Okay y'all last week I announced the ending to the shorts in Claimed by Dawn Kirby and said that we would be getting some new Flash Fiction Shorts this week, and I am DELIVERING on that. Dawn will be giving us shorts loosely based on the 7 Deadly Sins. Each Sin of pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth will each get 2 shorts a begging for the first round one each week and a conclusion the second round again one each week. We are starting off this week with Gluttony. We Hope YOU Enjoy. If You Do Please Leave a Comment We Would Love to Hear Your THOUGHTS.
Dawn Kirby lives in West TX with Jamie, her husband of 17 years and their three , DECEIT and TRIBULATIONS. All three part of the paranormal romance Serenity Series published by Twisted Core Press. Her work is also featured in several 7DS Books anthologies such as SEVEN DEADLY SINS, A MAN’S PROMISE, LINGER, among several others. Another short, DATE NIGHT was published in 13 Tales of the Paranormal by Firefly and Wisp. To find out more about Dawn's work please visit www.dawnmkirby.com.
SECRETS
wonderful children Tristan, Aishlynn and Shelby. She's the author of
The Lock Box (Glutton Part 1)
By Dawn Kirby
There isn’t much to say other than I let a fantasy distort my reality. I knew it was wrong, wanting to possess her the way I did. Tell me though, when faced with a woman such as her, how could I not try?
Our relationship started like any other. Me behind the counter. Her on the other side, ordering coffee and doughnuts for the professor she had agreed to tutor for. Lila always greeted me with a smile. A flirty kinda grin only I could read. She was sly that way.
I first noticed it while she was on the phone with a friend when she came. It was a Friday and she was running late. I remember that because winter break had just started. She winked at me when she casually revealed her plans for the night. Had I not picked up on the bright twinkle in her eye when she smiled as she waved goodbye, I probably would have missed the signs altogether.
As one of my professors says, ‘words say one thing. Actions speak volumes.’
Anyway, as sure as the sun rises and sets, Lila was right where she said she’d be that night. I’d taken my time getting ready. Pulled out all the stops. I’d even stopped off at the barbershop for an old fashion trim and shave. For the love of a woman like Lila nothing was too good.
As I made my way to the bar a man sat down on the bar stool beside her. He tried to talk her up, but she looked past him and waved at me. She told him we were there together. Though the only words spoken were hello and thanks when the unwanted man disappeared we enjoyed our first night out. Even with the constant yammering of her friends it remained a pleasant evening.
We parted ways at a few hours later. She to drive her friends home. Me to reflect on the first good night I’d had in months as I walked down that now familiar alleyway between her place and mine. It was tempting to go up for a nightcap, but I had to open the shop in a few hours and she had students to tutor down at the campus Student Center. My typical Saturday night drop in would have to be enough.
You see we had an understanding, her and I. It was an unspoken thing between us borne from a chance encounter when she’d locked herself out of her apartment about a year ago. I’d been on my way home and heard someone cursing builders everywhere for making fire escapes only tall people could access. She’d locked her keys inside the apartment and the super was on vacation.
More often than not she was already asleep by the time I climbed the stairwell between our apartments. She was on the ninth floor. I was on the fifth. After helping her inside that night she had offered me a cup of coffee. Unfortunately I had to decline, but I did invoke rain check status. One I’d collected on the sly many times.
Tell me, how many times have you watched your lover as they lie in bed? Well, soon-to-be…
Standing in the dark, watching her lie there next to him, embracing him at first was hard. Admittedly the more I visited, the easier it became. Not that it mattered. It became clear early on he was just there to keep the bed warm until she found Mr. Right. With any luck that man would turn out to be me.
Fortunately he made any man look like a prince. He was the type that never grew up. A twenty-something player with a Peter Pan complex. He thought nothing of leaving her to hang out with his buddies or stay up late playing games, yelling at some kid online for messing up one strategic battle fantasy or another. The fact that the only job he could hold down was at the Game Stop around the corner just exacerbated their already tumultuous relationship.
I’ll admit, not a tear was shed the night I finally took the fool out of our misery. Not by me anyway. He was drunk and highly amused when I pointed that gun at him. Not so much when I pulled the trigger. Sure she was upset, but her friends and relatives urged her to push forward and move past his death. Once the cops cleared her of any wrongdoing, she was finally able to start that process.
As for me, I stayed in the shadows, giving her time to grieve, time to be on her own. When I did see her out we shared quick glances. A curt nod here and there. The smile I’d grown to love slowly made its way back. Her flirty nature eventually returned. I knew what that meant even if nobody else did. She knew too- deep down. I just had to wait for her to realize it.
With the roadblocks between us gone I started stopping by her place more often to make sure she made it home safe. Our neighborhood was relatively calm, but like everywhere these days, bad seeds always find a way in. Not that she would have noticed. Work, school, stress and a lingering sense of loss dulled her senses.
I didn’t mind being her eyes and ears during that time. Somebody needed to be. Her family had left town shortly after man-boy’s funeral and as far as I could tell weren’t in any hurry to come back. In fact they seemed determined to get her to go back to Smalltown, USA and find a good man there.
I can’t tell you how relieved I was when she finally told them she had no intention of ever going back. After declaring her independence for the umpteenth time they stopped pushing. Somehow they knew it was a losing battle.
Months went by. No words between us really, just glances, smiles and gestures. An extra shot of caramel in her coffee. A free cinnamon roll snuck in with the donuts. I did my best to have it all ready before she came in. Why keep a pretty girl waiting? The smaller the gesture, the greater the appreciation.
Thanks to the gratitude we were able to engage in casual conversation. She often asked me how my classes were going and even gave me a heads up on which professors to avoid. Though our majors differed there were still the basic classes neither of us could avoid. She’d even gone through the trouble of digging out a few old textbooks so I wouldn’t have to hunt them down later.
Unfortunately good times often clash with bad. An old high school friend moved to town and in with her to help relieve some of the financial stress. Within weeks Lila lost her sense of self. She still smiled, but the smile had faded somehow. As if the friend was draining her. At times she appeared edgy. The slightest movement made her jump.
Her appearance changed as well. The usual well put together woman looked haggard and depressed. Stress and worry had taken hold and refused to let go. Neglect of herself had never been an issue for her.
I ramped up my visits. At first I stayed in her room, waiting and watching like I always had. When her nightmares started I did what I could to comfort her, careful never to wake her. Gentle words, touches seemingly enough.
One night I overheard her tell her friend she thought her dead boyfriend was haunting her. She mentioned the dreams and how they scared her. Mentioned feeling phantom touches only to look up and see nothing. Things moved in their house. Especially in her room. That night I brought in my camera and prepared to camp out there all night until I caught whatever it was that was haunting her.
Another bad dream came and went. I frantically clicked the camera, trying to document the room. The bed. Her. If something was there I was determined to catch it before it could harm her. Lila’s knight in shadowed armor.
On my next day off I went to her place while she and her friend were at work and walked through the apartment, listening. I looked for places to run surveillance equipment. Anywhere I could see them, but they’d never know. I needed to nip this thing in the bud before it consumed the woman I loved.
With an hour to spare I had four cameras running throughout her apartment and a little space set up for myself in the crawl space inside her closet. I’d have a live feed I could view anytime I needed to. Nothing was going to touch her. Not on my watch.
The more I watched the more protecting her consumed me. From my perch in the closet my eyes jumped from one screen to another, searching. Nothing came. For months, nothing came.
Sometimes I’d climb down and roam through the apartment. Maybe whatever was there couldn’t be seen by cameras. Still nothing. Frustration set in. She was still scared. The nightmares were getting worse and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
Her roommate didn’t seem bothered at all. She went on like there was nothing going on. Sometimes I’d catch her on video telling her boyfriend she thought Lila was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Maybe she was.
I did some research as soon as I got home looking for something I could get to help calm her. Surely a good night’s rest would do her some good. Unfortunately the stuff I needed was out of reach. I didn’t know any doctors and nobody I knew dealt the kind of drugs I needed.
Like a solider on a mission I charged on eventually finding a guy willing to help. For a few hundred bucks I bought enough to give her good dreams for at least six months. All I had to do was slip a bit in her drink and let it work its magic.
While she was in the shower and her roommate gone, I snuck out of my perch in the closet and retrieved a bottle of water from the fridge. She had a habit of drinking one before bed while she read. All I had to do was make sure I put the drugs in the right one. To ensure that, I took the spiked drink back to her room with me and put on her nightstand beside the book she’d been reading. If I were lucky she wouldn’t think twice about it being there.
Everything changed after that. The drugs did what I needed them to do. She slept like a baby for the first time in months. I watched my monitors all night for signs of intruders, but like every night before, saw nothing except her roommate when she and her boyfriend came in around 3 am.
Then about three months later I was reviewing footage I’d shot while walking through her apartment the night before, I saw it. A hand. It was touching her. Touching her face. Touching her arms. Her legs. Caressing skin meant for my enjoyment. A man’s body came into view as he crawled into the bed beside her. How had I missed him?
The next night I stayed close. My muscles tense, I practically dared the man to show himself a second time. He must’ve sensed me there because he never showed. That’s when I decided to stay beside her. It’s also when our relationship changed.
Even in a deep sleep she beckoned me to her. Like a moth to a flame, I answered her call. How could I not? She had finally seen me for what I was. Her friend. Her protector. Her soul mate.
Unconscious she loved me unconditionally. The nights we spent together were magical. We never needed words to convey our feelings for one another. The body has a language all its own should one dare to look beyond what others consider normal.
Let’s face it, our relationship never has been normal. What she found enjoyable on some occasions, she found unpleasant on others. Sometimes I had to up the dosage so to speak to allow her the chance to appreciate everything we could do for each other. Some nights she’d cry out incoherently, alerting her roommate to my presence. Those nights I was forced to retreat back to the solitude of her closet while she babbled on about the dreams and feelings that continued to haunt her. Things I could do little to stop.
Living with constant fear, she fell into a depression and began to pursue her degree online. The professor scheduled tutoring sessions via webcam so she could keep her job and handle a greater volume of students. Though this helped, I found myself unable to keep watch on her as I had before.
With all my money going to help her, I lost my apartment. My work suffered, as did my grades. Eventually I lost everything. The only thing that kept me sane was her. She completed me. Whether she knew it or not, she was my lifeline.
*****
Lila Davis
22 years old
Homicide
Dawn Kirby lives in West TX with Jamie, her husband of 17 years and their three , DECEIT and TRIBULATIONS. All three part of the paranormal romance Serenity Series published by Twisted Core Press. Her work is also featured in several 7DS Books anthologies such as SEVEN DEADLY SINS, A MAN’S PROMISE, LINGER, among several others. Another short, DATE NIGHT was published in 13 Tales of the Paranormal by Firefly and Wisp. To find out more about Dawn's work please visit www.dawnmkirby.com.SECRETS
wonderful children Tristan, Aishlynn and Shelby. She's the author of
Places to find Dawn Kirby
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