FicWad

Chapter V: An Escape Route

"I was thinking maybe we should go out today. There's this little café that had opened down the street, and I think Sophia might like it if she got to go outside and see that little toy shop she likes."

"Hmm-hmm."

"We should also buy her some new clothes. Two days ago she came to me and said that some of her pants and shirts aren't fitting her anymore. 'They're too snug.' She has been getting bigger, and I think we should give her the talk of bras and panties some day."

"Hmm-hmm."

"Maybe I should buy her some cute little outfits, like a new dress or something. She has to get rid of that old tattered one. It's way too small on her, but she says she likes it because her Mama gave it to her."

"Hmm-hmm."

"I'm also going to buy her some sexy clothes, maybe a thong or two, and pimp her out to some perverted forty-five-year-old child molester just to earn myself a few hundred bucks to pay for gas."

"Hmm-hmm….Wait, what?"

"Aha, so there is someone in there after all?" Sam spoke victoriously over breakfast one morning, having gotten through the blank and wandering mind that was her best friend. The other woman looked at her in confusion, but she only winked cunningly at her, signaling that she was only kidding.

"I'm sorry, Sam, I just…I've been somewhere else," she confessed to her friend morbidly.

"Oh, I know that. I was wondering if you did."

Alli merely nodded and stared down at her plate of cinnamon eggs, toying with them with the edge of her fork carelessly, her thoughts unclear, fogged, as they had been for the past three days. Three days? Is that how long it's been? It felt even longer. Well, time really did seem to stop in that enclosed bedroom that she spent practically this whole week in. After the party, she just seemed to lose herself completely and spent the night—and half the day—in that room, crying and sleeping, though whatever minutes of sleep she seemed to gain were not pleasant ones due to her situation. She was practically blind to the apartment and the people around her, unable to see the stress and concern that was haunting the child that hardly got a chance to see her during the time, the confusion and frustration that her best friend was having to deal with, taking care of the child and herself when she hardly came out of the room. It was a sad thing to deal with, knowing that her boyfriend was an abusive and tormenting jackass that never respected her at all. She hardly ever saw Julian these past three days. Sam never told her that he stopped by the apartment to see her or if he ever called—he probably found another little toy to play with after the party and is probably screwing around with that one. She didn't care. She never really did. Julian was just someone she clung to in order to escape her past, but turned out he was the very incarnation of it.

"Alli, you really need to get out of the house. You've been moping around, and me and Sophia are starting to worry that you're getting depressed," Sam's voice broke out through the deafening silence in her head, and she lifted her eyes—those sad, sweet, lost gray eyes—to meet her friend's caring brown eyes.

"I'm not getting depressed. I'm just…I don't know, Sam. I want to break up with him so bad. I want to leave him. I even…I even…." I want to kill him! I want to kill him! I want to kill that fucking bastard! I want him dead!

"I know, I know, Alli, and I don't understand why you don't just up and leave him. It's not like you're bound to him by chains. He's just a guy, and you can do much better than him," Sam tried to encourage her, trying to cheer her up. Although she smiled back, that sad gaze…that horrible sad gaze never disappeared.

"Is this lecture over?" Sam's eyes widened a little at Alli's sudden expelling of irritability and retreat. She noticed this sudden surprise in her friend's eyes, and then she spoke. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I've just been really…irritable."

"It's cool, don't worry. Anyways, I was thinking about taking all three of us out today. You know, stop by a café, see that cute little toy shop that Sophia likes so much, and maybe even buy her some new outfits," Sam informed her.

"You know, that does sound like fun. I think we'll do that today. You're right, though, her clothes are getting a little small, but I don't think we should get rid of that dress, even though it is ratty."

"Hey, I thought you weren't listening!"

"Well, what do you know? I guess I was."

Alli winked at her friend, who merely gave her a sarcastic look as they finished up breakfast and prepared themselves and Sophia for the day out.

"This is nice. Aren't you glad I convinced you to come out with us?" Sam interrogated her friend, who glared at her darkly with a sly smile across the table from her.

"More like coerced," she teased.

"Well, you know I always get my way."

"Not all the time."

"Name one time I didn't get my way."

"Okay, I'll name one. Joey Carcen."

"That guy was a dickhead, he doesn't count."

"He turned your date down."

"Only because he already had a girlfriend—"

"That he started dating three weeks after you asked him out."

"He doesn't count. Name another."

"Joey Carcen's older brother, Michael."

"Will you get off the Carcen family?"

"You guys are funny!"

"Are we now?" Alli turned to the little girl sitting next to her, spooning into her small mouth bits of her vanilla and chocolate brownie sundae. Sophia was as cute and adorable as ever, looking like a little doll in her pink bow dress and her black hair tied up in a little flower-decorated ponytail.

The three girls were sitting together at a round table outside in the warm sunlight in the front of a cute Italian café that was down the street from their apartment. Sam was right, it was nice to finally be outside and take in the sunlight of the season. The sky was perfectly clear, a brilliant shade of teal blue, soft and gentle on one's eyes, unlike the hard sunlight that always seemed to shine too hard and make everything difficult to see. Alli was in a much happier mood now that she was out of the apartment, away from Julian, and she somehow had left all the madness of her life and troublesome conflicts at the apartment. The strings that bound reality to her were temporarily severed, and she was left wandering about in the warm, comforting, soft sunlight with her best friend and little cousin.

"How's your ice cream, Pretty Sophie?" she turned to the little girl beside her, who smiled back up in a fudgy, chocolate-caked toothy grin. I wish I had a camera, she thought to herself.

"Jis jummy!" she cried out happily in response. Alli and Sam exchanged looks of muffled giggles, and then they both sighed. Alli suddenly remembered what Michelle had told her at the party, about a magic show she had gotten tickets to go see after winning a radio contest. It should be in a day or so, and they had nothing planned to happen on Saturday night. Maybe these two would like to go see it.

"Pretty Sophie, do you remember when I told you that I'd take you some place fun and cool because I couldn't take you to the party?" she turned to the child, who looked back up at in confusion, curiosity, and excitement. Sam gave her the same look, minus the excitement. Sophia nodded happily, while Sam leaned in a little to listen to the conversation. "Well, my good friend, Michelle, got tickets to go see a magic show on Saturday. Do you want to go see it?"

"Yeah!" it was the cutest cry in the world to hear, and it seemed to heal her shattered heart when she heard it. She looked back up at her friend, and quickly added to her words, "You can come, too, Sam."

"Yeah, I better have been invited, or else I'll have to have a talk with Michelle as to why she's being a meanie-bo-beanie!" Sam lunged on Sophia and started tickling the little child, who cried and giggled hysterically from it.

Alli just merely stared and smiled at them pleasantly. Sam had been a great influence on Sophia, ever since the two cousins moved into an apartment with her, Sam had always treated the little girl like her own daughter, cherishing her, loving her, and caring for her, especially in situations that Alli was unable to. Before Sophia became the biggest part of her life, she had plans to go to a far off college somewhere and obtain a degree in journalism, possibly getting a world-known name and having her own talk show—White Oprah Winfrey, anyone? However, things changed, and although she didn't regret or hate it, a part of her did wonder what would have happened if Sophia didn't come into the picture. She didn't dwell on it, because by dwelling on it, you're regretting it, and that was something she never did. She loved Sophia with all her heart, and enjoyed being a motherly-figure to the little girl for the past three years.

"Hello, ladies. Would you mind if I showed you something?"

It was probably the strangest, most compelling moment for her at the moment, a sudden déjà vu moment that stripped at her and tore at her mentally when she heard that voice speak from beside her, a voice that spoke the same words she had read days ago, a voice that seemed to linger on a taunting haywire from within her subconscious dreams and tease her hysterically. She didn't want to, but she had to. She had to turn her head to see who had spoken, only to see the face and figure that had danced on that haywire, mocking her playfully and disturbing her to a point to where she desires morning to come and take her from those twisted and contorted dreams.

A man stood before them, a man that showed upon his face a coyness and cunning smile of arrogance. His dark hair was highlighted by a few streaks of light hair, but unnoticeable through the darkness of his strands, his face uncovered, allowing them to see his dark eyes fully, his hypnotic, mesmerizing dark eyes that seemed to pull anyone who looked into them in. He wore a normal black t-shirt with dark jeans and his worn boots, but she at once recognized him by the chain he wore around his neck, one of the crucifix railing that hung from the chain bound by handcuffs, and the other with the pendant of an "A" in a circle. It was that man…the one that horrified her on the bus. He apparently recognized her, too, as his eyes lingered on her a little longer than on everyone else, and a strange grin crossed his face.

"No, of course," Sam spoke before she could respond herself, but she cast her friend a warning look, which went unnoticed. The man looked from her to the child, who watched him happily. Alli was starting to feel a little uncomfortable with this man, feeling a sense of insecurity and paranoia rise up within her. A part of her—more like most of her—wanted to grab Sophia and take her back inside the café, away from this stranger.

"May I see your spoon, please?" the man held out his hand to the child, who eagerly placed in his palm her spoon—the very same spoon she had been shoveling ice cream into her mouth. The woman beside her cast a brief criticizing look at the child, which went ignored by both her comrades, who were watching the man enthusiastically.

"What's your favorite ice cream?" the man asked the child quickly, who gave the most adorable face trying to think of an answer. Finally, after only a brief moment of thinking, she answered.

"Chocolate!" Sophia exclaimed joyfully.

"Chocolate? That's my favorite, too," the man told her, though it was quite easy to tell that he was just trying to entertain the child, which worked perfectly, resulting in her clapping and giggling lightly.

"Excuse me, but would you mind choosing a number between one and ten?"

The man looked at the woman in front of him, sitting beside the child. She looked back up at him, confused and startled, but her gray eyes held within them the sense of no comfort and suspicion. She decided to play along, choosing the more appropriate answer that came into her mind at the moment.

"Four." Her grin was cocky, arrogant, much like the one he was giving.

The man clasped the spoon in his hand, shielding it behind his curled fingers, and he closed his eyes, as if meditating. He then unclenched his fingers, and revealed, being held tightly between them, four spoons, exact same ones that Sophia had given him. Sophia beamed and grinned excitedly, and she clapped her hands, but her "motherly" cousin was not impressed. She just kept staring at the man, this trick having been nothing compared to the one he had shown her on the bus.

"Okay, when I was your age, I loved ice cream. I think all kids are, and I never got tired of it. Some people get tired of it when they get older—" he started talking to the girl, but she quickly interrupted him.

"Yeah, like Allison here!" Sophia took her cousin's hand in her own two small palms, and gave a sarcastic grin at the older girl. Alli glared at her playfully and pulled her hand away, but when she turned back, she met his dark eyes once again, but there was a look within them….

"Even now, whenever I crave ice cream, I have to stop whatever I'm doing and go buy some. When you get older, though, there are days where, even though you want it real bad, you can't have it," the man laid the four spoons in his other palm, and he put his now free hand over them, concealing them completely from view, and he mumbled something that was incoherent to all ears, and then he pulled his hand away to show that the four spoons were gone.

Sophia jumped out of her seat, cheering and clapping happily, and even Sam was smiling a little in amazement. The other woman was not impressed, as this seemed to be nothing compared to what she had already seen.

"As a grown-up, though, you can't keep going to your mom for ice cream money, so you have to buy it yourself some how. Again, pick another number between one and ten," them man told Alli, who looked rather stunned that he asked her to do it again. She grinned, knowing that the next number to come to her head was probably the most childish and innocent one she could choose.

"Ten."

"Ten? Alright, do you know what half of ten is?" the man asked the child, who stared up at him, bewildered and confused. Sophia hasn't dealt with fractions yet. He seemed to read this on her face, and decided to rephrase his questions. "What's ten divided by two?"

"Five?" she seemed a little unsure of her answer, but the grin on his face told her that she had been right.

"Five, are you sure?" he asked her, and she looked from Sam to Alli, searching for any sign of another answer, but no one gave it to her. She nodded, still unsure. "You're right, it is five. Count with me, alright?"

He swiped his hands together vertically, and Sophia's green eyes watched them anxiously, practically leaning her chin just above her bowl of ice cream. Her cousin had to lean over and drag the bowl away towards the center of the table, away from the girl and her cute little dress.

He swiped his hands together once….

"One." Sophia counted.

He did it again….

"Two."

Again….

"Three."

Again….

"Four."

He swiped his hands one last time before bringing them together, and Sophia counted the last one.

"Five."

"Alright, now, do you know what ten times two is?" he asked the child, who looked around for an answer before she gave the one that was on her mind.

"Twenty?" she asked.

"Are you sure?" he questioned her, and she nodded, unsure, but convinced enough. He pulled his hands away, revealing a rolled up bill in the middle of his palm. "Twenty it is, then. There you go."

He handed her the bill, and she practically screamed when she unfolded it to reveal it was a twenty dollar bill. Alli and Sam both exchanged looks of surprise, but they couldn't get a word in edge-wise, as the child was cheering and jumping for joy.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Wow, that's a really nice thing you did, Mr.…." Sam went on, but she didn't know his name.

"You can call me Christopher," the man answered her before she could speak another word. She beamed, and she spoke his name again, as if it was the gospel words spoken by angels.

"Christopher."

"That was a very generous thing you did. And I think you might have taught her some things about numbers," Alli grinned a little, feeling a bit more secure after seeing Sophia's joyous and sincere smile that could only come from sheer surprise. Although she wasn't impressed by his trick, she was impressed by his kindness and generosity. This man, if anything, was sweet.

"It's my pleasure. But…speaking of numbers, I was wondering if I could have yours."

Time seemed to freeze itself around her, surrounding her in a cold, empty shell that separated her from the world. She couldn't look at the man, she physically and mentally couldn't. The moment she heard that pick-up line—oh, how long has it been since she's heard one—only one thing came to her, only one fact, only one person. The person that seemed to haunt her dreams and nightmares, torturing her in her subconscious and conscious state. It didn't matter if she was around him or not, he continuously had that control over her. She continuously had that fear, that unnerving, terrifying fear of a possibility of his actions if she ever gave in to the charms and handsome smiles that other men gave her. She had been fearful to look at other men, to crush on handsome and idealistic men she saw in movies and television, she had been terrified to even talk to one. What would happen if he found out? What would happen if he knew she talked to a man that wasn't him? Why should he care? He's probably messing around with other women. But it didn't matter, because she was owned by him. She was his girl. He claimed her as his girlfriend, his love—whatever that word seemed to mean to him—and because of that, she was forbidden to wander off of the leash that he had clasped around her neck.

She looked up to meet her friend's eyes, which were watching her eagerly and happily for a response to the man's line, as if desiring her to give up her information to him. Did Sam really want her to cheat on Julian? Sam was a strange girl, a playful and loyal friend, but did she even understand what risk she would be taking if her boyfriend knew about it?

"What?" it was all she could say to the man when she turned to him, and in those eyes—those dark, mesmerizing eyes—the look of confidence seemed to be decreasing the longer she looked at him.

"I'm sorry, I know it's probably something I shouldn't ask of you, but I was just wondering if I could have your phone number or something. Just so I can perform some tricks for you and your daughter here," the man tried to explain, but he started to lose that bit of cool and mystery of his aura as he continued to explain why he wanted her number.

"Well, I'm flattered, I really am, but—"

"Oh, for God's sake, will you just give him your damn cellphone number?" Sam sounded completely irritated and impatient with her best friend, and Alli looked back at her in shock and terror, wondering if she was going to turn the table on her.

"It's alright, she doesn't have to if she doesn't want to. Well, it was great talking to you three. Don't spend that money in one place," Christopher cast a cheerful smile at the little girl, but in his dark eyes was the frown of disappointment and shame for himself for performing such a risky move. He started to walk away, and before he was even out of eyesight, Sam jumped from her seat.

"Goddamn it, if you're not going to give him your number, I will!" she yelled to her friend.

"No, Sam, don't!"

But too late. Sam had leaped over the railing of the outside café and started racing after the man, calling after him. Alli continued to glare after her, but she watched hesitantly, fearfully, as she watched her friend caught up to him.

"I'm really sorry about my friend. She's a bit of a strange one. Here," the red haired woman held a piece of paper out to the man, and he looked down at it, seeing ten numbers written down on it. He smiled a little, but he looked back up at her.

"Thank you, but you didn't have to—"

"Don't worry about it. I know she really wanted to give it to you, she's just shy and strange. But that's Alli for you," the woman cried out cheerfully.

"Alli?" he looked into this woman's brown eyes, seeing that happy smile, and she knew what he was going to ask.

"It's short for Allison, she'll prefer it if you call her that. Anyway, feel free to call her anytime, I'm sure she'll love to talk to you. I got to go, otherwise I'm going to be in trouble with her. It was nice meeting you, Christopher."

With that, the woman turned on her heels and darted back towards the café, back towards her glaring friend and the happy child. The man looked at the slip of paper that she had handed to him, and then he just merely grinned with confidence as he stuffed it into his pocket. Alli, huh? Well, it was nice to see you again, Alli….