My heart began to beat erratically.
Damn, just damn.
Crossing the street after a car passed I could have sworn several more rounds of ‘damns’. The voice had come from none other than Slater. I could have picked his crooning sneer out of any lineup.
My white tennis shoes beat feet across the blacktop as I kept my eyes ahead and worked my way down the street. I could not give him the time of day, that guy would take a mile if given even an inch.
“Hey.” Ringing out behind me I mentally calculated how close he’d gotten. Even drunk and stumbling the guy had managed to gain on me. Shifting my hips to speed up my pace I noted the sounds of more feet behind him. Great the rest of the crew was with him. Fuck. Breathing heavily, I tried to focus on keeping calm and putting distance between them.
“Come on man, leave her alone.” The others were clearly not as belligerent as their leader but still, this did not look good. Wide-eyed I took in the empty street and lights flicking on as the dusk set upon us.
“Yeah, we can pester her tomorrow Slater.” It seemed that the rest of the hooligans were not interested in hounding me tonight, just their ringleader. Hips working double time I made my way down the sidewalk as the daylight faded from the sky.
“No, I just want to talk to her.” The mumbling reply came between stumbles and grunts. “Come on hot stuff I just want to talk.” Oh, I just bet he does. The demon in his eyes always wanted to talk to me. To whisper in my ear. Not a chance in hell was I letting him near me. Heart racing I started to jog, the faster I could get away from them the faster I would feel okay again. Lord these guys are the worst!
“Nah man, just leave her alone. You're scaring the shit outta her.” Feet plodding on the cracked cement I kept up the pace as my ears strained to measure the distance they were behind me. I can handle all the foster kid shit and the group home nonsense, but I can not handle being chased down the street by a gang of men. It was just too much. I already felt the rumbles under the concrete. My powers looking to strike in any way they could to make this end.
“She’s running now, y’all know daddy likes a good chase.” With that, I began sprinting down the grey sidewalk as fast as my thick legs could carry me. No way in hell was I letting those thug want-to-bes get their hands on me. Not today, Satan!
Jackbooted feet pounded down the pavement after me. Their breath huffed loudly behind me as if they were just behind my ear. Skidding into a turn down a side street I was pulled up short when Slater jumped out of an alleyway ahead of me.
Damn, damn, damn.
Leaning to the side he was puffing out breathes as I took a step backward.
“Hey man, just let her go.” Projecting my own wish aloud the request came from behind me, glancing over my shoulder the other three closed in on me. I was cornered on a thin side street between the manic-eyed leader and the trio of would-be punks.
“Oh, I’ll let her go alright I just want to talk to her first.” Stuck between them, with Slater staggering up to me I was debating what to do. Where to run? How could I get away?
Hand flashing out he grabbed me as I let out a scream.
Overpowering cologne and disgusting hair grease scents hit my nose as his thick hands clenched on my arms. Instinct took over my flight or flight reflex. The scream left my lungs as I let the call ring out loud inside my body. I was a reactionary being from that moment on.
“No!” Yanking my arms away from him I took a stumbling step back as the rest of his group closed in around me.
Bodies too near me.
Hands too close.
“Stop this Slater, you’re drunk.” Letting the call ripple through me as I had never done before I heard the answer loud and clear in my veins. They were coming to me from deep underground. I could feel the malice radiating from Slater as the roots found their way toward me. The energy around him was dark red. Hate in his aura telling me I was in real danger.
“You don’t fucking talk to me like that.” Spitting out his reply, Slater leaned to one side then another in his drunken state. “I just wanna talk to her.” Shuffling closer to me I felt the growl to my left radiate through me before I heard it. With a roar, Will leaped in front of me kicking Slater to the ground.
“She said ‘no’ man.” His deeply warm voice warned as his hands wrapped around Slater’s struggling body.
“What now you want to step up little cub?” Tackling Will to the ground Slater began beating his fist against Will’s face. Standing there cold with shock I felt the rumbles begin to shake the earth as my roots began to make their way up through the pavement.
Will, the only nice one in the group was getting the shit beaten out of him for protecting me. I had had enough of playing the victim, these guys would find out today who they had been messing with.
“Stop, man stop.” Eddy lunged forward and into the brawl as Will lay close to unconscious on the ground. Blood on his fists Slater took up opposition against is gang mates with little issue. My body vibrated with the call, very soon they would emerge strong and powerful enough to do my bidding. Cracks opened up along the sidewalk as the two still embroiled in the fight rolled down the dark alley.
Standing next to me Rex watched as the two struggled for purchase in the dank space between buildings. Pulsing with energy my vines sprang forth from the ground at my feet. Strong and ready I stepped into the alley flanked by foliage so immense it blocked out the remaining street lights.
White-hot rage boiled inside me as the vines rolled over each other in the alley alongside my approach. Coiling in and around each other they made short work of breaking up the concrete and keeping pace with me. Reaching my hand out the vines acted like an extension of my being. Springing forward to grab Slater from the battle he was embroiled in with Eddy.
Wrapping around his neck I snatched him up and into the air where his feet could not find purchase on any surface. Hand gripping the brown vines that wrapped around his chest and legs I watched as he clawed and kicked at the air. The deep red of his aura seeping into the vines as I considered choking him to death right here.
He was a blight on the rest of the word. No one would miss him. Face turning red with his struggle Slater was beginning to suffocate and I could not be happier. The ass hat thought he was going to grab me? Me?
“You shouldn't kill him. We’re not supposed to kill humans.” Rex’s calm vibrato whispered to me from my left. The use of ‘we’ gave me pause.
We? Was he like me? Like the other kids at the group home? Twisting my hand I let the grip on Slater's neck loosen while still holding his body floating in the air. Eddy was watching me with awe as he picked his long form up off the dirty alley floor.
“Let us take care of him, we should have done it a long time ago.” Shaking his head Eddy’s dejected request hit me hard.
Did they not realize what kind of shitheads they had been? Why on earth would I let them go now? Now that I had shown them how strong I could be? Huffing out a breath I twisted my hand again tightening the vines are Slater's abdomen until he groaned, pleading to be let go.
“I’ll leave! You’ll never see me again.” Whining, my would-be attacker was whining at me now. A hand on my shoulder drew me up short. Whipping around I was face to face with Will’s bloody broken nose.
Will, the nice one. The one with the sweet smile was bleeding and asking me to let his attacker live. Before my eyes silver smoke seemed to cover his thick chest, and then with no preamble at all where he had been standing was a brown bear.
“Holy shit! You’re like me.” Nodding the bear chuffed out a stinky breath and pointed his razor-sharp paws at where I held Slater all wrapped in my thickening foliage. Will was asking me to let him go. Shit man I so wanted to just strangle the guy right here in the alley. No one would care anyway, I was pretty sure they were homeless.
It wasn’t the moral thing to do, kill the man, but it felt right. He had been the singular source of my irritation for months. What if he does go and never come back
? Could I live with that? Maybe. Maybe this is what he needs to straighten out and stop being such an ass hat?
Dropping Slater to the ground he landed with a satisfying thump and stayed down. Meeting the three of them each in the eyes I pushed all my power into my words. This had to end here and now. If I let him go then I would expect them to deal with him.
“I will NEVER see him again, do you understand?” Eddy and Will, still in his bear form, nodded. Only Rex spoke up with a solemn ‘agreed’.
Turning on my heel I called the vines back into the earth as I walked away. Not murdering that fuck was the single most challenging thing I had ever had to do and yet I knew that if I had my conscious would have been heavy with his blood on my hands.
Chapter Three
Avoiding the Consequences
Sitting below the oak I looked out across the park taking in the sights of the families playing and dogs jumping for toys. Other people used the park to exercise and socialize while I used the space to get back to my roots. Shoes off, I wiggled my toes in the grassy dirt at the base of the tree. Leaning my back against the rough bark I opened my mind up to the pulse of the towering behemoth behind me.
My whole body buzzed with the familiar ringing of growth, the tree was sprouting for the season. Growing acorns that would fall to the ground at the end of summer to foster the next generation. Simply amazing. Synchronizing my breathes with the pulse of life beneath my toes I didn’t hear the sounds of someone approaching.
Leaning against my familiar oak I was completely zen’d out to the world around me. This was a form of meditation of people like me, not that I’d met many.
Just one other person like me, actually. All the other kids in the group home had different powers. Ones like Will had, the ability to shift into different animals or to cast shadows that could push things around. I was the only one who could make the plants do things.
Releasing my mind from the systems of roots beneath me I came slowly back down to reality. Sitting in the park on my only day off was the best way I could think of to release the frustration that had been building up over the last week. Since Slater had tried to attack me and I had nearly choked him to death, I figured I would not have to see the gang around anymore. I’d gone home that night thinking ‘wow it’s finally over’.
Not so much.
Slater had disappeared but the other three guys had kept showing up randomly. Apologizing and trying to talk to me. The strangest thing was they weren’t wearing leather jackets any more and they seemed kind of nice.
Like… Wait what am I saying? Shaking my head from side to side I plopped it in the cradle of my hands as I leaned away from the tree.
What did they even want anyway? Weren’t we even stevens? Rubbing the tension in my forehead I sniffed something on the wind. Cedar? There were no cedar trees in the park. The ruffle of clothing had me snapping my eyes open and looking around.
All three of the guys were sitting cross-legged before me. Will with his wide brown eyes smiled at me as I gasped.
“Hey, sorry to scare you.” Rex’s sly smile and gorgeous green eyes shimmered with the apology. Whipping my head to look at each of them I sat there in the spring sun waiting.
In the last week, I thought I had made it clear I didn’t want to speak to them but now it seemed I didn’t have much of a choice.
“We’ve been trying to talk to you but…” Eddy began in his lilting southern drawl, ice blue eyes surrounded by a fan of thick lashes. Without Slater here to overpower them with rude remarks I was struck by just how attractive the guys sitting before me were. Had they always been so hot or was I just now seeing it because they weren’t being jack asses?
“Yeah sorry to catch you off guard but we wanted to apologize for… well for everything.” Casting his gaze to the grass Will plucked a buttercup from its resting place and began twirling it around thoughtlessly.
I watched his fingers spin the flower this way and that as the group sat before me in silence. Aggravation grew inside me like a weed as I tracked the buttercup twirling in his hands.
“Give that to me!” Sticking my hand out to him I waited for him to give me the precious yellow flower before he crushed her with his thoughtlessness.
Slowly he dropped the flower into my outstretched hand. Casting out the call I felt Will’s curiosity flow from him through the roots in the grass.
“Well? Spit it out.” Flower in hand I called on the roots to take their youngling back. Placing her stem down in the grass they wound up and around her to support the bulbous yellow cup. Turning back to the trio I noted the look of awe they each wore. Their silence. Arching an eyebrow I worked to give them my most fierce resting bitch face.
“We are very very sorry Ahmaya...” Rex began, his black hair cut short I noted that his ears were pierced and the sharpness of his nose gave him a rather Ethan Hawke like edge.
“For letting Slater go that far…” Eddy picked up where Rex had left off. Turning to him I took in his sandy blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Before I had thought of him as a follower but now I could see that he had a glimmer of backbone to him.
“...And for being assholes to you for so long. Is there any way you can forgive us?” Will’s brown-eyed barrel-chested baritone finished the thought up for the group.
They want my forgiveness huh? Forgiving them for being thoughtless punks who terrorized me for months on end was going to be difficult if at all possible.
Then again, things had changed now that Slater wasn’t here to be king of the assholes. Taking in the sight of three guys sitting crisscrossed in the grass around me I began to wonder. Having shown them twice how easily I commanded my powers, how quickly I could call upon the roots to crush them, I really doubted they would try anything. That was beside the point, I would never use my powers for anything harmful that wasn’t self-defense. My powers were for growth, not death. They did not have to know that.
Leaning against the rugged bark I looked from face to face in quiet contemplation. I could ask anything of them in return for forgiveness. Maybe I was feeling cocky today? Maybe I was feeling rebellious, but an idea struck me like lightning. Running my hands over the half braids in my hair I leaned forward to place my elbows on my knees.
“What do you really want boys?” Silent they glanced around at each other for a moment before I continued on, “do you want my forgiveness or do you want me?” Eyes wide stared back at me afraid to make a wrong move.
“Y-you.” Eddy croaked the word out the second after I had asked the question. Will and Rex eyed him with ire for being too quick to the jump, or maybe for being the first one to say what I had always suspected.
“Yeah, Ahmaya we really want you.” Will ran his hands through his short brown curls as he looked away. His nervousness was very cute considering I knew he changed into a brawling bear in his downtime.
“All of us do, that’s why we hung around the diner every day and that’s kinda why we’ve been trying to talk to you all week.” Rex, the most eloquent of the group, seemed to imply that they were all vying for my affections. Smiling at them I knew that my own cockiness was going to be my own undoing even if I loved it the entire time.
“Well then.” Planting my hands on the ground I bent at the knees and drew my legs up from underneath me. Raising to a standing position I slid my toes into the sandals I’d warn as I wiped the dirt from my hands. Casting my gaze around at the guys all gaping up at me I felt the power of their stares slide over my thick legs and generous chest. Oh yes, they do want me indeed.
“Well then?” Eddy questioned. His blue eyes shining with hope as they gazed up at me.
“Well then, I hope you are ready to court me because ya girl deserves only the best.” Turning I swayed my hips as I trotted away from the trio, counting in my head the seconds until they caught up to me.
Five, I got up to five seconds before Rex ran up beside me smelling like wild skies and clean linen.
“Court you? Like date you?” His eager in
quiry told me all that I needed to know. They were hoping I’d speak to them today, dating them was more than they could have ever hoped for.
On my other side, Will pulled up close to me with a follow-up question. “Each of us? You want to date all of us?” Smiling Eddy was walking beside Will awaiting my reply with the rest of them. Slowing my stroll I lead us over to the walking path that circled the lake. This was my favorite part about going to this park, I could hang out with the trees and catch my zen with the water feature splashing in the middle of the lake.
“Yeah, if you think you can handle it that is.” ‘It’ being me and ‘handle’ being treat me appropriately, but I was confident we would broach that subject momentarily. Strolling in the shade of the trees the four of us took up the entire walking path. What a motley crew we made up. The other strollers on the path avoiding us as my short and thick frame walked along sandwiched between the tall and thin Rex and the equally tall but barrel-chested Will.
“Mother Moon, I would give anything for a chance.” Rex crooned as slid his hands into the pockets of his blue jeans.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” Eddy questioned from the other side of Will, his sweet blue eyes seemed to ring with uncertainty. “Because we are going to put our all into winning you, baby doll.” Grinning his Cheshire smile at me I felt the hunger in his eyes. Oh yes, I hoped he would put his all into the task.
“Anything less would be unacceptable.” Rounding the wide turn of the lake view walking path I felt at ease with my three companions. Who would have thought that the very same guys who had been the bane of my existence had really been kind of sweet under it all? I mean I was still going to put them through the wringer for being such shits to me, but still.
“Okay, wait. Lay this out for me real quick.” Rex seemed to be asking me for specifics. Eyeing a bench to our right I beelined for it and took a spot sitting on the top of the backrest. “You are willing to date all of us?”
Tormented: A Bully Romance Anthology Page 11