Stalking the Dancer || 18+

Part Thirteen - Agency

The rain is coming down hard, rattling the windows in their panes as it pours. The house is old and some of them leak when it storms like this, so I've gathered as many towels as I can to keep the house from flooding during the night. Mama always says to be grateful that we don't live in one of the big houses on the other side of town because the people who do are evil. I don't know what that means, but Mama is never here on nights like this when the house we should be grateful for fails us. She may not mind being evil if it meant staying dry. 

Ashlee worries enough for everyone in the family, but she completely spins out during storms. She's terrified of the sounds and the way the house shakes around us as if it could blow away any second. Tonight is different, though. She's so scared that she's gone quiet, the tears stopped hours ago. I tucked her into Mama's bed a while ago, knowing she feels safer in the big bed than the small one that we typically share. I want to check on her one last time before I call it a night so we can both be up for school tomorrow, so I find my way down the hall before opening the already-cracked door.

"Billy?"

"Yeah, it's me. Came to say goodnight."

I enter the dim room, lit by a lamp on the only bedside table. Crawling onto the bed beside her, I wrap my arms around her shoulders. "It's after midnight– you're officially five now! Happy birthday, Ash." I hope she can't feel the fear shivering in my bones. 

Even in this lighting, her smile shines bright, "Thanks, Billy. Could you stay until I fall asleep?"

"C'mere, lay down." She does as I say, and we lie there together until darkness clouds my vision.

I jolt awake in a cold sweat at the sound of knocking.

I didn't realize until this week that I can recognize my friends by the way they pound on my front door at the ass crack of dawn. 

Antoine likes the hard-knock approach, which is the least upsetting, while Rome prefers double-fisted banging. Lee, however, sounds like he's seconds away from splitting my door in two. I barely make it before he's successful and I rip the door open, "What in fucks name?"

"Well, good morning to you too, sunshine." He pushes past me and sets two cups on the coffee table. I moved back into my apartment the night that they took her from me. I couldn't stand to sleep in the bed we shared, the thought put a pit in my stomach that I'll never admit to. She left me and my own sister helped take her. I had to get out of that place to clear my head.

Since then, my dickwag friends have been doing daily wellness checks to make sure I'm behaving. They can't watch me all the time, though, and I've done enough investigating in my free time to know that my Doe isn't in town anymore. She's probably been long gone since the day she left, knowing Ray and my sister. 

Though I'd love nothing more than to hunt her down and remind her who she belongs to, I know that time will come. The wait is what makes the actual act so worth it, I know that, so I'll sit back for a while. They told me she needs space to make her own decisions, so I'll let her have it. Our connection is unconventional and unexpected, but it's real; I know that she feels it too. She'll be in my arms again before long.

"Don't have time for coffee, Lee. I gotta get to the garage." 

He rolls over the back of the couch to lay on the cushions, "Cool, I'll drive ya."

"Don't need a ride," I huff out as I go to my bedroom to get dressed. I'm in and out of the bathroom in less than ten minutes and he's already off the couch waiting for me when I walk back in. "C'mon, let's go!" A grumble is the nicest response I can come up with as we walk out the door and downstairs to the parking lot. His charger sits in a front spot and we get in before heading to the garage.