FSE

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Morning came and school awaited.

Christy was quiet through the day. The only one that noticed was June.

"Are you coming over after school to work on the project some more?"

"No, I don't want to go to your house anymore."

"Why? Because of Jake? He won't be there tonight."

"No, I just don't want to go over there."

"Well, can we go to your house?"

"No, I just want to be alone today."

"Come on, what's wrong?"

"Just leave me alone!" Christy said that a little louder than she wanted to.

June looked at her with shock.

"I'm sorry. I just..."

"No. It's fine. I'll just leave you alone, then," the girl walked away.

"June, no," Christy started to go after her friend, but stopped. She didn't want to have to explain.

She wanted the world to stop, so she could get her head straight. She wanted everything back the way it was. She wanted last night to never have happened.

She tried to think of how she could have prevented it. She should have accepted Mr. Cohen's offer. She shouldn't have said anything to Jake's comments. Maybe she shouldn't have even gone. No, June was a good friend. Even though they had just met, she knew June could be trusted. Maybe she could even tell June about what happened last night. No, she wouldn't want to keep quiet and that was important.

Christy picked up her bag and started walking towards the bus. As she stepped up and looked back, she noticed June sitting alone. It was a chance to set at least one thing right again.

The young fox sat down beside her human friend.

June glanced at her without moving and continued to look out the window.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you, June."

Christy waited nervously for a response. "I do need to talk to you about something, but I don't know if I'm ready yet."

June turned to look at her friend, "Are you moving?"

"No," Christy smiled a bit, glad her friend was speaking to her again.

"Then what is it?"

"Not here; and not at your place or mine. We need to go someplace that we can be completely alone."

"I know just the place," June took Christy's paws. "We're friends for life. You can talk to me about anything."

The young fox smiled, but wondered how true it would be once she had to test it with this.

The bus ride seemed longer than usual. Christy kept looking around at the other kids and at her friend. She felt that they could see it on her and she wanted to be away from them.

She saw her street and hopped up, but June grabbed her arm, "Not here. We'll take the bus closer."

Christy sat down quick and whispered sharply, "Where are we going?"

"You'll see. It should still be there."

"What do you mean should?"

"I ran away from home a couple years ago, before I met you. Nobody found me there, so I don't think anybody knows about this place."

"Why did you run away?"

"I'll tell you when we get there," June looked around nervously at the other kids.

The bus stopped and June got up, nudging Christy into the aisle. They hurried off the bus and June looked around. Then she grabbed Christy's paw and started running down the street towards the forest. When they reached the trees, Christy pulled her to a stop and clung to her shoulder, "We're not going in there, are we?"

"Of course. We want privacy and nobody goes there."

"But it's illegal."

"Only if we get caught. Who's going to catch us if nobody goes in?"

"We're going in."

"That's right," June headed into the forest, pulling her fox friend behind her. She watched the trees, looking for something. She found an old warning sign and turned, following it to the next and the next, until she spotted a small shack a little further in.

"This is it," June let go of Christy's paw and slowed down.

"What is it?"

"It's an old maintenance shack from when they were building the compound and growing the forest."

Christy stopped, "There are cameras on the roof."

"Yeah. I think it was also a security point. There's more of them all around the compound, about a half mile apart." June saw her friend standing there, "Come on."

"Won't they see us?"

"Nah. There's no power to them. I checked that last time."

"Don't they care anymore?"

"They don't need to. You were the secret they were protecting." June grabbed her friend's arm, "Come on."

Christy followed, "How did you find this place?"

"I did a report about the forest for school and found them mentioned in some of my research material."

June pushed the door open and peeked inside; then slipped in, pulling June in after. "Nothing's moved. Told you nobody came here."

"This is creepy."

June turned on a lantern, "But it's private." She looked at her friend, "So, what's up with you today?"

"Why did you run away?"

"Oh," June looked at her feet and leaned back on a table. "Well, something happened at home and I didn't want to be there anymore."

"What happened?"

"Its silly now, not important."

"We're friends for life, right," Christy stepped closer. "We can tell each other anything, right?"

June looked up and smiled, "Yeah. You're right." She took a deep breath and pushed herself off the table. "I was supposed to go to an awards night at school. I was getting an award for perfect attendance and for my report on this forest."

"Well, that's good."

"Yeah. Then my dad got a call as we were leaving. He dropped me off at the school and left; didn't say a word about it, just that he'd be back before it started."

"What happened?"

"I waited, but he didn't come back. When they started the presentation, I left. I just ran. When I got to the forest, I ran right in. I kept going until I reached the mound. I was too scared to climb over it, so I followed it. Then I noticed this shack and remembered what it was. I hid in here for two days and nobody found me."

"Were they looking for you?"

"Well, I eventually got hungry and headed back. I went the wrong way at first, but turned around when I saw the mound. When I found the street, I got halfway home before an officer found me. My dad had been out looking for me for 2 days and had the Home Guard looking, too. He skipped work and everything."

"Wow. He really cared about you."

"Yeah. I felt bad for leaving, especially after I found out why he had left me there."

"What happened?"

"Jake had fallen down a ledge and been taken to the hospital. My dad went to get him. It was nothing serious, just a broken arm. Though, they almost charged him with trespassing. My dad convinced them he had been punished enough and they let him go."

"Your dad is a really great father."

June scuffed her shoe on the floor, "Yeah. I was selfish. I really felt bad when he gave me my awards. He had made it back in time to hear them call me. When I didn't go up to the stage, he knew something was wrong. He started looking right away and didn't sleep or eat. Jake was mad at me, but my dad was just happy he found me."

"Yeah," Christy leaned against the wall.

"I never told anybody where I went. I thought it would be good to keep this place my secret, in case I needed it again, for something more serious." She looked at her fox friend. "A friend in trouble is serious. Tell me. What's bothering you?"

Christy slid to the floor and hugged her knees, "I don't know if I'm ready to tell you."

"It's okay. You can trust me. I brought you to my special place and trust you to keep it secret. This can be our place, where our secrets stay."

"It's not that. I just don't know if _I'm_ready."

"Come on, just get it out. You'll feel better once you've told someone."

"No I won't."

"Sure you will, saying things out loud makes them seem less important."

"Not this."

"You have to get over it sometime."

"I'll never get over this," Christy hugged her knees and wrapped her tail over her feet, hiding her face.

"It can't be that bad."

Christy looked up at her friend and shouted sharply, "Jake raped me!" Too loud. Why is it always too loud? She buried her face in her knees and began crying.

June froze, silently staring at the crying vixen as her words echoed.

"No. That's not possible. Jake wouldn't, he couldn't" she stumbled over her words as her thoughts got in the way. "He's trouble, but he's not like that. He doesn't even like morphs."

Christy cried harder, wishing to disappear.

"Why would he do that?" June knelt down and grabbed the vixen's shoulders, "What happened?!"

"Why should I tell you if you don't believe me?"

"Tell me. I want to believe you, but he's my brother. When did he do it? Tell me what happened."

"Last night."

"But he was home last night. You left and he came back for dinner."

"See, you don't want to believe me."

"Tell me what happened. How did he do it? Are you sure it was Jake?"

"It was Jake. It looked like him and sounded like him and they called him Jake."

"They? Who made him do this? What did they do to you?"

"Stop it! I don't want to talk about it anymore."

June got quiet and sat down beside her friend, "I'm sorry. I just care about you. I never could have imagined this would have happened." She wrapped her arm around the fox and hugged, "I'm sorry."

Christy leaned into the hug and just fell apart, sobbing into her friend's shoulder.

"I didn't want this. I didn't ask for it, did I?"

"Tell me what happened and we'll figure it out together."

"I was walking home and something hit me. Then I was being tied up. Then they carried me into a house and threw me down. They were calling me an animal and talking about what animals do."

"Oh, Christy," June held her fox friend close.

"Then one of them told Jake he should fuck me."

"Who? Who told him?"

"I don't know," Christy started crying again.

"I'm sorry. Its okay. We'll get them."

"No!" Christy pushed herself away from June. "We can't! If I say anything, they'll kill me!"

"They can't do that. Once they're in jail they can't touch you."

"But I don't know who was there."

"Jake does."

"No! One of them said that if I say anything, there will always be one of them to shut me up. You can't say anything to Jake. You have to promise me."

"But this is serious."

"No! Promise me!"

"Okay. I promise."

"The secrets stay here, right?"

"Right here."

Christy hugged her friend and sighed, "I don't want to die."

June stroked her back, "You've lived through this; you're strong. You're going to live forever and I'll be your friend forever, too."

The fox let out a slow sigh, "Forever."