Living in the Shadows

Weeks passed. Summer slowly faded into Autumn. Things hadn’t been the same between Matt and me ever since he confessed his feelings to me in June. He was my protector still, and we still slept in the same bed, but we rarely spoke. That was fine by me. I just wanted to get my money made and get out.

It was September second. I was supposed to be going to college this year. I should have been in New Hampshire furthering my education. I was never destined to live a normal life. Instead I was stuck in Maine, living in a house with four men, three of which tried to rape me constantly.

“Here you go sir.” I placed a glass full with yellow liquid on the table in front of him.

His hand shot out and gripped my wrist as I tried to walk off. “Hold on there.” I gasped and looked down at him. His face was large and full of craters. I stepped back in alarm. “How much is it for you for the night.”

“Oh.” I put my hands up in defense. “I’m not a stripper.” I protested.

“Too bad. I would pay a lot for a girl like you.” He smiled a yellow smile and pulled me close to his face. “You sure you don’t want to take me up on my offer?”

Two large hands pulled apart the suction created between myself and this man. Matt stood there and looked directly at the customer. The stare down made me nervous. I was in no way qualified to break up a bar fight.

“Sir, I’m going to ask you politely to leave. It’s against the policy to harass the shot girls.” He said, pushing himself in between the customer and me.

The man let out a hearty laugh and gave Matt a smack on the back. “Alright man, you got it. Sorry about that.”

He stood there and laughed for another minute before gripping the large beer glass and tossing its contents onto Matt’s face.

“Hey!” I shouted at him. “Don’t start with that shit!”

“What are you gonna do about it sweetheart? Claw me?” He laughed harder.

I turned on my heel and headed to the register. I picked up the phone and dialed 911.

“Hello, police, what is your location?” The woman on the other line asked me.

“Hi, I’m at Matt’s place on Broadway street. We have an unruly customer.” I explained.

“Okay we’ll send someone over.” She hung up.

Suddenly the bar broke out into a fight. Someone bumped into someone else’s girlfriend and they would start fighting. A girl would look at another girl’s man wrong and they would fight. It was ridiculous. Everyone was fighting. I stayed behind the register, too frightened to try to stop the commotion that was happening in the center part of the bar. The police showed up and got everyone to calm down and asked that we shut down for the night.

“I guess Matt went somewhere.” I said to the officer. “I’m the one who called. It started with only one bad customer. Then they all started fighting like animals.”

“Alright well, I’ll let you girls work on cleaning up and what not, but I’m going to ask that you close down. Just for the night.”

I nodded in agreement. “That works fine.”

“Good.” He smiled at me and left.

“Holy crap.” Holly had said from my right.

“Yeah I know right?” I chuckled a little to myself. “That was ridiculous. Did you happen to see where Matt went?”

She raised her arms up and shook her head. “No friggin’ clue. I wouldn’t worry about that guy anyway.”

I rolled my eyes. Vengeance barged in through the front door and looked at me. He walked over.

“Where’s Shadows?” He demanded the answer out of me.

I didn’t answer. He grumbled, knowing that he wasn’t going to get an answer out of me. He pulled me in closely by my arm and his lips gently touched my left ear.

“If you tell me, I won’t have you tonight.” He said to me.

He released me and looked deep into my eyes. “I don’t know where he is.”

He growled under his breath. “Well fuck it all. I’m going to check the bathroom. You check the fucking skank rooms.”

I went toward the curtains that were made with different colors. First I checked the red one. Behind the curtains were doors. I check in the door and no one was in there. The room was red as well. The bed was high to the ceiling and lined with a sheer curtain all around. The second one I checked was a green room. This room was not vacant. The sounds of grunting and groaning could be heard from outside. I knocked on the door.

“This room is taken!”

I recognized Matt’s voice instantly. I dropped to my knees as my stomach tightened. This didn’t make any sense. It was bothering me deeply to know he was in there. What was he thinking? Or was he just trying to avoid the police.

“Oh God Matt!” Stephanie

Vengeance ripped me up off the floor and threw me to the side like a sack of laundry. Without warning, he barged in. I closed my eyes with my hands. I didn’t want to see her on top of him, or vice versa.

“Hey asshole! Let’s go! I heard the cops were down here to break up a big fucking bar fight you dumb fuck.” He said, stomping around the room.

“Will you let us finish?” Stephanie asked.

“No you fucking bitch. If you want to fuck him so bad, come to the house. He could really use it. He needs to lighten up a little bit and get off Belle’s case all the time.” At the mention of my name, my head shot up and I got to look in the room for a second.

Upon seeing her dressing and Matt’s bare chest I jumped and covered my face again in my hands. No more words were spoken as they all exited the room. I heard some loud footsteps walk out and stop in front of me. Large hands grabbed my arms and pulled me up to a standing position.

“Let’s go.” Vengeance said to me, pulling me along.

On the ride home, Matt hadn’t even bothered to blindfold me. We just rode in silence. Vengeance was in the car behind us.

“Belle I-“ He began.

I interrupted him by putting my hand up in his face. I didn’t want to talk to him, or to have him talk to me. It just wasn’t going to happen. We passed the super market that my father went grocery shopping at every day. Matt wasn’t kidding when he’d said that we were close to my home. We finally made it back to the house. I couldn’t have been happier.

I followed Matt up over the stairs, but not into the room. Instead I went to the room that had been mine upon arrival. I heard him grumble and knock on the door I had just slammed.

“Talk to me please.” He said, turning the doorknob.

I wasn’t in the mood to talk to him. I wouldn’t be for a very long time. He walked into the room and sat down on the bed. I averted his gaze as he sat on the bed next to me.

“Look, I don’t know why it bothered you so much. You and I are just friends right? I thought that’s what we’d agreed on your terms.”

Damn. I hate it when guys are right. Regardless, he didn’t need to be whoring himself around. I don’t know why it had upset me so much that he and Stephanie fucked. It may have been because I hated Stephanie since day one. It also could have been because I possessed feelings for Matt. I shook the thoughts from my head.

“You’re right.” I said, forcing a smile.

“Alright good.” He smiled and hugged me. “I still want you to sleep with me tonight.”

I gave him a yeah right look. “There’s no fucking way I’m spending the night with you.”

Not to mention, the only reason he had been so protective of me before was because he loved me. If he didn’t love me anymore, then why should he try to be protective? He shouldn’t. He should toss me aside and let the other men have me. I gasped as an idea ran through my mind.

“Are you alright?” He asked, putting a hand on my back.

“Oh. Yeah I’m fine.”

“Okay well, do have to sleep with me. I still don’t want them to hurt you.” He explained to me.

“Matt, get real. The only reason you cared before was because you had a thing for me. I think part of the reason they used to do it to me all the time was because they knew it would bother you. I’ll be fine.” I murmured, getting under the covers in my bed.

“Okay well, good night.”