"Please, Ken-trell, just stop!"
Her voice trembled, each word a desperate gasp as her breath slipped away like sand through her fingers.
Before her, he knelt, his grip a vice around her throat, drowning out her pleas as he focused solely on the fury that coursed through him. The bedroom door rattled violently as someone outside fought to break through, their frantic attempts a distant echo against the storm brewing within him.
All he could hear was the chaotic pounding of his own heart, reverberating like drums in his ears, a visceral rhythm drowning out everything else. Thick tears streamed down his face, hot and bitter, splattering onto her cheeks, now marked with the evidence of her struggle.
"Let... me... go," she rasped, her voice barely more than a whisper, each syllable laced with a desperation that clawed at the heart.
