These Starcrossed Lives of Ours

Chapter One

Chapter One

Christine

I had become Annabelle's slave a long time ago, a time after drugs had taken my sister, but before the smell of alcohol spilled all over the kitchen floor replaced the memory of my mother. But ever since that night when I'd slaughtered Faith three years ago, I was unable to stop seeing her around every corner, unable to block out the screams that constantly rang in my ears.

There was only one reason why I had stayed for this long. I foolishly believed that Annabelle would take me back, that she hadn't dumped me for good. But now it was apparent to me that all she cared about was the cult, and I wanted out.

I decided to chance it. I couldn't go far. I had no money to pay for a taxi and there was less than five bucks left in my pocket, but I had little choice. I could no longer stand the thought of Faith's blood dripping down my hands. I was careful to pack my few clothes before dinner. If anybody noticed that I was getting out, they'd tell her, and then I'd be punished. I couldn't take any chances.

Ann Arbor is a very cultured town, known for its art, its university, and its free way of thinking. You would've never thought a cult would choose to take up residence here, but what people don't realize is that they're everywhere. It's only the stupid ones that get caught. Annabelle's intelligent, and she doesn't mess around. The only people that get hurt are the homeless, and the ones without family.

The ones like me.

We lived relatively close to the U of M, in an old house that might have been a sorority's long ago. The building contained all ten of us crammed up in four bedrooms, with barely enough room to breathe. Annabelle, being the leader, was the only one that got her own. The rest of us all had to share. Gender wasn't an issue. Since I was one of Annabelle's favorites, I got to share with only one other person, my friend Landon.

"You'd better hurry up Christine, dinner is ready," Landon said from the door. I got up from my mattress, where I had been staring at patterns in the moldy ceiling. Was I sure I wanted to do this? Being in the cult was safety, in a perverted sort of way. I was fed, sheltered. Annabelle had taken me in three years ago as a skinny kid of sixteen when nobody else had, when there was no choice but to leave my childhood home. Was it wrong to betray her now? But I'd already made up my mind. Annabelle had betrayed me by promising to love me and then tossing me to the side like a used doll after playtime. It was time to get even, and the best way to do that was to stop playing her game. I was nineteen now. If I was going to make it to twenty I had to get away from her.

"Just a minute Landon," I said. "I need to ask you something."

Landon turned to look at me. "What is it?"

I always thought Landon beautiful, with his dark black hair and blue eyes, but there was always something in him that was a little...well, dangerous. He was the only one of our cult who had joined by choice, not for survival, and that part of him always scared me. But he was the only one I trusted in the group, and his help tonight could make the difference between whether I made it a few days or a few weeks.

I didn't waste time in asking. "I need the three hundred dollars that I loaned you," I said in a whisper. "Tonight, after dinner."

"What for?" he asked, glancing towards the door. We weren't allowed to have our own money, although most of us like me had a secret hoard that we kept hidden.

"None of your business," I answered, a little too quickly.

"Christie." Landon rolled his eyes.

"What do you expect me to do? Live here forever?" I replied, more harshly than I'd intended to.

"If she catches you you're done for," he said, grabbing my shoulders. "You can't run until she lets you go."