Shadowed Strength: Shadowed Series Book One

by Wendi Wilson

  Tara looked over to see what caused Melanie's reaction. She saw Jeremy, then saw someone behind him clasping his hand. As he turned and the person attached to that hand came into view, she got a disgusted look on her face and balled her hands into fists.

  Stephanie Woods. Her friends called her Sissy. Everyone else called her bitch. If you're not her friend, then you're her enemy and she would do everything imaginable to make your life a total hell. Jeremy put his arm around her waist and Melanie threw up a little in her mouth.

  She started to panic, slightly hyperventilating. "I've got to get out of here."

  "Stop, Mel," Tara whispered. "He's already seen us and they're headed this way. Do not let Queen Sissy see you react. You know you have to stand up to her. Plus, you'll hurt Jeremy's feelings if you bolt. Just stay put and let me do the talking."

  Melanie tried to control her breathing. Sometimes it seemed like Sissy's goal in life was to make her miserable. It had been that way since kindergarten. Gorgeous, curly blonde hair, bright blue eyes, killer body- everything Melanie was not- worked in Sissy’s favor to get her everything she wanted. Melanie concentrated on keeping her feet planted and her face neutral. She focused on Jeremy's face and not on his arm around Sissy's waist.

  "Hey Tara. Hey Mel," he said as he stopped in front of them grinning. "Great party. You guys know Sissy, right?"

  "Yes, we know her," Tara gritted out. "Hello Stephanie."

  She nodded at Tara, but was already zeroing in on Melanie with an evil glint in her shining blue eyes. She could sniff out insecurity like a hound dog and didn't miss a chance to take full advantage.

  "Hey, Piglet," she sneered, "having a good time? But wait, where's your date?" Melanie flinched a little. "No, don't tell me you're alone, again?" She dripped with venom filled honey. "Such a shame. I'm sure you could find some lonely math club dork to come with you to these parties, if you paid him enough."

  Melanie's eyes were burning as she fought to hold back the tears. Stephanie and her friends had started calling her "Piglet" in middle school. It didn't really bother her that much anymore, but to have Jeremy right there, to witness it, was beyond humiliation. His arm dropped from Sissy's waist. Small consolation.

  "Shut the hell up, Sissy." Tara stressed the name as if it were an insult. "She's not here alone. She's here with me and Chris."

  "Oh, I am so sorry, Melanie. My mistake. I had no idea you had a date. Wait, make that two dates. Can you say 'third wheel'? How exciting for you! Maybe you can just live vicariously through them, since nobody wants to date the fat girl."

  With that parting shot, Sissy sashayed off to her circle of friends who were giggling just a few feet away. She said something under her breath, and they all burst into peals of laughter.

  "They're all bitches," Tara said as she put her hand on Melanie's arm and gave it a light squeeze.

  Jeremy had been stone silent through the whole episode. They turned their eyes on him and finally noticed that his face was all red, and for once, he was not smiling.

  "Wait here," he said through gritted teeth. "I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere."

  He was staring into Melanie's eyes, willing her not to run. She recognized that he was not happy, pissed even, but her own shame was too great to realize it on a conscious level. He turned on a heel and stomped over to Sissy.

  He grabbed her wrist roughly and started to drag her away, towards the back door where Tara and Chris had gone earlier. They disappeared through the door and into the night.

  Tara turned to Melanie and placed her hands on her shoulders. "Mel-"

  "No," Melanie interrupted. "Don't. I'm okay. Really. I just need to get the hell out of here. Like, right now."

  "Okay. Just give me a minute to find Chris and I'll drive you home."

  "No, no. You stay. I'll be okay. A walk will do me good. Fresh air, clear head, and all that."

  "Mel, just give me five minutes. I don't want you to be alone right now."

  "No, Tara, really. It's only three blocks. I'll be fine. I want to be alone."

  "Are you sure? You're gonna be okay?"

  "I'm sure," she said with a forced smile. She gave Tara a hug and started for the front door. After a few steps, she stopped and turned back around. "If Jeremy asks, don't let on how badly this upset me. Just tell him I got a headache or something, okay?"

  Tara gave her a weak smile. "You got it."

  As Melanie headed for the front door, Tara started searching for Chris to tell him what happened. She stepped out the French doors onto the back veranda and heard Stephanie's whiny voice coming from the other side of the garden fountain. She crept over, and hiding in the shadows, proceeded to shamelessly eavesdrop.

  "Jeremy, answer me. Why did you do that? You hurt my wrist!" The sentence rose in pitch until the final word came out in a screech. "What is wrong with you?" Sissy demanded.

  "What's wrong with me?" he asked incredulously. This time louder: "WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?! What the hell is wrong with you, Sissy? Do you treat people like that all the time? Do you treat Melanie like that all the time? She. Is. My. Friend. I can't believe you just did that." Tara heard him groan. She peeked around the fountain and saw him pacing in agitation.

  "What did I do?" Sissy asked sweetly. "I only teased her a little bit. If she got upset, it's not my fault. She needs to put on her big girl panties." Then she laughed nastily. "Oh, wait, she can only wear big girl panties." Another snicker.

  Tara ground her teeth to keep from lashing out and betraying her hiding spot. Before she could take a calming breath, she heard a squeal. She took another quick peek and saw that Jeremy had Sissy by her upper arms and was giving her a little shake. With satisfaction, Tara heard the other girl’s teeth click together.

  "What the hell is the matter with you?" he demanded. "No, wait, don't say anything." He shoved her away from him. "If I had known what a bitch you are, I would never have agreed to this, this date, or whatever you want to call it. All the flirting and laughable seduction tactics in the world will never get you my company again!"

  Sissy huffed. "I will not be talked to-"

  "Oh, SHUT UP!" Jeremy cut her off. "Don't you ever talk to me again. Don't even look at me. And if I ever hear of you tormenting Melanie again, so help me-"

  "What?" she interrupted snidely. "What are you going to do about it?"

  Jeremy let out a low animalistic growl. Then, "Try me."

  She heard heavy footsteps heading her way and ducked further into the shadows. Jeremy stomped towards the house without even glancing in her direction. Sissy went in the opposite direction, toward the side gate, presumably to go around the outside and re-enter from the front. Or maybe, hopefully, to just get into her car and leave. Tara waited a few moments, digesting all she'd heard. With a thoughtful smile on her face, she went back inside to resume her search for Chris.

  *~*~*~*~*~*~*

  As Melanie slowly walked down Tanglewood Road towards Cedarwood, Sissy's nasty remarks rolled through her mind over and over, like a broken record. She couldn’t stop her thoughts from spinning erratically.

  Would anyone ever want to be with me? More specifically, would Jeremy? Probably not, especially after that horrific scene.

  She'd stopped crying, but was still sniffling as she made her way down the quiet street. Most of the houses were dark. It had to be going on 10:30, and this neighborhood was mostly elderly people. Their neatly tended yards and colorful flower beds seemed deathly still and quiet, and she was getting a bit jumpy.

  Melanie had never liked the dark. She wasn't scared of monsters, like little kids, it just made her feel a bit uneasy. Thank goodness for streetlights. She sped up to reach each circle of light reflected on the ground. It just felt better there.

  She finally reached the corner of Tanglewood and Cedarwood, after what seemed like an eternity. She needed to turn right on Cedarwood, go down two blocks and hang a left to get to her house. She had walked these streets a million times, but tonight she just stood there on
the corner, not moving an inch.

  Cedarwood was nearly pitch black. Some dark rain clouds had obscured the moon, and none of the streetlights on it were working. Not a single one. The light nearest the corner, which was the only one she could make out, had shards of glass underneath it. It had been broken. They all must have been. "Damn stupid people," she muttered under her breath.

  "Ok," she said out loud, loud enough so that it echoed back at her faintly. "I can walk another block down and go 'round the long way, or I can stop being such a big baby and walk down a dark street."

  After all the negativity directed at her tonight, from Sissy and from herself, she decided to be strong and brave and just walk down Cedarwood. It was, after all, only two blocks.

  *~*~*~*~*~*~*

  "Where's Melanie?" Jeremy had made a beeline for Tara as soon as she walked back into the house.

  "She left. She said she had a headache and she wanted to go home."

  "A headache, huh?” he said skeptically. “I bet I know just what that headache’s name is, too.” He sucked in a deep breath. Then exploded. “Damn it! This is all my fault!”

  Tara shook her head. “How is this your fault? You’re not the one with the bitchiest mouth in town.”

  “Yeah, but I brought her here. I waltzed her right over to Mel, with my damn arm around her! I let her accost Melanie.”

  “Jeremy, stop it. If she hadn’t come with you, it would’ve been with someone else. No one can stop that mouth. Except...”

  “Except what?”

  Tara hunched her shoulders, put a stern look on her face and said “Try me,” in a deepened voice.

  “You little sneak! What, were you hiding in the bushes or something?” She could tell he was trying hard not to smile. “Who took Melanie home?”

  “Well, I offered. Nagged, actually. But all I got was an emphatic ‘no.’ She insisted on walking. She said she needed air and space.”

  He looked at his watch. The face read 10:37 pm. “It’s been a while. Maybe I should go check on her. Just to make sure she made it home okay.”

  “Do you want me to come with you?” she asked.

  “No, it’s alright. I got this. You stay and have fun with Chris. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of her.”

  “Now if I could just find him,” she wondered aloud. He wasn’t out back or in the house as far as she could tell. “Where could he be?”

  *~*~*~*~*~*

  "Eight, nine, ten." Melanie was counting her steps to try to keep her mind off the general creepiness of the darkened street. "I should have just gone the long way,” she grumbled. Her words echoed off the houses and heightened her tension. "Nineteen, twenty, twenty one."

  Her steps slowed to a stop as she approached a long hedge. It was about four feet tall and ran the length of the yard next to the sidewalk. Her eyes scanned the darkness, looking for any hint of movement. She couldn't see much.

  After a few more seconds, she took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, and stepped forward. Walking at her regular pace, Melanie tried desperately to control her agitation and not leap into a sprint. She was being ridiculous. It was just a hedge. Just a yard on a dark street.

  As she neared the middle of the hedge, a rustling sound stopped her dead in her tracks. The blood drained from her face and then flooded right back again as her heart started pounding erratically. Melanie was frozen, her only movement the rapid rise and fall of her chest from her ragged breathing. She waited motionlessly for what seemed like an eternity but no other sound emerged from the plants.

  "Maybe it was the wind," she whispered.

  Melanie took a tentative step forward. Nothing. Another step. Still nothing. She took a deep breath and started walking forward, very slowly, scanning the hedge and listening for any hint of sound.

  As she neared the end, Melanie started to relax. Suddenly the bush rattled and before she could even react, a black cat burst from the hedge and ran over her toes. Melanie somehow managed to stifle the scream that threatened to erupt from her throat, letting out a groan instead. After a few deep breaths, her racing heart slowed a little.

  "Oh my God," she gasped between breaths. "Holy shit. Stupid cat."

  When she finally calmed down a fraction and her legs felt a little less like Jell-O, she took a couple of steps forward, then stopped again. Melanie had a strange feeling, like she was being watched. She peered into the hedge, across the street, and behind her, but saw nothing. Deciding she was being paranoid, she started slowly walking forward again. Silent curses roared through her mind at the cat for scaring the wits out of her.

  "Stupid cat," she whispered again. “A few more feet and I can get off this stupid, dark, stupid street.”

  Finally, she neared the end of the hedge. She started to move past it, but instead froze in her tracks once again. Someone was there. She was being watched. And not by a cat. Melanie slowly lowered her left foot, which had been dangling in the air mid-step. Her face was a mask of pure terror.

  He was hiding at the end, waiting for her. He slowly stood up from his crouched position and squared his shoulders toward her. She could only assume it was a man, from his muscular build and height, for only his hands were visible.

  He was dressed entirely in black- black boots, black jeans, black hoodie, and, most terrorizing, a black ski mask. She almost laughed at the cliché… almost. All she could see of his eyes was a slight glint behind the eye holes. There wasn't enough light to see their color.

  She couldn't run. She felt paralyzed. Maybe it was true, what they say about fear freezing your body and your mind, so you can't move, or speak, or even think. She was, quite literally, frozen in fear.

  It was like facing down a wild animal. She was too scared to move lest he attack. Her heart was pounding erratically and her palms started to sweat.

  "WHY DIDN'T I LET TARA DRIVE ME HOME?" her mind screamed frantically.

  After what seemed like an hour, but was in actuality only a few seconds, the man surged forward, grabbed her arm and dragged her into the yard behind the hedge. Melanie couldn't be seen at all from the street, and the house that the hedge belonged to was completely dark, with no car in the driveway. In shock, she didn't fight or scream, just let him drag her forward, farther into the darkened yard.

  He pushed her hard, causing her to fall down. The impact shattered her frozen, comatose state. A yelp escaped her as her knees and shoulders hit the ground. Immediately, she rolled over and attempted to sit up. Melanie sucked in a deep breath to scream, but it lodged in her throat.

  The clouds shifted and the moon shed its meager light into the yard. She caught sight of her assailant and realized he had a huge, serrated hunting knife. It looked like the one her Uncle Larry used to gut that buck last fall. The man twisted and shifted the knife in the moon's glow, nearly hypnotizing her.

  "If you scream, I'll kill you." The voice was raspy and harsh. "Do you understand me, little girl?"

  She didn't dare speak, or even move. Her body was limp on the ground, half propped up with her arms behind her, her lungs bursting with the deep, rapid breaths. Her eyes started to blur from unshed tears.

  When she said nothing, he dropped to his knees beside her. In one fluid motion, he pushed her backwards hard so that her head whacked the ground and shoved the knife against her throat.

  "Answer me, bitch," he whispered. "You do understand, right?"

  All Melanie could do was nod very slightly. The blade was pressed hard against her throat and even that slight movement gripped her with fear of being sliced open.

  "Good girl."

  His voice took on a more normal, conversational tone with that. He sounded more human and frighteningly familiar. She knew that voice from somewhere. As soon as the thought entered her head, it flew back out because at that moment, he pounced.

  He was lying on top of her now, pinning her to the ground with the bulk of his weight. Her breath whooshed out with the impact and it was a struggle to regain it. He nudged one knee between her
tightly clenched thighs and pried them apart so he could get his hips into the gap.

  She started to panic and pushed at his shoulders with all of her strength. He just chuckled as he grabbed her wrists and pulled them above her head, pinning them there with one hand. Bucking wildly, her hope was to dislodge him, or least break his grasp on her wrists.

  He didn't budge. A loud groan erupted from his lips. She thought she had hurt him and redoubled her efforts. He groaned again and there was no mistaking his pleasure.

  He’s enjoying this! Melanie froze with the thought.

  A few seconds later, he lifted his body weight off her slightly and she thought he was losing interest in her, now that the fight had gone out of her. Melanie’s hopes were dashed, however, when he slid his free hand between their bodies, grabbed the neck of her shirt and yanked. The flimsy material ripped clear down to her navel. She felt the cool night air brush against her belly. The warmth of his hand caressing her stomach was an unpleasant shock, worsened when he roughly pinched the fat there. He groaned again and this time the sexuality of it was blatantly obvious.

  "You are so damn sexy. I love this pudginess about you. It’s like you were made just for me, a perfect match. It makes me so hard." That last bit was punctuated by him rotating his hips and pressing hard against her.

  With that, the dam on her control broke. She lost all common sense, started working on instinct and fought with all she had. She bucked, twisted, and turned, but was very careful not to scream. It would occur to her later that she could have screamed without fear of the knife. One of his hands was holding her wrists and the other had been on her belly. The moment was just too terrifying for her to put it together.

  Her struggles finally paid off, as her right hand suddenly popped free. She immediately began raining blows on his face and shoulders. He dropped his weight down on her in surprise, and the breath left her body in a big woof.

  Melanie recognized in a brief moment of clarity that his hand that had been fondling her belly was trapped between them and his other hand still clutched her left hand above her head. Realizing that her pummeling was doing very little damage, she reached for a fistful of hair to yank (standard girl maneuver) and instead caught the woolly ski mask. She pulled hard and it slid from his head.