Angie

There was blood everywhere. Screams echoed, forever etching the sounds into Angie’s memories and ensuring that she’d never forget. The dress she wore was heavy with the crimson liquid that flowed down St. Peter street like a river. Bodies were stacked at the curbs like sandbags along a flooding river. Shadows with razor-like talons climbed over the walls encircling her so there was no escape. Their shrieks drove her to her knees.

She knew how it ended; it was the same as it always did.

A deep masculine voice chuckled, a sound of pure evil. The shadows moved closer, not stopping until they were only a few feet away. Angela looked up into the face of the devil.

He was the source of the voice. His red eyes full of the insidious plans he had for her, but he was patient and would wait his turn.

He tipped his top hat to her and winked before he turned away whistling. It was a signal to the shadow monsters. They descended on her like a tsunami. Their claws ripped into flesh and Angie’s agonizing cries were drowned out by their thrilled shrieks.

***

It was happening again. She was helpless to stop the nightmares. At least they weren’t as bad as the ones that haunted her waking hours. Those had actually happened. Drake and Brad had reveled in her pain and suffering for days on end.

“Angela, calm down. It’s okay. It’s just a dream, maelamin. It’s not real.”

There was that enchanting voice again. A deep lilting tone that enraptured as much as it comforted. He always pulled her back from the edge of the abyss, even if it was only a temporary reprieve.

Angela cracked her eyes open and winced at the intense light that bordered on frying her retinas. Bright violet eyes slowly came into focus. They were gorgeous. She knew if she let herself, she could get lost in them for hours.

She felt a hand rest on her thigh. The little pressure set off a chain reaction that ended with her curled up in a fetal position, trying to get away from the restraining hands.

He withdrew his touch, signaling that he was no threat. “Alright, it’s okay. I can give you some space.”

He sat and watched her as she eyed him through a narrow crack in between her arms. His stare was so raw and deep that she didn’t think she’d ever be able to tear herself away from it.

The problem was that his eyes reminded her of them. Those evil shadows that had reveled in their torture of her. They had the same purple eyes. Arlen’s didn’t glow like theirs had, but the similarities were enough to cause her fragile mind to retreat, along with her sanity.

Back before she’d been taken things had been so different. Angie hadn’t been a shadow of a person. She’d been okay once. Happy even, but it seemed like it was so long ago. The memories she’d had of being rescued were hazy at best, but she remembered strong arms lifting her and cradling her gently. It had been the first time she’d felt safe since Maya had started her ramblings. God, she didn’t know what she would do if her friend wasn’t okay. The girl was practically the only family Angie had. Had those things gotten Maya, too? She didn’t know.

That was one of the biggest lessons she’d learned. Blood doesn’t always make someone family. Angie’s parents had never paid much attention to her when she was younger and the older she got, the more she realized she had been an accident, or an inconvenience. Her existence put a cramp in the lifestyle they were so fond of. Maya had been the only one who’d ever looked past that exterior to see the real Angie. She owed Maya more than she’d ever be able to repay.

He stood up and gracefully moved to the door, looking back at her. Arlen paused for a moment. “I want you to know you’re safe here. The people who hurt you have been disposed of and they’ll never trouble you again.”

He gave her one last pained glance before striding from the room. The fact that she could brave glancing at him was major progress over the previous week. Had it really been that long already? Why couldn’t she just get over it all? Angie hated that she flinched when anyone came too close or that she was terrified of a man who’d been nothing but kind and caring towards her. She needed to find a way forward from it all. She just didn’t know where to start, especially when the nightmares had begun to bleed into her waking hours.