War of Prey

16)Welcome to the Den

"She laughs at fear, but do not mistake; her knife moves just as quick as her mouth."

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It has been a while since Rhea had a guy in her bed. She didn't sleep around for fun; it was always for work. Sleeping around was for girls like Rhea's sister, Tiffany, who had a new boyfriend every week, never slept at home, and always came home in someone else's clothes. There has always been something comforting about knowing that there was one person you were with, and they were it; you didn't have to worry about being replaced. It wasn't like that for her. Her grandparents always told her sex was for marriage, but that was when it was consensual. When you're doing it for work, does it really count? Going to drug dens and into gangs' nests was a dangerous job, also a sexual job. Sleeping around was the rule. There are things you have to do to get out alive. Life is hard, but you do what you have to do.

That is the biggest lesson Rhea has ever learned: life is hard and unfair. No matter how much you wish for something, it doesn't always happen; it even backfires. It's been so long since someone held her at night since someone curled their body over hers since she didn't mind being in bed with someone. She shifts, trying not to wake Lane; he stirs and nuzzles his face in the back of her neck, lips grazing her ear. A little whine comes from the corner of the room, Rhea suddenly remembering that Theo was in here, as he does not cry often. She slips from the bed, planting Lane's arm around the pillow instead of her waist, and makes her way over to the fussing baby. For seven months old, Theo is surprisingly light and tiny, more like a five-month-old.

Searching the room, Rhea finds the formula she had Lane go get so the child wouldn't starve. "I know, Theo, I am fixing your bottle." Used to holding babies while multitasking, Rhea has no problem holding Theo in one arm and fixing the formula with the other. The formula has never smelled good, but it smells worse coming back up, and combined with the odor of a dead body, it reeks in the room. Hierro fell asleep in the chair he was in last night, the same one that he was bound to earlier. Rhea kicks his body out of the chair, his sleeping form plopping on the ground, so she can sit with the baby to feed him.

"I wish I would have known, that tracks run cold

It chills me to the bone, no one to hold

I wish it would stop, tearing me apart

This hill I sit atop, miles away from my heart

It's like I don't feel the sun anymore, it's like I can't breathe

In my head, it's like a war, I'm buried underneath

Praying for relief, praying for hope

Please take away my grief , don't make me take the rope

My heart is a war zone, broken glass and cut fingers

Built on blood and stone, the pain it lingers

I'm down on my knees, finally broken down

God, please hear my pleas, don't let me drown

Save me from myself, I can't seem to say

Hail and farewell, that I'm not okay

Cause nobody's gonna listen, nobody's gonna care

Save me from this prison, I can't do it anymore, I swear

And I'm falling off the earth, trying to find Heaven

I know I have no worth, choking on the venom

No, I don't wanna go, no, I don't wanna stay