I was captured while on the run and was taken to a prison whom you can’t even call it a prison because they treat prisoners as beggars or even worse.

The other prisoners eyes me as if I were a piece of tender meat. I was someone new to distract their boredom, and small enough that I couldn't stop one let alone four from doing what they wanted. It was only a matter of who would be the first one to enjoy me.

"He's mine." The prisoner's tongue darted out through his tangled beard and licked what I supposed were lips, hidden beneath all that with black hair. "Come here, boy."

I shuffled away from him but instead of the brick wall of the cell, I smacked into a soft body. "Looks like he wants me, Zhu. Don't ye lad?" Large hands clamped around my arms, and thick fingers dug into my flesh through my jacket and shirt. The man spun me around and I gaped up at the brute grinning toothlessly at me. My heart rose and dove, rose and dove, rose and dove and cold sweat trickled down my spine. He was massive. He wore no jacket or waistcoat only a shirt stained with blood, sweat, and grime. The top bottons had popped open, most likely from the stain of containing his enormous chest, and a thatch of gray hair sprouted through the Gap and crept upto his neck rolls. Hot, foul breath assaulted nostrils.

I tried to turn my face away but he grasped my jaw. The wrenching motion caused my hair to slide off my fore head and eyes, revealing more of my face than I had in long time. A new fear spread through me, as sickening as the man in front of me. Only two prisoners seems interested in a boy, but if they realized I was a girl the other would likely want me too.

"Anyone ever tell you, you're too pretty for a boy?" My tormentor chuckled, but it didn't seemed like he discovered my secret. "Pretty boys can get themselves into trouble."

Girls even more so. It was just my I'll luck to get caught stealing an apple from the costermonger's cart outside the cemetery and wind up in the overcrowded holding cell at Highgate Police Station. The irony wasn't lost on me, but it wasn't in the least amusing. As a twenty-one year old girl, I should be separated from the men, but i'd been passing myself off as an eighteen years old boy for so long it hadn't even occured to me to tell the policemen. With my half starved-body, and mop of hair covering most of my face, nobody had question my gender or age.

The big brute jerked me forward, slamming me against his body. My nose smacked into a particular filthy patch of his shirt and I gagged at the combined stenches of sweat, vomit, excrement and gin. I wasn't too clean myself, but this fellows odor was overpowering. Bile burned my throat but I swallowed it quickly. Showing weakness would only make it worse for me. I knew that from my past experiences.

"Come here and keep old Linong warm."

Warm? It was summer and the cell was hotter than any furnace witt four adult men and myself crammed into a space designed for one.

"I'm next" said the bearded Zhu, closing in to get a better look at me.

"If there's anything left of him after old Linong broken him in." Linong chuckled again and fumbled with the front of his trousers.

I closed my hands into fists and clamped down my on my fear. Shouting for the constable wouldn't help. He'd told other prisoners to "enjoy", when he'd tossed me into the cell. It has only been a few minutes since he'd walked off, whistling. It felt like hours. I had to fight now. It was the only way left not that I stood chance against them, but they might beat me unconscious with any luck. It was best not to be awake while they took their liberties.

I swung my fist, but Linong was faster then he looked. He caught my wrist and sneered. "That ain't going to help you." The sneer banisher and he shoved me into the wall.

I put my hands up and managed to stop myself smashing into the whitewashed bricks, but my arms and wrist jarred from the force. I gasped in pain but smothered the cry that welled up my throat.

"Leave the boy, alone"

"Leave the boy alone."

The voice wasn't one I'd heard yet. It didn't come from the outside of the cell from another prisoner to my right.

"What'd you say?" Linong snarled.

"I said leave the boy alone. He's just a child." I turned and pressed my back in to the wall. My rescuer stood in a similar position, his arms crossed over his chest. He was perhaps late twenties, with fair hair and cloudy gray eyes circled by red-rimmed lids. He wasn't nearly as tall as Linong , not as solid, and I doubted he could defeat Linong or Zhu in a fight. My heart sank.

"You going to make us?" Zhu asked.

The man shrugged then winced, as if the movement hurt. He spotted a bruise in his cheeks, and his blond hair was matted with blood.

"One must try. It's the decent thing to do"

"One must try." Linong mimicked the other man's toff accent to perfection. Zhu and the fourth prisoner, lounging on the cot bed, laughed.

Zhu straightened his back, threw out his chest, and affected a feminine walk to where the man stood. The prisoner on the bed laughed even harder at the hairy beast's acting. "Oh, protect me from these brutes sir," whimpered Zhu in a high pitch, "You're my hero."

The blind man lowered his hands to his sides and curled them into fists. I held my breath and waited for the first punch to be thrown. The man smiled instead. It held no humor. Zhu tugged into the lapels of the blond's man jacket, pretending to straighten it, then fidget with the high, stiff shirt collar. The gentlemen wore no tie and his hat and gloves were also missing. The fine cut of his clothes reminded me of my father, always so perfectly groomed. Even the follows aristocratic bearing was very much like my father's. Weather it was also an affictationthis gentleman had developed, it was difficult to tell. I wasn't as experience with the upper members of the society and their ways as I used to be.

"Finished?" The blond man drawled. I wondered why the gentlemen had landed in jail and why he was defending me, a stranger. He'd get himself killed if he didn't keep quiet.

His fun spoiled by the gentlemen's lack of fear, Zhu snorted and move away, he turned his back to me and licked his lips. Linong wiped the back of his hand over his mouth and eyed me with renews interest. He reached for me, but the blond man smacked his hand away. Neither Linong nor I had noticed him approached.

Linong bared his teeth in a snarl. "You don't get to ruin Linong’s fun!" He smashed his fist into the blond's man face, sending him reeling back to his bed.

The prisoner lounging there had to quickly pull up his legs or be sat on. The blond man recovered, and with a growl of rage, lunged at Linong. But he swung his fists wildly and his blows merely glanced at Linong . Linong responded with another punch to the gentleman's jaw. Blood splattered from the man's mouth as he careened backward and slammed into the wall. His head smacked into the bricks, and the crack of his skull turned my stomach.

Zhu Laughed, sending spittle flying from the slit in his beard. Linong dusted off his hands and watched as the gentlemen folded in on himself and crumpled to the floor like a ragdoll. My heart sank. And it was only then that I realized I'd let it rise in hope.

My rescuer was dead.