Iceville Mall is the worst shopping mall I've ever seen.
If Hades wasn't with me, I would have had a breakdown by now.
All the shops have bars covering the smashed glass.
Customers are constantly fighting underpaid store workers, detailing vivid ways in which they are going to assault them.
Filthy people lay on the floor, pretending to be asleep before jumping at civilians, laughing when they scream.
"We'll stop by the pet store first," Hades says, ignoring the chaos around us.
I'm holding his tattooed bicep, focusing on breathing in and out at a steady pace.
Perhaps I'm being overly dramatic, but if you have someone like Rowan in your life and crippling agoraphobia, you'd understand.
"I'm proud of you." He says soothingly, leaning down to talk in my ear.
If I wasn't holding onto him, I would have fallen over.
Proud?
I don't think anyone has ever been proud of me.
An old woman begins shrieking at the top of her lungs, ramming through crowds of people with a shopping cart filled with stolen goods.
"STOP RIGHT NOW MA'AM!" A security guard yells after her, picking up a walkie-talkie to call for backup.
"Ever been to the Winterville Mall?" Hades asks, voice still the same calming tone he used before.
Winterville Mall is a much nicer mall in the center of town-nothing at all like Iceville.
"When I was younger," I say. "Sometimes."
"Yeah, next time we'll go there."
A man wearing a cowboy hat lifts a whip and starts cracking it in the air.
"It's a bit wild in here." He smirks.
"Are you from Winterville?" I can't help but ask.
In our state, there are four main districts, Winterville, Summerville, Autumnville, and Springville.
"Pretty much." He shrugs.
I wonder what that means.
No one willingly moves to Winterville.
It's a shit hole of violence, organized crime, and sadness.
The only way people can be rich here is via illegal means.
I don't want to think about what Hades has done to be able to afford the car he has.
Or to be able to buy a random girl a basket of overly expensive things.
He let me hold his hand and told me kind words and I'm willing to ignore the alarming fact that he's done insanely unethical things.
Well probably.
Anyway, Winterville is an inescapable trap, everyone knows that.
No one ever moves here of their own volition.
Well, unless they want to die.
"You from here?" he asks me.
"Unfortunately born and raised." I sigh. "I used to live in the North, but now I'm here."
The East (where I live) is definitely the worst place in Winterville, but it's the best I can do right now.
"The North is pretty nice."
YOU ARE READING
The Lonely Hearts Club
RomanceHaunted by memories of her past, Bree has hidden herself away from society. Plagued with horrifying nightmares both in sleep and reality-she cannot do it anymore. Hades, a ruthless fighter and charming security guard is instructed to look after her...
