Sunday at 8:02 A.M…

Ricky eyed me across breakfast. The man sat next to me and kept his gaze down at my shoulder height. He held a piece of toast in one hand and a cup of juice of some sort in the other. I avoided his razor sharp eyes, but I knew he eyed those little red marks on my neck. They wouldn’t go away until much later in the day. I felt red heat into my cheeks.

“Ry, would you please stop leaving marks on Rory?” Rick grumbled harshly after a minute of heavy silence. Ryan rolled his eyes.

“You’re just jealous that they aren’t yours.” He shot back. I huddled further into the seat as they argued like I wasn’t here. I saw pink flood Ricky’s cheeks.

Did he really want them to be his!? This was all so intimate to me, the girl who hadn’t ever had a boyfriend before.

“Shots fired.” Balz called.

“You’re going to need some ice for that burn.” Ghost chuckled. Chris shook his head at the two boys. As Ryan made some harsh comment about the marks on my neck from the night before, I instinctively raised my hand to hide them by putting my hand over the sore areas.

Balz kicked me under the table so that I glanced up at him. He shook his head and I lowered my hand before anyone else noticed.

“Well at least I didn’t rape her.” Ricky growled back. Ryan scowled.

“It was deserved punishment!” Ryan snarled.

“Who wants more toast?” Vinny questioned as he broke the tension.

“Me!” Balz and Ghost cried together. Another conflict was avoided due to Vinny’s quick thinking. Ryan and Ricky were glaring across the table to each other. I just shrunk back into my seat.

“So when are we getting to Radke’s?” Chris asked Vinny. The driver checked his watch as he started up the bus. Ghost continued to munch on toast.

“About three hours.” Vinny called back. I could almost feel the heavy dye start to coat my hair. At least I had a little say in what I had to do with my appearance.

“We’re making good time.” Balz muttered and went to go do a crossword puzzle from his ratty book. Ricky pulled me out of the couch and dragged me to his bunk. I was a little taken back at his suddenness of everything. Was he going to give me a clean shirt? I had lived in this one for a day and a half now…

He pushed me into the back lounge. We had passed his bunk and I was a little concerned to where we were going now. As soon as he pressed the lock on the door, I felt a familiar finger of fear rake its nails down my spine.

“Master…” I trailed off. Ricky grasped my wrists and shoved me against the wall. He pressed himself closer and I gasped as some air was knocked out of my lungs. Before I could say anything else, he pressed his lips down on mine. I struggled against his strong grip but made no ground in fighting back. I felt a tear trace down my cheek.

Did he really go down Ryan’s path? Was he really so fed up with Ryan’s taunts that he was going to…force himself on me?

Where was the gentle understanding, the promise of protection? Where was the understanding? Where did it go?

He was never the man I imagined he was.

Ricky pressed himself harder against me. I felt his fingernails leave marks in my soft wrist. The gentleness was gone from the kiss. He roughly kissed me as if we had minutes left to live.

When he was done with my lips, he moved to my neck. I let more salty tears stain my cheeks. If he wasn’t tasting my sorrow, I would be surprised. He attacked my neck next, leaving more lovebites.

So this was what he was after. He was claiming me as his but I didn’t want this.

I didn’t want this roughness. I thought Ricky understood this. I didn’t want to feel like property, like I was going to be violated again. I thought he understood this. I guess not.

I guess…

Letting out a mangled sob, I struggled against his grip again. He bit hard into my neck and I finally shoved back hard enough to throw him off balance. He took a step back and I bolted from that wall and hopped up on the couch. I now had the upper ground.

Tip number one from my old girl scout troop during our survival unit: Get the upper ground.

It was still programmed into me, so I used that. With the drips of sadness on my cheek and streaming from my eyes, I crawled into the furthest corner on top of the couch.

Ricky stared at the floor, suddenly ashamed of what he had done. It was as if he was released from the animalistic savageness and had come to terms with what he had done.

And I was still scared.

I was scared that he could snap in an instant. If he had the desire to “claim me” like he had just done, he could do what Ryan did…just on an instinct. I was scared to be around this man that had snapped so easily.

He had a side to him I never expected…and didn’t want to be around.

“Rory…I’m…I’m…”He pleaded. I looked at him with fearful eyes. No, with renewed vision. This wasn’t the perfect man I had first been with. Chris knocked on the door and Ricky let him in. Chris took one look at me and went back to Ricky. Ryan followed the singer in.

“Ha, good job, man.” Ryan clapped him on the back. Ricky still looked both surprised and ashamed of what he did. I guess his new marks were pretty obvious as well.

“Just get her down at some point.” Chris sighed and left after Ryan. Ricky held out his hand to me. I leaned away from it. Was he going to strike me?

It was all on an impulse. It could be all on an impulse…

“You deserve it…” Death cackled in my ear.

I wiped away the extra tears with the back of my hand as Ricky’s hand dropped back to his side. I saw the window next to me as I tried to focus my attention elsewhere. I saw the window.

And I saw the latch.

And I saw my chance at freedom.

“Please come down, Rory.” Ricky begged. Slowly, I felt the urge to obey his command come over me. I saw my chance at freedom drain away as the programmed lesson Oli taught me kicked in. I took his hand as he let me get off the couch. Ricky sighed and walked out the door and I had no choice but to follow him.

“Oh dear…” Ghost walked up to us as he tried to access his bunk. He took one look between both of us and pursed his lips.

“You’ll be with Ghost today.” Ricky muttered to me and stalked off. I opened my lips to protest but quickly closed them. Ghost took my shoulder.

“Give him time. Ryan can really get to Rick and he did it because he wanted to prove to Ryan that he isn’t as soft as he’s teased to be.” Ghost murmured to me. I looked into his soft eyes and nodded. My neck hurt from the simple action.

“T-thank you, sir.” I murmured. Ghost patted my head and pulled me into his bunk. I crawled up after him. He let me lean against the wall and pulled out his laptop. He settled beside me and opened up a movie on his device. It was The Nightmare Before Christmas.

“It’s my favorite.” He chuckled. I smiled a little for the first time today. He started it and handed me one of the headphones as the movie started to play. I began to doze off half way through it but managed to stay awake until the end. Ghost had passed out towards the finish. If he was asleep and I had nowhere else to be, I might as well sleep to.

With that, I closed my eyes and rested my head on the man’s shoulder. His hair tickled my nose as I fell asleep to whispers and terrible dreams.

“You deserve it…” Death cackled in my ear.

Notes

O.O

RICKY WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER!?!?!?

Welp, looks like Orion is scarred for life now....