Learning the finer points of stripping at the Crazy Pussy downtown had been a real low point.Ĭollege was put on the backburner for a part time job at Lou’s as a waitress in the morning and her full time gig at the Crazy Pussy at night. She’d owed her mother at least that, a small honor that would, at the very least, overshadow the shameful way she was going to make money. Graduating high school had not been without its efforts, and she’d gone through high school long enough to receive her hard earned diploma. After that, it’d been a series of horrible misfortunes brought on by too much debt and not enough money to pay them off. She’d stopped celebrating her birthday the day her mother died. She’d died before the ambulance was called. The stray bullets had ripped through her mother that summer evening while she’d been walking home from her night shift at the local burger joint on Third Street. It’d been a drive-by shooting, and in the ghetto of South Rochester, an everyday occurrence. But a senseless tragedy neither one could’ve predicted stole not only Eden’s mother, but her voice as well. And while she was alive, Eden had bought into her mother’s dream, had believed that her voice could change their lives, could bring them out of the poverty that was all around them. Helen Mercer had always wanted more for her daughter, believing, as all ’mothers do, that her child was special and could reach the stars if she wanted. She wouldn’t be happy if she knew this was how Eden had ended up. A sad smile touched Eden’s lips as she thought about her mother.

She’d always been short, standing no taller than the woman who’d given her birth. Knowing she had the next few hours all to herself, Eden sat on the edge of the large sleigh bed, her smooth caramel legs dangling from the edge, her feet barely touching the cream carpet. Eden anticipated that moment, waited patiently for it, and when she heard the hushed click of the door closing behind him, she finally allowed her body to unfurl from its fetal position. Then he would return to the room, twenty or so minutes later, freshly clean and head downstairs to his home office where he would remain locked away for the duration of the morning.

He would go to the bathroom first and rinse off his brutality like it was a coat of dirt that could be washed off with soap and water. She even tried to keep her breathing minimal and simply listened to his movements around the bedroom. When he eased out of her and rolled off the bed, Eden did not utter a word and remained completely still, trying to become one with the mattress he’d just viciously fucked her on.

Monster by francette phal