“Five more minutes?” The man’s voice dripped with sarcastic loathing. “I told you never to interfere with her life Jacqueline.”
Jacky tensed in Maria’s arms. She whispered into Maria’s ear, “I’m sorry, lover girl. Looks like our time is up.”
The sensation of Jacky pulling away sent panicked shivers throughout Maria’s body. Who was this man? How did he know so much about her? And why did he seem even more interested in her than she was in him? Maria had just found someone who genuinely wanted to be around her. Someone she didn’t believe was using her. There were dozens of slutty women at the rave. Jacky could have chosen any of them, and yet she chose her. Now this man was pulling her away, and she was just as powerless as she had always been to stop it.
Jacky stood and placed herself between the man and Maria. “Gods be damned. Raven, will you stop this insanity? Why is it you always have to interfere with my plans?”
His gaze intensified and his demeanor became rigid. A slow red seeped into his eyes, staining them with what Maria could only best describe as rage. “You don’t know what you’re doing Jacqueline. Give her to me and leave. I don’t want to have to kill you.”
“Stay the fuck out of my life,” Jacky said. “She’s mine by right of choice, Raven. Times have changed, you can’t just buy someone.”
Buy someone? Maria latched onto that thought. You can’t buy me. Who would even think to do that? Something about the idea rang true. Her parents had always spoken about giving her away some day to the man God had intended for her. But this man? There was no way. Something had to be wrong here. They must have the wrong girl. Tears streamed down her face. She didn’t belong here after all. Maria couldn’t be the girl they were after. No one wanted her.
“Damn it, woman!” Raven shouted. “You’ll get us all killed. Set your pride aside.”
“If what I’m doing will kill us then at least we’ll all go together.” Jacky flipped him off. “Now go ahead and run back to your pups with your tail between your legs.” She spit at his feet. “Coward.”
Ripples of rage washed over Raven’s features. His arms, face, and muscles twitched. The slow churning red in his eyes flooded until they were little more than bright red orbs. The effect was chilling and frightening at once. Maria’s quiet, heartbroken tears turned into sobs of fear. The man seemed to react in time to her tears. His body convulsed as if he were trying to restrain himself. Then suddenly as if a dam had broken he charged forward to backhand Jacky.
She looked at Maria, her eyes looked apologetic. She gulped and braced herself. Both of her arms flew up where the backhand was coming from and for a moment it looked like she would fend off the blow, but when that moment passed Maria saw Jacky launched into the air once again by the man.
Something inside Maria snapped. She didn’t care if she was wanted or not right now. Beating people into submission was never right. Even though she consciously knew she had no chance against the man, something deep inside of her pushed her to stand and face the man.
“Raven was it?” Maria said as she stared into the eyes of the man standing before her. The man seemed taken aback in his rage and paused before nodding. She approached him as calmly as she could and slapped him. His face felt cold and hard. Hard enough that the slap stung Maria’s hand as much as if she had just slapped a stone. That scared her, but she did her best to hide that. She was already tear stained. Further indications of weakness could only hurt her now. “My name is Maria Killbride. I don’t know who you think you are attacking my friends but I won’t forgive it. Do you understand me?”
Raven flinched and raised his hand to strike back. He stared into Maria’s defiant eyes as if to give her a moment to beg for mercy. Maria raised her chin, daring him to strike her. For several long moments they stared at one another, each one daring the other to back down while the other deepened their stance.
He curled his hand into a fist and said, “so be it.” His eyes flashed once more to pity as he punched.
Maria didn’t even bother bracing for it. She knew what he could do and was prepared for the pain. But the pain never came.
Raven grunted, and a confused look spread over his face. He looked from Maria to his fist and snarled. Standing with both arms wrapped around his arm was Jacky. She hardly looked worse for wear. Maria’s heart skipped a beat, and she quietly thanked her savior.
“I know you want revenge Raven, but this isn’t the way.” Jacky’s voice pleaded with him. “Please, let me handle this.” She placed a hand along Raven’s jaw and caressed his cheek. A spark of longing ran through Maria at the sight. The pair locked eyes, and she repeated the word please one more time. Letting it echo into the night.
Whatever Jacky was doing seemed to work. Raven calmed down almost immediately and backed away. “Jacqueline,” he said with fresh tears in his eyes, “What you’re doing is wrong and I will stop you. I can’t allow you to use her like this.” Without another word he turned and walked away. Whatever she had done to subside his rage had not been enough to change his mind.
Maria did not know what was going on, what bad blood was between them, or what this mysterious plot was but she knew one thing for certain. They needed to get out of there and fast. He had left for now and would return. She grabbed Jacky’s arm and tugged. For a moment Jacky didn’t turn to move. She sat there looking stunned and hurt. It was almost as if she wanted to run after him, but couldn’t. There was nothing Maria could do to salve this wound, but she needed to motivate Jacky to move. Hugging her from behind, Maria kissed her on the cheek. “We have to move.” Her whisper was softer than she had intended, but it did the job. Jacky turned her head and nodded. Her sorrow crushed Maria. She held her close and said, “Everything will be all right,” before pulling her once more in the hope that they could escape.
Things weren’t adding up to Maria. She was accustomed to this. Her father had always said things like women needed to be seen not heard, and it isn’t a woman’s place to teach a man. Asking questions was apparently considered teaching to him so that cut that option. There were few moments in her life when things simply added up. Instead, she’d always been left to dangle as plots unraveled around her. Until now she hadn’t felt like Jacky had left her twisting in the social winds, but Jacky’s sudden silence spoke volumes about something deeper going on here. That infuriated her. She did her best to hold her rage back. The way back to the theater wasn’t long, but Maria felt it was long enough she had time to allow Jacky to snap out of her funk. She’d be ready to address her when Jacky regained some semblance of her cockiness.
“Who is that man? You called him Raven, didn’t you?”
Jacky bristled at the question. “It’s a long story.” She sighed and stopped walking.
Maria turned to face her. Jacky averted her gaze. She fiddled with the holes in her fishnets and crossed her arms. The poor girl looked admonished. This wasn’t what Maria was trying to accomplish. She twitched her nose to help hold back the tears she felt welling up. Emotional situations like this always brought tears to her eyes. This wasn’t the time for that. She needed answers. This was when she needed to steel herself and find out what was going on. “Jacky, you two sounded like you were fighting over me. Neither of you knew me before tonight. Theres either something going on here or you’ve mistaken me for someone else.” She took a step closer to Jacky and brushed her thumb across her cheek. Gently she pulled Jacky’s face to look her in the eyes and moved in for another kiss. Soft electric tingles shot through her body again. She pulled away to press their foreheads together. “I need you to be honest with me.”
Jacky’s nails raked gently at Maria’s back, sending chills down her spine. “I can’t tell you what you want to know. I’m not even sure I know.”
Maria pulled away to suppress the spark of anger building inside her. “Surely you would know if you’ve been stalking me. And this nonsense about buying me?” She whirled back around and shouted. “Where does that even begin to sound like something I shouldn’t know about? You seem to know an awful lot about it.” Tears flowed freely from her eyes. She was ashamed of herself. Why had she even let herself get caught up in a situation like this? People were all the same. They only used others for their own selfish gain. “You know what Jacky? Forget you ever met me. I’ll find my way back. Alone.”
She had intended to let the last word ring out dramatically. In her mind, that sounded like the proper way to punctuate it. Maybe Jacky would change her mind and tell her something to preserve their friendship. Maybe she’d explain she wasn’t using her. Instead, just as she sobbed in frustration, but her internal drama was cut short by the nearby howl of a wolf.
Maria’s mind snapped back to the creature that had bowled her over earlier. She’d almost forgotten about it with everything else going on. She had nothing on her she could use to defend herself. The best she could do was flash her phone in its eyes and hope that scared it off. If it weren’t just a wolf or a dog that sounded like one then she was in even more trouble. That wild-man, Raven, seemed superhumanly strong. He could have done it. Only he didn’t know you’d made it near the rave, you idiot.
Maria’s stomach churned. That monster was something else, just as strong as Raven. Jacky seemed like something special, but there was no way she could stand up to something like that.
Dainty hands pinched and rubbed her tense shoulders. She melted a bit. Strong hands always gave the best massages. Maria’s tension eased, but she was still on edge. Jacky embraced her and nuzzled into her ear. “That’s better. You need to calm down or they’ll key in on us.”
She nestled back into Jacky. Calming down was easier said than done. She was supposed to be upset with her, and now there were wolves nearby. But it was also hard to stay mad. Jacky’s arms felt soft and secure. There was something about them that made Maria calm down and want to trust her. She should pull away dramatically though. Jacky was hiding something from her and no amount of false sense of security should persuade her to ignore that. Almost as if in response to her thoughts a chorus of howls echoed through the streets. These were closer. It was almost as if they were triangulating their position. Maria stiffened. They had to get moving now, or they were doomed.
She tried to pull away, to run, but Jacky’s arms tightened around her like a vice. “I said you need to calm down.” Her voice bordered on fear. “Predators can taste your emotions. Your fear. Your anger.” She took a huge whiff of Maria’s neck. “Right now I bet you smell positively delightful to them.”
In the distance, a cacophony of dogs joined in with the wolves. They were approaching fast. Maria didn’t know what to think or how to feel about this. On one hand, she wanted to trust Jacky. She was the only thing about tonight that felt anywhere near right. On the other hand, she was hiding important things from her. How much trust could she put into a person like that? But what choice did she have? It was either trust the woman who’d offered to be her guide for the night or not. Odds were if she went off by herself she’d just end up dead, but she could use this as an opportunity to let Jacky prove herself to her.
“All right, tell me what you need me to do.”
Jacky relinquished her hold on her and turned Maria to face her. “First thing is first. You need to stay calm. I’ll keep us safe. Wouldn’t do to let you die before we had a second date, right?”
Maria blushed. “Hey, now that’s not!”
Jacky winked at her. “That’s better. You’re less tense when you’re blushing.”
Maria averted her gaze. “What about the wolves?”
Jacky perked her ears up as if she were listening intently. “They’re getting close. Can you hear them running yet?”
Maria shook her head.
“Didn’t think so.” Jacky paused, her face contorting with concentration. After a moment, she grabbed Maria’s hand and walked. “I think we can avoid them if we go this way. They’re trying to surround us and block us off from the path to the theater. I can’t guarantee anything.” She straightened her posture and puffed out her chest. “Walk like you mean it. The appearance of confidence is everything with these types.”
They navigated through the labyrinthine streets of old town at seeming random. Jacky led them one way, then turned another, and another in a never-ending series of maneuvers that confused Maria’s sense of direction. The howling of wolves didn’t seem to pause for long. They were all around them. Occasionally Maria could hear what sounded like sneakers running on pavement coming from the same direction of a nearby howl. Jacky motioned for them to stop at an alley intersection.
Maria’s mouth went dry. Why had they stopped here? The last howls she heard made it sound like the wolves were close. She pulled her hand away from Jacky and hugged herself tight as she assessed their situation. This was a terrible spot to be in. Four open sides gave them four ways to run, but it also gave the wolves four places to attack from. She couldn’t keep track of that. She eyed Jacky, wondering what the big idea was.
Jacky stood mostly still. As best Maria could tell, she was just craning her neck and straining to listen. But what was there to listen to? It wasn’t as if anyone could hear wolf paws on asphalt over the sound of everyone else who was running away from them. For a moment everything went silent. Jacky turned to Maria and placed a finger on her lip as if to say shush. With a few terse gestures, she indicated they needed to go back the way they came.
Footsteps erupted from behind them, accompanied by a fresh howl. Whoever was running was running towards them with a wolf on their heels. Maria whirled around and ran away from Jacky. She couldn’t sit back and let someone else get hurt. Two or three of them would stand a better chance than one. From the shadows emerged a figure dressed in punk goth clothing, slowing from a run to a walk with a look of triumph upon her face. Maria cursed herself. This was one of the kids who had been with Raven earlier that evening. Looking left and right down the alley way revealed more figures sauntering her way.
She turned to run back the way she’d came, only to see Jacky too was cornered by a young man with rainbow hair.
He gave Maria a friendly wave and said with a grave tone, “I warned you to leave Maria.” He gestured to his friends standing behind her. “Here is your last chance. You can leave and forget you ever met any of us, or you can face the same sentence as this traitorous bitch.”
Comments (2)
See all