The Vacuum

Part 20

The studio was always bright as the sun went down, big windows casting natural light across the warehouse style floors. She sat in a chair by the large pane window, watching the people on the street go about their lives. Scratching at the piece of gauze on her neck she looked over at where Toby was sitting on a stool, painting in black and whites and grays.

Pushing herself up from the window she walked bare foot over to where he was painting.

"What do you think baby?" He said looking over his shoulder at her.

Her eyes darted along the canvas in front of them. Before she could answer the cell phone on the small creaky table next to them started the ring in between the tubes of paint, jars and brushes. Adjusting her still slinged arm she reached out and picked it up for him with the other, looking at the caller id with Maggies name on it.

She glanced up to see Toby stiffen. Licking her lips she watched him waiting for her reaction. Slowly she held the phone out to him.

Toby let out a visible breath as his large hand flipped open the phone, his eyes looking quickly away from the large haunted green ones of his girlfriend. "Hey....yeah yeah....sure I can talk." He glanced back at the patched up overly skinny, malnourished woman in front of him. "I've got to take this." He told her nodding over to the painting. "Look at it and let me know what you think it needs....I'm still here hold on." He moved over to the door. "Hey babe," She heard him say quietly. "I thought we talked about you not calling until she..." His voice trailed off as he left the loft.

Alex looked at the large canvas that stood nearly as tall as her with shade of grey and black. It stood as tall as she was and she tilted her head to the side at the daunting feeling of the muted shades. Glancing around the now silent room she took in the few figures that littered her imagination, standing or laying on the periphery of her vision.

She looked back at the canvas under her eyelashes, gulping down. "You need more red." She whispered. "Tragedy and darkness are always in red...not black."

He knew that look; Mac out of anyone would know that look on a man's face. Maybe he was just seeing things; seeing the way that the man's hands were tight around her wrists to the point where the skin under his fingers was changing colour, seeing the way Alex struggling against his hold, the way her eyes were widened. But he knew what that man wanted, and he knew that he would take it by force, just like Mac would have done. Most of all in the pair of short black sleeping shorts and red tank top that showed skin that was only meant for him.

He'd shared his whole life, women, drugs, money...his father. Everything. But that skin and that body were his right now; all his to claw at, demolish and devour and someone else was touching it.

"Who the fuck are you?" The blond asked him, not releasing Alex.

Mac curled his lip. "Who the fuck am I?! Who the fuck are you!?"

Alex jolted her arms, seeing this turning bad very quickly. "Everyone...just chill out." She tried as she saw Mac tense and eyes narrow. The devil raged and flamed silently behind those baby blues, churning and boiling.

Toby grabbed her arms higher up and tighter, trying to pull her behind him and away from the dangerous looking man in front of them. "I'm her boyfriend."

Mac looked him up and down, his nose wrinkling and lip curling. "Like hell you are!" He spat.

Alex finally managed to raddle her arms out of Toby's grasp. "Ex boyfriend Toby! You're my EX boyfriend!"