The nice dinners and the constant compliments had all just been a disguise to who is truly was. But Adrianna couldn’t blame anyone but herself. She had allowed herself to stay in this situation, stupidly thinking that the first time he had put his hands on her was because he had been too drunk to know what he had been doing. And then when he started doing the drugs right in front of her she’d told herself that he had just been stressed out because of losing his job. Threatening to leave had her hoping he might change what he was doing, because she had cared about him, or at least she thought she had. But what she should have done was just leave, not threaten to do it, because all that had gotten her in the end was a lot of pain, some bruises, and broken ribs.
After that things had spiraled downhill faster than she had even been able to comprehend. She could blame a lot of things for why she subjected herself to this: a broken home as a child, and her absentee mother more concerned with the many men she brought home than her or her younger brother. Adrianna could even say that all of that and then losing her brother at the tender age of sixteen to drugs had made her blind to the life she had allowed herself to live. But the truth was she knew what was happening, and even though Phillip had this mean streak when he was high, there were also times he made her feel wanted. At least there had been times. Now things were just bad, and she knew that if she didn’t leave she would end up another statistic.
“Adrianna, come here.” Phillips voice was soft and slurred. He turned his head and looked at her through the slits of his eyes. He was higher than the kite and drunk to boot. “I said come here.” He said it a bit more firmly.
She wasn’t foolish enough to think just because he seemed lax at the moment because of the drugs that he wouldn’t shift into Mr. Hyde. Adrianna picked herself off the floor and moved toward him. She was going to leave, had been planning how to do it without Phillip stopping her, and had been saving what little money she had earned before Phillip had slowly isolated her. It certainly wasn’t enough to get her far enough away from him as she would have liked, but she wanted out of this shitty town. She could move to Salt Lake. The bigger city would be a welcome change from the backwards and shitty town she had been living in her whole life. If she didn’t get out of her now she wouldn’t live to her twenty-third birthday. When she was a few feet from him she stopped.
He stared at her for a few seconds, and then this slow grin spread across his face. Without saying anything he reached down and undid the button of his jeans and slid the zipper down. For how high and drunk he was she was surprised he could even get it up, but he was hard, and his lecherous grin spread even further until he looked like an even grislier version of The Joker. “Suck it.”
She glanced at the two pieces of waste of space no more than a few feet from them, and then she looked back at Phillip. Shaking her head and taking a step back, she wasn’t going to be subjected to his sick and depraved desires again. His friends roused slightly, but with a few grunts they fell back asleep.
“No, Phillip. I’m done with this.” Her face was sore from the slap he had given her, and the bruises on her belly screamed in discomfort when she crossed her arms, shielding herself. “I think it’s time for me to leave.” She took a step back when his smile faded and he pushed himself up on the couch.
“Time for you to leave?” He said it almost curiously, but she wasn’t a fool to think that he wasn’t simmering with rage. “You’ve been with me this long, love all the things I do to you.” He smiled again, but this time it was dark and evil.
A shiver worked its way up her spine. She didn’t respond, just shook her head again and took another step back.
Phillip stood, put his penis back in his pants, and exhaled. “I was feeling good, Adrianna, really damn good, and I wanted your mouth on me because I thought it would top this wonderful night off.” He said it sickly sweet, and rolled his head around on his neck. The sound of his neck cracking, and then of him advancing on her had adrenaline pumping through her veins and the fight or flight instinct kicking in. “You’re mine, Adrianna.” He stopped and cocked his head to the side. “Unless,” he shook his head and chuckled, but it had this dark quality to it. “You’re not fucking around on me behind my back, are you?”
She didn’t even respond to that ludicrous question. Not only did he make sure she was always within sight of him, if he had to leave her she was to stay with his friends, guarded like she was this piece of property. “I’m no one’s, Phillip.”