PROLOGUE

To all those who fought a battle you were expected to lose and won.

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EVELYN DAKOTA

Friday night and Evelyn Dakota was finally done with the graveyard shift at the Gold bar where she worked as a stripper, going home to finally meet her only joy in a world filled with creeps. Take it from her she knew them all. The ones that groped her and even those that forcefully tried to rape her at her place of work. Fools.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Her mum she thought. The same person that had thrown her out of her life on finding out she was pregnant at sixteen leaving her to fend for herself in the big city: to leave out her American dream. She must think Evelyn was stupid that after four years of suffering and looking out for herself she was going to let her mum back in after all she'd done. A disgrace she had called her. Her mother was not even the worst of them. Her piece of shit boyfriend who had played the going-abroad-for-college-card immediately she had broken the news to him. Damn them all to hell.

Evelyn put on her long coat and hoodie as she had come to work in a flimsy red dres and fake pearls and then double checked for her pepper spray. Sometimes she wished she could carry a gun but getting a carrying permit would take time and registration which an illegal immigrant like her wasn't going to go through.

Her phone rung and she hesitantly pulled it out to check. The caller ID read Elena and she quickly checked the time as Ryan always called at nine pm- if she wasn't yet home to give her a good night message and a four year old son wasn't exactly in agreement with her work hours but a girl had to bring in the dough.

"Mommmmmmyyy!" her four year old son sang over the phone.

  "Hey peanut. Before you say anything I am on my way home." She imagined Ryan pouting as he was about to throw a tantrum. A four year old wasn't exactly accustomed to being without his mother for a week. She really hoped that she could make something of herself before Ryan was old enough to understand what she really was. Ryan thought she was a secretary for a rich law firm. Not in that flimsy red dress she wasn't.

"I did everything like you said mommy and aunt Elena helped too. Will you be the one to read the story today? " he said excitedly. It was hard to say no to that enthusiasm. If only Evelyn could still think like that. Evelyn agreed and he quickly hung up the phone. Rude she thought and continued to walk the remaining few blocks to her house to change into more "secretary like clothes" and not look like the whore she thought she was so that she could be more presentable when she came to see her son.

She jogged up the stairs and put the key in it's slot on her room door  as she hummed a once famous pop tune.  She rushed in and was greeted to a pile of laundry to be done. More chores for the weekend. She continued to the bathroom to freshen up and that's when she noticed that something was different. She wasn't the OCD type but one thing was for sure; the home she once called her own wasn't hers anymore.

 Was that cigarette smoke?  

Humming.  It was a church hymn. She remembered it from when she still went to church with her momma. Everyone dressed in white long dresses. She wondered what God thought of her now. Logical thought now that she was going to have a one on one with him.  She ran towards  the source of the song as she got closer.

Oh Lord my God when I in awesome wonder......

She passed cigarette butts as she bolted away from all sense and ran towards the room. Elena, her best friend would probably advise otherwise. She pushed back her already open room and there on her bed sat a man with the longest dark hair she had ever seen he could pass for a woman. Maybe it was a wig she couldn't tell. He looked at her and simply smiled a mere flashing of nicotine stained teeth. She had seen him somewhere she was very sure about it maybe the supermarket or it was  at Ryan' s school. It didn't matter now. He rose fluidly from the bed.

  She stood waiting for her battle instincts to kick in. What was the point of training when it failed you when you needed it the most? Why did she look on even as he hit her over the head with a baseball bat? Where did he even get that from or it was someone from behind she hadn't bothered to check. Did she say goodbye to her own son? Her little angel whom she would never see again. What would he think of her now?  She remembered the good times even as she plunged into the over powering darkness.

            . *********************

He looked at her now limp body and grinned, a feral grin as his animalistic desires tempted to take over him but no that wasn't her purpose. She was a message to her to remind her of her place, her imperfections. A special boo to make them acquaintances again. On to reconnect with old friends.