Protection

“Stacey, can you go and restock the pink skirts?”

Linda, Stacey’s manager paused from the thick, trashy novel she’d been reading to fix Stacey with a raised eyebrow stare. Stacey was supposed to go on her break, but she honestly couldn’t be bothered with the argument that would ensue if she bothered to remind Linda of this. Instead she simply smiled brightly, pushing down the questions of exactly why Linda couldn’t restock the skirts herself, and nodded her head.

“Sure thing Linda, anything else?”

“Yeah, straighten up the window display while you’re at it. Oh and you’re alright to close for me today aren’t you? I’ve got a date.”

It wasn’t the first time that Linda had asked Stacey to close up for her, even though it was strictly against the rules to let a lowly sales girl close up. Linda seemed to do the bare minimum around here, and Stacey knew she wasn’t the only one to privately wonder how the girl had ever made it to manager.

“That’s fine, I don’t mind.” Stacey replied as she punched in the code to the locked storage room to pull out more of the filmy pink skirts that were apparently in this year. Stacey personally hated such fussy clothes, but it was her job to act like she cared about these things, and Stacey was nothing if not good at pretending. Draping the skirts over her arm, she idly let her fingers stray over the soft and silky material. It was amazing to her that people would spend over two hundred dollars on something so tiny, Stacey knew that if she didn’t have this job she would have never stepped foot into Milk and Honey. That was the name of the store that Stacey worked at. It was a very high end store, stocking all the latest designer trends and couture. They catered mostly to the rich-and-bored crowd, the people who had everything and didn’t know what else to spend their money on. She sighed once as she strode back into the main shop, her heels clicking rhythmically across the shiny wooden floors, stoically ignoring the dull throbbing of her poor feet. Only two more hours and then she could slip into her flats for the walk home.

She carefully hung up the skirts, arranging them by size (ranging from a 0 to a 6 only of course. It wasn’t fashionable to be any bigger than that) and then spending the next hour straightening and reorganising the window display. Linda left shortly after she’d finished, breezily leaving her instructions to close up in another hour or so, unless any customers came in. Stacey smiled and waved her off, she had to admit for all of her laziness and unwillingness to undertake any strenuous activities, Linda wasn’t too bad. Maybe not management material, but she was essentially a sweet girl.

It was quarter to five, and Stacey had been just about to close up, when a young woman strode through the open doors. She was a tall, statuesque blonde, dressed in the kind of casual bohemian manner that could only be achieved through hundreds of dollars of retail therapy. Judging by the over-sized sunglasses and flash of lightbulbs that followed the girl, Stacey judged that she was someone important.

“Oh God, please shut those doors. I absolutely cannot stand to be photographed one more time.”

The girl begged, casting a brilliant smile in Stacey’s direction. Stacey smiled back and quickly went to shut the double doors that opened the store to the world. At least now no more customers would come in, thinking the store was still open. All she could think about was taking her heels off and going home, but Stacey threw herself into helping the young woman who turned out to be Evelyn Bail – an up and coming Hollywood starlet on holiday in London to recover from her latest heartbreak. She was surprisingly sweet and Stacey soon found herself chatting to her while she unselfconsciously shrugged in and out of about twenty different outfits, trying to choose between them.

“I swear, I assumed the paparazzi would all be off trying to get the latest scoop on Sebastian Cross, you’d think they’d be more interested in a convicted murderer than me.” Evelyn called out as she pulled herself into a skin-tight dress.

Stacey’s world spun.

“What? What about Sebastian Cross?” She asked, trying to keep her voice calm, measured.

“Didn’t you hear? He was released from prison today.”

The next hour passed in a blur, as Stacey made the sale and shut up shop. Pulling on her flats she tucked the ice pick heels into her handbag and began the short walk home, all the time her mind trying to process this new information.

They’d promised her! They’d promised her she’d be safe and that he’d never be released from prison. That’s what the police had assured her as they’d hustled her to this new location – and into her new life. Stacey hadn’t been born Stacey Marshland, and she was not a born and bred London girl. No she’d been born Madeline Stam, born and raised in New York city. But when Sebastian Cross had come into her life, everything had changed.

Stacey remembered when she’d first met him, a shy fifteen year old introduced by a mutual friend at a party. He’d been seventeen, though he’d looked older. They’d been fast friends, and had done everything together that summer, and she remembered the crush she’d had on him. He’d been dating one of her friends, Kaitlin, and so Stacey – or Madlie as she’d been known then, had pushed the crush down inside of her and pretended that it didn’t exist. But it never fully went away. And then he and Kaitlin had broken up, and suddenly those innocent sleepovers they’d have every night had lost their innocence. They explored each others bodies hesitantly, kisses where they’d knocked teeth, fumbling hands ghosting over budding breasts.

Their feelings had been intense in the way that only teenagers in their first love can feel things, and so when she’d gotten drunk at her first party and kissed another boy – Matt, she’d understood when he’d gotten angry. She hadn’t understood when he’d started punching Matt though, nor did she understand when he pulled out a knife and stabbed Matt deep in the soft flesh of his belly. In fact, she’d never understood anything about that night, why no one had stopped him, or why he’d looked so darkly pleased when someone had finally called the cops who’d hauled him away – still screaming that he’d loved her.

She’d testified against him, how could she not have? Matt, poor innocent Matt had died because of her, and no matter what she felt for Sebastian she knew that things would never ever be the same for them again. She remembered when she’d testified, how he’d stared at her, his gaze never wavering. Suddenly those warm blue eyes that she’d always loved had seemed cold, and she was scared of him. He’d never tried to contact her at all through the trial, the lawyers had said he wouldn’t have been able to anyway. But when he’d been sentenced he’s screamed across the court room at her as he was pulled away by police officers.

“I love you Maddie!” He’d yelled that and more, promising he would never ever forget about her, and telling her he’d done it for them. He was completely unrepentant, he’d cold-bloodedly killed that boy for kissing her innocently at a party. That had been what had chilled her most, how pleased he seemed about the entire thing.

Lost in her thoughts, Stacey found herself at the door to her flat without really realising how she’d gotten there. Pulling out the keys, she quickly unlocked the three locks and hurried inside, out of the cold. Before anything else, she sat herself down at her computer and googled his name, needing to know the full story of what had happened today.

Clicking on the first link that seemed relevant she scanned the article from the New York Times.

Sebastian Cross, convicted of First-Degree Murder was released today after serving only ten years of his fifty year sentence. In 1999 Cross’s trial for the Murder of Matt Maguire was a sensation, a young, wealthy boy who’d attacked and killed another boy with seemingly no motive. There is no word yet on why Cross has been released early, nor what the plans for his probation include. However, there are rumours that this early release is somehow involved with Cross’s apparent Mafia ties. Cross is said to have joined one of the many Mafia syndicates whilst serving his sentence in the Maximum Security Correctional Facility he has called home for the length of his service, however it is only conjecture at this point to suggest it has any link to his release.

Stacey had to brace herself from shaking as she pushed back from her desk, biting down on her bottom lip to keep from crying. So it was true then, he’d been released. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and reminded herself that she was in another country to him, and in the witness protection program. He wouldn’t find her, she was hidden. She’d had to cut off all ties with her previous life, but she’d made a new world for herself, and he would never find her and disrupt it.

She wasn’t the same girl he’d known, She wasn’t his blonde, sweet little Maddie anymore, the girl who’d dreamed of becoming a doctor and helping people. She was Stacey Marshland, a twenty-five year old brunette who worked at a clothing store. She stood and examined herself in the mirror that dominated one side of her living room. She saw reflected there a striking brunette, confident and not afraid of her past. Yeah right, a snickering little voice in her head laughed. But she steeled herself. Inside she might still be the same girl, but she was safe here, and she wouldn’t let him ruin her life again.

Nodding her head once at her reflection, Stacey turned on the television, ignoring the slight tremor in her hand and turned on a sappy romantic comedy to take her mind off of him. She thumbed the remote to turn it up, walking into her bedroom to shed her work clothes, replacing them with a simple pair of jeans and a white singlet, letting the canned laughter on the movie calm her down.