Living in the Shadows

Sitting in my bed, half awake, I had a brilliant idea. It was one that would be reasonable for all the men, and for my father. I had figured out a way for me to go home. Without making much noise, considering it was nearing midnight, I slowly walked down the creaky staircase and onto the hardwood living room floor. I needed to tell Shadows my thoughts. I’d hoped I would find him down here. I was afraid to check his room and possibly wake him.

“What are you doing?”

I jumped and turned to my right where the voice had come from. It was Vengeance.

“Oh, hi.”

He smirked stood from his red recliner. “Why hello.”

He started walking closer to me. The closer he got, the farther back I moved. We got so close once I hit the railing on the stairs that all he would have to do is purse our lips to share a kiss.

“Wha-what are you doing Vengeance?” My voice shook with fear.

He was so much bigger than I was. His hand alone could break my arm in half if I let him.

“Oh nothing. Shadows is sleeping, and it looks like you are all alone.” He paused and I watched the other two men close in on me as well. “And we are all here. How long has it been since there’s been a girl in the house guys?”

They made some grunting noises in approval. I wished I had some way of sinking into the wall. There’s no way I could. Oh how I wished and wished though.

“I’ll scream.” I warned, taking in a deep breath.

“Go ahead. We will kill you.” He pulled out a knife and held it to my throat.

The cold blade felt painful against my neck. It was so sharp. Just the breathing I did caused a small incision on my throat. A tear escaped my eye and dripped onto the blade. I panicked. Screaming loudly I kicked Vengeance in the crotch. I had never hurt anyone in my life so I stood in shock of the pain I had caused on him for a moment.

“You little bitch!” Vengeance yelled at me.

A loud bang erupted from upstairs. It caused me to jump. Shadows trumped down over the stairs and stared at us all. I felt like a child having been framed for something one of my siblings had done.

“You.” He said, pointing a large finger at me. “Come with me.”

I slowly followed him up the stairs. With each small step, an electric current of fear rose up through my bones, making me even more afraid to enter his room. I did though. I tried to stay brave. He pointed to the bed. I obediently sat down.

“What happened?” He asked roughly.

“You won’t believe me if I told you. You’re always going to side with them.” I presumed.

“As much as you think I am unreasonable, I’m not. If your alibi seams good enough, then I can honestly listen.” He folded his arms across his broad chest.

“Alright then.” I looked back and forth to both of his eyes to see how much of this he was going to believe. “I don’t know exactly what they had planned for me. I assumed it was rape. Anyhow, they cornered me right there and held a knife to me. They told me if I screamed they would kill me. So I kicked Vengeance in his place and screamed.”

We sat in silence for what felt like forever. I was begging in my head for him to say something. He just stared blankly at the floor. He finally looked up at me and grinned.

“They’ve done this before.” He shook his head. “I just don’t know why they seem to think they can continue to get away with it all the fucking time. You’re going to have to stay with me from now on. And don’t go anywhere in the house at night. If you need to use the bathroom or whatever, just wake me up and I’ll take you.”

“Shadows?” I wanted to know something so badly. “Why are these men like animals, and yet you’re not?”

He paused for a long time to think. I knew it was going to be something that he couldn’t answer right off the bat. I waited patiently for the answer. Yes he was still mean sometimes, and I never expected him not to be, but he was different. I didn’t see it in him to rape me. He was almost treating me like a normal member of the household. I liked that a lot.

“Because I don’t like the idea of the things they want to do to girls. When you girls come to live here, it’s completely against your will. You didn’t do something stupid to get kidnapped. We’re being paid to hold on to you as insurance. End of story.” He explained to me.

“Okay.”

His reasoning made so much sense. I liked to hear that he wasn’t like them. He was exactly opposite. I lay down on the floor, which was considerably comfortable. As I started to close my eyes, Shadows spoke.

“What the hell are you doing?”

I turned and looked at him. He looked so much bigger from the floor. “I’m going to sleep.”

“Despite everything I said, you have to sleep with me. I’d feel safer.”

I sighed and allowed him to take my hand. He pulled me up and helped me into bed. It was much more comfortable in this bed than it was on the floor. Plus he had a lot of heat radiating off of him, making it so nice and warm.

“Hey Shadows?” I asked.

“Yes?”

“What did you mean when you said you still had a lot for me to do here?”

He pondered for a moment. “I want you to help clean around the house and shit like that. Since you’re not doing anything else obviously, you may as well help out with shit here.”

“Yeah.” I agreed.

Him saying that reminded me of what I had to ask him about, but I didn’t want to yet. I would wait until the morning. That way it was all fresh in my head. Through the night Shadows tossed in his sleep, making it difficult for me to sleep. I wanted badly to just lie on the floor. I felt like that would almost be more comfortable than the bed, but I couldn’t upset him, not after how helpful he was for me today.

When I awoke the next morning, I was nestled into one of the large pillows. Shadows was still sleeping next to me soundly. I figured that I would do as he told me and just wait for him to awaken before leaving the room. I ran over my plan again in my head a few times before he woke and looked over at me.

“Good morning Belle.” He said to me.

“Morning.” I replied solemnly.

He slowly sat up and became aware with the world around him. I waited for him to finish stretching before bringing my thoughts to the table.

“I have a proposition for you.”

He rubbed his eyes and looked at me. “Alright.” He was listening intently.

“I will do what I can to pay you double what the inventor paid you, in order for you to grant me and my father our freedom.”

Again, he pondered and didn’t speak for a long time. His hazel eyes twinkled while he thought. I wondered what there was to think about. I was offering him double what he was originally paid. What was there to think about? The suspense alone was going to kill me. I just wanted him to say ‘yes that would be fine,’ so I could move on and try to find some ungodly way to pay for what they wanted.

“You have yourself a deal.” He reached his hand out.

I shook it firmly. This was going to get better. I could feel it already.