Seren sighed and picked up the hairbrush that was lying on her desk and started brushing her long red hair. She didn’t think she was pretty. No one had ever told her she was pretty. Until today. She shuddered at the memory. She had been in the back room of the small grocery store she worked in after school and had heard footsteps behind her. Slow expectant footsteps. Seren’s heart began to beat faster with fear. She turned round hesitantly knowing who it was but not wanting to look in his eyes. Mr Jones’ eyes always glimmered half with pain of a long forgotten hurt and half with a menacing look of desire. Seren met these eyes with hers as she turned round and saw him leaning against the door. ‘Seren’ he rasped. She didn’t answer. She didn’t have the voice to answer.
She didn’t know why she was so suddenly scared of her boss. Out on the floor of the shop with the customers he appeared to be what you’d expect of him. A lonely old man of 54, whose wife had left him for a younger man. People felt sorry for him, but no one feared him. But no one saw his eyes gleaming in the dark at Seren.
‘Seren’, he rasped again, moving towards her. Seren instinctively took a step backwards and tripped over a pile of boxes that were stacked there. She fell to the ground and pulling her long red hair out of her eyes looked up and saw Mr Jones looming over her. ‘You’re so pretty Seren, why are you scared of me?’ he said while she stood up nervously. ‘I only want to protect you,’ he continued and leant forward and grabbed her waist. She gasped and her eyes shot open like foxes eyes in car headlights. ‘You know I love you Seren,’ he whispered and she felt his breath on her face. She closed her eyes and turned her face. He had her against the wall now. She felt his hands move up to her face. He kissed her roughly and his warm saliva covered her lips and chin whilst she tried to writhe away from his grip. She felt him feeling her breasts and she felt him grow hard against her. Seren felt her voice rise in her throat and she cried a choked plea for help. But she knew it was hopeless. The shop was closed. There was no one there to hear her. She opened her eyes and met his menacing stare. She made one last attempt for freedom before feeling a blow to her head. Pain seeped through her as she watched the world melt out of recognition and she fell to the floor, losing consciousness. ‘No,’ she whispered feebly before drifting away completely.
It was dark when she woke. Letting the world and her mind swim into focus, she crawled to the door and grabbing the handle she pulled herself up. A dull throbbing pervaded her whole being, body and soul. Without thinking she ran. She ran out of the shop, which she was surprised to find open, and through the dark claustrophobic streets of the village. Through the dark shadow of the looming coal mine where her father was killed when she was a baby. She’s usually stop by the pit in remembrance of the tragedy. But tonight she just ran. She didn’t stop until she got to the door of the terraced house where she lived with her grandmother. She entered as normally as she could, stopping in the kitchen to tell her grandmother that she was home. She went up to her bedroom and collapsed on the bed. She tried to cry but she couldn’t. The stifling atmosphere wouldn’t let her. She’d been in her room ever since.
The memory played over and over again in her mind but she couldn’t feel anything. She stood up from the mirror and went to lie on the bed. Her mind was cloudy, the world didn’t seem real. She soon drifted off into a dead dreamless sleep.