been enraged and sent the guards after you, as a cruel sort of ‘punishment’. Now you ran, fear driving the action as you weaved through the familiar alleys and streets of the city.

As you ran, you saw a man blocking the exit to the alley you currently sprinted down. A puff of desperation escaped your lips as you were forced to skid to a stop. He glanced at you with a steady, calculating look. His eyes were mismatched, one a dark brown and the other a dazzling blue. He was dressed in a cloak, a hood pulled far over his hair and a mask over his mouth. His eyes hardened at the sight of you, thick eyebrows furrowing. The man was shorter than average, lithely built.

“Please, help me,” You begged without thinking, unsure of what other choice you had as the guards finally caught up. The hooded man spoke, a blunt, soul crushing word.

“No.”

The guards, huffing from the exertion of the chase, finally caught up. The man sighed irritably as the guards discovered him, too, causing him to sigh irritably. The next moment, arrows were embedded into the guard’s necks, the robed man holding a bow that had been suddenly drawn in an action that couldn’t be tracked by the eye.

“Waste of arrows,” He grumbled, eyes taking you in with cautioned distaste.