Arabella Oublié.
❧
Arabella chanced a last glance at the two men over her shoulder. They were walking in the opposite direction of her obviously talking about something funny since she could hear their faint laughter every now and then when the breeze carried it past her.
As they disappeared around a corner Arabella turned her head back in the direction she was going and decided to pull out her phone to listen to some music.
Her 'feel good' playlist seemed to be the obvious choice as she walked alone. It had never failed her before and it wasn't going to now.
She just wanted to be able to do this by herself. Sure she was about to shit her pants, but it wasn't completely dark out yet, and if anything did happen she had Tony Stark on speed dial.
Arabella felt ridiculous, but she also felt proud that she was forcing herself to do this.
As she walked and danced her way to her apartment she tried to rid herself of the nervousness by wondering about how the pictures from Chanel had actually turned out.
When she had a photo shoot she was always so excited to see the pictures. Her and Raoul had always done it like that. Arabella would pose and smile, and Raoul would look the pictures through with the photographer and choose the best ones so that they would be a surprise for Arabella when they were published.
The model's happy thoughts were interrupted rudely however, as she heard what sounded like a gunshot over the music. Startled she quickly ripped the earphones out.
Logically her first thought was to run far away from it, but another thought quickly took over.
What if someone had gotten hurt?
She looked around to make sure that she was in no danger where she was. She didn't spot anyone, but she had an unpleasant feeling that someone was watching her, so she decided on avoiding a possible life or death situation and picked up the pace a bit as her apartment building came into view.
Her hand was tightly folded around her keys in her jacket pocket and she almost laughed at herself as she held them between her fingers like a weapon.
Just in case. She thought.
Don't bring wolverine claws to a gun fight Arabella.
She shook her head at her ridiculously bad pun as she pushed the door to her apartment building open.
She almost tripped over her own feet in shock when another shot rang out, and it sounded awfully a lot like it came from somewhere inside the building.
Arabella pulled her phone out of her pocket carefully as she began walking up the stairs.
"911 what's your emergency?" The voice sounded almost too automatic to be human.
"I'm in my apartment building, two shots has been fired, no screams, and no one has gone past me which means the gunman is probably still inside." Arabella listened carefully after any sounds as she kept going up the stairs.
"Somebody already called about that, a patrol is on it's way. If you see the suspect, don't approach alright?" The voice demanded.
"Wouldn't dream of it." Arabella said and ended the call as she walked up yet another floor.
This was where her apartment was.
Carefully she peaked around the corner, and surely god shined his light upon her again today and gave her good luck, cause right there, in front of her apartment door, in the shattered glass off the now flickering ceiling lamp stood two guys, and a third laid on the floor in a pool of his own blood.
What did I do wrong big guy? She thought giving a stink eye towards the sky.
One of the guys still standing held a gun, the other wore a black mask. She would've assumed they worked together if hadn't been for the fact that the gun was pointed at the masked man, and the masked man looked awfully a lot like the news had described Hell's Kitchen's own vigilante, The devil of Hell's Kitchen.
Arabella quickly realised what she had just walked in on and she wanted to scream, these were possibly the worst couple weeks of her life.
Arabella took a deep breath before she, as quietly as possible, untangled her wolverine claws/bundle of keys from her hand. The devil's head snapped to her as soon as she moved, but it looked like the gun-man didn't notice anything, so she kept on going with her plan.
She weighed the keys in her right hand and pulled it back ready to throw them.
"Hey!—" At the sound of her voice, the man with the gun turned around, still holding his gun to the masked man's face. "—Catch!" She quickly threw her keys and he caught them instinctively, lowering his gun in the process to do so.
The masked man luckily took the opportunity Arabella had given him and quickly knocked the gun-man out.
A tense silence settled over them before Arabella carefully spoke up.
"I'm gonna go pick up my keys, alright?" She said to the devil, taking small cautious steps towards him.
She wanted nothing more but to stick her tail between her legs and run.
"I've had a really bad couple of weeks and it just seems to keep on going, and I am scared out of my mind so just, please, just don't move cause I will begin to cry alright?" Arabella said before taking the last few steps towards him. To her surprise he did as told and stood completely still as she approached him.
"Alright, I'm just going to pick them up from the floor now alright?" The masked vigilante didn't move an inch. Arabella didn't dare look up at him as she went to pick up the keys that had landed right by one of his black boots.
"The suspect is on the second floor!"
Arabella froze as the vigilante snapped his head down towards her.
"Shit." She cursed as she stood up and ran to her door and quickly opened it.
A rough hand grabbed her shoulder and pushed her inside before closing the door behind them and trapping her roughly against it.
"Quiet." The deep voice was full of authority and danger. The warm breaths that hit the side of Arabella's face and neck sent chills down her spine as she kept her eyes shut in fear.
She had been doing so well when she walked home alone, but now, in her dark apartment trapped against her own front door by this vigilante, the panic came rising back up like a huge lump in her chest and throat that made it hard to breath.
"Relax." A hand on her shoulder made her eyes shoot open in fear as memories from the night of the rape attempt came flooding back to her.
How his hands had held around her throat in a grip so tight that it left bruises.
A quiet sob left Arabella's mouth.
"I'm not going to hurt you." The devils words did nothing to sooth Arabella who was shaking like a leaf under his touch. Or well. She'd had pressed herself far enough up the door so that they almost weren't touching.
The devil softly moved his hand away from her shoulder.
"The victim is here! -And the shooter!.. Have you found the other woman who called it in yet?" Arabella dared look up at the masked devil who sucked in a panicked breath upon hearing the voice of a police officer outside the door. "They'll know something's wrong if you don't answer." He whispered in a commanding tone. Arabella only nodded, the tears in her eyes finally falling.
If she fucked up he would probably kill her.
"I-i'm in here! I-in my apartment!" She yelled hesitantly. "Just.. -I don't want to open my door until you've removed the blood and the..-the dead guy, if that's alright?" An amused expression fell upon the vigilantes face at her bad lie. Though to Arabella it seemed more like a sadistic smirk or an evil grin.
"Of course m'am! I just have to ask you one thing. Did you see which way the masked man went? The vigilante?" Arabella's eyes fell to the face inches from her's that seemed to hold it's breath. "He ran up the stairs! I-I think he went to the roof."
"Thanks m'am I'll send someone up there. The vigilante escaped to the roof, someone get up there immediately! Good night m'am thanks for the cooperation, I'll send a detective to speak with you when the body and blood has been removed." The Devil visibly relaxed as the policeman walked away again.
When no one could be heard in the hallway anymore, the devil carefully took a couple steps away from her, "I'm sorry." The words made Arabella want to cry again. Slowly she let herself slide down the door hugging her knees and hiding away her head in her arms. "P-please leave me alone, I did what you asked, just please don't hurt me."
When she finally dared looking up again, he was gone, one of the windows to the fire escape standing wide open.
Arabella quickly pulled her phone out of her pocket and called the only number she could remember in that second.
"Yeh 'ello? Tony Stark here."
A sob tore from her throat when she heard his voice.
"T-Tony.." Arabella now full on cried, her breathing ragged and panicked.
"Arabella?" Tony's voice answered concerned.
"Something happened, and I really need you to just-." Her voice cracked multiple times as she spoke making Tony even more worried. She'd already been through enough with what had happened in that alley, she didn't deserve anymore things to add to her list of traumas.
"..of course. I'll be there before you know it. Just keep your phone open alright, I'll make Jarvis trace it. Hold tight."
❧