The Man She Met Online

The next morning, Harmony had this nagging feeling that Matt didn’t want her around anymore. He was very hostile towards her last night and it made her a bit uneasy. However, as she was heading over to Matt’s house to be driven to school, her phone rang. Lily’s name flashing on the screen erased the negative thoughts from her head and she could barely breathe.

“I’m coming todayyy!!!” Her friend’s shrill voice blaring through the phone almost made her cry. No matter how mean Lily could be, she was the only friend that stuck around Harmony longer than 3 months.

“I can’t wait! I missed you Lil.”

“Missed you too babe! See you at 5 at the old playground on Brownsmill? You know the one that no one even goes near anymore because that new one around the corner?”

“Yea! Hurry!!”

“I will, have a good day at school. Get ready to meet Zacky! I think you’ll really like him.”

Though Harmony doubted it, she agreed and said goodbye to Lily before knocking on Matt’s door. After 4 attempts, Harmony was forced to drag one of her parents out of bed and beg them to drive her to school. In the end it was her mother whose hair was sticking up all over the place and yesterday’s makeup still smudged all over her face that drove her to school. Harmony thanked her mother hundreds of times and kissed her on the cheek before jumping out and starting her day at school.

3 o’clock couldn’t come fast enough. Harmony was surprised to find her father picking her up. Still, whatever Matt had against her couldn’t stop her from bouncing in her seat the entire ride home. She was going to be able to see Lily after weeks of being separated and that was the best feeling ever.

Dropping her book bag off, Harmony slid on the white mini dress that Lily loaned her and a thin jean jacket. As a last thought, she curled her hair and wore wedged sandals. She wanted to make her friend proud. After giving her parent’s the excuse of going to Lily’s house to check on her mother who was still recovering from the fact that Lily was simply missing. The search was stopped due to lack of evidence and she was now just a pretty face that was probably never to be seen again.

After kissing her mother and father, Harmony started the short walk to the old playground. Sure she was like an hour early but she needed to get her thoughts together and make sure she had time to really meet and get to know the guy Lily had gotten married to. Yea, how was that possible again? She needed to ask that too.

20 minutes later, Harmony was sitting on the park’s bench and repeatedly fixing her hair. Zack and Lily were suppose to show up in 30 minutes but she wanted to be there extra early because she knew they had limited time before they really had to go into hiding so everyone lost interest for finding Lily. It seemed like they had everything sorted out and she could admire them for that. Plus they were happy, you couldn’t really beat happy.

A snap of a twig made Harmony jump and stand up. Her heart stopped as Matt came into view, looking at her in a way that made her both nauseous and nervous. Clearing her throat and standing taller, Harmony tried to make it obvious that she wasn’t intimidated by the way he was advancing on her slowly.

“Matt, what are you doing here?” Her voice shook slightly, but to her all that mattered was that she got the sentence out.

“Look at you Harmony.” He hummed in approval as he came closer to her. “You know, I tried not to notice how you’d grown from a thin little girl to…” Matt let his eyes wander her slightly curvy figure, knowingly making her uncomfortable.

“What the-“

“I didn’t want to think about you like this Harmony. I didn’t think you were ready for a relationship , much less a serious one but by the way you called and talked to me nearly every night as Zoey, I can tell you’re more than ready.”

Harmony stumbled over the bench as she backed away from him, catching herself in time to stop from falling onto the ground and ruining Lily’s white dress. She was absolutely speechless, unable to say anything to defend herself because she knew she was wrong for messing with him so bad. She couldn’t even muster the words ‘I’m sorry’ because she knew how powerless they were now.

“You sat in my face and asked me about her as though you had no idea.” Matt was now in arm’s reach of her, staying that way no matter how much distance she attempted to put in between them. “You watched me cry and talk about her, wondering what the hell I did make Zoey leave!” Harmony flinched at his yell. “But it was just you and your conscious right? Finally, you decided I had enough of your lying and mind games and you stopped fucking with me and found a way to ‘fix’ me as though you weren’t the one to fuck me over in the first place!”

“’m sorry!!” Harmony yelled, now scared out of her mind and wishing Zack and Lily would hurry up. No one came near this place anymore which is why it was the perfect place for them to meet, this also meant that Matt could do whatever he wanted to Harmony and no one would hear. “Please don’t kill me okay I’m sorry I’m so fucking sorry I hurt you!”

Matt laughed, dry and mocking. “You think I’m going to kill you? No, that’d be too easy. I have something else in mind.”

One second Matt was just looking at her and the next he was dragging her to his truck that was parked off road. It took little to no effort to throw Harmony into his truck despite her fighting and screaming. Her head hit the opposite door as he threw her in, dazing her long enough for him to be able to go around the other side and knock her out.

As Matt pulled away from the abandoned playground, he caught a glimpse of a black BMW pulling up to the same place. Slowing down a little, he witnessed a man and a woman getting out the car and going down the small slope that led to the playground. He assumed this was who Harmony was trying to meet but in the end he decided it didn’t matter and made his way back home.



Harmony finally woke up 2 hours later with the taste of metal in her mouth. She could barely remember what had happened earlier so she laid there unable to open her eyes and unable to remember her name or what it started with. When she finally found her sense of balance, Harmony did the first thing she could think of and crawled over to the single window in the room she was in.
Looking out, she could see a clear view of her house but through the slight darkness, she could make out a black care parked just out of the light of the streetlights. From experience, she finally realized that she was in the basement of Matt’s house. She pushed the itching of fear she felt back and tried to see. As her eyes dilated more, she made out a blond girl and her dark haired boy seemingly arguing near the car.

“She wouldn’t do this!!” The girl suddenly yelled, making the boy quickly hush her.

Harmony could recognize Lily’s voice miles away. It was obvious that she was in tears by the way her voice cracked. Harmony tried to yell to her, hit the window, something to let her BFF know that she was literally steps away and hadn’t forgotten about their agreement. Her attempts fell on deaf ears though, because the dark haired boy, who Harmony assumed was Zack, was able to get Lily into the car and drove away.

“How sad.”

Harmony whipped around to find Matt leaning against the stair railings in only a pair of blue sweat pants. Her anger raised above her the slight tingle she got in the pit of her stomach when she looked at him. Storming over to him, Harmony slapped him as hard as she could manage.

“She was waiting for me for hours!! She thought I ditched her! Lily was my only best friend and you fucking ruined it! I hate you!!” Matt had grabbed her wrists to stop any more assault by the end of her rant but she was still kicking and screaming.

“SHUT UP!!” He roared in her face, stopping Harmony in her tracks. “Let’s get something straight Harmony, I don’t give a damn if she was your only friend, I don’t give a damn if you hate me because you didn’t see her and I sure as hell don’t give a damn if she never speaks to you again. All I know and care about is that now all you have is me. I’ll be the one feeding you, clothing you, taking care of you. Forget about school; forget about ever going ‘home’, your life as a Curtis. We’ll be moving away soon anyway.”

“Moving away?? You’re joking right?”

Matt simply looked at the girl before tightening his hold on her wrists and pulling her over to a mattress on the floor. “Here you earn things. You cooperate, you get a bed frame. You listen, you get a TV. I may be cruel but I’m not heartless, I do care about you Harmony.”

Harmony bit her tongue to keep some of the dirty things she wanted to say from spilling out. She could still feel the pain on the side of her face where Matt hit her and she didn’t want to relieve the moment.

As if reading her thoughts, Matt gently touched her swollen cheek and frowned. “I let my anger get in the way…I don’t hurt you again as long as you cooperate okay? Even then.” He shook her head and dropped his hands. “Just be good okay?”

As the basement door was closed a locked, Harmony sat on the mattress and fought the urge to cry. No, she would not be weak, she had to be strong and find a way to get away from Matt.