As the initial shock of the girl’s sudden appearance wore off, Jace noticed that she seemed to be just as bewildered as he was at the situation. She stared back at him with wide, fearful eyes that had a strange brightness to them. Her skin was incredibly fair. Suddenly his pulse quickened a little, but it wasn’t because he was afraid of her. She was absolutely beautiful. It was then that he realized she was not only afraid, but in some sort of distress. Her eyes were welling with tears and soon her cheeks were wet. 

“Um, are you-..?”

[i]“I don’t know what’s happening,”[/i] he heard her whimper. 

“H-Hey, it’s ok, don’t cry-..”

[i]“Someone just raped me. Please…I don’t know what’s happening.”[/i]

“Jesus [i]Christ![/i]” Jace swore, as he scrambled to get to his feet and looked wildly around for something else hidden in the dark room. “Are they still here?? We need to leave right now!” He turned back to the girl, panic and fear written all over his features. “I’ll call the police, we’ll get you to the hospital, they’ll find whoever did this,” his words came tumbling out of his mouth all at once, frantic and fretful. As he looked at her now, he suddenly noticed the ghastly purple marks around her neck, like a necklace of bruises. “[i]Holy shit,[/i]” he breathed, raising a hand to his own neck as he imagined how painful those marks were for the girl. “W-we have to get you out of here.”

Had he not been in such a panicked state, he might have realized that the last thing the girl needed was for anyone to touch her at that moment without her permission. But he was still in a daze from the bizarre state of events, and had only one thought on his mind: to get the girl and himself out of the house. 

“Can you stand?” he asked hurriedly, moving toward her and reaching for her arm. “It’s ok, I can help you if you want. If you need me to carry you, I ca-… a-ah-…!” Jace froze mid sentence with a look of shock on his face. The hand that had reached out to touch the girl’s arm…[i]had passed right through her![/i] It was like she was made of air, with nothing solid for him to grasp. “W-what’s happening…?” he stammered, trying to touch her arm again without success. The space that she [i]should[/i] have occupied felt deathly cold around his fingertips. He snatched his hand away again. 

This was a nightmare. He’d had too much to drink and now he was having a stupid scary dream. Despite this desperate conclusion, Jace still trembled as he backed away from her, his face ashen. “…Why c-cant I-…” As he took another few steps back from her, he nearly tripped over the chain around his arm. With horror, he followed it with his eyes, all the way to the girl’s wrist. He realized suddenly that the weight he’d been dragging as he ran had been this girl’s body. 

“…This is not r-real,” he spluttered, backing away as far as the chain would let him. He raised a shaky hand to his forehead. “This isn’t really happening. You’re not real!” He gave a sudden yank on the chain as if the motion would make her vanish.