Submission

Some things are better left unsaid..

“Daddy”

Maddie’s voice was sickly sweet.

She was gonna get some answers about who the Heck stalker Hulk was, and her father was the one with the answers.

“Who was the men at the house last night” she asked, plopping down on one of the leather chairs in his office.

Her dad, reading a status report at his desk looked up to face his daughter’s inquisitive stare.

“Not anyone you need to know” he said removing his reading glasses.

“It’s just that uhmm.. Alison thought the tall one was cute and..” She Didn’t get to say anything else, cause her dad cut her off and said “ she shouldn’t get involved with him, honestly I thought she was smart enough to know that” his gaze stern on Maddie as he said it.

But Maddie, determine to get some kind of information asked “Why? is there something she should know?”

Her dad sighed and got up from his chair, turning his back to his daughter to stare out the window.

The room was eerily silent for a couple of minutes before he spoke.

“His father Jack was my best friend back in the day”

—-story time—-

“I met his father Jack when I was a scrawny kid working as a dishwasher at a club known for their shady clientele, and he was working there as a bouncer.

I don’t know what genetic anomaly makes them that huge but he was f*****g huge, just like his son.

We bonded over the fact that both of us wanted more out of life and so we came up with a plan.

I would listen in on conversations when the d**g bosses would come in for their weekly meetings in the back, and I would map their territory’s and hotspots around town.

We never hit the big places, but we did start robbing them.

Not for the drugs though, only the cash.

We justified beating the bottom feeders up, because these where not good people Maddie.

After a while Jack got greedy, he wanted steal the drugs to re-sell them for extra profit, but I wanted no part of it.

So we parted ways, he started his own side hustle and so did I.

I payed some goons to start taking protection money from businesses, essentially bleeding them dry, then I would buy them out cheap, and rent them back their properties.

It made good money, and it got me into real estate.

Jack on the other hand, started running his own distribution center, and eventually made it big by buying it from some d**g pin across the border.

He came to me asking to use a storage facility I had across town to use as a re-packaging center, but I didn’t want the police any where near my business for obvious reasons.

We had a falling out after that, and although I heard a few stories here and there, we never really spoke again.

7 years ago, I hard he had gotten shot in a police raid.

He didn’t make it, and his son who had been heavily involved in his fathers business went to prison.

He got out 4 months ago and called me out of the blue.

He had heard stories about me and his dad, and he was interested in investing some of the money they had stashed away in off shore bank accounts before it all went down, and I’m helping him out.

But he is a mean one though, I dug around and heard he pummels guys for fun at an underground boxing ring called The Wire.

It pays Pennie’s compared to what his father left him, so he’s definitely not in it for the money.

I went there three weeks ago just to see it for myself, and he was f*****g ruthless in there.

They didn’t have a chance Maddie..and the grin on his face while he did it.. it was disturbing, so you tell Alison to stay far far away from him, she is a good girl and I don’t want her getting hurt.”

——-end of story—-

Maddie gulped, she wasn’t sure what she had expected, but this was definitely worse then she imagined.

Her father turned around, and looked her in the eyes as he spoke “what I’ve told you doesn’t leave this room, I don’t need my past to catch up with me, and I don’t want him thinking I’m putting his business out there.

I know Alison is precious to you, so keep her safe.”

“I will” Maddie’s voice came out more as a squeak then actual words.

She knew her father crossed lines and broke some laws here and there, because they had a protocol in place, if the police ever raided his businesses.. but this guy.. And he was stalking her?!?!

Maddie got up from the chair, nodded her head and left her father to dwell on the ghosts of his past.

“Sh!t Sh!t Sh!t SH!T!!

Maddie shut the door to her room and banged her head against it.

He liked hurting people for fun!?!

Drug money!?!

Prison time!?!

Maddie had been so certain she wanted to investigate him and hopefully find a weak spot to use it to make him disappear from her life, but this!

This complicated things, if she threatened to go to the police to make him back off, he would most likely pull a Jimmy Hoffa on her a*s, making her disappear forever.

And if she did manage to tell the police.. wouldn’t she be getting her father in trouble too??

Maybe he would get bored and Pursue someone else eventually?

Yeah, the world was full of much more beautiful women than her, right?

She might just have been the first one he laid eyes on after getting out of prison..right.. prison.. f*****g prison!!

Oh lord she was so f****d wasn’t she??

She plopped down on her bed in defeat, she should just stop digging now, who knows what kind of skeletons he had stashed away.

That’s when she heard a *ping* from her phone, the text was from a unknown number and all it said was

{miss me?}

What the heck!

Maddie was just about to ask who they were, when another *ping* sounded.

{I miss you, my love}

Maddie almost choked on her own spit as she jumped off the bed throwing her phone to the far corner of the room.

Within seconds she was having a full blown anxiety attack!

He must have gotten her number when he rummaged through her room.. Maddie looked around, the walls were now starting to close in on her..

She reluctantly picked up her phone, it was cracked but still worked.

That was fine, she would ask Alison to go to the mall and get her a new phone, with a new number that the Psycho didn’t have.

Two birds with one stone.

She stuffed the broken phone in her pocket, got her back pack and hurried out the door.

——-in the afternoon ——

“How exactly did you break your phone?” Alison said, looking at her inquisitively.

Maddie had picked her up after class, and they were now headed for the mall.

“I was running down the stairs because a bee got in the house and the phone slipped out of my hand and fell down the stairs and hit the marble floor at the bottom” Maddie said hurriedly and then proceeded to bite her lip.

The explanation sounded waaay too rehearsed.

Alison a scoffed and said “ if you don’t want to tell me it must have been something really stupid”

Maddie scrambled to find a more plausible explanation and remembered how she once broke a picture frame in the living room. “I was dancing to Justin Bieber and accidentally knocked it on the ground and stepped on it!”

Alison got quiet for a second, and then bursted out laughing screaming “JUSTIN BEIBER!! Girl..some things are better left unsaid”

Okay, but Maddie had been 11 when she had broken that picture frame, and back then they had both been major fans of him.

But they were into house music now, not pop.

Maddie sighed, at least it had been a believable lie, although if Alison was gonna laugh all the way to the mall, she might have to strangle her.

——in the phone shop—

“Hi, I would like to buy this, I already have an account just need the new phone thanks”

Maddie put the phone on the counter and the employee started ringing it up.

“Oh and can I get a new phone number too” Maddie hurriedly interjects before the lady could tell her the total, but before the lady could respond Maddie got punched in the arm.

“What the heck was that for” Maddie was rubbing her arm starring at Alison.

Alison was scowling at her.

“You’ve had that number since forever! Your number is the only one I remember by heart, what if I get abducted and find a way to call for help??”

“How about 911 dummy” Maddie retorts still rubbing her arm.

“And Why do you want a new number” Alison’s annoyance had grown to confusion.

“Uh uhmm.. scammers, a lot of them” Maddie stammered.

“Just block them, you don’t need a new number for that” Alison scoffs looking expectantly at the employee to Finnish the transaction.

“Guess I’ll just block them them” Maddie mumbled through gritted teeth and Alison smiled triumphantly!

———-

Maddie was playing with her new phone while sitting at the food court and Alison was eating a pretzel

“those iPhones with their cloud storage stuff really takes the fun out of getting a new phone, I mean you buy something new just for all your old crap to be downloaded back onto it so it looks the exact same”

Alison nodded not really paying attention to anything but the pretzel, she hadn’t had breakfast because after feeding the younger kids, there was nothing left for her, and her mother had gone to the store after Alison had been picked up.

Maddie’s phone dinged and she sat up straight, it wasn’t the same number as this morning.

{enjoying your new phone my love}

What the actual heckl!!!!

How did he know!!

Maddie was now internally panicking while scouting the area.

He was as big as a house, where could he even be hiding!!

She couldn’t see him anywhere, but the uneasy feeling didn’t go away.

She hurriedly blocked the number and stuffed her new phone in her bag.

Maddie internally scoffed, first the hollow wasn’t safe, then her house, and now the f*****g Mall??

He was becoming a royallly scary pain in her a*s!.