Detta woke the next morning and laid in bed, staring at the ceiling and mulling things over in her mind. The more she tried to think about the previous night, the blurrier the images became. Did she really have those encounters with the boys? They just seemed to appear next to her, around her and were gone. But she spoke to them, well a couple of them. But other people had to have seen her reaction; that she was trying to get away. Or they just didn't care. How many people would have run to help her if she was being raped in the middle of the Boardwalk? Perhaps a little extreme but it was testing the observance of those around her. No on else reacted to them though. Maybe she was the only one that saw them and heard their taunting. She had been in the sun most of the day.

She threw the sheet off of her body and hauled herself from her bed, setting downstairs to the office. She had a column due that she needed to get faxed to New York. She worked all morning at her typewriter, striving to get the article done. She needed to make an appearance in San Francisco this week as well, something she was not looking forward to doing. She finished her column around noon and sent it via fax to New York as well as sending it by mail. She walked to the mailbox at the end of her road to drop it off.

It was then that she saw her neighbor's house, got a good look at it, for the first time. It was a ranch, white, with a red Corvette sitting in the driveway. There was a wooden bridge extended over a tiny ravine that led to the front door. Detta saw something white and furry lying on the porch. She took a few steps closer to the house and saw it was a dog. Not wanting to disturb it, she stepped back and continued back to her own house.

That night was her first night working with Max on his advertisements. Detta wasn't nervous, just rather anxious to go back to that store. If what Maria said were true, she'd surely run into those boys again, something she was rather apprehensive about.

She stood behind the counter, flipping through a portfolio of old ads Maria had found for her. Detta thought she'd already see Max there but he wasn't. She needed to occupy herself in the meantime. As she stood, elbow on glass and chin on hand, tossing through the meager ads Max had done by other people, a voice echoed over her head.

"We're looking for a movie."

Without looking up, Detta answered, "You'll have to ask Maria. I won't be of any help."

A chilling, familiar voice spoke after her. "We were hoping you would."

A gloved finger found its way under Detta's chin and started to lift her head. She grabbed the phantom hand and twisted it, looking up at its owner. Her look of rage immediately dropped when her eyes fell upon the platinum blonde guy from the Boardwalk the previous night.

Detta swallowed her fear and tried to remain calm. "Oh. It's you." She cocked an eyebrow at him. "No help from me. I don't do sales."

She turned around to go into the back room but two more guys were blocking her only way out from behind the counter.

"What do you do?" the wiley-haired blonde asked her.

Detta looked back around and the evil blonde was smirking at her. Behind him was the dark, silent one, the one that glared at her last night. She turned around again to face the other two blondes and the one with the curly hair smiled an innocent yet devilish smile at her.

"First you assault the customers. Then you don't answer our questions. Tsk tsk," Platinum said. "What kind of employee are you?"

She looked at him and sneered. "An angry one. Now, if you'll excuse me. I have work to do."

Detta tried walking through the two boys but they formed a wall.

"We're just asking a question," Curly said. "No harm in that."

"Yeah, girl," said Wiley. "What do you do if you don't hoc videos?"

Unless Max walked in at this precise moment, she was stuck. She didn't want to answer but felt she had no choice. She rolled her eyes and replied, "I create advertisements, help promote the store. There. Happy?"

"Very," replied Wiley. He bowed low and stepped out of her way, gesturing for her to walk through.

Detta looked over her shoulder at the other two. Platinum just smirked and the silent one glared. Curly stepped out of the way as she walked towards him. She felt a need to establish her dominance with at least one of them so she looked straight into his eyes as she passed, not breaking the gaze. He smiled, looking back at her with the same determination. When she was bordering on walking backwards, she broke her gaze with Curly, walked into the back office and shut the door behind her. She could hear Maria come walking up to them, saying something about how they needed to leave before Max came in. After a few minutes, Maria came in asking if she was ok. Detta assured her she was fine and set back to work.

When she got out of work, Detta was in the mood to wander again and this time she was prepared for it. Tucked safely in her bag was one of her steak knives. It was better than nothing. She drove round to a parking lot just off the Boardwalk and set out on her stroll amidst the punks and runaways that littered the ocean-side.

She ambled past the rides and the jewelry store she visited the night before. She passed a piercer and contemplated getting another set of holes in her ears. Walking just past him, a voice spoke to her.

"You don't trust me, do you?"

The words rang in her ear, spoken so close to her. She turned to look for the source and saw Curly just behind her, walking up next to her. She looked away and continued walking.

When she didn't answer, he spoke again. "Do you?"

Without looking, she replied, "You haven't given me a reason to."

From the corner of her eye she saw him shrug his shoulders. "Never gave you a reason not to, either."

Detta scoffed, stopped walking and looked directly at him. "That stunt tonight, what was that? And the vanishing act of you and your friends last night? What am I supposed to make of that? They're watching us now, aren't they?" Detta scanned the crowd, looking for those familiar faces but couldn't find them.

Curly's smiled broadened. "Guess I have given you a reason to not trust me, huh? But does that mean you can't talk to me?"

Detta looked back at him, a puzzled look on her face. "Huh?"

"Do you have to trust me in order to talk to me?"

She rolled her eyes and continued walking, leaving Curly behind. When she saw he wasn't beside her, she stopped and turned around. "Are you going to talk to me or what? Because I'm going to continue this way and it might be difficult to talk over the crowd at this distance." She crossed her arms over her chest as he walked towards her. When he caught up, they continued on. "You have a name?"

"Marko."

She nodded. "They send you to torment me some more? You their messenger?"

Marko just laughed. "No. I'm here on my own."

"You're lying."

"What makes you so sure?"

"I can feel it."

"Well, you're feeling wrong."

"Am I?" Detta raised an eyebrow towards him.

"What about you? Got a name or should I just call you Movie Mama?"

Detta cringed. "Please don't call me that. It's Detta."

"You're new here." It wasn't a question.

She nodded. "Transferred. I was in New York before here."

Marko chuckled. "We scare you yet you're a New Yorker? I thought you guys were tougher than that."

Detta looked affronted. "Who said I was afraid of you?"

"Didn't have to say it."

"Looks like you're the one reading wrong now."

"Am I?"

"We need to turn around. My car's back that way," Detta said, realizing they had reached the end of the Boardwalk.

"So you don't need a ride?"

"Didn't need one last night, don't need one tonight."

"Will you need one tomorrow?"

"Why are you so keen on giving me a ride."

"Just being nice. Is no one nice in New York?"

Detta laughed out loud. "They would sooner stomp on your head than offer you a ride. And those are the taxi drivers."

"So?"

"Ask me tomorrow."

"You won't be around tomorrow."

"You say that as if you know."

"Am I right?" Marko looked at her with a half smile. In her boots, they came eye to eye.

Detta looked away and gave a nervous laugh. "Guess you caught me, huh?"

"You don't work tomorrow."

"I do. Just not here. I have to go up to San Francisco."

"How many jobs do you have?"

"Just the two. I guess they should keep me busy. But just because I don't work at the store tomorrow doesn't mean I won't come down."

"We're here most nights—"

"We? I thought you were by yourself!" The panic rose in her voice and her eyes started to dart around the crowd.

"I'm alone with you. I'm sure the guys are around somewhere but you're not being stalked," Marko said calmly.

"Could of fooled me."

"We just like to play with the fresh meat, is all."

"Um, thanks?" Detta gave another nervous laugh and Marko smiled broadly at her.

His smiled warmed her. She looked at his face and felt comforted. Even when he was with his group, he looked the least threatening. Wiley's hands looked ready to grope, Broody looked like he would rip her throat out and Platinum seemed like he wanted to harvest her soul. But perhaps she got it backwards. Maybe looks were deceiving. They came upon the parking lot and Detta easily found her car.

"I'm parked just over there." Marko's gaze followed her finger and returned to her face. "Thanks for walking me." She smiled lightly, unsure of what her next move should be.

Marko nodded. "I'll see you then. Soon."

Detta nodded back. "You know where to look for me," she said with a smile and started walking away. She turned back around just after a few steps and said, "Goodnight," before carrying on to her car and driving off.

"Goodnight, Detta," Marko whispered, staring intently after her before turning back to the Boardwalk to rejoin the crowd.

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