Autumn Powell is excited to help her cousin Lily by inviting her to stay with her and her boyfriend until she can get back on her feet. What is intended as an act of kindness, may turn into dangerous confrontations with the shadows from Lily's myste...
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Lily's hand shook as she took another breath. "Our first date was perfect...maybe even too perfect."
Autumn forced herself to remain quiet as she wanted to exlaim that he made it perfect to rope her in. She was having a hard time shutting herself up.
Eli remained outside of the diner where he would look through the window every few minutes to check on the girls. Then he would bring his attention to the rain in front of him. He wished he had a cigarette to complete his look...but the only time he'd even had one was with Autumn and it was disgusting.
Autumn's jaw tensed. "Did he...do anything to you on you then?" though she wasn't exactly sure what she was waiting for Lily to reveal, besides the fact that the punk had left her heart bleeding and exposed!
Lily cupped her hot mug and spoke in an even quieter voice. "No, not then."
Autumn swallowed and glanced at Eli who was just barely glancing through the window. She brought her attention back to Lily.
"He didn't do any of that...not for the first two months anyway."
"First two months!" Autumn exlaimed. "Jeez, this is a patient sociopath." she hesitated.
Lily recoiled slightly and for a moment Autumn thought she lost her until Lily said. "Yes...he was." then she looked up to look at Autumn. "I never would have thought he wanted to hurt me. At least...he made it seem that way. He was the first kiss I ever had...the first touch, the first..." she trailed off.
Autumn hadn't known Lily was that innocent, so different from her.
"He treated me so well in the beginning..." she watched the steam from the mug swirl as she mumbled. "It was like a dream for a while, and I didn't even know why he was so nice to me. For a moment, I wondered if I even deserved it...I thought that he was too good to be true."
Autumn glanced at Eli again, she knew the feeling...but every time she'd ruined her relationship with Eli, one of them had somehow had the courage to put it back together. She knew that feeling and how scary it could be. She knew at any minute he could get sick of her--should get sick of her. She deserved it.
Autumn cleared her throat. "So, what happened? did something get triggered? With him I mean."
Lily went quiet and she started to play with the corner of the little paper menu on the counter. "He...he started to take pictures of me."
Autumn's eyes reflexively narrowed as she thought of the images she'd seen on the facebook page.
"He said they were for him. He said couples did that sort of thing, took images of each other to keep for...later." she shrugged as though she didn't know what that even meant.
Autumn shook her head but willed herself into silence.
"Then...one day, when he was with his friends, one of them asked me," Lily's voice choked. "He asked me if I was still wearing the black laced bra I'd been wearing in the image...the image he'd taken of me." she blinked quickly as tears surfaced.
Autumn's eyes widened. "He was sharing them? With his friends? That bastard!"
Lily wiped away tears and then added. "Not sharing them, selling them."
