Living in the Shadows

Hey there sweetie.

I looked up and saw my mom. She was smiling at me, staring with her radiant blue eyes. She looked angelic, which was just how imagined she would look, if I could see her now. When she tried to touch my face, her hand went right through me.

Oh mom. I said in disappointment. Why can’t you touch me?

She opened her mouth like she was going to say something, but the only thing that came out was a horrible gurgling noise. Her eyes narrowed and I watched as she slowly morphed into my biggest fear. Vengeance stalked toward me. Without even remembering it had happened, my clothes were gone from my body. I continued to step back farther and toppled over. Before I could hit the floor I jumped awake.

“Oh, are you alright?” Shadows was looking at me intently.

I shook my head, trying to get the image out of my head. There was no way I could. My mom had been right there in front of me, Vengeance had taken her away from me. I nodded and tried to focus on brining my breathing back to normal. He had his hand on my back, but I didn’t want it. I jumped up from the bed and went over to the bay window and sat on the bench.

There was a strong breeze pushing the trees back and forth. Some of them quivered like it were a cold winter day. I heard the sound of a vehicle coming down the long driveway. I shivered in my skin with shock. It was a police car.

“Oh no! Shadows please!” I begged, running to his side. “I know my father wouldn’t have called the police! Please believe me!” I began to sob into his arm. “You have to believe me.” I whispered into his shoulder.

“Of course I believe you. Why would your father risk both of your lives and call the police.” He stood and went to the window. “Mhm.”

“Open up! It’s the police!” There was a loud rapping on the door downstairs.

“Zack! Get that will ya?” Shadows hollered out to them. “You need to come with me.” He helped me up.

“Where are we going? You need to make sure that Rev doesn’t kill my father. Promise me.” I said to him.

“Belle. You know I’m not going to let them do that.” He dragged me out into the hallway.

Zack must’ve brought the cop into the dining room, because he was out of the doorway. Shadows silently brought me down over the stairs. We walked toward the dining room, but instead of continuing straight into it we walked to the door to the left. Immediately there was a set of stairs was walked down. The basement was freezing, but it would have to do. I could hear the conversation from down there.

“We’ve been checking various households in the area. Isabelle Lafleur has been missing for roughly a week now.” The police officer explained to Vengeance.

“Sh-shadows.” I whispered through my shivers. “He’s g-going to have my father killed. Vengeance is going to d-do anything to make me m-miserable.”

Matt wrapped his arms around me. His lips rested on my forehead. “I promised you that your father wouldn’t die. Vengeance may be a bad man, but he’s not going to kill your father without liable reason. This happens a lot, the townspeople usually get suspicious and call the police after a while.”

“Oh. So this is normal.” What I’d said was more of a statement than a question.

“Mmm. It all depends on how close to the house we are.” He said, continuing to hold me.

“Well feel free to search the house.” Vengeance had said to the officer.

“I don’t think that’s necessary. Thank you for being so cooperative.” The officer said before leaving.

Vengeance waited a good ten minutes before he opened the door to the basement. “You’re clear.”

We both stood up and walked up into the brightness of the living room. Zack was eyeballing me.

“What happened?” Shadows asked.

“I guess her friend just misses her and has been bugging the cops about it all along.” He glared at me. “If your father was fucking smart he would have made up a fucking story!”

“My father is a genius! I’m sorry you’re too stupid to see that! Ayla is an over-paranoid mother-like friend of mine. Even if my father made up a lie, she would see right through that. She’s smart.” I explained to him.

His eyes narrowed at me. “So should we go get her then? It’s clear that she’s going to be a nuisance.”

“No!” I shouted, taking a step toward him.

“Well then, she better but out. If she gets any farther into our business we’re going to have to do something about her too.” He said darkly to me.

Matt and I didn’t say another word, we merely walked up the stairs and into the bedroom. It was hard for me to believe that I had only been there for about a week. It was good to know that my presence hadn’t been missed. But something that had been said really stuck in my head. ’We’ve been checking various households in the area.’ So they were in the area. How far were we really from my house? ’It all depends on how close to the house we are.

“We’re close to my house.” I said out loud to him while we sat there on the bed.

“What? How would could you think something like that?” He asked me.

“Well, both you and the cop had said something about searching in the area. We must be close to my house.”

“You’re not supposed to know that.” He explained to me. “If you know how close we really are to your house, well...”

“Shadows, I don’t care. Even after I leave, it’s not like I’m going to do anything. Those guys would still come and kill my father and me.” I flung myself over and pressed my face into the pillow. “I need a shower.”

He chuckled and lay a hand on my shoulder. “Well then, we’ll go and you can take one. I’ll just stand outside the bathroom door.”

“Okay, thank you.”

We both stood up and headed out the door. We didn’t have any encounters with the other guys. I did see Christ sitting in the living room watching television. Shadows had let me into the bathroom and then shut it behind me. I locked the door and got into the shower. The hot water running down my body helped me to, again, clean vengeance from my body. Without much warning, my body began to shake and I fell to the bottom of the tub, sobbing and in a ball. My cries were loud, but I couldn’t control them, as much as I desperately wanted to. Shadows called into me, but I ignored him. I wanted to be alone, to cry alone. Nothing and no one would be allowed to bother me now. I wouldn’t have it. There was a loud slam to my right. I jumped and covered myself with my arms. Even though something unknown was going on, and I should’ve been more surprised than sad, I continued to sob.

“I’m going to have to fix that I guess.” Shadows said, chuckling.

I heard the porcelain of the toilet clank as he sat down on the toilet seat. He sat there while I sobbed. I was surprised he had heard me through the shower. To know that he cared enough to bust down the door was really nice though. I was able to collect myself long enough to finish washing my hair. Just knowing he was there made me feel a lot better. My tears faded away slowly.

“Can you hand me my towel?” I asked, holding my hand out of the plastic shower curtain.

He handed me the plushy white towel and I proceeded to wrap myself in it. He took my hand as I stepped out of the shower. We stepped over the broken door. He helped me along the hall. I felt a tug and the bottom of my towel and heard it drop to the floor. My arms involuntarily flew to cover my breasts and vagina. I felt a pinch on my ass cheek. Then there were ice-cold lips on my neck.

“Nice ass babe.” A shiver flew down my spine while I tried to keep myself covered.

Shadows stood there in shock staring at me. Without a word I flew into his room and slammed the door behind me. I quickly threw on some clothes and sat down on the bed.

“How could you do that Vengeance! God damn it! As if you haven’t hurt her enough already!” Shadows shouted.

I could imagine Vengeance’s sneer. I didn’t hear the words that came out of his mouth, but I couldn’t imagine they were anything to awful nice. And that was that. Shadows hadn’t come back to the room for quite a while, which I found odd. I wondered what he was doing.