“Excuse me,” Sydney says, inching toward me, but then rethinks it and retreats. “What’s y-your deal,” she stammers, bumping her hip against a chair.
“What’s my deal?” I press my lips together, deciding how to go about this. If Maddie were completely silent, I’d probably knock her out and walk away from it. Suffer the consequences. It’s not like I haven’t done that before—suffered. And I can sure as hell do it again. I take a few calculated steps toward her and slant my head to the side, inspecting blondie. “You really want to know what my deal is? Really?” My voice drips with sarcasm.
Sydney’s lips part as if she’s going to say something, but then she gets this frightened look and starts moving around quickly, practically jogging around the tables, ramming into some of them. All I can think is tackle her down and enfold my fingers around her neck. Strangle her, like I did to the man in the road. I want to so badly but I know I can’t, not with four sets of eyes on me. I have to ball my hands into fists and stab my nails into my palms to contain my inner desires that I don’t understand. I draw blood. Cut skin. It feels good, so I plunge my nails deeper into my skin I don’t move even when Sydney disappears into the back room. It’s the hardest f**king thing I’ve ever had to do—not following after her.
You’re a whore!
The voice is right—I am a whore. That among other things. I’m a sinner. A rebel. A punk. A psychopath, at least according to the voice. It’s not like I chose to be this way. Shit has happened that created me. Shit I don’t understand and don’t really care to understand. All I care about at the moment is chasing after Sydney, pulling her hair out, making her bleed. Watching her veins pop open. Spilling blood. Making her pay for saying those things to me. Not being weak and letting myself get walked all over. That’s Maddie’s thing. I’m alive just thinking about it and finally I decide to give into it and let Maddie deal with it later. I step forward, ready to go through with it—rip her to shreds.
“You okay?” Bella touches my shoulder and I whirl around, almost hitting her in the face.
She blinks, stunned, surrendering her hands in front of her and I blink, nearly falling to the floor as it feels like a ghost rushes from my body and I’m gone back into my hiding place, where I can’t be seen. Locked up, just like always.
Story of my life for the last six years, ever since I lost control.
Chapter 7
Maddie
“Relax, Maddie.” Bella lowers her hands only when I’ve took a few breaths and calmed down. “Jesus, you really shouldn’t let Sydney get to you. Trust me. It’s her mission in life to get a rise out of people.”
I nod, still unable to speak, fearing what my voice will sound like—fearing she’ll hear Lily in me. Worried that whatever just happened, will happen again. I feel a lot of fear at the moment. What just happened?
The man is gone. Sydney is gone. I’m shaking, beads of sweat covering my skin, my palms cut open, my mind racing from the lingering sensation of the voice, from Lily’s overwhelming control, from homicidal thoughts, from this crazy feeling of lost time. But I manage to shake it off before I return to the bar with Bella and begin checking the alcohol glasses to see what needs to be refilled, anything to ignore what just happened, because it’s all I can do at the moment, otherwise it’ll get even harder to breathe.
After making a trip back to the storage room, I go to the front counter where Bella is standing in front of the register, filing her nails, eyeing Sydney down, who’s staring, as she flips over a chair from the table and sets it down on the floor. I can’t even remember what I said to her to piss her off so bad. She was insulting me, then I got mad… then I…
“You know, I’m really starting to wonder if she has some sort of underlying grudge toward you,” Bella remarks as she moves the nail file back and forth across her fingertips. “Like maybe she knew you pre-amnesia and is holding a grudge.”
“Yeah, maybe... But why would she know me and not say anything for the last month?” I stare at Sydney trying to will my mind to make a connection. Do I know her from somewhere? I don’t think so... but then again how can I know? How can I know anything about the past unless someone tells me it?
Maybe she’s just not a good person. Did you ever think of that? That some people aren’t good.
“Then again it could just be because you kicked her ass the first week working here.” Bella looks away from Sydney and shakes her head. She reaches for a glass beside the register and takes a long drink. I don’t even bother asking what’s in it. I already know it’s something strong by the way her face twists as she swallows the liquid. Bella is great at pretending to be good, too, when really at heart she’s probably almost as equally as bad as me, well close anyway. “I should probably unlock the front door, huh?” She changes the subject off Sydney, glancing at the clock on the wall and then at the front door.
“Isn’t River supposed to be the one who actually unlocks the place?” I ask, looking up at the picture window above me where River’s office is. “I mean, I know he’s usually late, but he always gets here in time to unlock.”
“Actually River’s up in his office, “ she says as she rounds the counter and heads to the front door, twirling the keys around on her finger. “He came in early today.”
“Really? What’s the occasion?” I ask as she flips on the neon open sign. I feel exhausted, on the verge of passing out. Today’s been a rough day mentally and I’m not sure how much more I can take. I really should have just skipped out on work and stayed with Ryland.
Bella shrugs, unlocking the door with the key then returning to the bar area to put the keys in the drawer just below the register. “Who knows?" Her eyes sparkle mischievously as she winds around the counter and behind the bar. “Maybe he’s excited to see you after your hook-up last night.”
I adjust the bottom of my shirt higher as a bald guy comes roaming in the front door. “We didn’t hook up last night.”
She eyes me over suspiciously as she reaches down the front of her top and rearranges her cle**age so it’s pretty much busting out of the shirt. “I know there’s something going on between you two and I wish you’d just fess up so you can give me the juicy details.”
“Nothing is going on between us.” It’s not a lie. Nothing really is going on, at least not to me. Fun. That’s what I consider it. Pure and simple fun because anything else would be wrong. River’s a nice guy but I don’t feel nearly as comfortable around him as I do with Ryland. That steady peace I feel up in the cabin is more like unsteady nervous energy when I’m near River, mainly caused by Lily because she doesn’t like him very much. “And maybe he just got here early because he wanted to get a jump on things so he could actually come down and hang out tonight ”