Living in the Shadows

The sun poured in through the large window next to the fireplace, waking me from my slumber. Shadows’ arms still clung to me. I rolled over and faced him, slowly removing his arms from around me. I didn’t want him getting the wrong idea. In doing this though, he awoke.

“Good morning.” He said, smiling at me.

I didn’t say anything. I still held in my heart the pain of what had occurred the previous night. I merely rolled over away from him. He placed his hand on my shoulder.

“Don’t you dare tell me.” He said to me.

I hadn’t planned on telling him. Ending up like the other girls wasn’t on the top of my to do list.

“I’ll be right back.” He said, getting up from the bed.

I held myself tightly, “You’re not going to say anything to them.” It was more of a demand that had come out of my mouth than a request.

“I swear I won’t. I’m just going to get you breakfast.”

The door creaked as he opened it. I listened to his footsteps as he walked down the staircase. He wasn’t going to be stupid enough to say anything.

He won’t say a word
He won’t say a word
He won’t say a word

I had to keep saying it over and over in my head so I could ensure myself of it. He wouldn’t say something and get me killed. He doesn’t like what they do. He knows what they do when girls tell him, so he won’t breathe a word. Shadows returned to the room. He tried to hand me some food.

“I’m not hungry.” I said, pushing the plate away.

“You can’t starve yourself.” He sat down next to me.

I didn’t say a word. I had nothing to say. Did he not understand that I wasn’t hungry? I wasn’t going to say it again. All I wanted to do was lay there and wait for the night to envelop the world again so I could sleep some more.

“You have your first day of work today.” He explained, giving up on the food.

“What kind of job could you possibly have me doing that will help me get the fuck out of here?” I asked in a dark tone.

“It’s nothing demeaning. I promise.”

I sat up and looked at him straight in the eyes. “What is it then?”

He scratched the back of his head. “I want you to be a shot girl at my bar.”

“I thought you said something that isn’t demeaning!” I shouted at him.

“It isn’t demeaning! You basically serve shots! You’ll make at least six-hundred dollars in tips every night if you do well. Alright?” He asked me, placing his hand on my shoulder.

“Yeah I guess so.” I murmured.

“And just because it’s money coming in to us, we set it up for your father to take the Federal Aviation Administration course. He can become a flight director and make one hundred thousand bucks a year. Does that work?” He was really hoping to have made me happy.

I didn’t smiled but I nodded. “That’s great. Thank you so much.”

I stood from the bed and walked to the door. “Where are you going?” He asked.

“I have to go to the bathroom.” I explained, slowly and quietly closing the door behind me.

The bathroom was right down the hall. Of course I had to walk right past Vengeance’s door.

“Is that you sweetheart?” He called out to me.

I stopped dead in my tracks. The sound of his voice sent chills down my spine. I was too afraid to move. I heard his bed creak as he stood up and he made his way to the hallway. My mind was telling me to run, but my legs were frozen stiff. He walked over to me and pushed a strand of hair behind my ear.

“Hey princess.” He cooed in my ear.

I tried to walk past him, but he continued to block my path. I stood there in defeat. There was no way I could push through a brick wall.

“You didn’t tell him did you? You remember the deal right?” His lips were touching my earlobe as he spoke.

I didn’t say a word to him. I never would. Never again. He reached his hand back and struck me. I gasped and held my cheek. Before anymore could happen, Shadows was there to rescue me. He pushed Vengeance back.

“Cut that shit the fuck out!” He yelled at Vengeance.

“What? She was getting mouthy. You never said anything against hitting them.” He pointed out.

“I think I fucking banned all that shit. There’s not fucking need of it. Just don’t do it! So what if she got mouthy? She’s an eighteen-year-old girl!” Shadows yelled in my defense.

“Whatever man. I remember back in the good old days when you would hit them and...” He grinned and made a thrusting motion with his hips. He laughed loudly. “You know what I mean. If this were the old you, you’d be fucking that shit right now man! We’d all be getting a piece of ass.”

Matt lowered his voice so I could barely hear it. “That was back before we killed anyone. I’m different ever since the first time I saw her on the chandelier. I just can’t fucking see it anymore. Now get back in your room or go downstairs. I don’t care just leave her the fuck alone.”

Vengeance glared at him all the way down the hallway as he walked toward the stairs.

“Are you alright?” He asked me, gently stroking where I’d been hit.

I nodded and proceeded to the bathroom. Not only did I go to the bathroom, but I took a shower as well. It felt so nice to clean Vengeance off of me. The sickening feeling of his lips, his sweat, his cum, all down the drain. After my shower I went back into Shadows’ room. It was hard to look at him the same after what he had said out in the hallway. I was glad I didn’t have to face him when I went into the bedroom.

I found an outfit neatly laid out for me on the bed. Without further ado, I dressed myself and let my hair air-dry. Shadows walked in shortly after I was dressed. Without looking at him, I left the room and started downstairs.

“Belle I need to talk to you.” He followed me briskly over the stairs.

“What do you want?” I asked angrily.

“Here, come back to the room with me. I think you deserve to know everything that’s happened in this house. I’m not particularly proud of it all, but it is what it is and I can’t change that. I just feel like I should be honest with you. I don’t want you to hate or fear me.” He held out a hand to me.

Even if I hated him, he was the only nice soul in the house. The rest of the men were ready to pounce on me at any given moment in time. He had been kind, and patient to me. I guess I owed him a chance to explain himself to me. So I took his hand in mine and let him lead me back upstairs and into the room. He sat me on the bed next to him and started speaking.

“A few years ago we were all stuck owing debt to a loan shark. If you know anything about them, you know we had two choices, pay them back, or get killed. So Zacky, well, Vengeance, ran into this guy at the mall who was yelling on his cell phone.

He said, ’I need to think of something quick. My invention sucks. It’d be nice if I could get my hands on Trent’s invention.’

I don’t know what happened there, but gears started turning in Zacky’s head. He went straight up to the guy and said, ’I’m going to offer you an opportunity you can’t refuse,’

So Zacky explained that he would kidnap Trent, get hold of his invention, and then to clear away the cops, kill Trent. Then he would give this inventor the invention. Presto, he could claim it as his own. Or whatever. We didn’t care what he did with it, just as long as we got paid. We got paid handsomely. We ran into a problem though, he had a daughter. Although we had means to kill him, Gates thought of a different approach. We would kidnap his daughter and take her in his place. This way no one had to be killed.

Everything went swimmingly, much like it had with your kidnapping. We went in there, Trent and his daughter agreed upon the rules, and away we went, back here to the house.

Karly was a beautiful girl. She had shoulder length strawberry blonde hair, crystal blue eyes, a nice body, everything a man would want for the looks in a woman. We realized then that we could all have our way with her, and there was nothing she or her father could do about it if they valued your lives. So that’s just what we did. One by one we took her in. I regretted it every damn day since

That girl was a wreck ever since. She skulked in the corners of rooms, crying until she fell asleep on the floor. I constantly had to be putting her back into her bed. Even though it was destroying her on the inside, there was something about having this power that I lusted for. We continued with her. She was like our little fuck doll,”

He paused and looked at me. I was seriously offended by everything he was saying right now, and I think he noticed that in my face.

“I’m sorry, I’ll continue on now. This went on for a few months. One morning, I went to check on her like I always did. Plus it was my turn to have her, we had a schedule. The only thing that was in that god forsaken room, was a corpse hanging off a chandelier attached by a rope. Since she had died, we also had to kill her father. For insurance reasons again. Vengeance had me follow him down the stairs and into the basement the night we killed him. Seeing him holding the gun at this poor defenseless man’s face destroyed me. He had just learned that his daughter died. Now he was going to die.

I will never forget how I felt the night he died. I lay in bed that night and cried and cried. This wasn’t something I would continue to take part in. So I don’t. I do this for the money, but I refuse to rape another woman, or kill another person. You won’t ever see me do it. That I swear.”

His explanation worked well. It made perfect sense as messed up as it was. The most important thing is, I truly believe that he’s sorry for it. With that thought, I granted him my forgiveness.