Sacred Scars (Book I)

Dark Angel

*Warning* Themes of Female battery/insinuated rape.

      Lilah Anne Preston.... Lady Lilah Anne Preston.... Her Grace, Lilah Anne Preston.... Lilah wrote the name over and over on the tiny scrap of paper as she leaned on the writing desk. She swished her long black waves of hair across her shoulder and glanced down at the page. Thin fingers curled and uncurled the paper's edge as she studied the letters trying to choose which one would be her 'rich' signature someday.

      A knock at the door and she looked up as Emma Wild, her one true friend in Valentine, came in to fill the basin and pitcher near the back of the room. "Lilah, seriously? Not a good time to daydream right now. Have you seen how full the bar is? You need to wash up and get ready for the next mangy fella. You can pretend that jade dress of yours is a queen's robe for all I care, long as you can make this weasel pay." Emma flitted around the room straightening bed covers and plumping the pillows. A long sigh fizzled from Lilah's lips and she splutted face down on the tiny table. "Oh Emm....can't Vickie or Cynthia take this one? I'm so dang tired and they don't pay worth a shit when they drunk anyways. I just want to sleep..." She turned her head to look at the younger woman now setting a silver hairbrush and comb on the dresser by the bed. "No Lih, they can't. And you need to get up and stop sulkin and help us get the money for breakfast in the morning. We don't have time for your one foot on the Earth escapades. I mean it...get up." Lilah turned her face down and breathed in the table again. " Fhinnee" she mumbled through crossed arms and wood. Emma came and patted her head smiling pleasantly. " Be pretty." She said with a broad smile. Lilah nodded, never looking up and squeezed the hand on the top of her head.

     When the girl had gone, she huffed, walking over to the bed with swinging shoulders. She hated this. The whole damn thing. Night after night her body a useless tool of pleasure to foul breath and grope'n gangsters. Never once did they touch her tenderly. Just tossed her to the bed, skirt over her head, five minutes of wow really that's all?, and on to Joe number three. It was mind numbing, the wear and tear the job did on her head not to mention her body. Hours of bathing nasty cowboys, to scuffed knees from the carpet, oh yes lets do this on the floor instead, where I can bleed ta death from splinters, sure thing. Why not......She was disgusted by the whole carousel of vacant bodies. She herself being also drawn to be vacant. She was never really there, not her mind at least. Her thoughts moved to freedom and wealth, to peaceful nights held in strong arms, and the gentle touch of a lover who took his sweet time with her. None of that 'Once upon a time' was ever found here in Valentine. Ironic as the name was for her hidden desires. One day though she would have enough. Take her squirreled bankroll under the bedroom boards and leave this hell hole she called home.

     The door creaked open and a tall lanky barfly swayed precariously in its frame. She stood, patted down the green satin of her dress and painted her most seductive smile. "Why hello there handsome." She greeted him with a purr. The nasty man stumbled two steps forward snagging his hole ridden gray shirt on the knob and shut the door.

     He was indescribably disgusting. Patched jeans fit raggedly on his tall legs and the long brown duster he wore swept the floor dragging more dirt in with a fuzzy plume billowing behind him. He stood there just looking at her as he swayed, the mottled red hair sticking out from beneath the beaten hat and running a patchy trail across his jawline. A broken tooth smile stretched across his face as he clambered closer, the rancid smell of hot whiskey thick on his breath. He sombered right up to her, nearly towering a whole foot over her head. Lilah recoiled a bit, straining to keep the smile on her face. She cleared her throat nervously. "Welllll, I sure do hope you have something special for me tonight fine sir." She attempted, her voice trembling. His shattered grin widened. "Oh, I got s'mon special for you alrite." With a sobering motion he reached out and took her by her delicate neck. Her eyes widened in surprise and she reached up with both hands taking his wrist. With all the gentleness of a grizzly bear, he half guided half dragged her backwards towards the bed. Lilah felt him squeeze her windpipe. She blinked and sputtered, a strangled cough caught in her throat. As he walked he narrated the events to come. "First I'ma gonna rip them clothes off ya all special like. Then, I'ma gonna take ya real rough, that's gon be special too. And when I'm done with ya, if ya live through it, I'ma leave ya a special reminder to remember me by." His sharp stubbled features stretched in a wild black-eyed stare. Tears begin to unwillingly sting her eyes, forced from the lack of air. When she thought she may black out he tossed her onto the bed in a heap leaving her for a moment to gasp and choke. She tried to recover quickly, holding up her hands and shaking her head unconsciously as he pulled the sweat stained shirt off his body. When her voice squeaked to return, he struck her hard against the cheek. She made an attempted plea for him to stop but he braised his boney knuckles across her face again. Blood burst from the corner of her mouth, as he sent her crashing back into the headboard. The hard twack from the wood caught her cheek and she could already feel the deep purple swell begin to pulsate there.