The world inbetween

Hours had turned to days, days to what seemed like weeks. The sun has risen and fallen as it always had. The seagulls' cries greeted the mornings and the stir of crickets sang of the night. The happy laughter of people drifted in and out of Shelly's consciousness giving proof that the world continued to turn outside her elegant prison... Consciousness... What a concept. The one thing that all mankind took for granted until it is taken away... and at that point what is left to do? What is left to do when the one thing that makes separates any one individual from another is brutally and forcefully taken away? An empty shell of a person... something broken with little will to live... Bitter thoughts continued battering Shelly's mind as the blinding golden rays of dawn poured in from the open balcony doors. The now familiar smell of salt air wafted in from the ocean.

Shelly could hear the cackle of seagulls as they fought over scraps of food they found along the tideline. She sat quietly at the small kitchen table where any normal person would be eating their meal peacefully, but not her, not now... She was the meal.

{Stupid, stupid, stupid...} The words stuck on a loop inside her brain when her brain was hers, that is... {How stupid could I have been to believe showing my ass and taking off with a man I barely know would fix anything. Was there really anything that needed fixing? I mean, it's not like I hadn't known for years how my brother felt. Hell, we are twins... And if I'm being perfectly honest, looking back, there was always a spark of life in Jos's eyes when we were around... I guess it just hurt to realize that spark wasn't meant for the both of us after all... and that maybe I wasn't as special to her as I'd thought... Now I'd give anything to go back and change the way I handled things, to be in the comfort of my own bed... to not worry if I will back up...} Shelly muffled a cry, not wanting to give the bastard beside her the satisfaction of hearing her pain. Shelly cringed against the metallic smell of her own blood as it stung her nostrils. {I bet they are still wrapped up in each other's arms right now perfectly content in their love, oblivious to any of this. They probably assume I'm still sulking and ignoring their texts... I doubt any of them have even thought about searching for me.} She winced as the fangs that had been embedded into her throat now retracted.

Dante chuckled as he wiped away her blood with the back of his hand. "You know there really isn't any point in me allowing you these moments of clarity if you're not going to react any longer."

Shelly turned her head toward the balcony not wanting to give him the pleasure of seeing the fear his words caused.

Dante snickered as he leaned one arm into the table top and grabbed her jaw with the other. He forced her face around to his and he continued to lean casually against the table top. "I should take over your mind right now, at least then I can force you to think of better things." His lips turned up into a wicked sneer as she squeezed her eyes shut. He sank his fingertips into the pressure points at either side of her jaws causing her to squeal in pain as she tried her best to clamp her mouth and eyes shut tighter. He released her jaws only to grab a handful of her tangled and dirty blond hair. He used his grip on her hair to force her up from her seat. Once she was on her feet, he dragged her to a dog cage in the corner of the adjoining living room. "Maybe I should throw you back in here a while until you decide to be a good pup." He shoved her roughly into the side of the cage.

Shelly cried out this time as her already bruised ribs crashed into the bars of the dog kennel. Before her body had fully sank to the floor beside the kennel, he had already pulled the door open and grabbed another handful of hair. This time he used his grip on her hair the heave her into the kennel, catching one of her toes in the door as he slammed it shut.

Shelly pressed her body against the back bars as tightly as she could trying to get as far out of his reach as she could while he slapped a padlock onto the door.

He sent her a manic smile once he was satisfied the lock was properly locked. "Since you are so determined to hang on to your clarity, hang on to it in here..." His smile widened more revealing the oversized canines that had been lodged in her throat only minutes ago. "I bet by the time I get home tonight, you'll be begging me to take over that shit show you call a brain." With that, he stood and began to walk toward the back of the small condo.

His words hit her like a ton of bricks. Her eyes bulged and she flung herself against the door of the kennel. "No! You can't leave me in here that long!"

He glared mincingly at her from over his shoulder, "Oh but Princess, that's where you're wrong. I can and I will." A wicked thought struck him then as he turned fully around. He took to long powerful strides back toward the cage. He bent down so their eyes would be on the same level, "I may even find some willing young thing to spend the night with. How would you like that?"

She cried out and backed up against the back of the kennel once again. "NO! You can't..." Her words trailed off as tears began to stream heavily down her cheeks.

He leaned in closer to the kennel lacing his fingers into the bars, "You know little pup, I was going to wait until you begged me to take you over but..." he shrugged his shoulders, "I'm enjoying this much more!" He began laughing in a hauntingly malicious way that sent shivers down her spin and bile racing up her esophagus. He used the finger interlaced with the bars to shake the cage violently. "Cry little puppy, cry! I wish I could taste your tears right now, but unfortunately, I'm running late." He stood up to his full height and began to turn but decided to toss one more well-aimed retort her way. "If there is one thing my brother won't allow it's tardiness." He tilted his head and gave an over-exaggerated fake frown, "Too bad for you it's not the torture of the innocent and helpless like yourself..." He shrugged as if it was nothing and added, "Then again my kind has been slaughtering your kind for centuries." When she tried to hide her tears and anguish, he violently kicked the cage and sent her his final verbal blow. "I'm sure if my father had known it was so fun to cage beasts, he would haven't have murdered your whole family..." Pure evil seeped for his pores as he continued after an emphasized pause, "He would have caged them instead." He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He skipped passed the many messages sent to him by his brother in reference to this morning's meeting and activated the camera. "Smile for me, little pup."

Shocked eyes turned back toward him. Shelly could not stop the river of tears that came pouring down her face. "You monster!" She spat the words at him, but he only smiled more happily before clicking the picture and turning away. He slipped on his shoes and began walking out the front door without giving her a second glance. A loud sob escaped Shelly as she heard the key turn within the lock. She was trapped in a dog kennel, all alone with no way out and no way of knowing when she would be released.

She buried her face in her hands as the sobs continued to build. "I'm sooo sorry!!! I would give anything to go back to the way it was..." Her words died off into soulful tears. "I accept you... I didn't even mind the fact you had decided to become a couple... I was just afraid that meant you would leave me behind... I was jealous..." Shelly let her feeling flow out of her as freely as her tears were. {Why couldn't it have been this easy to face my true feelings then... While I was still safe with my family... instead of now while I'm trapped in a fucking cage like some kind of wild animal...} She let the weakness of her body drag her down onto the floor of the kennel when a restless sleep slowly overtook her. Tears continued to stream from her swollen eyes as she slept fitfully curled into a tight ball.