Stuck in the Middle

Marcus

I ran my hand over Juliet's hair. For the first time in years, I was touching her. The night before, when we were sparing in the ring. I had her in my arms. I actually smiled. Seeing her brought a smile to my face. But not like that. Not all cut up. Swollen red lashes, open flesh over her back. I took some more hair out of her face. She was sleeping. The branding sleep. Mine was fitful, but hers seems to be going okay. I wished I knew how it went after I did that to her. 

The previous night, we wanted to get in the car. A man approached us. The same one that woke me up. Covered in tattoos. He didn't say much but that we had to follow him. That we couldn't take her all the way to France like that. At first, I didn't understand. I would have taken her to a hotel. He took us back into the house and into a room. Juliet dangling in my arms. I finally had her, but at what cost? He took a small device that fitted in his palm. He seemed to be pressing buttons, but also not really. It was all on a glass plate. We were in the room, and then we were not.

"Where are we?" I asked when I could make no sense of what had happened. We had moved from one place to another. The girl and boy with us were stunned and kept clinging to each other. Juliet's friends. I think she said her name was Chars? Short for… 

"Technology, your father didn't tell you about. Vampires invented this. Teleportation. Instantly from one place to another." 

"Charlene and Carl, will you make sure she's in Louis's bed when she wakes up." The guy said, leaving without another word. 

Carl helped Charlene walk out of the bushes. I followed. There was a lane that led up to a house. A grand, massive mansion. The Alps behind it, around it. Snowy peaks. It was breathtaking. 

They showed me the way through the front door. It was open, and we just walked in. Juliet was so free there. Charlene immediately climbed the stairs a little to the side of the dining room. The staircase itself was beautiful. Hand-carved wood. Nothing could have prepared me for the view the room at the top had to offer into the valley. The room was magnificent and panoramic. Even the roof was glass, with a bed on the floor. Stacked on simple pallets. Slowly, I placed her down on her stomach. Put a pillow under her head. I sat down and didn't get up for hours.

*** 

Over the next three days, Charlene and Carl would come into the room a few times. When they did, they flopped down next to her, feeling her for a fever. Cleaning her wounds. The ones my father caused. I had to help fix her up that time. Checking on the burn. Marveling at one that was already there. The first time I saw the tattoo, I stopped breathing for a moment. It wasn't an ugly mark like I had feared. Another time, when they came in, they took photos with their phones with her passed out. 

"What are you doing?" I asked, a little offended. 

"Oh, Juliet has an album of where she passed out from drinking too much. Carl here takes a photo every time." They both giggled, lying next to Juliet, going through his phone. I grabbed it from him. "Please don't break it." I pull my lips in annoyance. I scrolled through his photos. 

My heart started beating faster seeing Juliet like that. At the beginning of a party. The middle of the same evening. She does something stupid in some of the photos. The last one would be where she was lying in some awkward position. Carl guarding her like a hawk. In most pictures, Charlene was right next to her. Doing whatever Juliet was doing. Juliet was always dressed in nothing but the smallest amount of fabric I had ever seen. My eyes darted to Carl. How and why did he handle it? Should I be jealous? 

As if reading my mind, Carl started explaining. "Juliet, Charlene, and I are just friends. We met on the first day of public school. We were seated together and have been together every day since." Another pang of jealousy. She had more people in her life than I had after two hundred years of living. "Liam and Cindy are coming. It's not like the teenagers were allowed to completely go off the grid alone. They stayed for Chris."

"That other guy?" Carl nodded. Another pang of jealousy. How would I get over this? My hand kept scrolling. Juliet in skimpy dresses. Lots of make-up. Breasts are almost visible in some. I did feel like breaking the phone. Seeing her like that. I scrolled even more back over the years. Juliet with guy after guy. Sitting on their laps. Dancing. Doing shots and… I swore loudly. I threw the phone on the bed next to him. He picked it up and stared at it. Juliet was kissing a guy looking at the camera with those smoldering eyes. Smokey dark eyes. Her tongue was visibly licked by the same guy, and her hand grabbed his crotch. 

"Oh, that's Jerry. The guy that cut her up." Anger rippled through me. She let a guy kiss her like that, and he almost killed her. I didn't do anything the night before. When my father punished her. Was that not worse? What was I doing there? My eyes fell on her. She was so peaceful. So beautiful. Charlene pulled down her pants, and Carl applied the ointment to the redness that outlined the picture on her butt. Together they changed the bandages on her back and face. 

"How can you touch her like that. Is everyone like this with each other? Out there in the world?" 

Charlene snorted. "Juliet doesn't let anyone touch her. "Jerry was her first long-term relationship, and Carl has special privileges," Charlene said.

They shared a look and were reminded of the same experience. "Remember that guy…." Charlene giggled and nodded. 

Hope rose inside of me. Maybe just maybe, she hadn't given all of herself away. But even so. How will both Louis and I fit in? 

***

On the fourth morning, Juliet stirred for the first time. She rubbed her eyes and sat up. There was no confusion. She knew where she was. She felt safe. Her breathing even. She plopped down again, winching, turning on her side without seeing me. The view was incredible in the mornings. Knowing that was how she woke up every morning made me happy. I felt that she deserved it. 

"Julie…" I whispered with as much feeling as I could. Her body stiffened. She didn't move for a good few minutes. Her breathing changed instantly. "Carl and Charlene are downstairs. Louis asked me to bring you and to stay with you." She swallowed hard. Her heart was racing. Pounding. She was terrified. I hated it. That she could feel that way about me. "Should I go?" 

She sat up, winching again from the pain in her back. She was sad, biting back tears. "I have to tell you, Marcus. I never, ever thought that you would be in this room."

She didn't want me there. But I promised Louis that I wouldn't leave her for a second. I promised that tattooed guy that my father would never lay a finger on her again. "I won't come up here again." I stood up off the ground. Out of the corner I had been hiding in the last day. Fearful that she might wake up and that the first thing she saw would be me.

She sat up and swore loudly when she saw my face. My bruise and cut were as nasty as hers. "Sit down, Marcus." My little Julie wasn't there anymore. She was a woman in every way. I had missed it. All of her firsts. I wasn't any one of them. "Is there any painkillers?" I picked up the first aid kit and held it out to her with a bottle of water. She rummaged. "What the hell is this? This is over the counter… crap! Carl! What the hell!" Both pairs of feet came running up the stairs. "What is this?" They giggled like kids being reprimanded by a drug-addicted mom. Inside, a small smile played at my heart. 

"Your mom said we're not supposed to give you the good stuff. Only Marcus can." 

Her eyes met mine for the first time. For a moment, there was that even stubbornness. But for me, it was the fact that I wanted to dive into those icy blue eyes. Be a part of every area of her life. I wanted to please her with every fiber. Keep her away from the compound. Without a veil. In nothing but that strappy tank top that revealed the shape of her breasts and her nipples. My eyes were roaming her body and landed on her mouth. Juliet's lips parted to say something, but I pointed to the floor next to the bed before she could. "I put it there so you could get to it easier." Juliet's fierce, intelligent eyes held my predatory gaze. She turned and checked. Picking up the bottle, she opened it. Her eyes came right back to mine. Frown lines played on her brow.

My phone rang for the millionth time. It was my father. All I wanted was her in my arms. For her to lead me far away from everything. She could do it. 

Charlene and Carl slowly left the room. The tension between us was so thick that they must have felt uncomfortable. I wouldn't touch her for the world. The next time anything happened, she would have to initiate it. All I wanted was to stay, and I wasn't going to push. "Is there anything else you need, Julie?" Whenever I said her name like that, her hands would stop moving. The endearment hit a cord, and I didn't know if it was good or bad. 

"I want to see my back. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I need to pee." She stood up. The shorts she had on hardly covered her ass. A little bit of plumpy flesh stuck out. I had not seen her out of the covers. My mouth hung open. She didn't even care that I was seeing her like that. She got up as if it was all natural. I followed her downstairs. Before she went into a room, she turned to me. "I haven't eaten. I need to, like… today. You haven't eaten. So you going to take me out to dinner?"

"Should I bring you someone? How do you feel? Can you even walk or run? Your back Julie." She groaned. 

"You might be right." I snorted. She cocked an eyebrow. "Not something you thought to ever hear from me." I shook my head. "Fair enough." She came closer my eyes traveled to her lips again. "Charlene and Carl haven't seen it. Manifesting. First time at the cages. Everything. Let alone killing a person."

"Human friends, Julie?" 

"They are family, Marcus, and at this stage, they're higher on the pecking order than you." The pain of her words made me ball my fists. She peeked down at my hands, and her eyes roamed my face. "You can be glad you're this handsome, or I would have sent you packing." She booped my nose. My head jerked back. I glared down at her. It made her laugh. She smiled so brightly that my features softened instantly. My hands relaxed. "That's better, Marcus. Try happy thoughts. Think about the past only as it gives you pleasure."

"You're quoting Jane Austin to me." 

She smiled again and stuck her tongue out at me, going through the door. My stomach suddenly flipped into an area that I had never experienced. I had actual butterflies seeing her smile like that. Interacting with me in that way. Knots. Lots of knots in my stomach. I was nervous. Just as much as she was. Was hers also the good kind? She didn't close the door in my face like I thought she would. She disappeared around a corner. I heard the toilet flush. She cussed, and I quickly stepped in after her. She was standing in front of a full-length mirror, checking out her back. Her eyes caught mine in the mirror. It didn't even phase her. I dared to take a few more steps and sat on the daybed in the middle of the room. She pulled off her top. I stiffened and turned away from her. I heard a snort and a chuckle. "What? I don't do for you anymore? You got some big-breasted wives on the compound, Marcus?" I heard her move around. She went further away from me, and I heard the water running. 

"Try not to get the wounds wet," I said. 

More cussing, and the water closed. "Well, then you're going to have to come and help me." It felt like the little blood I had clotted. Every muscle weakened. She had asked me to come and help her get clean. Was she naked? "I can hear your heart racing Marcus. If it helps, I'll break your arm before you can take advantage of me."

"Like that would stop me," I whispered. 

She chuckled. "Was that a joke, Marcus?" 

Slowly I got up. She was hunched over the bath. 

"Can you wash my hair, please? I don't like oily, dirty hair." She asked so nicely. A soft tone in her voice. Almost pleading made me do what I was told. I tried to be as gentle as possible. "After that, I'll use a washcloth at the basin. If I pass out, you'll have to sponge bath me. I stink. Why haven't you yet? Are you not my husband?" My hands stopped moving for a second. Hearing the words come from her lips was almost too much. After I was done, she sat down next to the tub. I draped the towel over her head, gently running it through her hair, desperately trying to keep my eyes under control. When I lifted the towel. Her eyes were closed. She fell down onto my torso. She was sleeping. I shook my head. Always full steam ahead. Restless, active, impulsive. Just like me. I was just much older. That had always been our biggest problem. We were exactly the same.

Carl and Charlene came in. My first thought was that they would blame me for hurting her or something. My second thought was that Carl was seeing her naked. They shook their heads. "She will never learn to take it easy, will she?" Relieved, I picked her up and took her back upstairs. As if reading my thoughts… "You know we've been friends so long that I've helped her out of situations like this a lot. Puking drunk. Seeing her naked… It's really like helping a patient in a hospital." Carl said, trying to sound sympathetic rather than making me feel like I had never been a part of her life. 

"A mental asylum patient…." Charlene said. My lips curled into a smile. Even if it was for a second.