Midnight Colors Ch. 02

*****

~ Chapter V

The air was freezing cold, but his lungs burned, and he struggled to catch his breath, Benny was still behind him and as always he was always faster, when Benny stopped next to him, they both laughed loudly.

Art showed him some of the snacks he had managed to steal when they ran from the store, and Benny did the same. They walked home glad they had something to eat, they heard dogs barking, bottles breaking and people yelling around them, but they just kept their heads low and their faces somber. Attracting attention was never a good idea in the neighborhood.

Karl's drunken ass called from the window and Art knew he had to jug, he only had a few moments before Karl got really pissed off.

Lindsey got kicked out of her house again, and she technically lived under Benny's bed for now. In the mean time they had to feed her, so they decided to take matters into their own hands.

Art gave all the snacks he had stolen to Benny in a dark corner of the street, trusting he would share them with Lindsey; he only kept a pack of chips and a soda. As he got bigger, Karl decided to place him on a diet, basically starving and beating him for sport.

"We run tomorrow? There is another store uptown." Benny asked.

"Hell yeah, and make sure she eats all of it." Art answered before running up the stairs.

Art lay on the floor, bruised up and beaten again he looked at the heating system as usual, the only thing keeping him in his hellhole. He had tried to run many times but freezing to death was not a plan, now more than ever he needed to be strong. At fourteen, he was used to the beatings by now; he just laid in silence whenever it happened. Sometimes wishing he was at Benny's house, being yelled at and belittled was way better than being in physical pain every other day.

Art waited until Karl was completely unconscious before he started to crawl to his room, he ate under the bed as quietly as possible, making sure not to leave any crumbs behind.

He repeated over and over again that he just needed to be strong enough for Lindsey, Benny, and Tokyo they were family. Now they just needed to wait a bit longer. Until Tokyo turned eighteen, so they could all run away from this nightmare of a neighborhood.

Soon as Tokyo could rent a house by herself, and they got a place with a heating system, all their dreams would come true, and they would never look back.

~

"Speak up." Art said looking at Lara.

"I can't help it; maybe I don't have much to say." She said as her fingers traced the lines of the winged angels tattooed on his chest while they lay in bed.

"Ease your mind a bit," he encouraged her looking at the ceiling.

"I'm scared," She admitted after a long pause.

"Of what she will say?" Art asked.

"Maybe it is too late like you said, and she will never forgive me," Lara said, turning away from him. "I know I said I could wait, but what if it's too late and there is nothing I can do..."

"Hey, you said to try." Art said as he pulled her back into him.

"I know what I said, but what if I was wrong." Lara's voice broke, and soon her tears and sobs started to flow.

"Then we find a way, there is always another way." Art said after a while.

"No, I changed my mind; I want to respect her wishes," Lara said as she buried herself in his chest. "I will do whatever she decides, ultimately I just wanted to see her, I was never really under any illusions that she would forgive me, but thank you anyway."

"Will you be okay with that?" Art asked.

"I have to be, I don't have a choice," Lara answered.

Art's mind ran wild as they lay in bed, for the first time in his life since Karl there was nothing her could do to help, and it bothered him more than it should.

"Will you be okay with that?" Art thought to himself as he watched her breathing get even and sleep take over.

When they got back in the truck the next day, he tried to lighten the mood, they were getting closer to the farm, and he needed her to relax.

When she slept, he decided to stop at a carnival in a town he had been too many times with his whole family before Ian was born.

They played games and he dared her to get on rides, Art remembered why he enjoyed coming here. This was calming; it reminded him of how lucky he was to survive where he came from. For the first time since he met her, he wondered just how awful her situation had been, to force her to run and leave everything behind, but it also made him feel fortunate that he was able to choose his family.

Lara didn't talk much about what she did when she ran, but he had the sense it was probably lonely and that was something he could never understand because through everything he never felt alone.

"Thank you for this it was really fun," Lara said smiling as they walked hand in hand through the streets.

"You should see this place during the holiday season." He said, pleased with himself.

Art held her tightly and passionately kissed her, drowning on the taste of her tongue, running his hands on her body, which got him a few loud noises from people walking about. This made them both laugh hard, but when they got back in the truck the same bad feeling came back to him this time way stronger than before.

*****

~ Chapter VI

Art had dreaded this moment the day he had left his home to pick up Lara; he didn't even want to imagine what was going on outside this house. All he could do was concentrate on Ian; the Toddler was a lively one, just like his mother.

Art watched Vincent from the corner of his eye as he moved to the kitchen; something about his presence was unsavory. Art had tried to keep things cordial with him ever since his wedding with Lindsey, but he couldn't shake the feeling of being around a predator, Art had a lot of experience with the type. Given Vincent was way more sophisticated than Karl had ever been.

Ian's screamed as he complained about a minor inconvenience got Art's attention back, Kids! he never actually played with his toys. The baby's fire-red hair was a dead giveaway to whom he belonged to, it was a reminder of his failure to protected Lindsey.

Art didn't know what was worse, being brought up by Vincent's sociopathic ass or the human excrement that was Karl. Art remembered how many times he had tried to run away from Karl as a kid.

Art and Benny had protected and cared for Lindsey as much as parents could while still being kids themselves. Art could still feel the liquid rage boil inside of him as he beat Karl to a pulp a year ago, if the police hadn't arrived at that moment, Karl would have been dead and gone.

That night, Benny drove Lindsey to Art's apartment and while Art decided to stay back at the clubhouse, Benny and Tokyo stayed together, but the next morning Art woke up to Benny frantically calling him and telling him what Karl had done to Lindsey.

Benny waited outside the house as Tokyo drove Lindsey to the hospital to get treatment. Art couldn't even look at her her as both men silently got on their bikes and set to finding Karl.

Art remembered that day he only had one thing in mind, he needed to kill his uncle. It was late night when they got to his van, as Benny kicked the door in giving Karl almost no time to react, the sorry piece of shit was still in his underwear.

Art proceed to beat the living shit out of him, as Benny trashed and destroyed his van. When Benny set it on fire, the screams, and commotion from people around had the police up in arms, they stopped both men from killing him.

The violence only landed them in jail, and anger made Art almost lose his shit again when Lindsey refused to press charges. As a matter of fact, she didn't want anyone to know what had happened, for fear of losing Vincent.

By the time Ian was born, Lindsey had successfully convinced her husband the child was his and not Karl's, but anyone with two eyes could see that baby was not Vincent's.

Ian looked exactly like his father and Art hated it with a passion, but even in his hatred. He couldn't bring himself to mistreat anything that came out of Lindsey. Even if it was also from the vilest man he had ever known.

Art cursed his genes and wished that Ian would eventually look a bit more like his mother with her long blond hair and beautiful almond eyes. Yet he had made a promise to respect her wishes when it came to her son being raised by Vincent. Art had no idea how Karl had found out about Ian, but that was reason enough for Lindsey to run away. She was so traumatized that she never wanted to go back to the city, much less give Karl the opportunity to see his Ian.

Art's heart burn, once again Karl had managed to destroy his life and hurt his family, for this and many other reasons he couldn't see Karl, he knew the world was too small for the both of them to exist at the same space. But as Ian's innocent face demanded play time he was amazed that something so beautiful could come from something so vile.

Art was restless as he wondered what they talked about outside the house; he knew it was really bad when he couldn't hear Lindsey yell, scream or make a scene. He wished he could hear the conversation, but he knew this moment was not about him. Vincent cleared his throat a couple of times and even tried to get Ian's attention, but the child stayed glued to Art's chest, that made him smile a little maybe Ian was smarter than he had though.

Lindsey stormed inside, ran straight to the room upstairs and shot the door behind her so loud it made poor Ian cry, as Art comforted the child, he could hear the faint noises of Lindsey cry and break things. He wanted to comfort her but he knew now was not the time.

Vincent approach the door but Art stopped him from going any further, and for hours both men would hear silence then Lindsey's crying then back into silence over and over, Art was glad the walls were a bit thick and Ian's room was far away from all the noise.

Art looked outside of the window hoping to see Lara still standing there but she was gone, he had known this would happen but it still hurt, he was tempted to call her but he needed to make sure Lindsey was alright, that and the guilt would let him.

***

Two days had gone by and Art was starting to worry, Lindsey hadn't come out of her room at all. By now she had stopped crying and silence was the only thing that could be heard through the whole house. Except for Ian's lively explorations, very much unaware of the world around him. In the mean time Art decided to run the household, it was obvious Vincent had no clue what he was doing most of the time and someone had to care for both of them.

He had called Lara a couple of times to no answer. He understood she needed to be left alone, seeing her sister for the first time in a decade plus was a lot to process and by the way Lindsey had reacted, it was clear Lara was not wanted. But he didn't like not knowing where she was at least with Lindsey he knew what to expect, but Lara was completely unpredictable.

"Where is my woman? She better not be running away again because if she does, I swear to fucking god!" he thought when he got Benny's call.

"Hey," Benny said.

"Yeah, shit is bad," Art said as he got ready to clean up Ian.

"The kid?" Benny asked.

"She has been in that fucking room for days, and I have no fucking clue where the other one ran off to." Art answered, feeling the anger turn into a headache.

"She probably told her to fuck off," Tokyo said next to Benny.

"Yeah, well... honestly, I have no fucking idea what's going on." Art admitted.

"I told you it was a fucked up idea to bring that woman around the kid," Benny said.

"You said we should get a cut, don't act up with me." Art said, and he could immediately picture Tokyo giving Benny a dirty look.

"I was just playing around, besides I was drunk." Benny said a bit nervously, "What are you going to do now brother?"

"Fuck if I know, wait until she gets back to normal and hope for the best," Art replied, "clean up that room, she tore it to shreds."

"Fuck, is that bad?!" Tokyo said after drinking something.

"Yeah, she didn't even scream or anything, just cried all day and night." Art said.

"You got to get that woman away from her," Benny said more to himself.

"I hear you, I have to make something for Ian call you guys later." Art said and hanged up.

Art's mind instantly went back to her as he made Ian some milk, "My woman." It was strange yet so natural to think of Lara as his, even after everything, he had spend so much time driving around with her, getting used to her presence and now she was just gone, he hoped it wouldn't happen but now he was stuck, he could still smell the scent on her skin, picture the shape of her curves, hear her laugh and taste her tongue. Not being able to see her again was out of the question now.

~~~

When Lindsey finally came out of that room she looked like a completely different person, her brown eyes looked sad and defeated and her blond hair looked dry, her petite form looking even more frail than usual. He hugged her, and relief ran through him even if it wasn't complete, he was glad to see her.

Lindsey's sad eyes looked up at him when he encouraged her to eat something. He was glad Vincent's manipulative ass was still at work, and she wasn't distracted, it was rare times he had alone with her nowadays and he wanted her to at least eat something before she started asking questions, but she didn't waste a second.

"Why did you bring that bitch here?" She asked him.

"I thought you deserve the right to look her in the eyes and tell her all those things you have been telling me for years." He answered.

"But you could have told me on the phone, I would have told you not to bring her here," Lindsey said, her eyes on the plate.

"I didn't think it was fair for the both of you," Art said.

"I don't want her around me; I don't want her around my house or Ian." Lindsey said firmly, "Make sure she doesn't come around any of us Art, I mean it."

"You got it!" Art said, holding on to her in another firm hug.

"Sorry about the house, did Vincent help out with Ian?" Lindsey asked after a while, she looked at her son.

"Yeah, he was great, but just in case, I'm going to stick around a bit longer if you don't mind." Art said.

Lindsey didn't object, and he was glad. After he convinced her to take a shower, he got started brushing and drying her hair while she played with Ian. When Vincent finally got home, he acted like she had just came back from the hospital or something, but Art could feel the fake concern in his voice.

Vincent always tried to be on his best behavior when Art was around, but that always make him wonder what the house was like when he wasn't around. Everyone had tried to tell Lindsey the kind of man she had for a husband, but she was hard headed as hell and head over heels in love with him.

All Art could do was hope one day, maybe not too far away, she would open her eyes to his true nature. For now all he could do was continue trying to protect her as best he could.

In his mind he was wondering who was protecting Lara, who was holding her when she cried, and it tore at him, he had never felt more conflicted in his life.

*****

~ Chapter VII

Art worked on his drawings on plane back to the city after a month of taking care of things back on the farm, he had gotten a service to bring back his truck. He wasn't in the mood to be driving around such a large distance alone in his truck. The annoying thing still had some of Lara's things, and he didn't want to think.

For the first time in his life, he was glad he had kept it a secret. If Benny knew, he hadn't talked about it yet, and he appreciated that, but as soon as he got back home he knew Benny would say something. It just wasn't in his nature not to talk about things.

He still had no idea where Lara was, and it was becoming a living nightmare to remain in control. He had to listen to Lindsey call her every name under the sun for weeks, meanwhile he yearned to be with her and everything told him she belonged with him.

~~~

"So how was the trip?" Benny said as he landed a kick to his rips.

"I just got here, man." Art said, as he stumbled and tried to catch his breath, Art was usually faster but Benny always hit harder in the cage.

"I'm serious, how are the kids?" Benny said, then his fist connected the side of his head and his foot kicked his lower side.

"Fine, for the most part, no thanks to Vincent's." Art answered sweating, he tried to keep moving around to avoid a major blow, and Benny could be ruthless and play dirty.

"Don't worry about it," Benny said as he followed Arts movement trying to a find a better hit.

They talked some more as they hit each other until Art had Benny in a sprawl and forced him to submit.

"So do I have to ask?" Benny asked after they both let go, and rested.

"Shouldn't you be more worried about Tokyo, when are you going to stop this merry-go-round with her, shit is annoying as fuck." Art complained as his side and his legs where killing him.

"You know how she is, one minute we are a thing, the next she is done." Benny said when he got some water.

"Maybe if you just asked her and stop dicking around?" Art said laughing and ignoring the pain.

"Well maybe if she stops all that bitching I would stop dicking around," Benny laughed, "Don't make me ask again."

"I fucked up big, man, and now it's all gone to shit." Art said after taking a long breath.

"You know what that woman..." Benny said.

"I know, shit, you think I like this? But shit is different now; fuck if I can help it," Art said agitatedly. "She messed me up real bad."

"You should have never taken her down there?" Benny said taking a long breath.

"Yeah well, should a/could a/would a don't mean shit now, does it?" Art said trying not to limp from the pain on his leg.

"So, what are you going to do now?" Benny asked with a disappointed expression.

"The Thing is mine now." Art said, "But I need your help, bother."

"Fuck you!" Benny said, anticipating the question.

"I need time, Lindsey is going to take a lot and I need you to back me." Art said hating to put his brother shitty spot.

"We don't lie Art! Lindsey is NEVER forgiving her, you know how she is." Benny said, as he started to take off his grappling gloves.

"I just need time," Art hated to sound desperate.

"Fine, but if it doesn't work, you're on your own, and you know is the same for Tokyo," Benny said as he rubbed his face in frustration.

****

~ Chapter VIII

Art parked his bike across the road from her house, he didn't miss the "for sale" sign at the window, and he knocked on her door.

He waited a bit and knocked again, but this time he could hear a noise coming from inside the house, as he looked to through the window he saw her foot sticking out from behind a moving box.

"Woman, you better open this door right now!" He said loudly, but the door stayed closed, "Lara I'm not in the mood for this shit!"

Art looked through the window again and her foot was gone behind the box, hiding and running, two things he hated.

"Lara, I will break this door!" He yelled out as his knock harden.

"We had a deal, remember?" She yelled from inside the house.

"Open up now!" He yelled, getting pissed off.

He could hear her cursing as she opened the door, letting only her face be seen.

"I'm going okay, It just takes some time to find a new place far from here." Lara said.

"You have two seconds to let me in before I get really pissed off." He said.

"Fine, but You have five minutes." She said looking around to see if anyone was watching, and let him step inside.

The apartment was a large size, and It smiled like wood and herbs but the many moving boxes told him all he needed to know, and he was glad he hadn't waited long to get back.