Captivated (An Affliction Novel) (6 page)

“Talk about rude!” Tanya spat out. She patted Markus’ shirt roughly.

“Did you see?!” Markus yelled and looked at the exit door Dean had left through. “He shoved me and didn’t even-that asshole shoved me hard.” he said defensively.

“Just let it go,” Tanya continued, “maybe he didn’t see you. He was so focused on that guy standing behind us.”

Behind us? He
wasn’t
looking at me? I felt like such an idiot. There I was thinking he was watching me. Well…I was glad I didn’t wave. Markus and Tanya wouldn’t have ever let that one slide. They would’ve made fun of me forever until I slipped up again.

“Whatever. He had to have felt that he shoved me.” He lightly pushed Tanya and me away. “I’ll be back.” he moodily said.

“Wait! Where are you going?” Realization hit me. Markus was going to confront Dean. I pictured my tiny Markus up against the giant Dean. “Wait! Don’t. Just let it go Markus! Please!” I shouted.

 
“Stay here!” he demanded and stomped away.

   I listened to him and stayed inside with Tanya but I couldn’t help but worry. I’d neve
r seen Markus in a fight, I was betting that he wouldn’t stand a chance against Dean. Wait a minute. Why did I automatically think about a fight? Maybe he just wanted to talk. Markus wasn’t a fighter. Still…I had to go look for myself.

“I gotta go to the bathroom.”
Tanya said. “Are you coming with me?” she asked. Not phased or worried about Markus.

“No, I should stay here. So someone’s here when Markus comes back.” A good excuse. What I really wanted to do was follow him. I had to make sure he was alright. Tanya headed for the bathroom alone and as soon as she was out of sight, I rushed to the exit. As I pushed the huge door out, someone from the outside was trying to pull it simultaneously. I lost my grip on the handle and as I stumbled forward, I found Dean on the other side, blocking my exit. He looked down at me -motionless– staring at me the way he did that day I dropped the pencil. His eyes shined with pleasure. I looked at the small gap between him and the opening...small, but big enough for me to squeeze through. I mean,
really
squeeze through.

“I need to get through.” I stated, trying to keep my composure.

His eyes locked with mine. And that rapturing gaze was taking me away from what was important right now. After what seemed like an eternity, but what was probably only mere seconds, he tore his gaze away from mine and surveyed the gap between us. When his eyes glared back down at mine, they were dark and smoldering. He raised his arm and leaned his elbow against the door frame. A flirtatious smile formed on his attractive face. I started falling apart at the thought of that smile being for me, then he purposely closed the gap a bit more, shining eyes daring me to squeeze through.

I blinked with surprise. Now, more than ever, I wanted to squeeze through that gap. I wanted physical contact.

Determined, I tightened my mouth into a line and knitted my brow. I wanted to look angry and I wanted him to move away before I got sucked out of reality with him. His mischievous smile stayed the same and he kept right in his place. I took a deep breath and began to navigate through him, but it was a tight squeeze; I was literally between a rock and a hard place. The warm smell of amber enveloped me, hot, vibrant waves swept through me. I lifted my shaky hands and placed them on his rib cage to help me push my back against the wall and garner some distance from him. Not a budge. So I lowered my hand and placed it on his oblique. What I intended was to just set my hand there, but I found myself exploring the roped muscles of his core as I put my hand there. My heart hammered beneath my chest. I had to get out of there. Again, I pushed against him to widen the gap at least an inch so I could squeeze through. I looked up at his flirting eyes and popped right out the other side. A victorious smile shone on me as I turned around to face him, the door slowly inched to a close. All I saw were his green enchanting eyes through the darkness. And they were smiling.

When I finally made it outside, it was like stepping into an outdoor hallway with dividers and dumpsters beside each door. It was quiet, lifeless. I spotted Markus at a distance, getting up from a crouched position. And that made me immediately rush in his direction.

“Markus!” I made it to him speedily and helped him up. Thinking he was injured, I hugged him and patted him down. “Are you okay? What did he do to you?” I desperately asked him.

“Mindy. I saw. I can’t…” Markus panted. No. He was trying to breathe. It sounded like he had just been underwater for longer than he could hold his breath.

“What! Markus. What is it?” I cried out. My heart pounded in my chest. My mind tried to reel some possibilities of what happened, but I came up empty and my knees quaked at the words…

“The body.” Markus gushed quietly. He said it too softly. Like he didn’t want me to hear it, but he had to say it out loud. He ran around the wall beside us. I followed, keeping up with his pace. As we passed the corner of the wall, Markus crashed right into someone.

“Is this your way of asking me for a dance?” asked a velvety smooth voice. “I know I’m stunning Markus, but don’t give up on the ladies,” he bragged.

Markus looked up at him in disgust. “Shane?” he confidently asked. “Get into a fight?” Markus asked.

I looked up at Shane. There was a blood smear on his soft lips; it ran down to his delicate, powder white chin.

“No. Why?” asked Shane. He arched his brow in concern.

“You have blood on your mouth.” Markus informed and pointed at the spot without making contact.

Shane smiled, exposing his perfectly white teeth and wiped the blood with a tissue he pulled from his pocket. Without another word, he elegantly walked off, glancing at me as he passed. Immediately, Markus ran to where the dumpster was behind the wall. He jumped on the step attached to the dumpster and peaked his head in. With disappointment on his face, he hopped back down and searched the ground for something.

“Markus?” I was growing impatient.

He looked up at me baffled. His face was twisted with confusion.

“The body.” He breathed. “It’s-” He turned around and searched the ground again. “It’s gone?” he asked himself in disbelief.

ithout giving me any answers, Markus grabbed my arm and pulled me back inside. I jerked my arm away and planted my feet. He stopped and looked back at me, his face was washed in terror and his eyes were transfixed in horror.

“What happened with Dean?” I asked. “What do you mean when you say body?” I cried out.

“Dean?” his voice high in inquiry. “Did you see him? Is he still here?” His eyes darted throughout the club. “We gotta get out of here!” he squealed.

I had never seen him like that
before. I didn’t want to be pushy like I usually was with him, but something serious happened and Markus really didn’t want me to know. What did he mean by body? I nodded my head in agreement to his exclamation.

We rushed to the couch at which we had started the night. Tanya was chatting with Ayden. Crap! He invited me
there tonight and I had turned him down. Awkward! That was the least of my worries at the moment. As we approached, Ayden jumped to his feet, looking a little disappointed to see me there.
He
wanted to be the one to bring me there.

“Mindy? I thought you didn’t want to come?” he sharply posed as he staggered towards me. A hint of anger showed clearly on his face.

“Change of plans.” I said in hopes that it would end the awkward conversation. “We’re leaving though,” I added.

“No. Please, I need to talk to you.” Ayden pleaded with attempted charm. “Can you hang with me for a while?” He brought his hands up and flattened them under his chin as if he were praying.

“Markus is my ride.” I informed him.

“I can take you home.” He turned to Markus. “Don’t worry, dude. I’ll take her home safely.”
Ayden assured him.

“What do you want to do, Mindy?” Markus asked.

“I still need to finish talking to you.” I reminded him.

“We’re done. I have nothing to say. Ayden needs to talk to you anyway.” Markus insisted. He spun on his heels and as he passed Ayden, I heard him say, “Don’t leave her alone.”
Markus’ tone was serious.

Tanya rose up and skipped to me. She threw her arms around me and brought her lips to my ear. “Something’s different about Ayden tonight.” She paused and smiled at Ayden. Turning back to me, she whispered, “Be careful.”

“You have nothing to worry about.” I gave her an assuring smile. “Take care of Markus,” I suggested.

“Why? What happened?” she asked.

“I don’t know yet.” I said quietly while squeezing her a brief moment before releasing her.

She pressed her lips together with determination. I knew from that look that she was going to try to find out.

I didn’t want to deal with Ayden right now as he was so eager to rekindle our ‘friendship.’ I so wasn’t having it as I was more than fine without him…even if it has only been a week since I started avoiding him. I lead Ayden back to the couch to sit down, making sure not to sit too close to him. Unfortunately, the loud music blaring around us made that impossible.

“So, how have you been?” he asked.

“Good” I stated. As I glanced around the room, I found what I was searching for; Dean. Once again, he looked only in my direction. He was seated at the bar near the entrance, but this time I was sure he was looking right at me. Sadly, his face looked different than the smile he had for me before. It was no longer playful; it was now twisted in pain. Just to see what would happen, I scooted myself right up to Ayden, practically intertwining our legs together. Dean looked away swiftly. After a moment though, his eyes found me again. I couldn’t concentrate. I couldn’t focus any of my attention on what Ayden was saying. All I heard was his voice mumbling in my ear. And distracted as I was, I still couldn’t ignore the stench of stale alcohol masked by mint that crept out of his mouth.

“Mindy?” Ayden asked.

“Huh? What’s up?” I blurted absentmindedly.

“Have you been listening to anything I’ve been saying?” he asked in a huff.

“Have you been drinking?” I inquired.

Ayden exhaled. “I only had one drink at the house party I just came from.”

I glanced back at Dean then inched closer to Ayden’s ear. Agony spread over Dean’s face. “It’s too loud in here,” I said in his ear.

“Let’s go for a walk then.” he suggested.

I smiled and rose to my feet. Grabbing his hand might have been a bad idea, but I had to see if I could get another reaction out of Dean. And I did. We walked past him to get to the front entrance and his eyes blazed murderously at Ayden. They were like a dark sky, promising a threatening and ominous event in its wake. The shimmering array of stars glistened every time the flashing lights hit them. But it was a grim darkness that swirled around in his eyes.

When we exited the building, it looked as if the streets were congested with people. We hardly had any room to walk on the sidewalks, so we had to walk on the street instead.

“Let’s go somewhere quieter.” Ayden insisted.

We crossed the street, cutting off a car that was creeping at about two miles an hour behind another. Honks filled the air. Not directed at us, but at each other.

“I knew it would get like this,” Ayden said confidently. “I parked far. Do you mind walking?” he asked.

“I don’t care.” I lied. My boots were killing me, as a matter of fact. I felt as if they were squeezing my feet with every step I took, my initial expectation of comfort making it unbearably worse.

“Let’s cut behind this building,” he suggested, “It leads to the forest.”

Just about everything near Georgetown had a forest behind it. Austin was only fifteen minutes away, but still not far enough to get away from the forests.

“Where exactly is your car?” I asked.

“It’s at the end of the forest.” He stated.

I squinted at him from the corner of my eye.

“It really is.” He chuckled. “Don’t worry…it’s not that far.”

We walked deep into the forest with only the moonlight to guide us where we were going. I loved being here at night. All the sounds were more precise; the tree branches bristling against each other in the soft wind, the stream nearby, crisp water flowing calmly and smooth, making me want to go sit in front of it to enjoy it all the better. The walk was so peaceful that I had completely forgotten about Markus’ panic attack and the events that followed. I looked up at Ayden with a hesitant smile. He was very pensive and I knew what that meant; here it came. Whatever was on his mind was soon to come out and ruin my peaceful walk. But we had to get it over with.

“What’s on your mind?” I asked.

He walked a little ahead of me and leaned against a big tree. Actually, it was enormous! Half the size of my bedroom! I stopped in front of him awaiting his answer.

“Where are we right now Mindy?” he asked.

“What?” How should I put this? “Ummm…we… Are. Friends?” It was an unsure answer because I wasn’t sure where it would take me.

“You’ve been pretty distant.” He waited for some kind of answer from me. “Ignoring my phone calls.” He snickered. “And yet…you still want me.”

“Wait a minute. I never said that.” I blurted and crossed my arms in front of my chest.

“Your body did. On the couch. And when you grabbed my hand...” he cooed.

Crap! That was totally not why I did it. Mixed signals. How was I supposed to fix that? I couldn’t just tell him that I did it to get a reaction from another guy,
especially
another guy that was on the list of guys Ayden hated.

“It’s not what you think,” I replied. “I don’t have feelings for you Ayden. It’s over. It was never really…under.” I spat out. Thinking that was the end of that, I turned around to head back the way we came from. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Let’s head back.”

He grabbed my arm.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Ayden demanded. He then yanked me up to him and held me tight up against his chest. I struggled to get free, but I couldn’t. He was too strong. At that moment, I hated being so much smaller than him because it made me feel completely powerless.

“Stop it. Let me go, Ayden!” I hollered. He remained silent. And I saw that determination was written on his face. At that moment, I knew why he had brought me out here, where no one was around. It wasn’t because it was too loud on Sixth Street; it was because of witnesses. He pulled me closer and brought his lips down to mine. I caught another whiff of alcohol on his breath and I jerked my head to the side, away from his mouth.

“Hold still!” he ordered. His grip on my arms got tighter. I wasn’t sure if he meant to hurt me by doing so, but I did feel the stinging in my arms nonetheless.

     “Help!” I screamed out as loud as I could. But I heard nothing. Nothing but the panting Ayden and I were giving off, mine from being panic-stricken and his…his being from something else.

I was alone.

All alone.

My skin crawled at the thought, but then I gave off a louder scream. And in return…silence.

“No one can hear you Mindy…” he drawled.

He loosened his grip on one of my arms to reach for my head so he could force my face to be right up against his own. But I had other plans-I swung out my loose hand and punched him as hard as I could in the face. I had never punched anything in my life and the impact felt like I had broken something in my hand! Next, not wanting to lose momentum, I aimed my knee at his groin, but missed and hit his thigh instead. It still made him loosen me up a little, just enough for me to break free. I ran as fast as I could through the trees and shrubs. My boots weren’t letting me get that far and I knew he was going to catch me. A sickening wave of terror hit me at the thought and at the fast stomping I heard from behind me. I was used to running, but not in boots! Ayden, on the other hand, was a running back on the football team. I wouldn’t be able to out run him for long
, so I had to act. Quickly, I dove behind a bush. Luckily, the bush was mature, along with the rest of the forest, so it was more than big enough to hide me. I felt around the ground for something, anything I could use as a weapon. Among the mud and twigs, I found a rock the size of my fist. A little bigger would have been better, but it would have to do. I controlled my breathing while crouched down as low as possible. Gripping onto the jagged rock as tightly as I could, I listened for him. The twigs snapping under his feet were rapidly turning into thunderous cracking. Ayden was coming closer and I had to bite my lip to keep from screeching. The metallic crimson seeped out of my lip and traveled to my tongue. Ayden was much too close. He stopped just a few feet away from me and I quietly sucked in some breath. Without looking down at the bush covering me, he slowly crept in my direction. Did he know I was there? Was he trying to trick me?

He came closer still.

“Mindy…” he continued on, “…come on, baby. I was just having a little fun.” The sound of twigs breaking rang through the silence. But it wasn’t from his feet. He swiveled around and slowly crept towards the sound. A deer perhaps?

Now was the time to surprise him. If I hit him in the back of the head just hard enough, I could knock him out. I thought. Or would I kill him? I didn’t want to hurt him
that
bad. Something had to be done because sooner or later, he would find me. And maybe do horrible things to me. I began to steadily breathe again, though my eyes got watery. The hand I had clenched around the rock got shaky and damp from my nervousness. I released it and wiped the sweat off my hand to get a better grip on the rock. Should I run? And if I did run, how quickly would he hear me? But if I was to sneak behind him, I was sure to make some noise and I would be too far to hit him. I stood up as determination took over. He was bending over a bush, searching for me. That bastard! He’d never leave alone until he had me. I rose to my feet and ran as fast as my legs could possibly take me with my arm in the air ready to swing the rock at him. Right before I was in arms reach, he swung around and spotted my weapon. Instinctively, he tackled me, as if I were carrying a football and I was his opponent.