Shadows

Truth

Once we were at the apartment I headed straight for the bathroom. I needed to wash the nerves out of me. I needed to make myself relax, if anything a bath would be perfect right now. I ran the water and sat on the edge … how could I have been so stupid as to think that staircase was safe? It didn’t even look it for heaven’s sake, the people who preserve that need to be shot.

  Stripping out of my clothes I stepped into the water, the bath wasn’t even full yet but it saved time and I liked the feel of the water gradually filling up the tub and rising up my body. I reached over to the other side I grabbed the Aloe Vera shower gel, pouring it under the hot flow of water til bubbles started to appear. Once the bath had completely filled up I turned off the water, laid back and closed my eyes, allowing the hot water to caress my naked body thus relaxing me completely.

“Vicki I’m making tea, do you want any?” Dante said outside the door

“Yeah ill have peppermint if you have any, if not normal good”

“Of course” he muttered before I heard him trudge away. The room was filled with steam and smelt like the Aloe Vera; I sank down further into the water and sighed relief. The nerves that I felt earlier were now gone and replaced with contentment.

  A knock on the door startled me back to attention and I sat up and lurched forward, covering my more intimate parts before calling to Dante to say it was fine for him to come in. He glanced over to me once, set the cup down on the opposite end of the bath and left. At least he didn’t stare at me this time. Once he had left I sank back down into the water and sighed, this was truly relaxing. The bathroom was smaller than the one in the Istrati household but it was still comfortable and looked very fancy… so I was happy. Drinking my tear and allowing the minty freshness to sink down my throat, I laid back and thought on things… would I ever be ready to tell Dante that I was raped by Leon? How would he take it? Would he blame me like most did once I told them?

  The door burst open which made me drop the cup, lurch forward and begin to cover my body. Dante hovered over me and glared down

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?” I realised then that I wasn’t protecting my thoughts… shit

“Tell you what?” I asked, determined to play the dumb card

“That you were raped! Who’s this bastard Leon!”

“Get out”

“No, you can bloody well tell me who this bastard is and why the hell did him…” He trailed off, turned away and scowled under his breath “Why didn’t you say anything? I’ve been trying all this time to… And you had that done to you”

“get out… I need to get dressed” he nodded and stormed out of the room, picking the cup up I tipped its contents out and put it on the side of the bath. I sat there for a moment or two just thinking before I pulled the plug, got changed and walked into the living room.

  He was sat down on the sofa with his head between his legs, his legs were bouncing up and down so that meant he was very angry, upset or nervous… whichever one it was, it still wasn’t a good thing. I walked over to the other side of the room and crossed my arms, he raised his head to look at me

“What do you want to know?” I asked him

“You don’t have to”

“Obviously I do” I muttered

“Please… sit” he said, holding his arm open to suggest I sit down. Complying I walked over and plonked my bum down, sighed, inhaled and then began.

“Ok, it was my first school dance. I had practically begged Hannah my sister to practise with me the weeks before so I would be well prepared, so using some stuff from the internet and having Hannah as a dance partner, I learnt how to Waltz. Now being the total loner that I was, I thought that the school dance meant… well formal. So really it was sort of compared to one of the balls that you throw each year. It was the night of the dance and I went in a floor length dress, my hair pinned up and sprayed with I don’t know how many coats of lacquer, but was disappointed and embarrassed to find all the girls in knee length dresses, high heels, faces like tangerines and they were slut dropping and grinding. That night I must have spent 10 minutes there in total before I started making my way home” I turned away from him before I continued “I thought that this was one of the worst nights of my life, I was so embarrassed and felt so overdressed. As I was about to leave the building I ended up bumping into this guy that I had liked for a really long time and his name was Leon. He seemed nice enough, complimented me on my dress and how beautiful I looked, I felt so special and happier that someone had noticed me and hadn’t taken the piss of me”

“Vicki, you don’t have to say anymore” I shook my head, now I had started I knew I needed to continued, I needed to get this off my chest.

“I said my thanks to him and began to walk past; he was drunk so I knew the best thing would be to leave but he grabbed my arm and threw me against the wall. I wanted to scream at him but he held his hand to my mouth and pressed his knee against my stomach, using his free hand he began to reach under my dress. He told me he wanted to fuck me. I shook my head, struggled and tried to break free but instead that bastard threw me to the ground, pinned me down, threw the hem of the dress over my head, pulled down my underwear and reached up my thigh” I closed my eyes and clenched my fists “I kicked upward and actually managed to break free but all I could do was scramble along the floor, he called me a bitch, jumped on my back which seriously hurt my spine. Threw the dress back over my head and shoved his hands between my legs… I screamed at his touch but he pushed my head down with countless amounts of force that I even felt sick. Without waiting anymore… he undid his pants, pulled his underwear down… before beginning to rape me”

“Vicki I…” I shook my head as tears began to cascade down my face; he pulled me in close to him and muttered comforting words in my ears. He was different to Leon… he was true

“The worst thing is that he made sure that no one would ever believe me by becoming Serena’s boyfriend. He helped in the abuse she gave. He helped to make my life a misery”

“You don’t have to worry about them anymore. I will make sure that no one ever hurts you again. I love you too much to ever let anyone do that…I can never lose you... I’ve waited 276 years for you” I glanced up at him to see his eyes almost as watery as mine. He had been crying like I had… did he feel sorry for me? “How could anyone ever do that to anyone?”

“I don’t know Dante… I really don’t”

“I’m so sorry, there was me trying to…. Well… and not knowing that you had been through all that… I’m so sorry” I reached up, touched the side of his face with my one hand, pulled him closer to me and kissed him tenderly. I could tell that he felt bad for me, but what I didn’t understand was why he had cried

“Dante” I breathed “Why have you been crying?”

“I have chosen you as my mate… so whenever I know that you have been hurt in any way… it hurts me too, it may be hard for you or anyone to understand but it saddens me greatly”

“So you feel sorry for me?”

“No, heavens no Vicki” he closed his eyes and sighed before looking at me again “It’s not pity or that I felt sorry or anything like that for that matter, I simply feel unimaginably sad. I can’t explain how horrible that feeling is, but until I know that you are ok I will remain in that state”

“Well know that as long as I am with you… that I should be ok”

“Yet in reality I am more of a monster than he shall ever be. I won’t pretend that I haven’t had the temptation to do such a thing to women when they have declined. Instead I snap either theirs or animal’s necks and drain there blood. You should never feel safe with me”

“To me, you’re a saviour. You saved me from killing myself. You may be a Vampire, you may drain blood and kill… yet you and your family treated me with such respect and actually liked me. When you told me you loved me, I pushed my own feelings away for fear it was all a charade. I thought you would hurt me like he did. I thought I would be nothing more than a doll… but Dante, I love you. I love you more than anyone and anything in my life. You made me feel again”

“You made me feel… I thought I would remain venomous like when I was with Candice” he reached down and kissed me

“Dante, I want to know that you will never hurt me”

“I don’t think I have it In me to hurt you… not like that… not ever”

“Good” I kissed him again before melting in his arms on the sofa. It was good to know that he would never hurt me like that… but I still wasn’t ready to do anything. No matter how great the pull.