"Shit…" Alex said at what he saw.
On the double bed, a woman in her mid to late twenties, who was looking at him with fury, lay chained to the wooden poles at the end of the bed.
She had her mouth gagged so she could say nothing and had some bruising here and there, clearly done by the guards to keep her still while they raped her.
'Fuck… is every man with a sliver of power just a beast or what?' Alex thought.
"Shh." Said Alex to the woman.
"I won't harm you." He continued and approached.
The woman instinctively backed away, clearly not believing one bit of what Alex said. After all, what kind of good person had his face covered with rags?
Alex halted midway, and after thinking for a bit, he reached and removed the clothing from his face.
The woman was surprised to see that under the cloth lay the face of a teenager.
"Calm down, I won't do anything to you." Alex said, stretching both his arms forward with the palms extended, making a "relax" gesture.
The Lady, seeing that Alex was still a kid and had no ill will, relaxed a bit.
"Now ima reach slowly and take away that gag, deal?" Alex said and waited.
The woman thought for a couple of seconds and then nodded slightly, turning her head to face him. She felt that if the boy wanted to do something to her, he would have already.
Alex approached and gently removed the gag from her mouth.
The woman looked at him suspiciously and, after feeling her mouth free, asked:
"Who are you?" with a rugged voice.
"Well, miss, I can't tell you that." Alex replied, refusing softly.
"That's suspicious, and besides, you already showed me your face." She countered swiftly, raising one of her eyebrows.
"Aren't you worried I'll recognize your face?" she asked again. She was gaining her confidence back, seeing as she was dealing with a teenager.
"Haha, miss, you could go outside and see ten of me in a hundred meters." Alex laughed and replied.
The woman's brows now furrowed, and she internally agreed.
'The kid does indeed have quite a normal face. The only different trait was his eyes' shape, which gives him a gentle bearing.'
In fact, it was that gentle bearing of his that made her calm down faster. It was as if she were being looked at by a sibling.
"Then, Mr. Normal, what are you doing in here?" She asked, eyes locked on his.
"Ehm, *cough* stealing…" Alex said softly to the point that sound barely left his mouth.
Yet the woman caught on to them.
"Ha, stealing, eh, what a naughty kid you are." She said.
"What I am is homeless and desperate." Alex replied.
That shut the woman up fast. She felt pity that a kid had to resort to crime before being given a fair chance at life.
"You don't look all that bad for a woman who's kept as a sex slave." Alex asked in turn.
"I've been here for 2 months, being raped almost, if not, every night, I lost my fear 1 month in." She answered coldly.
Now it was Alex's turn to be shutted up.
"...We wasted a lot of time already, how about I release those shackles from you and we get the hell out of here?" Alex, noticing that he spent too much time talking to the woman, was starting to want to leave.
"Great idea, if you actually could, the keys are being held by the guards, and with how skinny you are, there is no way you can break the wooden poles." The woman told him honestly.
Being called skinny and weak hurt Alex's ego, but she was right.
Before he could think of another solution, a voice started to sound.
"Alex"
That was indeed Marc's voice.
'shit!' Alex thought and rushed to the door to make Marc shut up, but before he could, Marc called again.
"Alexandeeer." This time, his full name resounded through the bedroom.
"Alexander, huh?" The woman caught the name and said, a smug grin getting on her face.
"Shut up, you fucker!" Alex said after getting to the door and facing Marc.
"You stickman! I should have let the guards chop you to pieces." Marc said, triggered by Alex's reaction.
Then they heard a soft laugh echo in the room.
Marc froze, clearly understanding that they were not alone and that he had just given out Alex's full name to a stranger.
"shiiit, there was someone else." He said.
"Well, no shit, Sherlock!" Alex spat through his teeth.
"And how was I supposed to know that there was another person here!" Marc defended his case.
"Hey, boys, instead of discussing, how about we get out?" The woman spoke finally.
"Shit, true, I came to tell you that the guards are coming from the West, we have 15 minutes, and we already lost some." Marc suddenly remembered what he came for.
The boys went into the room, and after the woman saw Marc, she exclaimed
"Finally! A man that size could indeed break the wooden poles."
Marc had lots of questions, but Alex quickly told him to help break the wooden poles.
And so both the boys got on it.
With both strengths combined, even though it was mostly Marc, they broke the first pole after 3 minutes of struggling. The second one took a bit longer since they were already taxed from the first one.
After 5 minutes of struggling, and with the added help of the woman, the pole broke apart, and the shackles came free.
"We have minutes to get the hell out." Said Marc.
And so the 3 moved to where Alex entered.
As Alex crossed the window the last. He heard the noises of the main door opening and chatter.
"Ah! I'm so pent up, I think I'm gonna break that woman tonight." Said one voice.
"Shut up, you know how hard it is to kidnap someone and make it look as if she disappeared?" retorted the other voice.
Alex and company didn't get to hear anything else since they were moving away.
On the way to the back side of the mansion, Alex turned to the woman, opened his bag, and gave her the pouch Mary gave them with a bunch of gold coins, some water, bread, and some beef jerky, and told her.
"Just run East and try to leave the town, do not look back, and do not tell nobody about us." Alex told her.
The woman nodded and turned to leave. As she started running, she stopped, turned, and told Alex.
"Thank you, I'm Eva by the way." Then turned and left.