Title: Cuts Like A Knife

Author: Stress

First written: May 12, 2002

Edited and replaced: January 21, 2005

Summary: Part I of the Soul Mates Series; She thought that life couldn't get any better. She had friends and a family that loved her – she was taken care of and had no complaints. But that was before he came into her life. And, no matter how hard she tries to escape his grasp, he'll never let her go.

Every Day

And that's how it was from then on. Every day, Spindle would pick another girl out of the group and spend the entire day selling with her, pumping her for information on Rip and his "mystery girl" for she definitely knew that there was one even though no one admitted to knowing about her. One day she would go and sell with Mimic, then Dice, then Psyche, then Moneybags, then Spadey, then Corner, then Braces, then Tunes, then Snow Drop and then Grace. It was getting closer to Iris's turn and she was dreading it.

Every day, Iris would pray that Jess would explain to her what she had seen so that when it came for her to have her turn at talking to Spindle she wouldn't have to lie and could be completely honest, yet every day, Jess refused to speak to her. In fact, she was beginning to refuse to speak to anyone.

Every day, Spindle would visit Rip at the boys' lodging house, waving hello to her new friend, Danger, as he always remained on the opposite side of the room that she was on.

Every day, Rip would return from his day's business, not giving out any information of where he had been and telling Spindle that he was not in the mood to be intimate with her. She knew the only reason he didn't want to be intimate with her was because he had someone else he was seeing on the side.

And, every day, Spindle would try all the harder to find out who this "mystery girl" was.

Every day, Rip would grow further distant from Spindle, yet never ending their relationship, preferring to keep up the front that he and Spindle were happy. That way, no one had to ever know about the love he shared with Jess and how intimate they were. He had already made sure that she would never tell.

Every day, Rip would convince himself even further that Jess was his one true love and he would stop at nothing to keep her with him.

Every day, Jess would grow a little bit quieter, a little bit paler, a little bit thinner and a little bit more afraid as she went about her day, waiting for Rip to come for her, hoping that maybe, just once, he wouldn't hurt her.

And every day, like clockwork, Rip would come for Jess, after they had finished selling, for their "quality time" together.

Every day, he would force himself on her, beating her if she resisted, until the day when she just stopped resisting him.

Every day, he would hold her when he had finished and every day he would tell her how much he loved her as he laid with her, gently stroking her hair.

Every day, he would tell her he was only doing this to her because they were in love and that's what people in love did. That Jess should be lucky that she had someone who cared about her the way he did.

Every day, she would limp home when Rip allowed her to leave, after he reminded her what was at stake if anyone found out about their relationship.

Every day, she would lay in her bed, sobbing, knowing that if Rip loved her the way he said he did, he wouldn't put her through such torture.

Every day, Iris would pray that Spindle would pick someone else to sell papers with, instead of her. Her oath of loyalty to the leader would make her tell Spindle what she knew about Jess and Rip and she didn't want to have to do that. She happened to like Jess and didn't want to see her "make acquaintance" with Spindle's knife.

Every day, Jess's friends were growing a little bit more worried for their friend. They had known her when she was a vibrant, young, delightful girl and they knew her now. They knew something was wrong but every day Jess kept her silence.

Every day, the O'Connor's would try to get Jess to remember the happy times and every day they tried to get her to stop selling papers, because it was after work that she came home, every day, even more upset. And there was nothing they could do, because, every day, Jess insisted on going out to sell the papers.

If only they all knew that not only was it her life that Rip threatened every day, but it was her friends and the O'Connor's as well. That's what kept her coming back to him every day. Not the "love" that Rip insisted they shared. No, not at all.