malevolent | h.s

1 - MARIA

August 15 2021
-my birthday.

I spent my last normal birthday - well, my last normal day for a long while really, completely oblivious to what waited for me.

And I'd done that by drinking. Lots of it.

I finally turned twenty one, which was a huge deal. Legally, anyway. I had been sneaking into bars since I was eighteen with my friends and getting wasted with my brother and his friends for longer than that. But tonight was different.

I spent three hours getting ready and made sure that my black hair was loosely curled just the way I liked it, my lips my trademark pink and dressed in a simple white dress that was still in my comfort zone but still flattered me.

My girl friend - Hannah - and I had headed to one of the clubs in downtown New York where my brother had informed us a VIP party was waiting, courtesy of the father I didn't talk to anymore and hadn't seen since I was six.

Despite what others think, I'm glad I don't have to. The brief years of my childhood spent with that monster that I do remember are ones I would give anything to forget.

Memories I'd mentioned to Theo once when we were wasted. Memories he had claimed he didn't remember the next morning as he lied to my face.

My brother and I didn't have the best relationship, if we had one at all, the only time we spoke to each other was when we hung out to get drunk or high together. He worked my father's company here in New York with more money and power than sense whilst my father stayed well away at the headquarters in Italy.

When Theo turned twenty five he would take over entirely. That was my father's wishes, despite what Theo wanted.

And me? I got locked away in my tower, surrounded by security guards and only allowed out under my brother's supervision until my father chose which monster to marry me off to. Another one of my father's wishes.

My father believed Theo to be the perfectly trusted son, and I in turn, the perfectly behaved daughter. But he didn't know what I knew, that Theo was a monster just like him, but not like him at all. Theo was his own monster, one that I would soon come across.

"How long is this damn line?" Hannah huffed beside me as we stepped out of my family's Bentley and onto the sidewalk outside of the club.

She wore a white blazer dress fastened with a belt and red jimmy choo's. I tried to ignore the fact that my brother had asked me for her shoe size and had brought them promptly after sleeping with her.

I tried my best to not trip in my doc's as I climbed out behind her, they were new and hurt my feet from not being properly broken in.

A gift from my brother. That I brought. Courtesy of his credit card.

I spied the line that Hannah was talking about and rolled my eyes. Even if we didn't have access to the vip door we still wouldn't have had to wait outside for any longer than ten minutes.

I listened to the music blasting from inside the club and grinned, they were playing AC/DC and I wanted inside. Now.

I hooked my arm through Hannah's and saluted Taylor, my driver, before stepping toward the second doorman who stood under a blinking neon light.