I gaped at him open mouthed from my chair. He grabbed me by my throat and pinned me against the wall behind me in what seemed like one motion. I thought of my mom, and my dad, and my one friend Lynn at home. I thought of the last things I'd said to them and smiled internally at the knowledge that it had been "I love you". That was enough for me. I wrapped my two small hands around his large one and tried to pry his fingers off. I jerked around, but he didn't budge. He had me held at his eye level which I noticed was a good foot off the ground for me. Dissatisfied with the amount of airflow cut off, he squeezed harder. When I was barely taking little gasps of air and the sides of my vision got hazy I saw a glint of silver in his other hand. I couldn't struggle anymore. I saw the silver move in. I kicked, I can't give up I thought. When the knife was touching my ribs I moved my hand to it and grabbed it as hard as I could. I couldn't tell if I was slicing my hand or not, and in desperation my last resort was to take every ounce of what energy I had left to look into this complete strangers eyes and beg, "Stop." The word barely escaped my mouth.
And Instantly he dropped me. I crashed to the floor heaving in big lung filling breaths. I stared into space down the hallway and waited for my vision to clear. When it did I sat up and leaned against the wall. Jeff stood in the same spot staring down at me. I looked up at him still breathing heavily. Tears leaked over the sides of my eyes. His own eyes had softened. "I'm Jeff," he said. "I'm Lucy," I breathed "My friends call me Lu." His expression seemed pained for a moment. Then I felt the stinging in my hand, I looked down at it, I had sliced straight across my palm a pool of deep red was leaking between the spaces of my fingers. He silently helped me up and led me to the last door on the left of the hallway. It was a bathroom. He ran my hand under warm water in the sink and I winced at the burning it caused to shoot through my hand. Then he poured peroxide over my hand and wrapped it up in white gauze. The room was still spinning from being choked and I fist-ed my free hand in his white hoodie and fell into him. "I don't want to die Jeff," I whispered into his shirt. And I felt him heave a sigh and run a hand through my hair. "Lu," He said, and lifted my chin so my gaze met his. He smiled at me half hearted. He took my hand and led me to the room across from the bathroom. This room was large with the same wood floors as the rest of the cabin and there was no furniture except for a large bed with fluffy pillows in red pillow cases, a thick red comforter, and black sheets. And a simple wooden night stand with three drawers and a digital alarm clock and lamp. Jeff led me to the side of the bed with the night stand and drew back the covers for me. "I'll be back later," he said, and caressed my cheek with a snow white palm. I closed my eyes and gave in to total blackness in mere seconds.
