The Shape of Love

#20 Sunday Evening "Show Part 2"

Wordlessly Lacey led Marie outside. There was no one walking the block as Lacey looked timidly to her left. Apartment buildings, much like her own lined the street. Narrow brick sandwiched together, leaving miniscule spaces between them. Alleys where people usually kept their garbage cans, hardly big enough for a person.

Or so Lacey had assumed.

Why hadn't she thought of that? Lacey was the type of person who looked both ways before crossing the street, even if the walking sign was up. She was the type who avoided grates and walked around ladders - just in case. Of all the dangers in the world she tried to keep track of, she hadn't thought to notice a dark figure in a cavernous alleyway.

The Split Bean was exactly .9 miles from her apartment, a 20 minute walk give or take. It'd been relaxing at first. Lacey would set out early in the morning folding into the bustling city streets, imagining she was on her way to her important city job. She'd hold her head high, a spring in her step.

At night's she'd come home the same way. Down the street to the left. After night shifts most people would be gone from the sidewalk, already home from a long day's work. Lacey would plan her dinners as she walked, keeping her head up. She knew better than to look at her phone while walking = she didn't want to miss a thing.

And on July 17th she'd been doing just that.

Until ...

Lacey shuddered involuntarily. Tightening her grip on Marie's hand she took a step away from the doorway. It was a step more than she'd taken in ten months.

Her first day of work after that night she couldn't bring herself to venture down her usual route. Instead she'd been fifteen minutes late and offered profuse apologies to Tanya.

After that day Lacey gave herself forty minutes to get to work as she took the long way. She'd go to the right instead and loop around to the main road, but never without looking over her shoulder at the block she left behind.

Tonight she faced it head on. Step after silent step. Her legs quivered as they neared the unsupposing opening between two identical buildings. There were no lights in this section of the block. The sun had faded leaving only a dim yellow glob that made the surrounding windows look like portals into a glowing ocean.

Lacey resisted the urge to will her body to meld into the light. To crumple onto the concrete until the sunlight disappeared, because then maybe she would too. That is how she'd felt the night of July 17th as she lay broken on the sidewalk. She'd felt cold, her coat had been ripped from her body and her bare skin grated against the rough sidewalk. Her hollowed bones filled with ice. Then everything went black.

"I was walking home." Her voice came as a surprise as they neared the alleyway.

Marie stayed close to Lacey's side, their fingers intertwined. Lacey stared straight ahead, her gaze unable to shift from the shadowed passage.

"It was after work, it was dark." Lacey closed her eyes for a moment, maybe longer because when she opened them they stood before the alleyway.

A plastic trash bin fit snuggly between the chipped brick.

"He surprised me." Lacey's eyes fluttered closed as she replayed the night. Her memories were choppy. One moment she'd been on her feet, the next she was thrown off balance. Shadowed vision, back against the rough brick. When her coat was ripped from her body that was when she'd realized what was happening. That was when she tried to fight back.

He hadn't thought she would or he would've done a better job holding her arms down. Lacey had seen self defense videos, she'd taken a free course at college her freshman year.

She'd gone for the sensitive areas. Adrenaline pulsing in her veins she'd been blind sided when he'd produced the knife. She never saw it until she looked down to see the handle sticking out of her stomach.

She didn't remember much after that. The doctors told her she had 'selective memory loss'. Lacey had wished it hadn't been selective.

Her memories picked up again with intense slicing pain as she crawled out of the alleyway.

"I wished I'd died" Lacey finished. Her eyes had opened and they found a space on the concrete. There was a slight discoloration in the grain only Lacey could see.

Marie whispered a cross between an expletive and a sympathetic apology. Lacey nodded numbly as she leaned into the woman.

Marie's chest rose and fell deeply as she stroked Lacey's hair. The movement calmed her racing heart as the memories faded. "Did you know him?"

"No-" Lacey was breathless from her confession. "I don't know why he-"

Marie shushed her lovingly. "It's ok. It's not your fault."

"I know - but I-." Lacey stopped herself. "I haven't been able to move past it." She thought to her inability to walk down the block until now. Would she ever be able to cross the street without fear?

"You're here now." Marie whispered as she hugged Lacey to her body. . 

- 

Lacey's past is revealed.