A Labyrinth of Forbidden Desire

A R I A My body feels numb, everything a complete haze around me… Where am I? I struggle to open my eyes, but I can hear people’s voices around me, but I can’t seem to recognise any of them… “Hurry up dude she’s gonna wake up…” A male voice speaks out in the darkness and it sounds like it’s coming from beside me… Who… who is that…? “I thought you said it lasts for an hour, we have more than enough time…” Another voice lets out as if they are in front of me. They seem to be breathing heavily, panting and… groaning… Am I dreaming? What the hell is this…? Before I can seem to make sense of what’s going on around me, I feel a sharp pain invade my body… No… this can not be happening… I finally realise that I’ve had my eyes closed this whole time, and as I slowly begin to open them, I look around the room I am in. It is lit with purple and blue light, music humming outside the room as well… I don’t recognise this place, I’ve never been here before… Am I at a party? Yeah, that’s right… I am… I think I’m starting to remember… But how did I get here…? The pain snaps me out of it, making me shift around slightly. It is repeated, rhythmic… and excruciating… I now realise that I am laying on my back and a few figures are standing around me. My heart begins racing out of fear and because the lights in the room around that bright, I’m completely unable to recognise their faces. The pain continues throughout my lower body and that’s when I turn, my eyes landing on the person standing between my legs, his hands gripping onto my hips aggressively as his body moves back and forth… He’s… taking advantage of me… I try to scream and fight and that’s when I realise I can’t move my arms, making me turn my head groggily to try and see what has them pinned down. That’s when I notice two more figures standing around me, forcefully pinning my arms against the bed. How the hell did I get here and why can’t I remember anything…? A few weeks earlier… All the time, she does this all the f*cking time. “Angela, seriously?!” I yell as my fist pounds on the door of the bathroom, listening as music plays from inside the bathroom and the shower runs on the other side. “Chill out Aria! I’ll be out in a second!” I hear my most troublesome housemate, Angela, respond, and unfortunately, it only makes me angrier. EVERY, TIME. “You said that 15 minutes ago!” I yell back, scoffing as I keep my towel, bath gloves and toothbrush in my arms, standing in front of the bathroom door in my pyjamas; a large black t-shirt and oversized pyjama pants. Instead of Angela giving me a reason for why she’s decided to jack my time, she decides to carry on singing along to whatever pop bullsh*t she is listening to while preparing to take the longest shower of the century. And here I thought having housemates was going to be a good thing. “I don’t care if you’ve got soap suds all over you! Get out of the shower!” I yell through the door, giving the door one last bang before groaning in annoyance and stepping away. All the noise attracts the attention of my other housemate, Gabriella, who thankfully isn’t as troublesome as Angela. In fact, I actually quite like Gabi and the two of us get along well. “Yo! Aria? What’s with the yelling?” I hear Gabi’s voice from my left, making me turn and look into the hallway, my light brown eyes meeting Gabriella’s green ones. Gabriella has got short brown hair that ends just under her jawline, and fair white skin, with a few freckles on her face. I, on the other hand, have a much warmer and darker complexion compared to her, thanks to my British/American and African; specifically Zambian, ancestry. My hair is full of tight coils, type 4b or 4c if you wanna label it, and long, resting on my shoulders when curly and falling on my back when straightened. In most places, being racially ambiguous would attract a lot of attention, but in this town? I was no different from the next person. My favourite thing about living in Leapoard's Grove is that there are people from all cultures that stay here... But I'll come back to my backstory in a second, right now... I need to deal with Angela... “What do you think? She did it again.” I scoff heavily, walking away from the door furiously with my stuff still in hand. Unfortunately, this is my living situation; living with a bunch of people in a boarding house. Today is not the day for this to be happening. I’ve got a quiz to get to, and I’m sure my lecturer is beyond tired with my late excuses. You’re probably wondering why I put up with this. Well, it’s cause I share a boarding house with 5 other people, 3 of which happen to be guys. My other housemates are actually pretty cool but I don’t know why it’s always Angela that insists on making my life a never-ending nightmare. “Angie? Come on…” Gabi jumps to my defence, speaking loud to Angela to hear through the bathroom door. But obviously, it’s not enough to get the b*tch outta there. “I’ll just go ask the guys if I can use their shower…” I shake my head, walking past Gabi, running out of options as to what I’m to do next. I only have 30 minutes, to shower, get ready and leave. Knowing how long I take to get ready, that’s not enough time AT ALL. “You sure that’s a good idea…” Gabi stops me and I come to a halt and reconsider my decision. We all have our own spaces for a reason, so going into the guys’ bathroom might not be the best idea. “Yeah you’re right…” I let out as I turn back around and sigh heavily. I really have no option but to wait… At the edge of the hallway, I notice someone peering in our direction, before they finally step out and stare back at Gabi and I curiously. It’s Marcus, one of our other housemates. “Marc, could you please tell your girlfriend she’s being a shower hog…” I try to tell him but all he does is remain silent and exhale deeply. But then that’s usually how he is, he never says a word. And he doesn’t have to, we’ve spent enough time with him to understand him. Marc is Korean, his hair a light brown colour while his face has a very angular structure. Honestly, he could be a supermodel if he wanted to. He is quite slim but lean, and has dark hair that he likes to keep slightly long, his hair ending right at his jawline if he is to let it down. He's also quite tall, the tallest in the house in fact. But everyone considered him a gentle giant since he never bothered anyone... which made us wonder why he would choose someone as problematic as Angela to be his girlfriend... Or maybe he didn't have to choose and she just forced him into it... “What do you mean you won’t do it…?” I question him and he smiles at me slightly, shrugging nonchalantly before crossing his arms at us. No one really knows why Marc stopped speaking. His friends tell us something so traumatic happened to him that he just never said a word to anyone ever again… nothing physical but more psychological. He’s a bit of a weirdo, a man of no words at all. But he’s a good housemate, and most of the time, he helps to keep his crazy girlfriend under control. “Just cause she’s your girlfriend doesn’t mean she gets a pass at disrespecting other people’s time…” Gabi chimes in and Marc signs with his hands, pointing his index finger to the back of his wrist to let me know that I’m running out of time and I should probably figure out I’m going to do next. Told you we could understand him. In a matter of seconds, we all hear the shower turn off and the music stops soon after. Gabi and I look at each other, becoming hopeful about Angela actually stepping out when I’ve told her to. In a matter of moments, the bathroom door opens as steam escapes out of the hallway and into the hallway. Angela steps out, still dripping with water and not bothering to wipe herself off. “What was that about disrespect?” Angela questions, her blonde hair slicked back as her sharp blue eyes begin to scan me from head to toe, a stupid smirk plastered on her thin lips. I growl before stepping in her direction, but soon feel Gabriella grab hold of me and tug me back, and honestly, she’s done well to hold me back. “Aria…” Gabi tells him and I stand my ground and take a slow deep breath to remain calm, my gaze returning to Angela and watching as she steps up to me, being significantly shorter than me. “Whoops… must’ve just lost track of time…” Angela mocks with no remorse on her face at all and the second she speaks I yank my arm out of Gabriella’s grip and take a step closer to Angela, staring her dead in the eye so she knows I’m sick of her sh*t… She needs to know that this is the last time I’m standing for this…