Beneath His Hunger

Chapter 1.

Adeline Trew grasped her jacket close to her body as she jogged across the road; Spring was beginning to turn into Summer, but the evenings still had a chill to them that she hadn’t prepared for tonight. Her denim jacket was too thin for the freshness that was layering the streets as the sun began to set. She would be glad when she finally got to the bar that she was heading to and could sit in the warmth with her best friend.

Adeline had known Clara Fitzgerald since they had started school; the friendship was quick to grow between them and had remained strong throughout. Tonight, would be slightly different though. Tonight, Clara was finally introducing Adeline to her new girlfriend and Adeline couldn’t help but to be apprehensive about the evening. She had noticed the changes in her best friend almost immediately after Clara had began dating the girl, and Adeline didn’t like what she had been seeing.

The pair had never kept secrets from each other, they spoke every day, and nothing was off the table between them. They had been each other’s constants through everything, through all the hardships they had both faced. They were each other’s pillars of strength when they couldn’t find it within themselves. But, since Clara had began seeing her new girlfriend, she had slowly become more and more distant with Adeline, she was jittery and anxious, and Adeline couldn’t help the feeling that Clara was hiding things from her.

When Adeline finally pushed the door open to The Cellar, she revelled for a moment at the warmth that wrapped around her, before she looked around for her friend. The pair were easy to spot, it was a weeknight so the bar wasn’t too busy, and as she approached, Adeline could already see how uncomfortable her friend’s new girlfriend was. Adeline almost relaxed herself knowing that she wasn’t the only one nervous for the evening.

“Your usual, Addie?” Jimmy, the barman called to her, already reaching for the cocktail shaker.

“Yes, please Jimmy. And maybe a top up for CeCe and her girlfriend?”

“I’ll bring them over for you.” Jimmy smiled.

“Hey, I hope you two haven’t been waiting too long.” Adeline said as she shrugged her coat off at the table, resting it on the back of the chair.

“Not too long at all!” Clara replied, jumping out of her seat to give Adeline a hug, “Addie, this is Sabrina. Rina, this Adeline.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you.” Sabrina smiled, “I’ve been saying to Clara for ages that we should meet.”

“Me too.” Adeline replied, shaking Sabrina’s outstretched hand.

As the trio got comfortable back in their seats, Jimmy brought the drinks over and added some small snack bowls to the table. Adeline and Clara came here often enough for Jimmy to know that the girls enjoyed their snacks whilst they gossiped and caught up. The Cellar was a light-hearted bar directly between the two girls houses, and so was an easy option for their catch ups. The girls enjoyed the ambiance on the ground floor, not having ventured to the club area down below- especially after seeing some of the clientele that went down that way.

“How has work been this week?” Clara asked Adeline, “Has anything happened after your meeting last week?”

Adeline sighed, “He got pulled in for his own meeting, but he came out smiling, so I’ll leave you to guess how he’s been since.”

“Oh, Addie, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well, it is what it is now.” Adeline shrugged.

Next to her, Sabrina scoffed, “No one should have to put up with that Adeline. If that manager won’t do anything about it, you should go over their head.”

Adeline glanced at Clara, trying desperately to hide her shock. She hadn’t told many other people about what was going on at work, and Clara had known that she was speaking to her in confidence. Adeline couldn’t help wondering how much more her best friend had told her girlfriend about her, when Adeline knew next to nothing about Sabrina herself.

“Unfortunately, it was already HR I went to.” Adeline replied, looking back at Sabrina, “Thomas’ uncle is on the board, he’s practically untouchable. No matter what he does or who he does it to.”

“No one is untouchable.” Sabrina replied, sending Adeline a sympathetic smile.

“We’ll see. What do you do?”

“Oh. I’m part of the family business- mechanics.”

“Wow, how long have you been doing that?”

“All my life, it feels like.” Sabrina replied, “It goes back a long way- generations. It’s good though, my father has been able to take my brothers and I on as apprentices instead of us having to go to a mechanic school.”

“Yep, leaving just me out here in the world of full-time academia.” Clara laughed.

Adeline smiled along, not quite able to make herself laugh when she could tell how forced and awkward her friends own laughter was. She couldn’t shake the shiver that had rested over her body when Sabrina was talking, telling her that she wasn’t being entirely truthful.

“Well, I’d take an apprenticeship- even with Lechy Thomas- over being in school full-time still.” Adeline replied, sticking her tongue out at her friend.

She didn’t know how Clara did it. Towards the end of their mandatory school years, Adeline couldn’t wait to get out, but Clara who had never loved school anyway, had decided to stay on for a teaching course. She had said that she wanted to make children enjoy their school years more then she had, and Adeline had been immensely proud of her.

As the night wore on, with Jimmy bringing a few more drinks to the cosy table, Adeline’s feeling of unease slowly dissipated slightly as the conversation flowed. She was aware that it never completely left her, but she was able to full heartedly laugh and chat with Sabrina when Clara left the table.

“I know you’re worried about Clara.” Sabrina said abruptly when Clara had gone to order another round of drinks, “But, honestly, I really do like her. I think she’s amazing. And I’m going to look after her.”

Adeline sat back slightly and huffed, “I’m sure you mean that, and you seem nice enough. But Clara is my best friend, and she’s been through so much. So, you have to understand that as much as you tell me that you’ll look after her, I need you to know that I will do everything in my power for her not to be hurt again. And if she is, I can promise you now that hell will reign down on whoever it is that caused it.”

To Adeline’s surprise, Sabrina smiled at her and raised her glass, “I can certainly drink to that.”

Cold air breezed in through the bar as the door opened, sending a slight shiver down Adeline’s back and she noticed that Sabrina had stiffened as well. As Clara returned, promising that drinks were coming, Adeline saw Sabrina shift and pull Clara down to sit close to her, her head low. Looking around, Adeline realised that the door was still open, allowing more of the cold night air into the bar. In the doorway, stood a tall man who seemed to be glaring at their table.

Adeline almost recoiled when he took a step in, the door finally closing behind him, and began pacing towards them. She couldn’t help the churning in her stomach as he neared them, his imposing build sucking the carefree atmosphere of the bar away, his aura seemed as dark as his hair. Adeline hadn’t realised that she was holding her breath until Jimmy stepped in front of the man, looking ludicrously small in comparison, and she let out a sigh of relief. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but the uneasy feeling in her stomach didn’t relax until the man turned away and strode down the steps towards the Cellar Club.

“What the hell was that about?” Adeline murmured as she turned back to Clara and Sabrina.

“We should go.”

“Our drinks are just coming.” Adeline replied to Sabrina’s quiet words, “And he’s gone downstairs now. Besides, Jimmy obviously took care of it.”

“I’ll pay for the drinks, but I really need to go.”

Adeline couldn’t reply again before Sabrina had thrown her coat on and was rifling through her bag for money to lay on the table. Looking over at her friend, she could see the colour had drained from her face as she, too, was pulling her jacket on. Adeline leant over the table, taking Clara’s hand in her own.

“CeCe, are you ok?”

“I’m fine.” She rushed, “But like Sabrina said, we should go. You too. You- you should go home. We should get Jimmy to call you a cab- you shouldn’t walk. I’ll get him to do that now. Get your coat.”

For a moment, Adeline sat dumbstruck by her friends rambling, unable to place the girl in front of her as the girl she had always known. Watching the two of them frantically getting ready to leave and rushing to get Jimmy to call them a cab, the feeling of unease from the beginning of the evening returned to Adeline. As she followed their example, and wrapped herself back in her coat, she spared a glance for the stairs to the club. For a moment, she could have sworn that she had seen a dark figure standing there, looming in the darkness, and watching them.