Tell Me Lies

Everything is going to be okay

Chapter one

Aiden
This was his favorite time of the day. Everything and everyone slowed down. The night brought a certain kind of blackness most people found menacing; but for him with the blackness, came peace.
With the blackness came a time where he did not have to watch his mother try to hide the pain she was constantly in, a time where he didn't have to watch his brothers stay home, because they just couldn't afford to send them to school, a time where he did not have to protect his sister from perverts who constantly wanted to have their way with her and finally a time where he did not have to be "brave" for all of them. Where he could allow himself to be afraid and vulnerable. Where he could break down and just wail at how unfair everything was. The night, weird as that might sound, was a friend he gladly welcomed and waited patiently for.

Tonight as he sat in their one bedroom flat, trying unsuccessfully to kill bedbugs that promised to not let him sleep. His tummy rumbled madly with hunger because he had given the small amount of food he managed to buy to his mum and siblings to share.

Like most nights, memories of the time his father was alive dominated his thoughts. They struggled, yes, but never would he let his father let his family go to bed hungry. He broke his back to bring something home everyday, always worn out and tired but ever ready to offer a terrible joke and a warm smile.

Until recently, he didn't know what exactly his father did to bring home money but he knew his mother hated it. They always argued terribly and it often ended with their mother crying hysterically, that he would get them all killed and their dad storming out angrily and cursing aggressively.

He tried to be like his father, tried to be the man he constantly told him he had to be when he was alive; but God it was hard. Growing up in the worst part of the city imaginable, it was a miracle he hadn't turned to drugs and robbery like most of his mates. For him he was determined to get out of the gutters, get himself and his family out of this hellhole, live in the nice parts of the city, where those stuck up rich people with their heads too far up their asses to care about how people like them survived, lived. Well that was his dream, until his father died and he couldn't afford to go to college.

He crushed one bed bug between his fingers, his eyes temporarily fixated on how much blood, the bloodsucker had managed to drain out of him. He thought of earlier that day and the offer he had been approached with. It was dangerous, it would crush his mother but his father had always told him, during those rare nights he was home, that to be born in the place where they were born, nothing would ever come easy and they had to hustle and fight for what they wanted. No matter what sewers they would have to crawl through, because people like them, ever rarely caught a break.

Hard as it was, he couldn't watch his family suffer anymore, so he knew he had to take that offer, no matter how hard it would be to leave them. He had to believe they would be okay - there was no other way.
It was an opportunity his father would have wanted him to take, one that would change their lives.

**********************
Alexandra

She was in agony. With each pounding came a pain that made her cringe and reel. She kept her eyes glued shut, gripping the sheets tightly in the process and trying so hard to imagine she was anywhere but underneath him. "This was love"; she reminded herself as another wave of pain surged through her, making her grip the sheets tighter, trying hard not to scream. Screaming, she knew would only make him more excited and right now, she could not afford for him to get more excited. She was afraid it would actually kill her this time.

His rapid grunts eventually begun to slow down a little and she knew it was almost over. She counted down, till she felt him limpness and with one final slap across her face, and a loud grunt, he fell beside her.
Relief washed over her bruised body, momentarily making her forget the pain she was in. "She was lucky", she reminded herself, blinking quickly to stop the tears threatening to fall. He loved her and this was just one of the compromises she had to make. After all, love was all about making sacrifices, right?