Falling Hard (Hidden Secrets Book 6) (2 page)

Chapter One

Kristy

Kristy Street was popular today…

For the past fourteen years, I have referred to myself as
Kristy Street
because of the endless amounts of people who just walk all over me. Hell, I paved the way. I let them do it. Sometimes, I found it much easier to let people walk all over me than waste the energy to stop it. Today, the slum lord decided to raise my rent. How the fuck am I supposed to come up with an extra two hundred dollars? I was barely making enough to cover my bills now.

“Mr. Doyle, I don’t make that kind of money.”

“Pay it or get the fuck out. I got million other people that want place. You no pay, then you no stay.”

Understanding Mr. Doyle half the time was hard enough, but when he got angry he was unpredictable and scary. Knowing my fate, I gather everything I can from my room. Not that I had much. Hell, I just found this place four months ago. Shoving it all into the hiker’s pack I had and carried the rest in my arms, I walked downstairs. This way if I couldn’t pay the additional two hundred, I at least still had my belongings.

There comes a time when I wish that my life was different than what it was. Sometimes, I wonder if I hadn’t left when I was fourteen if I’d have this life now. But then I remember the way I was treated and know that this life is better than any life I’d have if I stayed there.

Walking down the street, I kept my head down. If I didn’t meet anyone’s eyes, it was like I was alone. Being alone was the way I preferred it. Somehow I had to figure out how to get this extra two hundred dollars for rent. The apartment may be a shit hole. It may be falling apart, but it had a door that locked. I stayed warm when it was cold, sort of. I stayed dry, sort of. There was a shower and a bathroom. Rarely ever hot water, but what did I care as long as I could clean the grim of this place and the stench of work off me was all that mattered.

The wall paper was peeling away from the walls and the gyprock behind it was crumbling. The ceiling leaked a lot in several spots. I had garbage bins under those areas. The windows were broken, but I covered them in plastic and that helped for the most part. The floors were black, but I think at one time they were white. The vinyl peeled up in many areas revealing the plywood below it.

The ceiling was black with specks of white. If I’m not mistaken, white may have been the original color and the black is the filth and mold over the years of not being cared for. The walls were paper thin. I could hear the baby on one side crying and the mom screaming at it. The other side of me was a constant fuck fest over there.

A dump it may be, but it was still better than the nightmare that was the streets at night here. The pictures and brochure paint it as a relaxing vacation spot, but my experience it suffered from multiple personalities. Day personality was as they pictured it all the way up until about ten or so at night, but then there was its night time personality. From ten at night until the sun rose, the freaks and monsters ran the streets, looking for new blood to sink their teeth into.

Well, I’ve seen more of the night ‘life’ here in Sydney than most people have. Don’t get me wrong, I love this city. It’s the main reason why I’ve never really left. When I was fourteen, I left the city of
Coffs Harbour
, a pricier city several hours north of Sydney. It was long hellacious trek to get there. There weren’t many people that liked the idea of aiding a runaway and continued to drive on past me or I’d run from. But eventually I made it. It wasn’t exactly smooth sailing here, but at least I didn’t run the risk of running into any of them.

My mind often wondered if they even cared that I was gone. Even thought maybe they might miss me, but as soon as I walked past a loving parent with their child or a parent yelling at their child, I kicked those thoughts right away. No one misses me. Why should they? I’m dirty.

Out of nowhere, I’m knocked to the ground and the wind knocked from my lungs. My belongings that I carried in my arms scattered to the sidewalk. Looking up, I glared at the guy apologizing and bending down to help me.

“I’m so sorry, ma’am. I wasn’t watching where I was going,” He held out his hand.

“Yeah, well, watch next time. Some of us don’t have the money to replace whatever we break, ruin or lose,” I snapped as I stood without using his hand.

“I’m very sorry, ma’am.”

“Sorry doesn’t always fix things,” I grumbled and turned walking away.

Only having taken a few steps, I remembered about my stuff on the ground. Just as I turned around, I swore I heard my name being called. Looking around to see who was calling my name, I scan the crowd of people. The guy was still in the same position as when I walked away, blankly staring.
Aww I hurt his feelings or shocked the poor rich boy that he can’t walk all over everyone. Even if I was dirt,
I thought to myself. Just behind him, I saw my nightmare in flesh and blood walking toward me. My whole body froze in terror for a moment.

Damn it! How’d he figure out where I was?

Backing up slowly, I quickly turned and ran as fast as I could. My name continued to be called from behind me, but I wasn’t stopping, I may not live to see tomorrow if I did. That bastard would make sure of it.

Dodging people, I worked my way quickly through the streets towards the crowds so I can get lost in among the thousands of tourists. If I were to get surrounded by enough people I hoped to blend in. It was an anxiety attack waiting to happen, but I’d much rather be surrounded by people than have Vin catch me. If Vin was looking for me that meant only one thing, he knew what I did. Fuck, Shelby promised she’d keep it to herself.

Over the course of my life, I’ve learned one big lesson. If you trust someone, you’ll always get screwed. I quit trusting people, but for this…with Shelby, I thought I was safe. Again, that word gets me. Once you think it, you are fucked. It was those moments of make believe that the real monsters sneak in and take away everything you thought
safe
and show you the way that life really works.

Shelby and I met when I was twenty. Our meeting was by accident. I’d walked into one of my daily sitting grounds,
Short Stop Café
. It was a place that I sat at every day to escape the weather and all the people. As per usual, I sat in the back corner away from everything and everyone. With my head down, I looked through the paper. It was a habit to look through the thing with the false hope that my family actually cared what happened to me, but never in the years since I left home did I see anything in the paper. Not even a blip about a missing girl.

I used to think that maybe they’d care enough to keep face with their friends at least. Their image was everything to them. I’d been playing down by the creek one day when I was younger. I’d banged myself up pretty good. They made me stay in my room until all signs of bruises were gone.

Anyway, I’d sat there flipping through the paper when a girl walked up. She had long straight blonde hair. Her arms and legs were no bigger than twigs, I swear it. When I looked up, she stepped back. When I waited for her to leave, she apologized and left to the other side of the café. A few moments later, she walked back over to me, sat in the chair across from me and started talking about this guy that stood outside the window. Even telling her that I wanted to be left alone didn’t get her to walk away. She still just sat there like it was something we’ve done for ages.

After a while, a couple weeks, I felt bad for her and started participating in her conversations. There were many things that we had in common. The years passed seemingly quickly. Shelby had introduced me to some other people. One in particular had special interest. Vin. Shelby kept going on about him before I even met him, about how gorgeous he was. She wasn’t exactly straight forward about him, but he wasn’t ugly. 

Vin carried about him this arrogance, this sense of entitlement. He was plenty interested in me, but I wasn’t in him. I’m all for a cocky guy, but they need to have the assets to back it up. Vin did not. Yeah he wasn’t a dog, but he didn’t have good enough looks to be cocky because of that. His personality could be matched to that of a wet mop. His skills were limited to say the least. So nothing else even made up for the lack in his looks. He was just not attractive.

Well, one thing Vin didn’t accept was being turned away and not getting what he wants. Shelby seemed to really be head over heels for him. It floored me as to why, but that was her deal not mine. By the time all this had rolled around, Shelby had given me no reason to not
trust
her.

Yet, now Vin chases me down. He knew where my apartment was. She had to have spilled the beans because there’s no way he’d figure it out on his own. Her betrayal, though hurtful, I expected it honestly. Like I said, she was really into Vin. No doubt he played that to his advantage.

Vin had once called me his new pet. My exact words to him were ‘I’m sorry, but I’m no damn animal nor am I anyone’s pet.’ He’d laughed it off that day, but I soon found out that it wasn’t acceptable to talk to him that way.

Though I expected Shelby’s betrayal, it still bothered me because Shelby was a lot like my younger sister. Talking with her made me realize how much I actually missed my sister. I missed them all from time to time, but judging by how easy it was for me to just ‘disappear’ they obviously did not miss me.

When I thought I was hidden enough, I snuck into a nearby store and went into their bathroom. Knowing he wasn’t going to give up easily, I dug into my bag. Pulling out my photo album, I skimmed through pictures I took over the years before leaving home. Most of them were of my brother and sister. So many nights, I dreamed of them missing me, searching for me. But that’s all they were, dreams.

One of my favorite pictures was of my brother and me at the river. He’s giving me bunny ears as I’m holding the camera out taking the picture. We were so close in age. We should have been best friends. There was a good stretch that I thought we were then just one day it changed. All of a sudden, I only had temporary siblings. It hurt even now.

“Oh Kris stop being a pain in the ass and jump already!” Aaron yelled from the water.

“But I’m…” I gulped.

“Where is my fearless sister? The awesome one that’s not afraid of anything,” he taunted.

“I’m here, but…”

“Well, if you can’t handle it then I guess I can take you back home and see if Rebecca wants to come out.”

That got my ass in gear. Taking a few steps back from the edge, I made a running jump tucking my knees up into my chest and wrapping my arms around my legs. The wind rushed over me before the force of me hitting the water took its place. As I sank below the surface of the water, my leg hit a rock nearby. A sharp pain seared through my leg and I pushed myself to the surface.

“That was awesome! I knew you could do it. I’m so proud of you kid,” Aaron said swimming toward me.

The pain was intense. My brain almost couldn’t even function properly. All it was registering was pain and a lot of it. Looking at my brother, who was still a bit away, the ability to keep myself above the water was fading away. My head fell below the water and this time I was unable to push myself back up. Dizziness crept in. For the first time, I wished I hadn’t come out with my brother.

Everything was blurring in front of me as I sank deeper and deeper. My eyes closed unable to handle the unfocused surroundings. I felt something hit my back and knew I’d hit the bottom. All the panic had left me. I wasn’t scared. It was beyond me, but I just wasn’t strong. All the hateful things that Dad or Mum have ever said to me consume my will to survive and leave me in a peaceful state ready to just let go.

My body jerked. Maybe it was shutting down? Maybe I’d finally have some peace.

“Kris! Kris! Fuck! No, Kristy, you wake up now!”

I could hear him screaming. I could hear the panic in his voice, but I didn’t want to go back to the life that pushed me out at every turn. Yelled at me for things that were not my fault. Or just didn’t see me at all. Who would want to live in that life?

“Kris, please. I’m so sorry,” I heard him sob.

Pressure pushed down on my chest, almost like in pushing fashion. Then I felt his mouth press to mine… Unable to stop my body, I began to choke and cough up water. Aaron wrapped me in his arms, crying softly on my shoulder.

“My leg,” I choked out after a moment.

Aaron pulled back and looked at my leg. “Damn,” he whistled. “I’m so sorry Kristy.”

He apologized that day not for what happened, but for what was about to happen. When he carried me home that day and my parents saw what happened, they started yelling at me even smacked me. Aaron turned off and went from a scared brother that thought he lost his little sister, to a person tired of having to cater to the weak. It was seriously how he acted. My leg needed a lot of stitches and I had to walk with crutches for a while, but once I was walking on my own… I left. It was that moment that was my final straw. It was when I realized that I was there for a stress reliever not as a human being. If they were pissed about something, take it out on Kristy. If they were stressed over something, walk all over Kristy.

Shaking my head, I put the photo album away and head out of the bathroom. I groaned when I looked out the windows. It was pouring down rain. Just my fucking luck, I swear. Well, that decided it. I needed to keep my place. I needed to do whatever I could to get that money.