Even Scars Are Beautiful Ch. 03

I think this will have one more chapter. This gets into the back story of these two and again I will warn you, that this pulls from personal experience. I never thought this would go in this direction but it seems to me that the fates have meant this to be. I hope for those who are going through abusive relationships and feel as if you cannot love or trust again, I tell you to continue to have faith that you will.

I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and comment please...yes...you...you there...comment.

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The next six months into the relationship Mitch and Jade slowly started to pull their shields down. Jade couldn't get past the fact that this wonderful man could see so much in her. They shared their dating horror stories and it progressed through dates, nights just hanging out with each other and yes, video games. Jade had gotten hold of one of her favorite fighting games, Soul Caliber IV and was wrapped into the game when Mitch called.

"Hey baby! How is your day off?"

"Oh, I'm just opening a can of whoop on Darth Vader...Damn! He just air choked me! Sonuvabitch!"

Mitch chuckled. He noticed that when Jade was playing any game, she got so wrapped up that it was amusing just to watch her play. She was such a nerd, but he learned that over the months that it was just one facet of her multi layered personality. There had been a hitch in their time together. He kept hearing her call her self 'The Beast' or a monster a few times and he always wondered why. He would ask and she would become sullen faced and silent. She would hang her head and he would just hold her.

They had not had sex since their first meeting and he really wanted to get a sample of her body but she wasn't willing some days and other days, her job would wear her out. Jade had started feeling that she wanted to take this to the next level and with all of her previous situations, she was the one to push and got burned in the end.

Mitch wanted to take it further with her, but the last love in his life burned him badly. He had dated Lorena Jensen for over two years and in the beginning, she was a caring individual. Problem was with her family and friends thinking that he was never enough. Never enough money, possessions, time and of course, he was always 'cheating' on her, though they never proved any of it. Instead of going with her own mind, she wanted to be accepted and on the inside, never thought too much for herself.

When he in the Army, he was a helicopter mechanic around the time of Desert Storm and was caught up in an overnight raid which took most of his company's lives. In the struggle to save fellow Sgt. Lassiter, he was attacked by soldiers. He was slashed several times across the chest, a few across his arms,a bullet wound which ripped past his tendon in his left thigh and one deep slash that crossed the bridge of his nose to the corner of his lip. He eventually found a Jeep, fleeing to the closest Army base. He and Sgt. Lassiter were then treated. Later on, it was revealed as he was recovering that out of the one hundred and twenty eight in his company, only a third had survived. The news didn't want to reveal this slaughter, but he was silently declared a 'hero' and was honorably discharged.

During his two year stint in that hellhole, he had sent a couple of emails to Lorena a week, and the response was immediate. As he was in recovery, he could send more emails and eventually he sent the email to let her know that they were letting him come home. She was so excited, that she planned a party in his honor. When he met her at the airport, she rushed into his arms. Crying and kissing him all over, she looked at his face, beholding him. The first thing that caught her attention was the scar on his face. He had told her about how he was injured in the email, but this was her first chance to see up close. She cringed on the inside a little, masking her face so that he didn't notice.

As time went on, she began to see the rest of his body and tried to encourage him to wear certain t shirts when they went out in public. Dark, with witty words and pictures to withdraw from the scars on his body. In the beginning, he took it as her ability to adjust, but as the words of others rose due to his looks, her 'love' for him became more of a like, and from like it became tolerable. She continued to listen to the words of her 'single' short minded friends and became short minded herself.

Mitch had planned on a day in November to propose to her. She had been with him after his arrival home and the rough times he had adjusting to sleeping under quieter skies, but every now and again, the memories would shake him and she would be there to comfort. He loved her.

So on this Saturday night, he knew she was coming home late from the office and had set up everything. Candles, mood music, dinner, flowers, you know, the works. When she came home, she saw all that he had done and instead of a look of wonder, a stone face shaded the truth. Asking him to have a seat, she sat in front of him, stocking legs crossed, and spoke what was in her soul.

"Honey, I don't think we should be together any more. I've been trying to let you down easy, but I didn't want to hurt you."

Mitch was floored. His heart began to beat erratically, his mind trying to scan through what he might have done wrong.

"What did I do? I was good to you, I never cheated on you so why? Give me one damn reason why this is here all of a sudden?"

"When you were overseas, I started to think about how you would come home. You jump at every sound or shadows. My friends have been telling me stories about that I should watch myself around you. My mom said you might try something to hurt me in my sleep and...its just for the best. I'll get some of my things tonight and Jenna and Mike will help me get the rest of my stuff tomorrow."

As she rose, Mitch held her hand, pain shooting through his body in the midst of betrayal.

"So what. Your afraid of me? How long have you felt like this? We never talked about this....I don't understand..."

Lorena rose and with no clear sense of remorse on her face, she walked away. Mitch just left. Driving in a daze without destination until the crack of dawn, he arrived at Chase's house. Knocking on the door, Chase arrived at the door, disheveled and yawning.

"So, uh, you couldn't wait to see my body this morning?" Chase chuckled.

He noticed the sullen look on his friends face. He opened the door and let him in. Chase felt deep in his heart that he knew why. He had been warning Mitch about Lorena's attitude as of late and started dropping hints here and there,but Mitch would not listen. As Mitch went to lay on the couch, he looked as if he didn't want to speak. He just wanted to sleep. Pulling a blanket over his slumbering body, Chase sat in the near by chair, falling asleep while watching over his friend.

When he went back to his apartment later on after sobering up, he could see all memories of their love was removed. It was if she never existed.

The next time Mitch saw her, it was four months afterward. She was running out of a church, her veil flying in the wind, her new husband running next to her going towards a limo, waiting to whisk them off to their honeymoon. Her smile was gleaming throughout her entire body. He could tell this was the happiest he had ever seen her. It tore at his heart that he wasn't the reason for her happiness, but he had moved on, though the pain some days were still felt.

In the few months afterward, he kept trying to delve deeper into office work but his loved ones kept pulling him out of the darkness to various school functions involving his three nieces, foot ball games with his nephew and parties with his friends. Eventually he got back to some type of normalcy, but had given up on love entirely. Until he met Jade. He felt like he could let his guards down and show the man his momma raised. Many people believed him too good to be true, but being raised around a bunch of older people in the South, kept him grounded.

Jade had taken a day off to drive by the Naughty Betty. She had kept in contact with the ever elusive Syren and part of her wanted to give more, but 'The Beast' kept rattling its cage. 'He will not love us. He will see us as a threat and seek to kill us. Just like the others. Humans cannot be trusted.'

'The Beast' or Jade's defensive side, had kept her sane most of her life. She had grown up in a small country town populated by at least eighty five percent white people in Alabama, never fitting in. As a African American girl, in her community she spoke too properly and made higher grades then a majority in the school and was under constant ridicule. In middle school, no one wanted to hang around her and began to pick on her, pushing her into lockers, picking fights and spreading rumors. It was bad enough that white people treated her like a freak, but her own kind did in her own face. There was never a good reason, but the fact that Jade was weak. She always walked alone with a book in one hand and Walkman in the other. The teachers tried to stand up for her, allowing her to sit with them at lunch time. She would open up, always with a smile and chat with the teachers about every thing.

The one thing Jade loved to do was sing. She loved singing to herself and eventually was talked into singing in the choir for the school in the sixth grade. Unfortunately, she was not safe there either. On this day, a girl named Shaneka Scott had been wanting to get in on picking on her. No real reason, just wanted to do it. So when the choir teacher, Mrs. Shunsky, had to step out to the bathroom, it began.

"Hey black bitch! Yo! Crazy Ass! I'm talking to you!"

Jade looked up from the solo that Mrs. Shunsky had been working with her after school getting her prepared for her first competition. Since she walked around singing to herself, she was declared by the classmates as crazy. Somewhere in her mind, she had been growing tired of all the abuse and she could feel her control over her anger slipping. Both sides of her family had problems with anger, blowing up at small, minute issues. Jade had been learning Tai Chi on her own private meditation time at home, but today none of that would be able to help her.

Shaneka was one of those girls, who had all the looks, clothes and attention but was just a big bully. Her sister in the eighth grade had been giving her that type of personality to look up to. Shaneka always had an attitude of being a bad ass and today she would make it known that she would not be messed with.

"Can't you wear any better shit than that? My boy Demetrius said you put out so must be a slut. But even sluts dress better than that, so you must be a dumb slut?" Without warning, Shaneka smacked Jade across her face, toppling her from the chair onto the floor. The class burst to laughing.

No one stood up for Jade. Even those who saw this as stupid kept their distance. Suddenly a voice deep inside Jade growled.....

'How long will you stand there and be pushed around by these pieces of refuse? You have been through enough hell in your life that these rejects would even decipher. It is time to stand up and fight. You are stronger than these.........humans. I will not allow for you to be hurt any more. I will lend you my strength to defeat this waste of life. Will you yield to me?'

Jade's eyes began to take on this faint shade of dark ruby as out of her mouth this low and unholy sound of laughter rang throughout the room. Jade felt her body grow cold and emotionless. After the years of coming home with unexplained cuts and bruises, black eyes, lost monies and no teacher ever knowing what 'really' happened, Jade finally snapped.

The classroom laughter ceased as they saw Jade bolt up, grabbing Shaneka in her wake, swinging with the precision of a grappler. The fact that Jade was only four foot five inches while Shaneka herself towered at five foot seven meant absolutely nothing. The shock rang from the class as they stepped back and watched the carnage unfold. Someone ran down the hall, seeking a teacher.

Jade gave no quarter as she blocked all shots from Shaneka and grabbed her throat, slamming her into the concrete floor. Her anger in full force, as a blind cry of wrath was released in her, she continued to slap and beat her opponent until she was swept away by Dr. Forrester. No one expected the damage. A broken finger, deep gashes in her side, a cracked nose and a bruised stomach. All of these Shaneka suffered. Jade, suffered one cut across her face.

Miss Scott and Jade's mom were called later that day. Shaneka had to be rushed to the hospital and the principal was baffled. What had made Jade finally stand up for her self? Miss Scott wanted charges brought up against the school for the abuse her daughter had suffered, but the problem was the teachers knew of her reputation and at the scene of the fight, there were eye witnesses who saw Shaneka start it. There was no ground for her to cover, but Anneka, Shaneka's older sister, had plans for Jade.

In the morning, Jade went back to school, and while waiting for school to start, walking over to the bleachers, she was surrounded by a group of seven girls, her mouth covered. She was so short, no one could tell and no one would. An argument started in the hall which drew the attention away from the teachers on guard and Jade was beaten by Anneka under cover of the other girls.

As the first period started, instead of crying, 'the Beast' inside Jade had drawn most of the pain away and with an even darker energy surrounding her, she went to her class. Many expected her to tell the teacher, but she sat, saying nothing, wearing a joker's smile, answering like this was all normal.

The kids declared this so weird that they just kept their distance, allowing Jade to walk by herself. Again, never fitting in. The stories of her fight with Shaneka, kept many away from her, until the tenth grade. This time, Denise was instigator. She had told one of the football players, Derek McDaniel, that Jade liked him. He had stood in front of the class and dogged her out about how who would want to be with a ugly girl like her. The class found this funny, but Jade ignored it. Denise had been trying over and over to break Jade and thought this was it. Enraged, she walked up to Jade and called her a near sighted bitch.

Jade's eyes flashed a glint of cursed blood ruby. She beheld her prey...foolish, foolish human. Jade looked up, with this evil smirk on her face, standing to face her attacker. They were always taller than her, she figured out. 'The Beast' felt it was time for some amusement. 'We must send her crashing to her knees. She must be made an example.'

"It seems like Denise, that I need to give you some lessons on how to cut someone down. A two year old could diss you in circles! By the way Derek, no offense, but I'm not that dumb to drop my pants for someone as worthless as you. Go find any one of these easy girls who will give it to you for free, like this skank in front of me." The class erupted in laughter, while the teacher watched in awe. He knew about Jade's history and hoped to see her stand up. "Now, go find someone of your mental level that you can at least match wits with. I'm too smart to handle someone who belongs in special ed."

As Jade put her finger in Denise's face, she was slapped up against a wall. Watching the blood leak from her nose, Jade slowly licked and consumed the blood as it fell into her mouth, charging up the beast within her and with no remorse, dropped to her knees and punched Denise in her pussy, gliding up to quickly jab in her chest and uppercut her under the chin, sending her flailing onto her back.

As Jade sat on her hips, she pounded Denise into the floor. Fueled by her blind madness, she snarled in joy, only wanting to see how long it would take for her to send Denise crashing from the second floor to the first. Her teacher and another football player rushed her but her anger could not be contained. She threw both of them off and continued to pummel Denise into the floor. They tried again, with the help of another male teacher and gradually got Jade off of Denise's body. As the teachers tried to get some type of civility, Jade declared in a voice that rang through the halls like a funeral bell:

"I AM TIRED OF ALL OF BASTARDS ALWAYS TRYING TO CRUSH ME! YOU AND THOSE SLUTS YOU CALL FRIENDS WILL LEARN YOUR LESSON OR PAY DEARLY! NEXT TIME I SEE YOU AND YOU ARE FOOLISH ENOUGH TO TRY THIS SHIT AGAIN, REMEMBER THIS DAY OR I WILL SHOW NO MERCY! I WILL USE YOUR BLOOD AS FUEL FOR MY RAGE AND I WILL MAKE YOU REGRET EVER TOUCHING ME AGAIN!"

The crowd was silent. No one had knew all of this going on. Jade had figured that even if she brought charges, who would believe a freak like her? She had tried earlier and since she wasn't popular enough, no one believed her but her mom. On that day, Denise suffered two broken ribs, numerous bruises scattered in multicolored pattern of blacks, blues and reds, and a sprained knee. The faculty just asked Jade to go home and allowed her to come back to school. She was then always alone. The Beast continued to defend Jade, though she never got into a fight again, she became truly skeptical about people in general.

As she got older, 'The Beast' calmed down as Jade focused more on balance in her life. In this time, she met John Suttcliff as she was attending Jacksonville State and the more she got into anime, the more friends she made. Many had heard of her stories of her past and except for fearing her, they saw her as who she was: quirky, full of dry wit, with an uncanny ability to make any situation doable. They valued her for who she was and wanted to draw her into their circle without hesitation. John met Chase at a school function for Gay, Lesbian and Transgender and were inseparable. Jade started dating, well at least trying, but with her shattered self esteem, creeps always tried to use her. She would see it coming just quick enough to not invest enough time, pulling out early, but not without some damage. With each failed try at love, Jade became in a sense, 'jaded'.

When she met Paxton in her senior year of college, she was around twenty eight years old and he was twenty one. He was a country boy through and through, but saw Jade and started hitting on her. At some point, Jade said yes and they started dating. He came from a racist family, but Jade didn't find this out until a few months into their love affair when his mom approached her after work. Jade had never met his mom so when she said these words it kind of rocked her.

"Hey...Nigger bitch....stay the hell away from my pure boy. If you don't, I'll cut you and bury the body."

'The Beast' inside of Jade knew what was coming. A challenge. 'Well, if she wants a fight, lets give it to her.'

"Bitch, I'll let you hit me once. If you succeed in your choice then I'll give you props. However, if you don't, then understand, that I will personally rain down hell fire upon thee until I see fit that you have met Satan at the gates of hell. Are you ready? I sure am."

Growls exited Jade's shaking frame as 'The Beast' shook its cage, begging to be set free. Begging to teach this fool a lesson. The crazy look worked on her and she backed away.

Jade started to feel later into it that he was trying to control everything: what she ate, where she went, how she dressed and in the beginning she thought it was normal. As the weeks became months, her friends warned her about his obsessive behavior and at that point 'The Beast' began to speak to her at night.

'This human brings you down. I have said nothing because he has not done any physical damage, but your energy center is being compromised. Your source is being cut off by this human. I see no good in him. I believe he seeks to control you forever.'