A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing Pt.. 2

He never talked to me when he saw me around Mrs.Labellee’s but he sure changed around the gas station. Thanks to rain on my face, I could hide the fact that I was crying. However, my sniffling and continuous tears started to make me look suspicious. He winked then snickered. “Aw, you can’t speak? I know Ms.Labellee can be a mean lady, but that don’t mean I’m like that.” I broke eye contact with him. Paul was Ms. Labellee’s boyfriend. He seemed to be a nice guy, but there was something sneaky about him. Behind him a door opened and a man appeared from the back of the store. He closed it and tapped Paul’s back. “Go home, Paul.” Paul turned around and whispered into the guy’s ear then gave him a manly handshake for their farewell. “Hey, what’s a pretty little girl like you doing in here all by yourself?” His shirt read, “HAYDEN”. I rubbed my eyes and a tear followed. My tears could no longer be hid. They kept flowing and I felt a headache coming.
“I’m ok,” I croaked to myself for my own reassurance.
“Are you sure you’re ok?”
I hadn't realized that I had spoken aloud.
“Something wrong with my mommy,” I said sniffling and feeling warm tears gnaw at the back of my eyes. Hayden came from behind the counter and kneeled down to me. I backed away slightly, somewhat intimidated.
“Oh,really?” His eyes were deep and intense.
“Take my hand,” he said displaying his palm upward. I looked at my hand then his hand, confused.
“You have a big hand.” I poked a thick callous that stood strong and prominent on his lower middle finger. He investigated his palm as if it were a new discovery.
“Well, that’s part of being a man,” he said looking at me with a half smile. I blushed because my mom had always told me that “a man is a good thing” and that I should “find me one when I got older”. I was four and she said that when I was three so I definitely was older. However, before I could think about a “man” I needed to help my mom.
“Are you going to help me, man?” He chuckled and rolled his head back.
“It’s Hayden, sweetheart.” A light bulb went off in my head and I immediately remembered Mr.Wob telling me to grab him a beer. Thoughts of my mom flew out the window.
“Oh! Mr. Hayden, Mr.Wob wanted me to get a beer from you.”
“Is that so,” he said with a sly, sneaky smile, “grab my hand, the beer is in the back.” We walked to the door, hand in hand. He opened the door and looked down at me with a sudden serious demeanor. My heart dropped and I could feel myself about to cry all over again. I was scared that something bad was going to happen. The only time people frowned at me was when they didn’t like me. I wasn’t sure what happened between the few seconds that passed to arrive to the door.
The door opened slowly and wide with a loud, long creak. I was staring into a dark room.
“Scared,” he asked with a blank stare into the dark.
“Yes,” I said slowly backing away. He released my hand and got behind me blocking the doorway and staring down at me. He pushed me into the dark room with his leg. I firmly resisted and flung my arm backward around to hold his thigh. “No, no I’m scared,” I said releasing my tears without trying to hold them back. A hard push on my back knocked me down into the dark room making me dive face first onto the ground.