I was thrown to the floor in a storm of flailing limbs and entangled torsos. When I came back to my senses I was assailed by the sharp pain in my lower back and the protests from my arms and legs at the ways they were twisted. And there, cradled safely from harm in my arms was a girl. Or what I assumed was one because of the halo of luscious dark hair that was cast over my face and that veiled her and the situation from my view.

She was soft and warm in my grasp and my arms instinctively tightened against her slim waist. A primaeval instinct of protection. That was until one of her slender arms lashed out and pistoned an elbow into my left kidney. I released the girl like she had the plague and curled into a ball cradling my midsection and groaning.

"Fucking skank," I muttered in pain and was passingly aware of the sound of my door slamming shut. My eyes were beginning to tear up in pain as I huffed in some final desperate breaths before looking up to assess the scene in front of me.

The girl who I could now see clearly had her back to the door and was currently straining to keep it closed. She was wearing a bomber jacket, a relic from older times and a pair of faded jeans. She seemed to be of Hispanic descent and noticed my stare as she aggressively flicked her hair over one shoulder with a jerking head motion.

"Sorry 'bout that." She spoke with an American accent whilst smiling glibly at the state she had left me in. "Look, I can guess that might have hurt but can you come here and help me." She gestured with another jerking head movement toward the door. I just stared at her accusingly. No fucking way I was helping her.

"Look, lady, I just met you and you haven't left a glowing impression. So how about you do you and I'll do me, cool?" I hissed out through gritted teeth as I still pressed my hands to my chest. It felt like I had been hit once more by lightning as if my chest was on fire.

It was also at this moment that the door exploded outward with an impressive amount of force. It swung furiously on its hinges, slamming into the opposite wall with enough force to knock the reverse side of the door handle straight of the hardwood surface.

The girl to was also launched with surprising force, flying through the air for several feet before slamming forcefully into the ground about a metre to my left.

It was then that I looked at the figures standing on the threshold of the door. They were three in number, the first was a slight waif of a middle-aged woman. She was tall with a mop of straw-like blonde hair. She was thin to the point where I believed a small breeze could blow her away. The two others were both male but polar opposites in appearance. Where one was large and brutish, resembling a gorilla in build with the visible matting of corse black body hair to boot. The other however was tall and thin much like the girl. In fact, he resembled her enough that I would have assumed they were twins had they not just kissed after the opening of the door. Hell they still may be, I had already met one American today why not make it three.

The blonde girl walked up to the other and straddled her before slapping her full across the face, hard enough that the reverberation made me want to shield my ears. At the same time, her two male companions came to me and restrained my arms behind my back and dragged me to a standing position against my will.

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"Jesus Christ I'm not with her, you threw her into my room remember." I railed at the two men holding me and then to the woman as I was almost certain at this point that she was the ringleader of this whole debacle.

"Look buddy just stand by and this will all be over." She spat the words toward me condescendingly. And I, disregarding the hurt feelings at being dismissed so thoroughly, slumped into the grip of the men holding me and resolved to wait for this whole thing to be over. No way I was going to win this fight, and even my guilt at hitting a women hours previously didn't demolish my sense of self-preservation.

"Still feel like fate now you whore!" Yelled the blonde girl into the others face before spitting into it and slapping her again. I winced in sympathetic pain, looked like it hurt, the blonde was really doing a number on her. Not that the other girl was just lying there and taking it however, she seemed to be fighting against the other woman just as hard as she was to keep her prostrate. I supposed there must have to be some deceptive strength concealed in those wiry muscles.

"I lost my son, this isn't fate. This is hell." The fight seemed to leave the blonde woman as she spoke those words and her and the tall man holding me began to fall into a shared bout of silent sobs. I stood on awkwardly as if I was intruding on a private moment between the two.

And with those words, the blonde woman got off the other and left the room, signalling for the other two to follow. They did so diligently and pushed me roughly as they released my arms. I stumbled forward toward the tanned woman. She mistook my involuntary movements as a move to help her up and reached out her hand toward me. I reached out reluctantly and helped her to her feet. Not that I had anything against her however it was just that she had already seemed to have made several powerful enemies. People whom I did not want to alienate by association.

I helped her to her feet however grudgingly before walking and shutting the door in my room. When I turned back the girl had slumped against one of the walls and was tenderly nursing a split lip and some bruising on the side of her cheek. I wasn't quite sure what to do. I wanted to help, and yet I didn't, I was conflicted, part of me wanting to help the injured girl and another part was fearful of any repercussions that this action may cause.

Thankfully for me, the decision was taken away from me, for at that very moment a loud proclamation was made from the courtyard facing window on the far side of my room. It was spoken was a robotic twang which made me think of a school PA system. It spoke.

"Uh, hey. My name's Carl, I kinda found the PA system and decided to send out a message," I could almost feel him rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Anyway I wanted everyone to gather in the centre courtyard or as close as you can get so we can try and sort this whole thing out. Pooling information and all that." With that, the message cut off and I was left once more alone. In a foreign room, with a stranger. Perfect.