My little black umbrella

Amelia

I know she's beside me dressed in all black as she always is like some perpetual mourner. The silence that surrounds her is like a dark blanket that almost suffocates me with it's heaviness. She pushes her black umbrella out in front of her and taps it gently on the floor of the ballet hall as if she were keeping time to some melody, which only she could hear.

"Claude was looking for you this morning" Marcelle says turning her eyes on me for a brief moment.

"I don't want to speak to him anymore." I reply resting my head in my hands. Marcelle taps the umbrella a little faster as if the tempo of the melody has increased. "I need to find new lodgings" I suggest glancing round at Marcelle and noticing her pale features beneath her black hat.

"You can stay with me," Marcelle informs. "He doesn't know where I live." She lifts her head and her eyes move over me like dark crows.

"What did he want?" I ask.

"He said he needed to see you about money you owe him." She puts her hand on my shoulder and taps it gently. "He didn't seem pleased."

I lean forward and rub my feet where the ballet shoes have rubbed. "You told him where I was didn't you?"

"Of course not, but he will be here tonight waiting for you after the ballet." Her hand rests on my shoulder like a butterfly. "I will be there, I'll be waiting for you."

"Monsier Malzac says I'm not doing my best. I can't concentrate with Claude following me around everywhere. He's like some vulture waiting for me to collapse." I pause and stare ahead of me. Marcelle's hand moves to her umbrella and she taps again.

"Amelia you must not lose your focus. You are a dancer like no other," Marcelle says with a tone of fustration in her voice. "NO man should be allowed to harm your focus on the dance."

I stand up and pace down the hall. Marcelle sits watching me, her eyes following me back and forth. "Am I as good as you say?"

"Like a goddess. None is like you here Monsieur Malzac ought to pay you more then he does," Marcelle says tapping the umbrella harder as if the melody had taken over her hands and head.

"I dare not mention more money," I say stopping and looking at the floor. "He has given me a few days to focus or he will find another."

"Not as good as you, he won't," Marcelle says angrily. "No one here can match you. The man's an idiot." She gets up, walks towards me, and puts her arm around my shoulder.

I feel her embrace and it mellows me. She has that scent on which I love and I allow it to filter into my nose as if it were ambrosia . She lowers her face towards me and kisses my cheek. I sense the rim of her hat against my forehead and I fell her hands drawing me closer.

"I must leave Paris. I cannot cope with this any longer," I say moving from her embrace. "Claude will follow me until he has destroyed me one way or the other." She stands a few meters away from me her eyes resting on me, and her hands resting on her umbrella.

"We could go somewhere else in Paris. He need not find you if we are careful," Marcelle says resting forward on the umbrella. I want her to come to me again and embrace me tightly as she did the night before, but give no hint of it in my expression.

"He will know. He has spies everywhere in Paris. I must go far from here." I say moving to the window peering down at the street below. Marcelle comes behind me and puts her arms around me.

"Where would you go?" She asks her breath on my neck.

"I don't know... London maybe?" I kiss her hand resting on my chest.

"No," Marcelle says pulling me closer to her. "I will not let him do this to you."

"What will you do to stop him? Plead with him? Beg him to leave me be?" I say rubbing my chin on the black sleeve of her dress. She releases me and moves back into the hall. I turn and she has her eyes focused on me.

"I will kill him if I have to," she mutters softly. Her features becoming dark suddenly. Her hands grip the umbrella tight and taps it hard on the floor.

"No you mustn't do anything that will destroy us being together." My feet seem rooted to the floor and my hands feel bound by fear.

"Just a little thrust with a knife in his heart and you would be free of him," Marcelle says. She thrusts the umbrella down hard on the floor and stares at me breathing heavily." Just a little thrust inwards."

"Please, Marcelle, promise me you will do nothing," I say my voice strained.

She says nothing her eyes move from me and she walks from the hall. I watch her go and fear enters me. Will she do as she says? I ask myself running to the door where a few moments before she had passed through, but she had gone, I can only her the tap, tap, tap of her umbrella from the dim lit stairway.

Note: This story is placed back in the 1920s so that's why the wording is different, but anyways thank you to the people who takes time out of their day to read my story it means a lot. My name is Annie and if anyone needs anyone I'm here to talk! Love you