Black Velvet

As I drove down the highway all I could think about was Rainy. How bad was the fight? If she was, how bad was she hurt? Would everything be okay? Rainy and her mom were very close in their relationship, they rarely ever got into a fight. If it was bad enough for her mom
to kick her out, it must have been bad.

I pulled into the parking lot of the seven eleven and started searching. Where was she? I turned off my lights and parked at the end of the parking lot. I kept looking, everywhere, I couldn't see much cause it was dark, but I could see just enough. I sat back in my seat, my mind racing to all of the possible things that could have gone wrong. I shook my head, "Stop it Ashlynn, I'm sure she is just running a little late." I said to myself. "Maybe she is inside." I said. I was thirsty anyways after eating a whole bunch of pizza pockets. I needed a drink. I grabbed my keys and phone, got out of the car and looked at my hands.

"Hmmm, well I grab my keys this time but not my wallet. Smart Ashlynn, real smart, and your supposed to be a straight A's student how?" I mumbled to myself as I got in my car and grabbed my wallet. I laughed a little when I walked toward the door.

It was a quick in and out. No one was inside, I just grabbed my drink and busted ass outside. I was walking back to my car, still searching the parking lot, hoping she was okay. I didn't dare call her house, then her mom would really know something was up.

When I got back to my car I was really freaking out. What if whatever wanted me that night got a hold of her while she was walking to the gas station? What if she got hit? What if her mom did something to her? What if she got lost? What if--what if--what if? Anything was possible at this point in time. I was now more scared and panicked than anything. I looked back toward the side of the building and saw a figure in the shadows. I stood behind my car door and studied it. I couldn't make it out but all I knew was that it was a person and it knew that I was there.

Not moving my gaze from the figure I reached over with my free hand and turned on my head lights. My eyes adjusted to the light quickly and I saw who it was. My stomach dropped when my brain registered who stood in front of me. I put my drink in the drivers seat and my keys in my sweater pocket with my eyes still locked on the figure. With my door left open I walked over to it, taking breaths the whole way. I got closer and closer and I about started crying.

"Rainy?" I mumbled trying not to let my voice crack. "Rainy, babe....oh my god what the fuck happened to you?"

I couldn't believe what I saw. she was covered in blood, a blood and dirt mixture covered her face. Her clothes were torn and burnt. I could tell she had been crying still. Cuts, scratches, bruises, blood, burns and dirt covered her entire body. I shook my head, dropped to my knees, and whipped my eyes. I looked at her and she looked back.

"Oh my god babe," I repeated " what happened to you? What did she do to you?" I said as i reached for her hands, she laid them in mine and they were all bandaged up.

"Did you even clean these before you tried to wrap them?" I asked. She just shook her head and cried, I could tell she was in so much pain.

"Oh babe." I said and held my arms out. She carefully moved to me. We sat on the cold wet ground, holding each other and crying. She was crying because of pain, I was crying because I couldn't do anything to make it stop.

"Come on," I said, "lets get you to my car and see what I have in the back." She nodded and I stood up. I held my hands out to her and helped her up. I grabbed all of her bags then her hand and helped her to my car. I knew that she needed medical attention, the burns were very bad but she refused to go to the hospital.

"Do you have anything you can change into? Something warmer and not so tight on your wounds?" I asked. Again she just nodded, not saying a thing till she surprised me.

"Yeah, I have sweats and a sweat shirt in my blue bag." She managed to mumble out.
I handed her the bag and put the rest in the back.

"Come on." I said and took her inside to let her change. I grabbed some peroxide, wrap, burn cream, anything I thought that would help and that the seven eleven carried. I had taken some medical classes back when my parents were here and I knew that you had to get the wounds clean and free of bacteria before the healing process could take place, so I knew I was on the right track. We went into the bathroom and they had some showers in there. It was a truck stop so they had things that the truckers could use to clean up. We went into a shower and she took what remained of her shirt and pants off. I felt like crying but I managed to hold back the tears.

"This is going to sting a little bit but it will all be over soon Rainy okay?" I said, looking at her. I could see the fear in her eyes and all she could really do was nod. I poured the peroxide on her hands and legs, her skin instantly turned white because of all the bacteria. She instantly started screaming, I could tell it was a scream of pain but the fact that I couldn't help her without causing more pain was killing me. I turned on the water and washed off her legs. I looked at her waiting for her to let me know that she was ready for more and she nodded. I carefully poured more on, this time it was more of a moaning sound rather than screaming. She was now shaking and I just couldn't bear to see her in pain anymore. I let it sit then washed it off, applied the burn cream, and wrapped her up. She got dressed and we headed out to pay for the supplies. The guy at the counter looked at me like I had been trying to kill her or something back there.

"Just so you know, these aren't from her, they are from my moms boyfriend, she is just trying to help me." Rainy said when the guy looked at me as if i was a killer. He just nodded, we paid for our stuff and left.

After we had bought our stuff and got to the car we sat there trying to calm ourselves. I knew she was still in pain because she was pulling at the bandages. I handed her some Tylenol and a bottle of water.

"What happened babe? How did this happen? Who did this?" I asked, I had so many unanswered questions. She looked at me and closed her eyes hard, she was crying.

"Mom.....and the new guy...." she mumbled.

"New guy?" I asked.

She nodded, took a deep breath and then began. "Mom got a new guy friend he is an alcoholic, meth addict, along with being abusive. She brought him home tonight and they were both drunk. He sat down at the kitchen table where I was doing my homework and pulled out some meth and did some hits, right there in front of me." She whipped her eyes and took the Tylenol. I started the car and headed back towards home.

"Go on." I said.

"He looked at me, well not really looked at me but he said, 'What the fuck are you doing?! You fucking screw up of a shit!' I replied with 'I'm doing my homework like any other decent teen would be doing.' My mom started going off about my grades because I had a "B" in gym cause I missed a few days. I told mom I had it that way because I had missed a few classes and that you cant make up gym classes and she didn't believe me. He came with a 'You fucking piece of shit how could you talk to your fat ass mother like that?!' Then....he hit me. My mom didn't even try and stop him, he hit me repeatedly. Then when that wasn't enough, he pulled out his knife and started hitting me with that. My face and body was cut. My mom cheered him on as I lay on the floor screaming. She said things like, 'Beat that piece of shit till shes dead!' I screamed and screamed, the more I screamed the harder he hit and the more he cut. I finally got a cheep shot and kicked him in the nuts. He dropped like a rock and I ran out the backdoor screaming help. I wasn't fast enough though, he tackled me on the ground and sat on me. He screamed in my face, 'You worthless fucking piece of shit! your mother brought me home so I could kill you now let me fucking kill you, you fucking slut!' I started crying but he tied me up. Once he was satisfied with his knots skills he cut my stomach, ripped out my piercings, and watched the blood pour and me scream. When that wasn't enough, he pulled out his lighter. 'I'm going to burn the edges of your pretty ass skin till I burn a hole right threw your stomach.' He told me as he burned right where he had just cut. I screamed and screamed, kicked and squirmed but nothing helped until my dumb ass mother came outside. 'Get off of her,' I had honestly thought that the mother I knew was back, but then I was wrong. 'Get off of her, I don't want to have to dispose of the body. Come and fuck me instead, leave the dumb ass there to die. Mommy wants to scream instead.' He got this twinkle in his eyes like that was what he wanted. He was just like a robot or something. Right before he left he told me, 'If your mommy don't wear me out first, I'll come back and give you some of my snake. I'm oh so sure he will love to be inside of you. He just loves laying his kids in the temporary homes.' I whimpered at the thought of that. Before he stood up he got really close to my face and ran his hands over me and looked at me as if he wanted to eat me. He said, 'You know, your body would be a nice place for me to plant my next kid. You also know, I have 64 kids in this small town. I am shooting for a hundred. Lets hope your mom takes my snake and makes daddy some new babies!' He practically yelled it and ran off to the house. I was helpless there on the ground, crying, my body on fire. I didnt know what I was going to do but I knew that I wasn't going to stay there. Once they were inside I slide my hands out of the knots. He didn't tie very good but I let him think he did. I ran inside and to my room. I threw everything and anything that I owned into my bags. I had the phone in my room in case someone called. That's when you did. I acted like my mom encase it was family. When I heard them finish up that's when I had to go. I threw my bags out my window, hit the ground, and limped off. Then I showed up here." She finished and I just couldn't believe it. Why would anyone want to treat someone like that? I didn't now why but I had to keep her safe.

We arrived back at my house and I drove down the drive way.

"This is where you live?" Rainy asked.

I shook my head. "No, this is where WE live." I said and looked at her. she didn't know what to say, I parked the car.

"Come on." I said and got out of the car. we headed inside and to my room with all of her bags.

"We will sleep here. Bathroom is there, closet here, beach out back, umm food downstairs. Pretty much everything we need to survive." I said.

"How did you get this?"

"It was supposed to be a graduation gift from my parents before they passed. I got it early since they whole stalker thing happened." She just nodded,"so you live here? where do you go to school at?"

"Yes, we live here and we will be going to the school about ten minutes from here. So you need to get in the shower and to bed so we can register you tomorrow morning." I said.

She nodded again and hugged me. "Thanks girly." she mumbled against my shoulder.

"No problem, you needed my saving and now a lot of healing cause your not going back there, ever. You are now living with me."

"Okay, I can live with that."

"Now, go get in the shower and get clean. We don't need you sick."

so she went and got clean, we fixed most of her wounds and got something to eat We hit the sack and tried to sleep. There was none that came our way. No matter how many Tylenol P.M. we took. Rainy couldn't sleep because of the fear of nightmares. I couldn't sleep because of the fact I was scared for her well being. Her wounds and burns were bad but we were doing our best in ways of trying to get them clean. As she lay in bed whimpering, I lay beside her running my hands through her hair, trying to calm her, trying to keep myself from crying. We both finally got a few hours of sound sleep just when morning came.