The Black Tangled Heart

The 'Where's Camila'?

"Where's Camila?"

"Out" Shawn huffed as he dropped her car keys onto the small wooden table next to the front door "With some 'friends'" he copied his brothers air quotations and then kicked off his cream and green Nike sneakers

"Did she talk to you?"

"Acted like nothing ever happened then disappeared off in a car full of jackasses"

Ethan just nodded as he sipped a beer "Want to talk about what happened last night?"

"Nope" Shawn strode to the refrigerator, pulling it open and then lifting out a beer for himself

"So you want to just do nothing?"

"Oh I'll do something, you know I will but not like them, not like a fuckin pack of animals in a back alleyway" lifting the bottle to his lips he let the cold liquid pour down his throat and then closed his eyes and waited for it to begin to loosen his muscles and his mind

"You busy this week?"

"Got to show my face at school or not even the wins last week are going to stop me from failing" Shawn sat down on the sofa and kicked his feet up onto the brown wooden coffee table that sat in the middle of a thinning cream carpet "How's the bank looking?"

"Great after last weekend but we have the bill for the car to look forward to"

Shawn nodded as he picked at the gold and white label that was wrapped around his brown beer bottle

"So Camila... she's out drinking?"

Shawn just shrugged but knew without doubt that she would be

"With a group of guys and her confidence hurting after last night?" Ethan tapped his beer bottle against his bottom lip and waited for the penny to drop for his brother

"She doesn't want to speak to me about it, she wants to pretend it's all okay and then..."

"Go out and get wasted? Try to make herself feel better with alcohol and then, when faced with either coming home to you or ending up in some strangers bed, so out of her mind that she can convince herself for just those few moments that somebody actually cares about her, someone actually wants her without wanting something from her and then she'll wake up in the morning, convince herself every bad word anyone ever said about her was right, every bad thing anybody ever did against her was deserved..."

"Okay!" Shawn slammed his bottle down hard I tot he coffee table "Okay I get it, I messed up, I pushed her away, I hurt her and now she's reacting and her way to react is much like my own... to over react"

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"I guess I'm going bar hopping until I find her and stop her hurting herself just to punish me" he pushed himself back to his feet and headed towards the door, stopping to put his boots back on and pick up the keys to Camilas car

"Want some company?"

"Na, you wait here incase she shows up, maybe put in a couple of calls, see if anyone has seen her"

"Shawn... don't mess this up"

"When'd you get so fuckin wise Ethan?!"

"Parenting you for the last 6 years I guess"

*************

Camila crashed down hard onto the red pleather seats of a bar she didn't remember entering and tried to focus her vision.

She hadn't intended to drink tonight, hadn't wanted to drink but her friends were convincing. Only now, looking around, she couldn't work out where her friends had gone.

Grabbing for her purse she raked through it looking for her phone but only found a wallet and a lip gloss

"Shit!" She slurred as she opened her wallet searching for her credit card and hoping someone would take sympathy on her and call her an Uber once she proved she could pay but her wallet was empty, no cards, no cash... nothing!

"Need some help?"

Camila looked up and narrowed her eyes to try and focus on the figure in front of her.

It was a guy, shortish, overly pink skin...

"I can't find my friends" she foolishly admitted in her drunken stupor

"Really?" The guy slid into the seat next to her and seemed to silently mouth something to someone else but Camila couldn't be sure of it, the alcohol causing her eyelids to droop and her body to cry out for sleep

"Can I use your phone?" She asked, forcing her eyes to widen, trying to focus on the guy in front of her and decipher if she knew him or not

"There's no need" said another, deeper voice as he slid onto the seat to the other side of her and slipped an arm over her shoulder "Do you want us to take you home?"

In her drunkenness, Camila didn't catch the double meaning to the statement so just nodded happily "I'm not sure exactly where I live right now but it's an apartment and it's near a Chinese restaurant that smells really great"

"Really?" Said a third voice from behind her "What a coincidence we know just the place"

"You do?!" Asked Camila as she noticed the new man's eyes sneaking a peak down her chest that was more exposed than she would have liked it to be due to her loose, cropped top and her drunken state

Pulling the material up, Camila forced a smile

"I have two room mates, brothers actually"

"Oh you like more than one guy? That's lucky" smirked the small, pink faced guy as he hooked an arm on to Camilas and then pulled her to her feet, the guy from behind, wrapping an arm around her waist as both men shared her drunken weight and the third man picked up her wallet and her purse, leaving no trace of the Latina, her eyes rolling back as the amount of alcohol her tiny body had absorbed began to render her useless

"Just carry her" whispered the pink faced guy to the guy with the deep voice and in a second Camila found her world spinning as she was lifted from her feet into the arms of an unknown man, the scent of alcohol and cheap cologne causing her stomach to turn and then heave

She was aware that she was moving quickly through the nightclub, the music becoming quieter and the air becoming thinner and less humid

"Someone grab a taxi" the deep voiced man instructed but before anyone could move to signal for anything a shadow moved in front of them "Quick!" He instructed more desperately, seeing their opportunity to escape with the drunken girl become more difficult the longer they stood at the side of the road

"Put her on her feet" the third man said, reaching and trying to take her from the arms of his friend "it will look less suspicious"

"How about you put her down, step away from her and prepare to have your faces smashed in?" said the voice of the shadow as it took on a tall, built, human form

"Who the fuck is this guy?!" Asked the man with overly pink skin, him and his friends attempting to stand tall as Camila lay helpless in one of their arms

"You really don't want to know who I am" seethed Shawn "But unfortunately, you're about to find out"

*votes and comments????

*crying thinking about the next chapter when I haven't even started writing it yet