He growled at her and was on top of her then. He hit her and yelled at her and started to… grope her. Anger and fury warred inside her with fear and sheer panic. She could hardly wrap her mind around this. She struggled against him wildly, but it was doing no good. Like the other men of his kind she had encountered, he was simply too physically strong for her to resist. Something was happening though, there was a burning behind her eyes, in her mind, her skin felt like there was something prickling inside, like sparks. Somehow, without thought or reason, she projected the feeling inside her to the man on top of her who was trying to rape her.

And he stopped. He stopped and was silent a moment, and then he screamed and recoiled from her as though she had burned him. He tumbled to the floor, waving his arms around him like mad, trying to fend off something that wasn’t there.

Kes stared at him for a long second, her mind trying to make sense of what was happening. But when the second past, she got up and left quickly. There were weapons by the front door that included a few knives. She picked one up on her way out and, once outside, hurried to an alleyway and hid behind some empty containers that were there, determinedly working the knife to cut herself free. Her mind was racing, but she was operating mostly on panic fueled instinct. Her heart was racing too, and she was alert for any sound that might mean pursuit or danger. She got herself free and left, keeping to the alleyways for a while until she found a good place to hide where she could be relatively sure she wouldn’t be found. She made herself fit into the small space and lay there.

She would wait for dark, find her things, and then leave the city. That wasn’t even a question. She couldn’t stay here – there was no way she could stay here.

Her mind wouldn’t quiet itself and she couldn’t bring herself to sleep in this place, even though she was all but completely certain she wouldn’t be found. She lay there, awake, through the day. She was hungry and thirsty and very much missing her supplies. She determined that she’d have a full meal when she got them back… and then she’d head home, and not look back, no matter what heartbreak she’d have to face when she got there.