Never Leave Me Alone

Chapter 14

I opened my eyes to a dark room. I groaned as I felt a sharp pain in my head intensify. What on earth? I sat up rubbing the back of my head. Then suddenly I remembered last night. What happened?

“Are you okay? I heard Maria ask.

“Maria?” I asked recognizing her voice.

“Yeah, that’s her,” I heard a whisper.

“Shalonda? What’s going on?” My eyes adjusted to the darkness. I watched as Shalonda put on a look of worry while Maria’s face held no emotion.

“Charles,” was all Maria said. At that moment, I felt my heart drop. I didn’t even bother asking any last names because the was only one Charles I knew. That bastard my mama calls a boyfriend.

“How in the hell do you know Charles?” I asked almost bitterly.

“I was just as shocked when she told me,” Shalonda said mostly to herself.

Maria sighed before speaking.

“It’s a long story.”

“Well make some time to tell me!” I whispered yelled. I don’t know why I was acting angry with her. Just the mention of Charles’ name makes my skin crawl.

“He was my boyfriend.”

“What do you mean he was your boyfriend?” I asked almost not believing any of it.

“We were dating like a year before I came here,” she continued, “He was so sweet, so caring. I don’t know what happened but one day he was… different. Slowly he began to ignore me and disrespect me. And soon he was hitting me.”

She stopped for a moment as she silently cried. I felt her pain. That was exactly how he was when he first met my mama.

“I couldn’t take it no more. I didn’t know what to do so I ran. I knew my brother lived here and I knew he would help me so I came here. I had just gotten off the bus before I ran in Mr. Harper’s store, remember?” she said to me.

I nodded remembering the day. She looked so stressed and scared. Everything was making sense now.

“I didn’t want to walk the streets alone so I walked in the store asking for help. Little did I know, Charles would follow me here.”

She took another deep breath before starting again.

“When I told Antonio what was going on he almost flipped. I didn’t tell him Charles’ name no matter how much he tried to make me though. Every since then he has been even more protective of me. He knew I was scared. That’s why I was afraid of talking to Marcus so soon. It was something about him that made me feel safe so I quickly opened up to him.

As she finished up, I was left speechless. I didn’t know what to say or even if I should say anything so we sat in silence for the next few minutes.

“Sorry,” Maria said softly.

“For what?” I asked curiously. Though I may have sounded a little angry earlier, we all knew that there was no reason for her to apologize. If anything, I guess I should.

“For not telling yall sooner.”

“No I understand why you didn’t. I mean it’s not like we told you about our past either,” Shalonda said taking the words right out of my mouth.

“Yeah,” I agreed, “So what are we gonna do?”

“I don’t know,” Maria answered.

Just then we heard the lock on the door turn. I moved away from the door to avoid getting hit when I saw him, the monster that had us all here for some reason. He cut on the light without warning causing a sharp pain in my eyes as they readjusted to the light.

“Well, well, well. Looks like all of my ladies are up,” he said with his infamous smirk.

“Yeah, now what do you want with us?” I spat.

“Ah, there’s the Anya I miss,” he said sarcastically, “but I think you know the answer to that question already.”

“What’s that?” Shalonda asked as Maria remained quiet.

Leaning over, he looked each one of us in the face and smirked before answering.

“Revenge.”

“Revenge for what Charles? You ruined our lives, not the other way around.”

He let out a humorless laugh before turning serious.

“Oh Anya, you remember what happened the night you tried to defend yourself, don’t you?”

“I kicked you out,” I heard someone say before I could answer. Of course I could recognize the voice but I really didn’t want to call her what I’ve been calling her my whole life (considering she wasn’t much of one).

Charles’ smirk reappeared on his face as my mama came and stood beside him with her arms crossed. The thought of seeing both of them at the same time disgusted me.

“Mama?” Shalonda asked shocked. I, for one, wasn’t shocked at all. Of course she would choose him over us. Something was seriously wrong with the woman.

Slightly lifting her eyebrow, she smirked. Her smirk was a lot like Charles… it was disturbing. Especially seeing both of them smirk at once.

“Yes baby?” she said innocently. Her eyes met mines for a brief second before quickly looking away. I really felt the need to punch her in her face but dismissed the thought when I saw two large young men walk in the door.

“Ladies, here are my friends Joey,” he said pointing to the man on his right, “and Mike,” he said as he pointed to the other guy.

“You have friends?” I said before I even finished thinking it. Charles glared at me.

“Fellas, lets take this one first,” he said pointing at me while his eyes never left mines.

“Whaaa…” was all I could get out before I felt each of their strong hands wrap around my arms and pull me up.

“Charles please!” Shalonda pleaded.

“Why are you doing this?” Maria added.

“Ouch!” I said as their grip on my arms tightened. I looked over at my mama to find her avoiding my gaze. Of course she wouldn’t look at me. She doesn’t care for me anymore. She stopped caring for me a long time ago.