Sapphire (Part 1!)

I was dancing around on a gravestone, spinning on my toes and throwing my arms around, singing with the songs in my head. I was smiling and I was laughing. The warm sunset light spilled across the treetops, coating me in orange honey-like light. It seemed to ooze through my fingers, and my shadow danced with me.

"I would stop time to stay with you
I would stop time so we don't move
I would stop time
I would stop time
I would stop time to keep you," I sang, launching in the chorus and holding my arms out to the light. I loved this feeling. I felt so alive, so powerful.

"You're here by my side, in the summer, our last summer
The world passes by in the summer, our last summer
The light makes shadows fall, surrounded by each other
Alive to watch it all, a view from our last summer
The view from our last summer!"

The words echoed back to me across the empty graveyard, and I spun around again, her hair whirling through the air. I tripped on a ivy strand and fell off the gravestone, giggling. As I lay in the grass, rolling on my back and laughing as loud I was sure I was distracting the birds singing in the tress, I felt a shadow move across my face. I tried to open my eyes, but tears of laughter were blurring my vision.

There was someone there.

Instantly, I sat up.

"Frank?" I asked, blinking in the blinding lights.

"Anyone but," came a cold voice that chilled me right through to my bones. Oh shit.

"Now, what I don't understand," he said, pacing around me wildly "Is why ya even saw me in the first place?"

He was drunk. He was agitated. He was furious.

I sat on the gravestone, the cold stone starting to bite into my back through my thin coat. That day I had worn my sexy tight black jeans with the buckles, the hooked corset top and my demin coat over those. Why hadn't I changed? My knees were drawn up on my chest and I wrapped my arms around myself in a vague attempt to hold the warmth inside my body and not let it bleed away

He turned again, making me jump. He looked terrible; his eyes glazed and open wide, like everything surprised him. He looked demented. He strode over to me, swaying a bit and grabbed my hair, forcing my head back against the stone roughly. I winced as my head cracked against it. He smiled grimly, pushing it back further and leaning in close, his disgusting breath making my stomach heave.

"Well, slut?" he hissed. "Does it hurt?"

"V-Vince…" I stammered, screwing my eyes shut against the tears that threatened to overspill. I didn't want to cry in front of him.

"Well?" he asked again, more forcefully, through gritted teeth. He ground my head into the stone, and I gasped as my skin tore, blood beginning to stain the tombstone a new colour.

"No!" I whispered, weakly trying to force his hands away from me. He grabbed my wrist in his free hand, twisting it away from my body. He was too strong, I couldn't move as he crushed into me, his knees pushing against my shins. I felt tears seep from my eyelids.

"That's right, cry for yarself, slut. Ya never cried for me, I bet," he said. But maybe the tears worked, as he released my head and I touched the head gingerly, feeling warm liquid seep around my fingertips. He still gripped my wrist, his fingers digging into my flesh. Blood pumped in my hand, complaining.

"Please Vince-" I tried, imploring him with my eyes. I wanted to run, to escape, but I had tried that. My knees were bloody thanks to it; he'd caught me before I'd even managed a step.

"DID I NOT TELL YA NOT TO SAY MY NAME, YA SLUT?" he yelled, dragging me off the stone by my wrist and throwing me down into the gravel of the path. My wrist cracked under his palm and I cried out. Stones pressed themselves into my face and I held my wrist close, knowing it was broken. How could this happen?

He stood over me, as if trying to decide what to do with me. I sobbed loudly, from fear and pain. I felt pressure on the side of my face, his boot pressing into my head. Dread gripped my heart. What was he going to do? Crush my head to a bloody pulp?

It didn't seem that unlikely.

"Come on, slut, I wanna hear ya beg," he said, kneeling down and increasing the pressure on my face. It hurt so much I could hardly hear him over my heart thumping in my ears.

"Please…no…" I begged, trying to edge my face away from the sole of his boot by that just made him press harder.

"Move and I'll break every bone in ya body," he whispered to me. His hand reached for my broken wrist, squeezing the area sharply. I squealed, the pain stabbing like hot pincers. I knew he was grinning evilly.

"Course, I'll probably do that anyway,"

I whimpered, biting down on my lip.

"By the way, I loved ya singing. Ya're right, this could be ya last summer,"

Maybe it hadn't hit me properly before, but I suddenly realised how much trouble I was in. He could do anything to me here. He could hurt me, he could torture me, he could kill me. I would never see my Dad again. Or Gee, or Mikey or Ray.

I would never see Frank. That made everything so much more worse. I would never tell him how much I loved him.

"Oh God…" I sobbed, tears soaking the path beneath my cheek.

"Come on, slut. Don't make me beat it out of ya. Beg, goddamit," he growled, pushing harder. I cried out again, and this time I gave it words.
"FRANK!"

It was the second time I'd yelled out his name that day, both times with Vince. It worked just like before. He jumped away from me as if stung.

"YOU WHORE!" he yelled, grabbing my shoulders and pulling me up, screaming into my face. His spit sprayed my tear-streaked face, but at least I wasn't being crushed beneath his boots anymore.

"YOU DIRTY SLUT! YA SAID HIS NAME WHILE I WAS FUCKING TOUCHING YOU!" he screamed at me, shaking me. I could barely feel anything anymore. Not the throb of my wrist, the tears and the blood mingling on my face, Vince's fingers digging into my arms. I was numb and I just wished it was over.

"Frank…." I whispered again, but he barely heard me in his ranting. He threw me down again and spat at me, standing back. I lay there, unable to move. Terror and pain had merged into a single emotion that immobilised me while shrieking to run, to hide.

All I could see was Frank's beautiful face, smiling at me the last time I saw him smile. His eyes gazing into mine. I wanted to stay there, with him. When I opened my eyes though, it was a cold, harsh reality that slapped me in the face.

Vince's kick left my jaw bruised and me spitting out blood. I couldn't feel it properly, I was going into shock. His next kick was delivered at my stomach, forcing the air out of my lungs and I coughed, choking. Another to my back, cracking ribs.

"Please…" I groaned, barely summoning the energy to cry out. I waited for the next assault, but it didn't come. Instead, he stood as watched me writhe in my own blood.

"Ya know…" he said, almost calmly, his eyes roving over my broken body inside my sexy outfit. "We never did finish up, did we?"

I opened my swollen eyes, where his first attack had blackened them, searching his face. He looked insane, pure evil. I saw what he wanted to do. I had never felt so terrified in my entire life.

"Maybe it's time we do,"