Bleeding Shadows

Chapter 22

A month had passed since the incident with Alex and everyone had settled into their lives happily. Gabe had put on a little weight now that she was eating regularly and Mia's fling with Dan the boy toy was over as far as I knew.

Jamie's attempts to pry Timothy away from Alex and his family had failed. I knew Jamie was getting frustrated and suspicious that there was more going on there than we knew about. But if Gabe knew anything, she wasn't telling us.

Gabe still disappeared three times a week and once again on Sunday's. Rose always dropped her off and picked her up again. Neither of them would tell us what Gabe was doing, they both claimed that they'd tell us when the time was right. I've added finding out their secret to my bucket list.

However Jamie insisted that we all go and see the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra this coming Friday night, which sounded like it could actually be quite a good evening. Rhys didn't have to work that evening and it appeared everyone else was on top of their projects at uni so it was decided it would be a night out for the entire household.

Things were also going well at school except Alex was more determined than ever to get Gabe alone. You could almost say he was desperate. So between Audrey, Leah, Mia and myself, Gabe never had to worry about having to deal with that abusive prick.

It was also becoming pretty obvious that Alex was becoming furious because Gabe was never alone. It made me wonder what their history was. On second thought, I probably didn't want to know. Knowing how badly Alex used people.

On Tuesday I came home still furious because Alex and I had fought again. He'd threatened to make Timothy, Gabe's brother, disappear if I didn't fuck off so I kindly informed him I'd tie him up and hang him upside down in a storm drain until there was a flood if he did. Neither of us got anywhere.

I must have been fuming mad with steam coming off me, because everyone left me alone in the kitchen to make my liquid gold, it's what I called my coffee, before storming off to my room to figure out how to kill Alex and hide the remains. Burning him and grinding the bones seemed like a good plan.

Ten minutes later I heard a knock on my door.

"Who is it?" I could have replied with a snappy 'What?', But I needed to remember that I wasn't angry at anyone here and I shouldn't take it out on them.

"It's me," Rhys's voice came from the other side of my door. "May I come in?"

"Of course, the doors open." I told him.

Rhys opened the door and made his way over to sit next to me on my bed, but not before shutting my door behind him.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" I could only assume that Rhys was referring to my bad mood. I hadn't told him about the troubles I'd been having with Alex.

I sighed, "Maybe I should." I thought to myself then decided I would. I started to tell Rhys about everything that had happened regarding Alex. It was almost like word vomit, once I started I couldn't stop. Rhys just sat there and listened to the whole story without interrupting, the entire time.

By the end of it I was sitting on my bed with my knees hugged against my chest. I formed an almost perfect human sphere.

"Yup, he's an asshole." Was the comment Rhys made to that entire story. "But do you know what the thing about people like Alex is, Violet?"

I shook my head indicating a no response.

"People like that get bored after a while if they don't get the response they're after. I promise you." Rhys paused for a minute before he continued. "I've seen people like Alex go through the police holding cells regularly, just because he has rich parents doesn't mean he's going to make something of himself in this life. Maybe he already knows this and is overcompensating by being an asshole."