The Bear’s Mail Order Menage

After that, all that was left for her to do was pack her meager possessions in a knapsack, take one last look around the most beautiful place she had ever had the privilege of staying, and shut the door, leaving the key underneath one corner of the welcome mat at the back door. She felt the threat of another gut wrenching sob clawing its way up her already raw throat and she shut her eyes, taking a deep breath in and holding it.

She held it until she saw spots blanket the canvas of her closed lids. She held it until her head grew light and she wondered if she might just topple down the stairs and put an end to the problem right then and there. It was only then that she allowed herself to open her eyes again and draw another breath. It was then that she knew she could do what was necessary. She took the first step, took the next step, until she was on the gravel road that would take her away from this place. After a few steps, however, she heard a voice she was not keen on facing.

“Well look at you, slinking out of town when nobody else is watching. Figures. You always did strike me as the type to use and abuse.”

“Crystal, please, not now. What are you even doing here? Why aren’t you back at the diner?”

“I saw Joshy taking you outside after Andrew ripped you a new one. I followed you. It wasn’t hard to get out of there with all of the commotion going on. The commotion that you caused, I might add. You know that, don’t you? That all of that sh*t going down is your fault?”

“Jesus, Crystal, why? Why did you feel like you needed to come say that to me? Can’t you see that I’m going? You’re getting what you’ve wanted since I first came to Charlotte, aren’t you? I’m going, I’m going and I’m not coming back. It’s over. You’ve won.”

“I’ve won? What a little bi*ch you are. I came here to make sure you were going, and to tell you not to even think about coming back here. We don’t want you here. The only thing you had protecting you was Andrew, and now he sees you for the little sl*t you are, he ain’t going to do sh*t for you.

And Joshua? He doesn’t have the balls to stand up for you, not to Andrew. Not for very long. So basically, you got what was coming to you. I’ve been waiting for this and there is nothing I can think of that would make me happier than being here and watching you go.”

Alina didn’t even have the energy to come up with a retort. She was broken down, numb from the excessive amount of emotion she had been subjected to in the last twenty-four hours. After spending so many years and so much energy trying to maintain a state of little to no emotion at all, it felt like an assault to be on this rollercoaster.

But she could feel the tears of anger and sorrow beginning to build and she was not willing to give Crystal the satisfaction of seeing her break. She hefted her bag back onto her shoulder and turned back to face her chosen direction: away. She was going away and that was all that she knew. All that there was aside from that was the great beyond, a large looming question mark she was unsure she would be able to answer. Still, she walked on, putting one foot in front of the other until she moved across the town line.

“Hey there, hey! What is it that you’re doing out here in the middle of nowhere? Don’t you know it ain’t safe? There could be all sorts of people out here just waiting to come up and snatch you.”

Alina, startled by the unexpected sensation of being spoken to after hours of complete solitude, turned quickly and saw nothing but the harsh glare of the oncoming headlights. She knew right off that she was at a disadvantage in this scenario. For starters, she couldn’t see who she was talking to.

Her eyes had become so well adjusted to the darkness that was only disrupted by the stars occasionally revealed through the still thick cover of clouds that the assault of the lights made her nearly blind.

That wasn’t the only thing that frightened her. She had no idea where she was. This was not an area that she knew at all. In the half a year she had been living in Charlotte she had never ventured outside of the town, never learned to understand her terrain or how she might fit into it. Not only that, but she had no idea where she was going, either.

She was like a lost child without anyone to protect her and she was completely emotionally raw from everything she had done. That being said, she did know that being approached by a strange man was never a good thing.

“I’m just going for a walk. Just walking. I don’t think I’m doing anyone any harm, but if this is land I’m not supposed to be on I’ll gladly walk somewhere else.”

“Nah, you ain’t walking somewhere you ain’t allowed, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t doing any harm.”

“Who am I doing harm to?”

“Yourself, sugar. You doing all kinds of harm to yourself.”

The car pulled up closer to her, trapping her between it and the line of trees. She would have screamed, called out for someone to come and help her, but there was nobody. She hadn’t seen another soul in such a long time and if she was close to any kind of town it was news to her.

 If she was really lucky, this man was alone in that truck and just looking for some semi-harmless fun in the form of frightening a girl who couldn’t do anything about it. If she was not so lucky, she could be in real trouble here.

“You’re that new girl, ain’t ya? The one that moved down to Charlotte a while back. What’s the matter, they get sick of you already? Those is queer folk, I can tell you that much. No surprise to me they didn’t know what to do with a woman like you. It takes a real man to know what to do with a woman like you.”