Trigger Warning

Vengeful Dance contains content that may be distressing to some readers, including themes of kidnapping, abuse (physical, emotional and psychological), sexual harassment, violence, trauma and mature/explicit scenes. Reader discretion is advised.

---

Blake Hart

Another morning, another day closer.

I counted the days like they were minutes, each one pressing down with a weight heavier than the last.

I told myself I was ready for it, almost five years had passed since she died. But the way the shadows lingered felt like something else was coming.

This time, the silence felt different, like it was holding its breath. I just couldn’t figure out why. I couldn’t decide if I was waiting for it to destroy me or for something else to happen. 

Something... I couldn't name.

---

It was the same pattern. Same as last week. Same as the week before. Wake up, get dressed, tie my light brown hair into a loose ponytail and go to the gym close to my apartment. It was the only thing remotely social or physical I did since coming back.

Home.

At least, it used to feel like home.

Before everything went downhill. Now? It was just.. a place. There is only dullness. 

Familiar walls, unfamiliar warmth. Like a childhood bedroom stripped bare. The shell remained but everything inside it had shifted.

One year of silence. Loneliness. Grief so thick it made the air feel like molasses.

I rented a small studio near the center of the city, Brarson. It is located a little north of Adaham. The light of the island. The metropol of the states. The crown jewel of the coast where the skyline shimmered like polished glass and power pulsed through the streets like blood in vein. Brarson wasn’t small but it paled in comparison to Adaham. Still, it was ambitious. A golden key to bigger things. To notoriety. To recognition.

My father, Fred Hart, had chosen this city especially for this reason. Strategic, relentless, calculated. Everything he did was to build something that couldn’t be ignored. To rise as a company, quickly. Which really worked in their favor. Him and his once business partner, now also his wife, comes first in security companies in Adaham. Star Security.

He loved what he did. And I’m happy for him. For his success.

His devotion also helped me to get financially supported. His ambition gave me a comfortable life. Both in my education and hobbies.

I absently massaged my ankle with the tough of it. Still familiar with the ache even after all this time. I used to be a promising ballerina. Top of the class, talented. Gifted some might say. Focused. Determined. Most of my teachers and friends used to call me the next Anna Pavlova. Until that day.

I lost both, my parent and my future. I would prefer to die that day with my mom. But god had other plans. I survived.. with a shattered leg. 

My dreams died in that crash. So did my mom.

My dad remarried with Sandra, his co-partner, in short time. Which was another hit for me. I always had my suspicions but I think you just never.. expect. 

And that brings us to now.

One year of break for me, after finishing university. To think what to do. To breathe freely for once. To figure out how to politely decline my father’s generous offer to take over the company I never asked to inherit.

Because as the only child, the future of Star Security apparently has no other contender.

My mind is a mixture of resentment, numbness and hope.

Resentment to my parent. For the backstab. For the betrayal.

Numbness for the early losses.

Hope for the change. For something new.

Something different.

Something mine.