A/N: Rated M for mentioned rape and future chapters.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Darren Shan Saga or characters in any way possible, but I down my character Maia Evans. Do not use her in any of your stories.

As Maia stepped out of the school doors, she let out a long and exaggerated sigh - it was raining. Perfect. She didn't have her coat or umbrella with her, so she had to let walk home and let herself become wet. Another thing was, it was dark. It was mid-winter and she had had to stay back after school for two hours to finish off her art project. Maia enjoyed art a lot and it was safe to say it was her favourite subject at school. She wanted to become an artist when she was older, nothing else.

The walk from Hamperton School to her house was around ten minutes, which wasn't really long, but in wet conditions it was. Clutching her bag close to her, she started on her journey home, keeping her eyes down to the ground. For half of the walk home it was silent (not including the sound of the rain as it hit the ground), until she reached the forest. Not far away, a group of four boys - maybe a year older than Maia - were talking rather loudly in between the trees. Three of them were laughing along to each other's jokes, while the other watched the environment around them. No-one had noticed her Maia walking past, until the boy on his own, who had a can in his hand, yelled at the others.

"Hey, guys. Look who were have here. It's Maia Evans." The three boys turned to look at her - they also had cans in their hands. Maia rolled her eyes at them; they were drinking alcohol, and no doubt they were either tipsy or drunk. She carried on walking, trying her best to ignore them, and hopefully with all of her luck, they would leave her alone. But luck wasn't on her side. Why, oh why did she have to be wearing a skirt when it's windy and raining? While she tried to walk away from them as fast as possible, the wind blew beside her legs, flying under her skirt and without warning, lifted it up. She didn't quite realise this as she was too busy concentrating on trying to ignore the boys. Only did she get a hint that her skirt had blew up when the tallest boy whistled at her.

"Nice ass you have there, Evans." The other three laughed aloud at the comment, and another took a few steps forward and began to approach Maia as she tried to control her skirt.

"Why don't you come over here and have a bit of fun with us?" Disgusted at the beviour and comments the boys were making, she picked up the pace of her walk, trying to get away from them. But they were too quick for her. The boy who was approaching her, ran over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, dropping his can . Her bag fell from her shoulder and landed onto the ground, falling into a pit of mud. She screamed for help and tried to wriggle free, but the boy had a tight grip on her. He dragged her back to the group of boys and they all let their cans fall onto the ground.

A rustling noise came from the nearby bushes and Maia hoped that there weren't more boys turning up to join in on what was going to happen. But when no-one came from the bushes, she ignored it. The group of boys had managed to get her onto the ground and before she could jump up and attempt to run away, the tallest boy pulled out a knife from his jacket. Her eyes widened in fear and confusion: were they going to rape her or kill her...or both? She gulped and tried to roll out of the way, but she was pinned down by the shortest of the boys.

"One wrong move, Evans, and I'll slice you." The boy who had the knife in his hands threatened. Her bright blue eyes began to tear up as the boys moved in closer on her. She didn't want to be raped, but she didn't want to be hurt either. Her vision was soon blurred by the tears that filled her eyes, but she could feel the breath of one of the boys on her neck as he kissed it. She closed her eyes to let a tear fall, but whe she opened them again, the boy who was kissing her neck was no longer there, nor were any of the others.

She sat up, confused, wondering if she had just slipped and bashed her head off the ground on her way home, but that wasn't what happened. She looked around frantically, only to see another boy attacking the group of drunken boys. Maia stood up immediately and began to run for her life, but one of the boys had managed to slip away from his attacker and ran straight for her. She recognised him as Kieran Smith from the year above her. Kieran grabbed her arm and pulled her into him, crashing his lips against hers. Thankfully, he wasn't the boy with the knife so she pushed him away, thinking he could do no harm on his own. But she was wrong.

Kieran curled his hand into a fist and punched her, full force, in the gut. Maia kneeled over, her arms wrapping around her stomach, and opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. The boy who had attacked the drunken schoolboys caught sight of this, stopped fighting and rushed over to aid her. He was dressed in a purple shirt and a pair of black jeans. Something that made Maia's eyes widen when he came up close to her were his purple eyes! The boy grabbed Kieran by his shirt, lifted him up and slammed him into the floor before kneeling down beside him.

"Leave this poor girl alone, she's done nothing to deserve this." he said darkly, wrapping his fingers around Kieran's throat, choking him. Just when Kieran thought his life was at an end, the boy let go of him and made his way over to Maia, picking her up by her arm. She let out a small yelp as his strength alone pulled her from the ground. The boy continued walking until he stopped at the pit of mud where her bag sat. He picked up the messenger bag and threw it over his shoulders.

"Come." he said to Maia, looking at her seriously. She turned her head to look at Kieran and his gang of drunken friends. When she noticed that they were starting to stand up again, she quickly made her way to her savoir. He grabbed her arm gently and threw her on his back. "Hold tight," she wrapped her arms around his neck at his words, not sure what was going to happen, but she done it anyway - it was better than being raped, "And hold your breath." he added. She took in a deep breath and held it when the boy broke into a sprint, his speed inhuman.

After running through the streets, they came up to the town centre within a matter of minutes. Maia kept her eyes closed and her face hidden so that no-one would recognise her on the back of a stranger. The thing was, no-one could see them; the boy was running too fast for the human eye to catch. By this time, Maia had already taken in other several breaths while the boy was sprinting and it began to wind her. After five minutes, he slowed down and eventually stopped outside an old, abandoned building. He let Maia slide off his back, but he grabbed her wrist gently so that she wouldn't run away. However, she wasn't planning to run for it...yet. Maia bent over, pressing her hands on her knees to keep her standing. She took in deep breaths, trying to gain back her normal breathing pattern.

"I told you to hold your breath," the boy chuckled and shook his head, "You will be fine in a minute." he reassured her and pulled her gently into the building. There wasn't a lock on the door, so he just opened the door and walked in.

The building, or what seemed to be a house to the boy, was rather bare and had very little furniture. A tattered sofa was placed against the back wall and beside it was a floor lamp; that was the only electricity. There was no fireplace or radiators to keep the house warm, which meant the only way of not freezing was by body heat or layers of clothing. He lead Maia to the sofa and sat her down.

"Who are you?" she asked as she looked up at him. At the moment, she didn't care who he was, she was just glad to be away from Kieran and his drunken group of friends; she didn't even care what he was. The boy sighed and sat beside her, keeping his focus on the ground.

"My name is Steve," he said with a soft smile as he lifted his head to look up at her, "And you are Maia Evans." As soon as he mentioned her name, she widened her eyes and stood up from the sofa, backing away from him. The thought of turning and running at her top speed out of the house crossed her mind, but she wanted to know how he knew who she was. They hadn't even met before! Steve licked his lips nervously and looked down to his feet, where Maia's bag was. This was when an idea struck him. He picked up the messenger bag and turned it around to show the back to the trembling girl.

"It has your name on the back," he said with a small chuckle, "Don't worry, I'm not a stalker." That was a lie. Maia let out a small sigh and sat back down beside him, though not close.

"Why did you save me? And where did you come from?" She asked, still slightly on the edge.

Steve frowned and looked away from her, scanning everything in the room. There wasn't a lot to look at in the bare room, but he tried to put off answering the questions as long as possible before Maia said something.

"Come on, tell me," She demanded to know. Sighing, Steve took in a deep breath and opened his mouth to start explaining.

A/N: Please review and stuff :3