Hey, hope you enjoy this little tidbit of a story that I wrote a loooong time ago. I found it a while ago, and decided to post it! This will be a ONE SHOT. Unless I change my mind...
A Light in the Dark
It's only nine o'clock, and Club Illumination is just about to open for the night, with the waiters and bartenders standing on the sidelines, ready for their first orders. The black lights are up and functioning, making the neon colors of the tables and chairs stick out like sore thumbs in the popular rave bar. The table dancers were waiting backstage to be announced for the first acts of the night. Outside the infamous hotspot for underage girls and college boys, the line of eager teens and frat kids is steadily growing in size and length. The club's two most highly paid bouncers were at the front doors with arms crossed over there broad chests and stoic masks on their faces as they await orders from the club's owner to start admitting customers inside.
The permission comes at 9:05 on the dot, and the bouncers immediately start ushering people forward checking their identification briskly, and purposefully ignoring the obvious flaws that made it plain they were illegitimate. Only turning away the ones who look like they might start trouble, the bouncers make quick work of the large crowd of ravers and in just under an hour the club is completely full, and they must close the entrance.
The owner of the elite club is a practically a phantom. Very few of his workers have ever even laid eyes on him. Only his best friend and one of the bartenders, Seth and his sister Leah Clearwater, a waitress, have had the privilege seeing as they are close family friends. He prefers it this way, no one knows why. There are two things you should know about him. He hates being made a fool, and if he ever catches you anywhere near the restricted area of his club reserved for his private use, you better run for your fucking life. He will be on you like white on rice, and he won't back off until you are far, far, far away from him. Dramatic right? Not to him.
"Rose, get your ass over here, and start working some tables! The Boss doesn't pay you to stand there, and talk to customers! He pays you to take their fucking orders, NOW GIT!"
"Oh, have a fucking barn why don'tya?" Rose hollers back at Milo, one of the bartenders, but works a little bit faster anyway.
"Goddamn, place is packed to the fucking nines tonight," she grumbles under her breath as she sucks in her barely there stomach, trying to squeeze through the large crowd of ravers that are all grinding against each other to the techno music blaring through the speakers attached to the ceiling around the room.
She finally gets through the last of them before she reaches the table she needs to wait on, but some idiot suddenly moves in front of her, catching her off guard. She smacks into his chest before she can regain her balance.
"Hey asshole! Watch where the hell you're goin'!"
"My apologies ma'am. I just couldn't resist your beauty. I thought I would come over, and say hello. I brought you a drink, if you would like one," the gravelly voice said politely.
"Omar? Is that you? I thought I recognized your voice. I thought you weren't working tonight?" Rose queries looking up at the six foot tall bouncer.
"Rose? Oh my bad, I'm sorry, I thought you were a customer. I'm not working tonight, but I thought I would come enjoy the club I work at for a change, you know?" Omar replied nervously, rubbing the back of his shaved head.
Rose cocked an eyebrow, and put a hand on her hip, balancing the empty tray in her other hand against her other hip, while staring up at him dubiously.
Omar chuckled dryly, and shuffled his way around her taking with him the two tall glasses of what looked like scotch on the rocks, and bidding her goodbye.
Shaking her head, she continued forward to the table a couple feet ahead of her, and started taking the orders of the obviously already drunk fraternity boys.
She rolled her eyes at their lame attempts to flirt with her, and after writing down the large order of various alcoholic drinks, she spun on her heels intending to squeeze back through the crowd of sweaty bodies, but something stopped her.
A girl, a very small girl who appears barely fourteen years old, huddled in the corner of the room nearest to Rose. She's hunching over, her arms wrapping around her torso, and holding her ripped halter top together across her chest. Her plaid skirt is crumpled, and appears to be covered in some sort of dark stain. The young girl has obviously been crying for quite awhile, her make up smudged around her eyes. Her raven hair looks like a bird just laid its nest there. All in all, she looks like shit. She also looks scared to death of everything going on around her. She flinches every time the music beats out a deep bass rhythm, or someone yells or moves past her too closely. She reminded Rose of a caged and wounded bird. This feeling is what compels Rose to attempt to find out what is wrong with the girl.
Rose tilts her head to the side, and moves cautiously across the space separating her from the frightened girl. The girl's head snaps up at Rose's approach. And Rose immediately stops seeing the girl's terrified expression turn to one of distrust and pain.
"Are you okay?"
No response.
"Do you need help finding someone? Are you lost?"
Silence.
"You don't look too good, kid. Are ya hurt? Do you need a doctor, or to go to the hospital?" Rose asks a bit rudely, getting frustrated by the lack of response.
The girl vehemently shakes her head. Rose is at a loss for what to do with her. It is obvious that she is NOT okay, but she refuses help so what's a girl to do? Force it on her anyway.
"Well, let's go. I'm going to take you back to the employee lounge you can sit there for as long as you like, and tell me what in God's name happened to ya. Okay?"
The girl stays silent, but then after a moment she nods her head in agreement slowly. Rose nods to herself, and sighs. She holds her hand out to the girl waiting patiently for the girl's trust.
It comes about ten seconds later. Hand in hand, Rose leads the young girl along the length of the wall, not wanting to subject her to the large mass of bodies thrashing to the music on the dance floor. It takes longer to get to the employee lounge, but they eventually make it there, and Rose unlocks the door using her key card. It's the type you would see at hotels, and upscale apartments. Harder to pick a lock when you use a card, and not a key. At least that's what Rose assumed The Boss picked they type of lock for. Not a whole lot is known about The Boss so, anything related to him is usually just circumspection, or based off rumor.
"Rose, what are you doing back here? I thought your break wasn't until midnight?"
Rose turned around at the voice of her friend and fellow waitress, Leah Clearwater.
"It's not but I have something I need to do really quickly. Don't tell Milo okay?" She pleads with her.
Leah shoots a look at the tortured girl next to me, and I see her pretty gray eyes soften. She nods her head, and gives a little wave before continuing to the table she was headed to. Rose silently thanks the heavens for great friends like her, and ushers the kid inside before someone else catches them.
"What's your name Hun?" Rose asks her, tired of referring to her as 'the girl.'
She glances at Rose from under the monstrosity that is her hair, and then looks back down at the floor.
"Kim."
"Pretty name," Rose compliments her smiling, "I'm Rose."
Kim just nods quietly, a small smile lifting the corner of her mouth. Rose returns the half smile, and waves her hand to a small round table with several small stools around it. Rose sits in one of them, and motions for Nadine to do the same.
"Can I get you something to drink? Are you hungry? How about a new shirt perhaps?" Rose suggests while eyeing her torn top, concerned.
Kim pulls it tighter across her chest as best as she can, trying to cover up the exposed skin, but it's useless. The shirt is practically ripped in shreds. Rose can see tears come to poor girl's eyes as she vainly attempts to hold more than just her shirt together.
Rose tries as hard as she can not to show her pity for the child because she knows it would not be taken well. She stands, and states that she is going to go find a nice t-shirt for her in the lost and found. Kim just nods wiping her tears away.
Kim's POV
It hurts. It hurts so badly. I don't know what to do or how to make it stop. I needed an escape. I was stuck there in that corner with all the people oblivious around me. Their jerky movements scared me. Rose. She helped me. Offered me an out and I took it. Despite that I don't know if I should trust her or not. What if she knows him?
'Don't be ridiculous Kim,' I chide myself.
I lift my head, and glance in the direction Rose went off in search for a shirt for me. I smile at her compassion. There is a door marked 'Restricted Access' on the opposite side of the room as the door Rose went out. I stand up, and walk over to it slowly, ignoring the agony between my legs, to take a peek on the other side. I open the door a crack, and what I see makes me breathe a sigh of relief: a first aid kit. I open the door wide enough to fit my small frame, and step inside the well lit fancy hallway. I don't pause to ogle seeing as it is a 'restricted' area, and I don't want to get caught; I just want the first aid kit. Maybe there is something in it that can help with the agony my bruised body is feeling. I reach the small kit hanging on the wall, and am just about to pull off the top to look inside it when an extremely aggravated voice makes me freeze in place.
"What the hell are you doing?"
My heart feels like it's going to pound out of my chest at any given moment as I slowly turn around to face the stranger.
It's a man. A very tall man, he towers over my short 5'1" at what appears to be 6'1"or 2". He is also muscular but not overtly so, more lean than bulky. Despite his well-developed physique he is actually quite young, maybe twenty or so. His face is blurred by my tears. My chest starts heaving.
"Hey, I asked you a quest- Hey are you okay?" the man asks perturbed by the sudden change in my demeanor, from shocked to terrified.
But I may as well have been deaf. All I can think about is that he is mad at me. He is going to hurt me. I am such an idiot for coming back here.
"I-I'm so-sorry-y-y," stutter out through the tears streaming down my face, "Please don't h-hurt me."
"Hurt you? I'm not going to hurt you. I don't hit girls. But why the hell are you back here? This is restricted access only. Which is for me. And only me."
"I-I was g-going to look through the first aid kit," I stutter again still wary of him. HE said he wouldn't hurt me either. They all lie.
He frowned; at least I think he did. I still can't see him clearly due to the tears still clouding my eyes not falling, but not dissipating either. I feel a warm large hand brush my shoulder and I shriek curling against myself, sliding down the wall.
"Hey, hey, hey I won't hurt you. Don't cry, it's alright," the man soothed not touching me, obviously getting the message that it would set me off.
I sniffled, and slowly lifted my head up off my knees. The tears have finally cleared, and I can see his face. Its two feet away from my own. He is on his knees on the ground next to me leaning against the wall copying my pose, but with his head turned my way. Wow. He has the prettiest eyes I have ever seen in my life. They were golden brown sort of like honey, but they had bright green emerald specks surrounding the pupil. My breathing slows down completely back to normal, and my mind is suddenly at peace. His eyes arouse feelings of safety within me just by gazing into my own for mere seconds. He smiles when he sees I have calmed down, and a dimple deepens the left side of his smile making it look imperfect but beautiful. And that smile is what makes the world go round. It makes me feel like I am worth something, something precious. Now I just feel weird and stalker-like. So, I shake it off, and focus on his other features. He has thick, but not bushy eyebrows the same color as his beautiful raven-colored wavy locks, sharp cheekbones that slant down to a perfectly rounded chin adorned with extremely kissable lips. What am I thinking? I just got…abused, and here I am thinking about kissing a total stranger! A smoking hot stranger with long, lean arms that I imagine would feel great wrapped around m-DAMN IT! Stop it, Kim. He wouldn't want you anyways. You are tarnished. Ruined. With that in mind, I push aside all desire or infatuation I may have for him.
"You want to tell me what happened to you?" he asks me softly.
"I…I was…" I struggled to admit what happened. To just say it. Nothing comes. I am afraid.
"Kim? Kim, where are you?" Rose's anxious voice called out to me, snapping me out of the little world I was in with the stranger.
He frowned once more upon hearing Rose call out quite loudly. I grimace apologetically, and pull myself up off the floor gently. Using one hand to grasp the edges of my tattered top, and the other to push my hair out of my face, I look back down at him. He looks confused for a moment but, then realizes I must in fact, be who the woman was calling out to. He quickly stands up as well, and is about to speak when Rose sticks her head around the open door.
"Oh my god! I am so sorry, sir! I know this is a restricted area. I left her for just a second, and she wandered off! It will NOT happen again," Rose apologized fervently.
The man frowned menacingly at her all traces of the kindness, and compassion he showed me absent from his beautiful face, and held his hand up.
"I will let it slide seeing as she was clearly injured, and needed the first aid kit here," he jerks his chin to the wall with the small box, and then continues, "but don't let it happen again."
Rose nods her head jerkily, and reaches her hand out to wrap around my arm. She begins to pull me out the door quickly, but the man's voice stops her.
"No, I will take care of her. You get back to waiting tables."
Rose's jaw drops, and she numbly nods her assent before handing me the t-shirt she found, and rubbing my arm sympathetically. She then says goodbye to me, and scurries out the door with a fearful glance to the man. I turn my own nervous gaze onto his harsh face, and wait for what he is going to say. His face smoothed out, and softens once more as he stares into my frightened eyes once we are alone again.
"I meant what I said before I am not going to hurt you."
"Then, why was Rose so scared of you?" I breathe out tentatively.
"It has been my personal experience that fear can motivate people to stay in line better than money can," he shrugs, "I have created quite the rep for myself so as to frighten my workers not to test my patience. I have yet to have an incident with any of them."
"I guess that makes sense, in a weird, twisted way." I shrug back, grinning a little.
He grins back, and I am stunned once more by how unnaturally gorgeous he is. He motions for me to follow him down the hall.
"Come along now; let's get you cleaned up shall we?"
I hesitate. What if he is lying? How can I trust another man? I don't think I will ever regain that sense of security I always had around boys. I used to feel so strong, so confident. All of that is gone now. Thanks to that bastard. I don't know if I can ever trust a man again, much less this one. But I do know one thing. I'm sure as hell gonna try.
I'm pretty sure this is going to remain a one shot, as I had previously decided. However, if I get enough good responses, maybe I'll stretch it outa little while. Hope you liked it!