The Monsters Within (Silver Shadows: Nyght Nymphs Duet)

Chapter One

Kytten

“I don’t know how to do this.”

“Do what, Kytten?” Dr. Jefferson asked.

“Any of it.” I shrugged. “I don’t know what to do.”

Dr. Jefferson and I sat outside behind the clubhouse. Cash offered to let us use his room, but I needed to get out of there. I wanted him to stay, but Dr. Jefferson suggested we start without him and see how it went.

So instead, he was sitting by the back door. Far enough that he couldn’t hear me. But close enough that I could see him. Close enough that he could get to me quickly if it became too much.

Outside was my suggestion, but now I felt like I was on display. It was too open out here. I was too exposed. I spent my life hiding, literally and figuratively, but now everything was out there.

My brother knew my secret.

Cash knew my secret.

Everyone in the clubhouse knew my secret.

“Is there anything specific you want to talk about? Or I could ask you questions. You can answer what you’re comfortable with. If you aren’t ready to talk about something, just tell me no. You make the rules here. We go at your pace.”

“Ok, I think if you ask me questions, that would be better.” I scratched at my leg. When I looked over my shoulder at Cash, he was jogging toward me.

“Baby, turn your chair.” He lifted me up and turned me around so that he was now in my direct line of sight.

“Cash—” Dr. Jefferson started, but he cut her off.

“Mellie, don’t.”

She sighed and nodded. Then she turned her chair so that her back would be to him and I could see him while I talked. He went back to his post, leaving me alone with Dr. Jefferson.

“How long have you known Cash?” I asked. Suddenly wondering why they were so familiar when I knew she had only been here a few weeks.

This time, Dr. Jefferson looked at him over her shoulder, and when she turned back, she had a smile on her face. “Most of my life. Cash and my brother Gunner prospected together. He and King were two more big brothers to me growing up.”

“You and he never...” I couldn’t bring myself to finish the question. Jealousy and I were close friends. Too close.

Dr. Jefferson threw her head back and laughed. “Oh God, no. Never.”

I reached down to scratch my leg and caught Cash’s eye. The monsters settled immediately.

“Why don’t we start with something simple? Tell me about how you met Valhalla.”

I took a deep breath and told her about the day I met Val.

I’d wandered around the city alone, looking for my brother.

He didn’t come back.

Thorne left two days ago to find us food and he never came back.

Maybe someone took him too.

We weren’t the only kids who lived on the street. There were lots of them. We’d never had friends before. We still didn’t have any now. Thorne said he didn’t trust them. He said we could only trust each other.

He told me to stay where I was. I always listened to Thorne, but I was hungry. He was older. He knew more than I did. But I was scared.

We waited for Mom to come back, but she didn’t. So I guessed that meant Thorne wasn’t coming back either.

He was so mad when Mom left. I was sad. And scared. She didn’t want to leave. But he made her. He hit her and pulled her hair until she was in the car.

She’d cried.

Mom never cried.

I didn’t know why Thorne wouldn’t let me go with him. He had taught me how to find food. I could have helped him, and we would still be together.

I looked down the alley. Thorne said to always look and to make sure there wasn’t someone there before I went in. I tried to always do what he said, but I couldn’t wait anymore. He never came back.

I crept down the alley, sticking to the side like Thorne had said. There were boxes and wood floors that people used to move things. Someone had leaned them against the building, so I tried to stay behind them.

There were two dumpsters at the end. One of them would have food. I was too small to climb to the top, so I went to the side and pulled at the little door. Why they had a little door, I didn’t know. Grown-ups could reach the top, and the door was too small for them, anyway.

But I was happy there was one.

I was just about to climb in when I heard a man.

“Hey, little girl, do you need some help?”

Thorne said I shouldn’t talk to strangers. But Mom said it was rude to ignore people. I didn’t know what to do, so I just shook my head.

He was scary looking. His clothes were dirty, and he smelled funny. Kind of like my bed when I didn’t wake up at night. But grown-ups didn’t have accidents like little kids did. That’s what Thorne said.

“Come here, sweetheart.”

He reached for me, and I scurried back. There wasn’t much space under the dumpsters, but I was small. Thorne said not to hide behind them cause grown-ups could move them. He said to hide under them so they couldn’t reach me.

He was wrong.

The scary man could reach me. He grabbed my ankle and I screamed. I tried to hold on to a bar underneath, but I wasn’t strong like Thorne.

“Come here, little girl. I won’t hurt you. I promise,” he rasped.

He was already hurting me. I kicked at the hand that held my foot, but he didn’t let go. So I screamed again.

“Come out here, you little bitch. I got something I can feed you.”

He sounded like he wanted to help, but he used the same word the man did. The word he called Mom before he hit her. I knew that wasn’t a nice word. Mom didn’t let us use bad words. Thorne used them, though.

“HEY!”

The shout scared the man, and he let go of my foot.

“What the fuck are you doing?” a lady asked him. She wasn’t using nice words either. But maybe you could use bad words with bad people.

“None of your business, you cunt. Get the hell out of here before I make you take her place.”

I couldn’t see the lady, but Mom always said if we got lost to find a mom. A mom would always help. I wondered if she was a mom.

“You picked the wrong day, asshole.” I saw her feet from under the dumpster; she was wearing boots. Black ones. They looked like they would hurt if she kicked you. Thorne kicked me once when he was wearing boots. It hurt a lot.

“Sweetheart, you stay where you are. I’ll tell you when it’s safe to come out.” Yup, she sounded like a mom. That’s what Mom used to say to us when the man came. That she would get us when it was safe.

I didn’t answer her. I was too scared to talk. I didn’t want the man to find me.

“You gonna save her?” the man asked the lady.

“You’re damn right I am.”

“Bitch, you and what army?”

“I don’t need a fucking army.”

There were loud noises, and the lady was yelling at the man, and he was yelling back. They were both using words that were bad. Words Mom told us we should never say.

I saw their feet moving around, and then it got quiet when the man fell to the ground. He was looking right at me, but he didn’t move. Then I saw the blood. A red line around his neck.

“Sweetheart, it’s safe, but I want you to close your eyes before you come out, okay?”

I did what she said and crawled out from under the dumpster. She picked me up and pushed my face into her neck.

“You don’t need to see that, sweetheart.” She didn’t know I had already seen it.

The lady took me out of the alley and to a restaurant. She let me order whatever I wanted, and I got to eat it all by myself. I wished Thorne was there. He was probably hungry, too.

“My name is Valhalla. What’s your name?”

Mom told us to never give our real name. But I liked my name.

“Rose.”

“Where’s your mom, Rose?”

I shrugged. “The man took her a long time ago.”

“You’re out here alone?”

I didn’t look at her while I was eating the food. I didn’t want to lie since she saved me from the scary man, but I had to do what Mom said. Always.

“My brother was with me.”

“Where is he?”

I shrugged again. “He went to get us food but didn’t come back.”

I put the french fry on the plate. My belly was hurting now. I didn’t want to eat anymore.

“How long has he been gone?”

“Two days. I think. It got dark twice.”

“That must have been scary.” I nodded, but still didn’t look at her.

“Well, would you like to come stay with me? I can help you find him. That’s kind of what I do. Help people.”

“Like Wonder Woman?” I finally looked at her. She didn’t look like Wonder Woman with her blonde hair, but Wonder Woman killed bad guys.

Valhalla laughed and shook her head. “I’m not quite that good.”

But she was that good. She killed the scary man. He was bigger than her and probably stronger. Boys were always stronger than girls. That’s why Mom went with the man. He was stronger than her.

Maybe if Mom had been strong like Valhalla, she could have killed the bad man. Then she would still be with us. And I would still have my brother.

“Did you like living with Valhalla?”

I shrugged. I didn’t know how to talk to her. I was used to putting on my fake smile and making small talk. But everyone knew now. I couldn’t hide anymore.

“Tell me about your favorite memory from living with Valhalla.”

I narrowed my eyes at Dr. Jefferson. “Favorite memory?”

“Yes, I am sure you have many. Tell me one.”

This was harder than Dr. Jefferson knew. There weren’t very many because the memories weren’t real. The only real fond memories were from before I turned fifteen. The four short years I had where I didn’t have to share Val with Amber.

“My first birthday with her. Val spent every evening talking with me when I went to live with her. She wanted to learn all about me. I didn’t know then it wasn’t real interest.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Do you know what we do? The Nyght Nymphs?”

“I do. I’ve heard the stories. Though I’ll be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure they were true. I’m glad to know they are. What the Nyght Nymphs do is very important, and I wish there were more of you.”

“Well, when we rescue someone, we spend time getting to know them. This helps us figure out the best place to put them. We want their new lives to be the opposite of what they’ve been living.

It’s the best way to hide them. That’s what Val was doing.

She was asking me questions to try to learn who I was and where I came from. ”

“How do you feel about that?”

I took a deep breath and looked for Cash. He was talking to King. Were they talking about me?

“It wasn’t until I got involved later on that I realized what she was doing. By then I was already...” I let the words trail off. I didn’t know how she did it, but she almost had me telling her how it happened.

No one could know that. It was bad enough they knew I was doing it. But if they knew why, Cash really would think I was a kid.

“You were already hurting yourself?”

I nodded.

“Can you tell me why you hurt yourself?”

“No.” That was a hard line. I agreed to talk to her because Cash asked me to. But she wasn’t my friend. And she wasn’t Cash. She didn’t shut the monsters up; only Cash did that. In fact, her questions were waking the monsters up.