Charley's Innocence

Chapter One

Mansfield, Ohio

2012(Present Day)

I shot up from my nightmare. I was drenched in cold sweat, and shaking badly. Wiping my forehead with my hand ,trying to wipe away the old, horrific memories that I tried to suppress all the time, was doing little but to wipe the sweat still forming there. My old scars ached with hurt and premonition. I know it’s superstitious to believe it all, but from what I went through when I was 16 in the winter of ’03, I’d started to believe everything.

Getting up out of bed, erasing all thoughts of that evil man, I walked into the bathroom to take a hot shower and get the sick feeling off of me. As always I cringed away from my half naked reflection. Although it had been nine years and I was 25 now the scars still looked as though they were brand new. It sickened me, so I stripped quickly and let the scalding hot water run over my back, loosening the tension filled knots that had formed from my nightmare.

I worked at the library, full time and I was the head, for some reason, so I could pop in at any time I wanted and they couldn’t say anything. So seeing as I had woken up at 3:30 this morning and I was ready to go by 4:45, I headed out of my house and into my ’63 Corvette. My baby. My father and I restored her before he died of kidney failure. My mother was still alive but she was in the hospital on life support right now, so I guess not technically alive, more vegetable.

My mother and I never got on but I guess that was because of what happened and she couldn’t talk to a daughter who was forever ruined.

Walking into the library after the 7 min. drive felt refreshing. The smell of books, who didn’t love them? I suddenly felt an immense ache in my arms, telling me someone was following me inside the library. I spun around, “What do you want? We’re not open until 10:30.” I told the person, who appeared to be a man.

He was tall maybe 6’1-6’2 he shadowed over me by a good 5-6 inches, and I was 5’8. This man had a build about him that to look at him for a glance you wouldn’t see it; if you really looked at him you could see a sinewy, strong build. There was a Mediterranean shade to his skin, a chiseled jawline, fit for a Roman god. And then there came his face. It was god-like in beauty, with eyes that one didn’t normally find on a face like that, red tinted hazel eyes. He answered slowly, with a surprising English accent, “I’m sorry I did not mean to frighten or cause any harm, I just need to see the maps here and I was wondering if you could show me them. I would be out of your hair in a matter of 20 minutes.”

“Because you just scared me, I’ll be keeping you in my line of sight if I can while sorting books. Now, come with me.” I wasn’t sure why I did it. Maybe it was because of the smoldering of his eyes. I’m still not sure.

But none the less there we were in the library at about 5:30 in the morning, me sorting books, him looking at maps of this place.

“May I ask, why do you need to look at the maps?” I questioned him, trying to find out why he was here so early.

“Honestly, I just moved here and don’t really know my way around this place.” He answered, sounding a little sheepish, but very honest, nonetheless.

“Why did you move here?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Curiosity, mostly. You seem very exotic, why would you want to move to someplace like here?” I gave him a look, trying to communicate that we didn’t really get too many foreigners. Oh, we got plenty of out-of-state folks passing through, but none too many were from another country, continent really.

“Well,… I just got a new job as the new court judge here.”

“You can’t be serious; don’t you have to be a citizen to become a judge?” I asked him skeptically.

“Yes, but see you’ve just assumed I’m not a citizen, but I am. I have been for 20 years, but I grew up around exotic, foreign accents. So, naturally, I picked them up.”

I blushed a little, at the top edges of my ears. I was thankful I left my hair down leaving them hidden from viewing. “Sorry, I don’t mean to assume things. It’s just a really bad habit I have of doing with people.” I said trying to apologize.

Apparently, he got my message because he then said this, “Don’t worry about it, I do that to. I think everyone does.” He gave me an almost there smile, it reached his eyes so I know he meant it.

*************************************

Hey whoever is reading this :) PLEASE GIVE ME FEEDBACK

I would love to know what you guys think about my story and if you have any questions. 

Thanks I hope you love it

-AllysonJane