Pieces Of One, Part 1 (The Dark Life Collection)

by Ricketts, SVC

  Back in the kitchen, everyone turns my way. “Wait, wait. Who? Who the fuck is Valeria?” Kitta asks expectantly. Both my shoulders touch my ears in a shrug. I’m as clueless as the rest of them.

  Marvy finds the bathroom and goes to the mirror. “Tris, if you’re watching this, you know I got myself in a SNAFU again. Either I got out, or the ear cuff somehow makes it back to you. I hope to God it’s option one.” The view leaves the bathroom mirror, scanning the bedroom door, and then goes back to Marvy’s reflection. Fear grips her eyes, widening with every word. “So…uh…two months ago, I got caught by an undercover cop doing some Coke at the club. I figured you didn’t watch the playback cuz I wasn’t tied up, or some shit when I woke up.”

  I scowl at Alex. “WHAT? Did you know she did cocaine? Do you?”

  “Of course I don’t! I knew she did though.”

  Annoyed, I slap him upside the head.

  Marvy continues to speak, “I cut a deal with this DEA jerk-off to help with their stupid joint investigation with Vice. I told them Marvy is my club name when your name came up in the system.” She grimaces and shrugs. “Sorry, I took your Driver’s License. Anywho, long story short, this Bryson jack-wagon is part of their investigation. They told me he’s into drug trafficking, prostitution, human trafficking—all kinds of shit. I was just supposed to hook up with him, and find some chick named Milinka. I guess she’s their inside contact or something. I met her a few weeks ago, but we couldn’t talk and no one has seen her since.” The view goes back to the door, and then Marvy’s reflection again.

  “You’re not going to believe this next shit. Two weeks ago, I got myself in a little situation with this random and I blacked out. Next thing I knew, I was back at the club. When I got home, I found a note in my purse. It said, and I quote, ‘Don ev do dat again!’” she says, wagging her finger. “Her words, not mine. Anyway, it was signed by someone named Valeria. My dress had blood stains and was all torn up. Here’s the trippy part, the note is written with my purple pen. The one I always keep in my clutch. I saw the stupid jerk last week. He was all black and blue with a cast on his arm. When he saw me, he went balls-out ballistic, calling me a crazy bitch, that I should be arrested for assault.” Marvy’s fear translates through her fast and hard breathing as she tells the story.

  “Tris,” Marvy leans closer to the mirror with her eyes unblinking, “I think we have another alter,” she whispered.

  CHILLS BREAK OUT over my body as if dumped in an ice bath. Kitta pulls back every hair in her well fashioned afro, and stares at the paused playback. Alex leans away from the laptop and falls into a slouch with disbelief.

  My eyes widen to the size of golf balls, “OH…MY…FLIPPIN’ GOD!!! She has got to be kidding! Is she serious?” I stare at my alter’s paused image, speaking through my hand covering my gaping mouth. Pushing my chair back, I jump to a stand. “I need a smoke.”

  “WHAT?” Shocked by the words, Kitta grabs my arm. “You don’t smoke! Marvy smokes. Maybe this Valeria chick smokes, but YOU don’t smoke.”

  I yank my arm away in no mood for lectures. Derisively, I shoot a look at my friend. “If that bitch can smoke, I can smoke. I want a smoke.” Kitta’s mouth caverns open. “Shut that or flies will get in,” I say bolting from the kitchen counter and knocking over my barstool. I can’t get away from the laptop fast enough.

  Out on the balcony, Alex hands me a cigarette from his pack. “You sure?” he asks with curious indulgence. Snatching it from him, I dangle it from my mouth as a response.

  He shakes his head, trying to suppress his amusement. “You look ridiculous,” he says while cupping his hand to light my cigarette, and then his own.

  To show my insolence, I suck in hard on the paper wrapped death instrument. My tongue, and throat burn with the stabbing poison that enters my lungs. Not two milliseconds later, I start hacking as if working up a fur ball. Both Kitta and Alex burst out in cackling laughter.

  “Fuck.” Cough.

  “You.” Cough, cough, cough.

  “Both!” I squeeze out with my eyes watering. Bending over with my hands on my knees, I desperately try to gasp in oxygen between coughs.

  Through her laughing and wiping tears from her cheeks, Kitta points at me. “Now that’s sexy!”

  Still bent over, I give Kitta the middle finger salute. I stand up with my hands on my hips, trying to take a deep breath. “How does she do this?”

  After a few more drags, my coughing tapers off. For some reason, the need to have the poison is an irritating urge. It tastes nasty and I can almost picture my lungs turning to black sludge. Putting out the half-smoked cigarette in the seriously cool contraption Alex has on the balcony table I go back to the video and start the playback again.

  Marvy’s face resumes talking. “Remember when we went to The Springs and I got wasted at that hotel party? I was with a really cute guy and he wanted to hook up. At first, he was manageable, but his kisses were awful; way too much tongue. It felt like my face was in a fuckin’ dishwasher. If his kisses sucked, then I figured he’d be a lousy lay, so I tried to book it. He didn’t like that and I lost control of the situation. He hit me and I blacked out. When I woke up, I was naked lying next to him, but he was all beat up, so I bounced the fuck out of there.”

  Turning to Kitta, my eyes reflect my shock. “When you went into the room, did you see the guy’s face? Or Marvy’s?”

  “No, I just saw her lying on her stomach naked and the guy was curled up in the sheets. I didn’t notice the bruise till after you…she got back to the room and out of the shower. You were you by then and we just figured Marvy got it while she was drunk at the party. Remember? We told your mom you fell going up the stairs?”

  A new thought slams into me. “Holy fuck monkeys!” Throwing my hands up, I point to the laptop. “MY ALTER HAS AN ALTER! Shit, now I have to deal with two of them!” I drop my head to the table and clasp my hands behind my head mumbling, “Ughhhhh! I can’t believe this. Is this even possible?”

  BETWEEN MY PACING and screaming, it’s hard for Alex to console me. “Hey, hey, calm down. This new alter, Valeria, she must be some kind of fighter, right? She’s only come out a few times that Marvy knows about and she only did it when Marvy was threatened. Maybe she’s the reason I found you alive?” I stop pacing, absorbing his words. My eyes drift upward, slowly seeing the logic form, and I begin nodding my head.

  Kitta grabs my shoulders. “Trista, your alter doesn’t have an alter. You have another alter. You have a protector.” Another chill embraces me. The information is too fresh to tell if this is a good or a bad thing.

  “Okay.” Taking a deep breath, I sit back down. “Let’s watch the rest.”

  Marvy’s fear-laced eyes burn wild on the screen. “I hope to God Valeria shows up–if not, I’m so fucked and you’ll never get this recording if my body is chopped up and dumped in the ocean! Ah shit, why did I have to say that! We’ll be fine, we’ll be fine. I hope they find our body and the ear cuff gets to Agent Dawson. Damn it. What am I thinking? If I’m dead, so are you. Oh God, why didn’t I call him before I left the house? Fuck, fuck, fuck!” The video shoots to the door. “Someone’s outside,” she warns and begins to speak faster. “Tris, the DEA guy’s name is Special Agent Richard Dawson…,” she grimaces. “I know, right?” Chuckling nervously, Marvy rolls her eyes. “Dick Dawson. I practically laughed my ass off. Not to mention, that’s the name of the guy on that game show Peterson used to make us watch. Awesome, right? Our life is in the hands of some fuckin’ douche bag, farty, game show host! Anywho, I stuck his card between 7 and 12, if you get my drift. Someone is coming in, gotta go. Oh and sorry about the Coke.”

  Through the crack of the bathroom door I can see Bryson come in followed by a stocky man in a suit. “Marvy? I have someone who wants to meet you,” he announces.

  “Be right out,” she says, running the water faucet. Her knuckles turn white, gripping the bathroom counter.

  I notice I’m doing the same to t
he kitchen counter.

  Trying to steady her breathing, she lowers her voice. “I have to pull this off. This has got to be my best performance yet.”

  Marvy looks herself dead in the eyes. “You can do this. You can do this.” She faces the door and takes a big inhale. In the kitchen, I breathe in with her.

  Bryson takes Marvy’s hand, avoiding her eyes, and guides her to the stocky man. My stomach flips. The man is the epitome of a disgusting, grease ball. He smiles with stained, crooked teeth when he sees Marvy enter the room. An acidic wave sloshes in my stomach, making me swallow multiple times.

  “Marvy, this is Mr. Supak. Mr. Supak is visiting us here in the states and is one of my overseas partners.” Bryson nods to the man.

  “It’s so nice to finally meet you, Marvy. Bryson has told me much about you,” he says with an accent. Taking her hands, he pulls her close and places a kiss on each cheek. “I think we are going to get along famously!”

  Bryson stands stony and silent, but his expression holds fire. Marvy tries to free herself from the man, but his hands firmly hold hers. Marvy looks at Bryson with dismay. “Brys?” her voice softly pleads as he closes the doors, forsaking her with the man.

  “Don’t be nervous. I don’t bite…unless you ask me nicely,” he snickers.

  Mr. Supak releases one of her hands to slide his fat index finger up her arm. The motion turns my caustic wave thick and froth with nausea.

  Marvy does well, not showing the same repulsion on her face. “Drink?” she asks the man. I can tell Marvy is trying to control the waver in her voice, concealing any nervousness.

  “Yes, please! That will help us relax.”

  She walks over to the mini-bar and pours some amber liquid into two short glasses. Marvy immediately tosses hers back. With shaking hands, the decanter rattles against the tumbler as she pours another inch of amber liquor into her lipstick stained glass. She exhales slowly through her mouth. In the mirrored back of the mini-bar, I detect the unease in Marvy’s movements as the liquid ripples in the glass decanter. “So Mr. Supak, how long is your visit?” The view shows Marvy slipping out the small silver pill box from the inside of her sleeve. I recognize it as the one Marvy got from the desk drawer.

  “Please, call me Pavao. I’m only here for a few days.”

  The man’s voice digs into my skin sending sharp barbs through my bones. Marvy’s hands shake as she drops a pill into the other glass. She glances at the mirror, giving her image a wink and a timid little smile. Eye-to-eye, she and I stare at one another; tears form in mine. Marvy blinks a few times and then focuses on stirring the drink leaving no evidence of the dissolved pill.

  “Nervous?” Mr. Supak suddenly presses up behind her, the drink speckling her dress. “Oh clumsy me, let me help get that.” He tries to put his hands on her, traveling to unstained areas of the dress.

  What an ass-sniffing perv.

  Marvy plasters on a plastic smile and backs away from his groping hands. “No, don’t worry about it. I’ll send the dry cleaning bill to Bryson.”

  The man moves behind her, unzipping her dress. “No, don’t be silly. Let’s get that off you.” The image shudders.

  “Your drink.” She turns and hands him the glass with no lipstick marking.

  For a brief moment, an admiring smile breaks my apprehension. “Smart girl.”

  Marvy slams the drink down and I suppose he didn’t want to seem incapable, so he does the same. Mr. Supak puts his glass on the coffee table and approaches Marvy. He takes her glass too, but at the same time grabs her other arm. She gasps as he hauls her to him, forcing his mouth on hers. Marvy lets him kiss her, but I can tell she’s not engaging. My stomach rolls again.

  Back in the kitchen, Alex is standing behind me, gripping the back of my chair. I can hear the tension in his hands grate against the wood.

  The man pulls the shoulders of her unzipped dress down fully exposing her upper body, and begins kissing her neck. A pathetic whimper escapes my throat as an unattended tear slowly rolls down my cheek. Marvy just stands there and then the view shifts to the ceiling. She must be trying to distract her thoughts from what is happening. The ceiling seems to quake coupled by broken breaths and soft muffled cries. The scene shifts to where I can see the window’s reflection.

  With eyes closed, Marvy’s chin rests on her shoulder, biting down on her lower lip. The man crudely grabs her breasts smothering his face in them. Marvy paints her face with agony and humiliation. Mascara streaks staining the canvas fall from her saturated lashes.

  Don’t…stop…please.

  The echoed sentiment breezes over my skin as it had done last evening. This time it churns acid in my stomach. A familiarity within the words; a dark haunting I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but it skims my flesh and whispers to my soul.

  I began to cry for Marvy—for myself. That disgusting man touched my body.

  Alex’s hands gently rest on my shoulders when I buckle with tears.

  Lowering my head to shield my closed eyes, tears stream down my face. “I forget that she’s me, and I’m her.” My voice chokes between sobs.

  From behind, Alex combs my hair through his fingers soothingly. “She’s just a piece of you.”

  “We are one,” I murmur.

  He reaches over to pause the playback, and wraps his arms around me. “We should finish this later. It’s been a long day.”

  “No, I have to see what she went through to understand.”

  Alex moves to face me, and picks up the laptop. “To understand what? To watch her get assaulted and raped? To watch you get raped?”

  Although unblinking, my eyes, still teeming with tears, shoot to his. “To watch her survive it. I am here because of whatever she did.” A tear tumbles from the brim of my lower lid, followed by another. Frustrated, he puts the laptop back down and goes out for another cigarette.

  A chair scrapes along the floor as Kitta scoots closer and side-hugs me. “Babe, I’m so sorry this happened to you.” Cupping her hands over mine, she lifts them up and kisses them. “You’re my best friend. We’ve been through a lot, and we’ll get through this together, okay? I think Alex is right though, I don’t think you should watch the rest of this. Let us do it. We’ll give you the watered down G-rated version.”

  “Kit, don’t you get it? He’s touching me. His filthy mouth is on my body. I have to know everywhere he touched me. I have to know what he did to me,” I say quietly, staring at the frozen playback image. More tears fall to my pursing lips before I take a long inhale and equally long, jagged exhale. Alex returns, squeezes my shoulders, and kisses me on the top of my head as I hit the Play icon.

  The man is slurping, and licking her like a hungry dog with a bone. I can almost feel his papery, yellow tongue on me. As the repulsive sounds come through the speakers, more tears fall as I wrap my arms around my stomach and begin rocking.

  His hand presses down Marvy’s dress feeling every inch of her. When he guides it between her legs on his way up, Marvy’s face cringes. Tormented, she squeezes her eyes tighter. Her brows furrow and she flinches with every upward thrust of his hand. A piece of me dies as well watching the violation.

  The man lifts his head shaking it, the pill she slipped him taking affect. But without warning, he straightens up and throws her on the bed. He snatches her legs, drags her toward him, and begins undoing the belt under his bulging belly. Clumsily, his fingers don’t cooperate as he struggles with the button on his trousers. The man sways in his attempt, barely balancing on one leg. Marvy, in stillness, lies on the bed with distant dead eyes anticipating the invasion.

  Why isn’t she fighting him? Why isn’t she trying to get away?

  I stop breathing with the thought of him inside her. Inside me. Sickness rolls through me once more.

  In the moments of the man grappling with his trousers, I see Marvy’s expression change; her whole demeanor in fact. It goes from a trance-like detachment, to curiosity, then to an almost angry, malicious, tight sneer
ing smile.

  Kitta narrows her eyes, grabbing my arm. “Look!” We lean closer to watch every transitioning sign.

  Marvy clenches her jaw, then sits up and kicks the man in the gut with her heel, causing him to buckle. She rolls off the bed, and knees him in the head. Already dizzy, he easily jolts backward to the floor. She pulls her arms through her dress, and zips it up.

  “Fucking cunt!” he screeches.

  All three of us in the kitchen gape as we watch Valeria in action. Astonished by the alter’s swift movements, I know we just witnessed the emerging of the new alter. “That is not Marvy.”

  The new alter, Valeria, tries running for the door, but he catches her leg, and she slams down to the marble tile. She tries to crawl away, but he snatches her by her braid, undoing it in the process, and yanks her back. Valeria looks back to see the man on all fours crawling toward her. With a feral look in her eyes, she hisses at the vile man. She flips over, pulling her leg back to rock a red stiletto in his direction. Although she narrowly misses his eye, she grazes his temple slicing a two inch gash.

  “She’s scary fast,” Kitta amazes.

  The alter has a fire for survival, but she is trapped in the room. The pill’s potency is inhibiting, apparent by the man’s sluggishness, but he is almost on top of her. Valeria props herself up with her elbows and draws her legs in to crawl backward, but the stiletto heels keep slipping from under her. Catching up to her, he pounces on top.

  “Vi jebeni kurva!” he screams a few inches from her face. A spattering of saliva sprays the monitor marking each word. “I’m going to teach you how we treat our whores!”

  Valeria tries to raise a fist, but he blocks her swing, and drops his open hand across her face. He must have a fist full of her hair, as the image rushes in and drops down. The sound of her head slamming to the marble cracks through the laptop speakers. Chills once again burst along my arm and my stomach drops. I touch the back of my head and feel the welt. Not sure why I didn’t notice the knot before.

  The window’s reflection shows him half stumbling with Valeria’s hair tangled in his fist. He drags her and she flies to the bed with the next fisted blow to her face. He rips his belt from his trousers and uses it to whip her savagely.