Lost in the Shadows

29

"He'll only speak to Dani, let her ask questions," Luke begged Wes as they stood outside the door of the basement.

"I don't want to bring her into this," Wes replied tugging at the ends of his hair.

"Wes, she's already in this. Just let her go down there," David pleaded.

I've overheard them all morning contemplating on how to get the bulky blonde man to speak. Apparently, the man will only speak with me which made Wes feel powerless since all he wanted to do was shelter me from the evil. "I can do it," I interrupted causing all of the boys to turn their heads to me, they all smiled except for Wes. Wes looked livid and worried all at the same time.

He pushed me into the kitchen out of sight from the boys, "I'm not letting you go down there," he lectured as he pointed his finger in my face.

"I can do it," I whined knowing that I can.

"No way."

"Yes way," i responded in a mocking voice making him roll his eyes.

"If I let you walk down there, he will play on your weaknesses. He will break you down until you leave confused and defeated," he explained trying to persuade me into hiding my tail and run like scared little puppy. But I've been hanging out with Rocky, and he would never run away in fear.

"Okay so I'll show no reactions, just like you," I pointed out. "Look I'm not taking no for an answer so you might as well just tell me what you need to know," I told him in a demanding tone.

"You're not going to take no for an answer are you?"

"Nope."

He groaned then coached me into what to ask the man. Once he was done he walked me back into the room where all the boys have gathered. "You caved," Luke teased as the other boys laughed in mockery, Wes just flicked them off and told me that if I needed anything that he would be right outside this door.

Once Wes shut the door I took swallow as I felt my confidence slowly dissolve. Why did I agree to this, I asked myself as I walked down the basement steps. This man tried to kill me yesterday and hear I am poking the bear with a stick. "Well, well, we'll Looks like they finally brought in the beautiful brunette in," he laughed. "Dani right, or should I call you Danielle," he asked in a deep raspy tone as he mocked my full name that only Wes called me by.

"Neither," I told him as I stood in front of him in fake confidence. I was terrified, terrified of him, but most importantly the answers that he may have to my questions. I just had to make him believe that I wasn't afraid. Fake it till you make it, right.

"Feisty little one aren't you. I can see why Wes is so fond of you. He always did like the weak defenseless ones," he chuckled, but I didn't react even though I wanted to. No emotion, I kept reminded myself, I couldn't know how to get under my skin.

"Well, I guess I'm not his type considering I beat you out cold last night," I shot back making him furrow his eyebrows as if he didn't expect to hear my voice. "Tell me how does it feel to be beaten by a woman. You see I did a little research on you last night, not many things popped up, but I did find a few things about your wife. She had bruised exposed from her shirt in her pictures on Instagram. I then checked her twitter and found many of quotes that said 'Anger causes violence', 'women want to be dominated by men', and 'violence is a broken down conversation'. Now, Im not a cop or anything, but I know an angry scared man when I see one," I laughed in his face as he quickly became more silent. "I know that you beat your wife. And I know that you hate the idea of a woman actually fighting back. So tell me how did it feel finally getting a taste of your own medicine," I shouted.