This is a shorter chapter, but I hope you'll like it anyway. It fits better with the story line that way.
As always; feed me! ;)
For disclaimers see chapter one...
17 years earlier
Danny pulled her jacket closer around her shivering body as she stepped out from the old station wagon. It was raining again. It was almost November now and it was cold as hell, the piercing wind making it feel more like December. She had finally reached New York. She had hitched a ride with an older woman who had been kind enough to let her come with her as far as she wanted to go. Danny had considered going with her all the way to Philadelphia, but had eventually decided against it. She had really no idea where she wanted to go, though, just that she wanted to get away. Get away from them.
So, now she was alone again. The old lady had been an ok company; she had been kind and sweet, but she wouldn't stop talking. She'd gone on and on about everything and nothing the whole way. For over 400 miles. Constantly. It had driven Danny crazy. Not having been in the mood for small talk at that point, Danny really didn't mind being on her own. She didn't want to talk to anyone anyway and was tired of putting up a front. Pretending to be different than she was. Pretending that she really didn't just want to step in front of a fucking train and get it all over with. She hadn't had the heart to be rude to the lady, though, so she had done the best she could. The woman had helped her after all. Had even bought her food. She'd told her Danny reminded her of her granddaughter. Danny knew that's because the woman didn't know who she really was.
She could have taken the train instead, that's true. It would have been quicker and probably more comfortable and she would have been left alone, but she didn't want to give up a hundred bucks for a damn ticket. The 2000 dollars she had brought with her was all she had. She knew that her credit card was now useless. Her, so called, father had made sure of that weeks ago. Fucking bastard.
It didn't matter, though, she didn't want to have anything more to do with him anyway. He could keep his fucking money. She knew where they came from. She didn't want to have anything to do with that. With his business. He could go to hell. Her mother as well. She was a damn coward, too worried about her own ass and too afraid to be left without the money and the name, to speak up and say her mind. If she had one.
The money Danny did have, she had earned on her own. Working on semesters and such. This summer she had even worked three jobs; mowing lawns, turning burgers at Mc Donald's, being a teacher's assistant at summer school helping kids with their homework. She had made over 1000 bucks, saving every damn cent. She was glad for that now.
Pulling the hood of her old navy blue high school soccer team hoodie over her head, she looked both ways before crossing the street. Danny had always loved that hoodie. It was worn out, but at least it was warm.
There were lots of cars, cabs and people everywhere, but none of them seemed to pay any attention to her. Everyone just minded their own business. It suited Danny just fine. She had always hated living in a small town where everyone knew you. Or at least knew of you. This was much better.
Checking her cell once more before being on her way, she even smiled. It was now after midnight, but no one had called. Or texted. Not even Lizzie. Not that she was surprised. Lizzie Roberts was a good enough fuck, but Danny knew why she had wanted to be with her. Had pursued her, even. Danny being the star player of the school's soccer team was one reason, but more than that, it was because of the name. The money. Lots of people wanted a part of that. Well, fuck her as well. She was better off without all of them.
She needed someplace to stay, though. Not someplace to live, cause she was sure that she would never need that. Living was something that she would never do again. But the truth was, she needed someplace to stay.
She headed down the street, not really knowing where she was going, hoping to find something.
***
Danny closed her eyes, putting the pillow over her head. This hotel or whatever the hell it was, was shit. And that was if you were nice. Not that she had expected to get anything better for the money she'd paid, but still. It could be called having a roof over your head, but that was about it. The small fridge and the TV which sometimes didn't even work, was a small bonus in the small room which now was her home.
The unmistakable sounds coming from the next room drove her insane. It was always the same. Every damn night. She didn't want to hear any of that crap. It was like psychological torture. The grunting. The banging of, what must be a bed, against the wall of her room.
She had met the woman who lived there, well she was more like a girl, really, in the corridor a few times. She seemed like a nice enough girl. Too young to be a prostitute. Well, no one should be a prostitute. No one should ever have to, but she was still too young in Danny's mind. The girl was maybe somewhere around her own age or possibly a few years older. Her name was Sasha, or at least that was what she called herself.
Danny shook her head as she removed the useless pillow. It didn't help in the least. She couldn't stand it. It was disgusting.
She had seen some of the men the girl had brought with her during the almost two months she had lived there. They were all significantly older than her. Most of them was the suit and tie type who seemed to have money. Almost all of them had rings on their fingers. Fucking pigs. It was so against all she stood for, but it wasn't her business anyway. She had her own problems to worry about.
Today was Christmas Eve. Danny had now been in New York for almost two months. She had spent most of that time looking for a job. So far she had come up with nothing. Not a damn thing. She was either too young, too inexperienced or too something else. There was always something about her that wasn't good enough. She had been ok with it at first, not being in much of a hurry, but she was beginning to run out of money. She had tried to spend as little of it as possible, just buying the most necessary things, like food and stuff, but now she had only a few hundred bucks left. The amount she'd had can only get you so far.
She smiled slightly as she opened the paper bag she had brought with her from Mc Donald's and took out the Big Mac she had bought. It had been David's favorite. He'd loved Big Mac's and Danny had always bought him one when she had the opportunity, just to make him happy. To see the smile on his face. God, she missed him so much.
Big Mac for Christmas dinner, huh. Wow, she had really come a long way. Danny shook her head as she took a large bite. It was already cold from the twenty minute walk from the restaurant to “her place”. Not that Christmas dinner, or any dinner for that matter, had been good at home. Her mother was a crappy cook. Well, that suited her just fine since she was a crappy mother.
Danny hadn't expected much when she decided to leave home, but at least she had expected to find herself a job of some sort. Some way to support herself. It was a shitty existence she was living, but thinking about the girl staying next door, she realized that it could be much worse. People did a lot for money; did a lot to be able to get by or even survive, but that she would never do. Danny wasn't the one to judge people, because she knew that everyone has their own reason as to why they decide to do certain things or not. You should never judge a person based only on what you see. There can be a lot of underlying things that make a person move in a certain direction or make a certain decision.
She could only speak for herself. In her case, she would rather kill herself than live like that.
She finished her cold and soggy hamburger and wrote down a few entries in the journal she had started keeping. For future reference, she used to joke with herself. What fucking future? Well, at least it gave her something to do with her time. Gave her something else to think about. She had never been one to like writing that much but now, once she had started, she could definitely see the positive sides of doing it. It was almost like therapy in a sense. Anyway, the black, leather bound journal was now almost full.
Danny had no idea at that point, as she lay on the hard, unmade bed in her hotel room on Christmas Eve, that that journal would never be finished.
Had she known what was going to happen during the following few minutes she would have made a different decision than the one she was about to make. She would have stayed in her room, pretending not to hear anything. She would have minded her own business. Unfortunately, though, that was not the kind of person she was.
Danny was drawn from her writing as she heard a loud scream coming from next door. She had never heard the girl through the wall of her room before, ever. Not in any sort of way. But this was no scream of pleasure or even close. What the hell?
Danny threw the journal on the bed as she quickly made her way to the room next to hers, standing outside for a few seconds, listening. She could clearly hear a loud man's voice yelling something, followed by yet another horrifying scream from the girl. Danny turned the door handle around slowly, her heart beating like crazy in her chest. She could feel the adrenaline pumping through her system, making her almost fearless, making her act on instinct alone.
The door was unlocked.
What she didn't know was that when she stepped through the door she sealed her own fate as well as that of her future family.
The girl was lying on the bed, her face almost unrecognizable from being beaten repeatedly and her left arm was pointing outwards, in an unnatural direction. It had probably been dislocated. Leaning over her, in front of the bed, stood a man, a gun pointed right at her. She wasn't screaming any longer, not being able to after having passed out. She just lay there, completely still. From where she was standing Danny couldn't see if she was breathing or not.
“Hey, what the fuck are you doing?”
As the man turned around, Danny realized that she probably should have kept her mouth shut and stayed in her room. The semi-automatic, silver colored Glock was now pointed right at her. The tall, dark haired man just stared at her for what felt like an eternity, before turning his attention back to Sasha, this time pointing the gun right at the girl's head.
“Take this one chance I give you and go away, little girl”, he said.
He was smiling, but not it was not a nice smile. It was the arrogant, evil smile of a man who had no respect for human life and who thought, who knew, from experience, that he had the power to decide who gets to live and who has to die.
Danny saw him pull the trigger, as in slow motion. She didn't have the time to think before she launched herself at him as his attention was focused on what he was about to do, trying to make him lose his balance. She was too late. Danny heard the shot go off just as her body connected with his, making them both fall down on the floor.
He dropped the gun from the surprise of her attack and Danny instinctively reached out for it, only barely getting a hold of it before he had the time to react. She stood up on shaky legs, taking a few steps back, away from him.
“That is a really bad idea, little girl”, he said as she now had the barrel of the gun aimed towards him. She was surprised that her hands weren't shaking more than they were. Just the opposite, actually. She felt an almost strange kind of calm overtaking her. As if someone, or something, had taken over her body and her mind, controlling her. She smiled.
“And why is that?”
He smiled an even wider smile now, but this time with much less effort.
“Do you know who I am?”
Danny took a step closer to him, briefly looking over towards the now lifeless body lying on the bed. Blood was pouring out from a wound in the girl's head, staining the once white sheets red.
“Yeah, you're a murderer”.
This time the man laughed.
“Oh, you have no idea, little girl”.
He wiped his bloody hands on his suit pants as he stood up, still smiling. He took a step closer to her.
“And what are you going to do about that, huh? Call the police? Do you know how many of them we have eating out of our pockets? Have you ever heard of the name Marino?”
Danny shook her head. Had she heard the name? Yes, actually she had. Her piece of shit for a father had mentioned that name several times. In what context, she couldn't remember, but she had heard it before. She didn't tell the man that, though.
“No, I haven't. Should I?”
She tried to stay, or at least seem cool. Unafraid.
The man took another step towards her, grinning as she saw bring out a small knife from his pocket.
“You're not from here are you, little girl? The Marino family runs this part of town. And you've made a big mistake.”.
Danny briefly saw him walk quickly towards her, but after that everything happened so fast, she had a hard time remembering it afterwards. She heard a shot go off, then another. She had no recollection of even having pulled the trigger, but she had felt the recoil of the powerful weapon in her hands clearly.
Danny was forcefully brought back to reality as she felt the intense pain in her cheek were the knife the man was still holding in his hand, had sliced through the skin of her face as he helplessly slumped down onto the floor in front of her. Warm, thick blood started trickling down her face and onto the grey t-shirt she was wearing. The metallic taste made her feel sick.
The man had dropped the knife as he landed and she kicked it away from him, as far away as she could. He had been shot in the chest, but was still alive. He looked at her with cold, hateful eyes.
“You are dead, little girl. When my father finds you, you're dead. And when he finds you you're going to wish he will just simply shoot you. But, I doubt that he will be that kind. Was it worth it? Will it be worth it ending up like that because of a fucking whore?”
He smiled now. Maybe he thought Danny wouldn't do it. Wouldn't kill him. That she didn't dare. It was at this exact moment she, for the first time felt the demon appear inside of her. For the first time in a line of many. It took control over her. Calmed her. Guided her.
Danny knew she was cornered. She had no way out of this. It was him or her, that was the unfortunate truth. Those were the facts of the situation she now was in.
They would probably find her anyway, whether she finished this or not, but she had no other alternative. She couldn't trust the police and more than that, her own fingerprints, blood and God knows what else were all over the place. It was no way she would be able to clean all of it up. She was also acutely aware of the fact that her fingerprints had already been registered with the police. After the car crash. No charges had been brought against her thanks to her father, but they had still taken her fingerprints. Not that he cared about Danny in any sort of way, but he had seen to it for his own sake. So that nothing she had done would stain him or his name. Fuck him. Fuck all of them.
She pointed the gun at the man again, this time at his head, watching the expression of his face change as she once again pulled the trigger. Slowly. He looked surprised.
Danny silently watched him as he took a few more breaths as the hole in his head drained the last ounce of life from his body. She brought the weapon and the ammunition she'd found in his jacket with her as she then left him lying there, went to her own room and packed her back pack with the few possessions she owned and then left.
For the second time in as many months Danny had to run. Run from something she hadn't intended to do, but had been thrown in her path anyway. She had now killed two people. This time, though, she had no idea where she should go. Where she could go. She knew that whatever she would do, wherever she would go, they would find her. She shook her head as she pulled the hood of her sweater up over her. So this was her fate?
Danny had once believed in God but did so no more. She never would again.
To be continued in chapter Eight
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