Rich Kids Don't Die | Featured

Chapter Two

A FEW HOURS LATER, IN THE MIDST of the party, Maddie was beginning to feel unwell. Her stomach twisted into knots, and she was quite sure that the music was too loud.

Slipping past the drunken teenagers in a labyrinth of flashing strobe lights and vigorous dancing, she made her way outside.

A rush of cool, crisp air enveloped her, and she clutched her throbbing head. Could she have had too much to drink? As she pondered over the thought, she caught a familiar whiff of cologne in the winter air.

"Lucian." she drawled, puffs of opaline air leaving her flushed lips in the cold. He smirked smugly, happy to be have been acknowledged. A presence like his own never went unnoticed.

To Maddie's surprise, Lucian grabbed her arm and yanked her towards the wall. Staggering slightly on the asphalt, she looked at him with wide eyes. "Lucian, what the hell,"

Lucian sneered, digging his nails into her skin so much so that she winced slightly. "It's your own fault, Dominic. Did you even think of what would happen if you humiliated me like that?"

Maddie rolled her eyes, despite the fear that had begun to creep up her spine. His words and malicious grin, mirroring the wicked curve of a knife, turned to white noise which poured through her skull. She groaned.

Lucian took this as an opportunity to worsen her aghast state, tightening his iron grip. She writhed under his grasp.

"Let go-" she spat out, as he placed his grimy hands on her neck. His thumbs laced the center of her collar bones, the small dip between each end. He caressed it slightly. Maddie noticed the white powder that lined his lips, the grime that coated his nails, the revolting grease of his hair.

Head reeling, Maddie went limp in his arms. Her limbs felt numb, her lungs slowly but surely running out of air as Lucian's torturous grip tightened. Chapped and powdery lips ran up and down her neck.

Soon, her skin was exposed, bathing in the moonlight's gaze as Lucian Michaels slammed his fist against her cheek.

She let out one last scream into the barren night, the cracks in her voice lost in the booming music and deafening buzz of clueless teenagers, and never found again. It rung in the ears of the crows perched on the roof, the screeching cats hiding in the trees. But her screams, however powerful, were never heard by whom she wished.

At three in the morning, Maddie had begun to pick her clothes off the gravel surrounding Elle's house. The party was still going, and she despised the fact that no one had come to look for her.

She slipped on her clothes, bruised and battered, wiping stray tears from her cheeks. Lucian had left only minutes prior. Sobbing slightly, Maddie fruitlessly attempted to brush away the dirt on her clothes, her fingers hovering over bruises scattered amongst her skin.

The dust on her clothes was not what bothered her most - it was the impurity she felt drowning her soul, her mind, the kind you could not remove with a bar of soap.