MoonLight

Chapter Five

I woke up to two strange men standing above me, and just as I was about to scream, they stuffed a dirty, torn rag into my mouth. One of the men held my only source left of breathing, my nose. I blacked out. I woke up again, but this time in a van. It was pitch black and I couldn't see a thing. The only thing that is barely visible were the men, but they were in front of a clear divider between us. I try to move my hands, but realize they are tied behind my back. The rag was still in my mouth and tasted like rotten fish. The only thing I had for any good, were my legs. I scoot onto my back and with every ounce of power I have kick at the divider. It didn't even budge. The man in the passengers seat turns around and I get a good look at him. He has disgusting, long dirty brown hair that flipped when he turned. He looked like he hadn't slept for years.. or showered. He started laughing to himself and then grabbed my ankle while it was still up. I try to pull it back but I start to see him raise up a knife he is holding. He grazes it across the skin of my ankle and I yank back hard enough to bring my leg back to me. He turns back around to his playmate and they both start cackling to each other. They sound like damn hyenas. God. Why did this happen to me? I don't deserve this. Oh and Elvis he is going to think I didn't enjoy our date and ran out on him. My friends! They're going to think I didn't come home on purpose so that I don't have to tell them. I'm screwed. Now I am here and I have no idea what is coming my way from these monsters. I can figure that we are not going to sing songs and play tea party. Just as I was thinking man one interrupts my thoughts "Hey good lookin, were here" he knocks on the divider. Where is here though..? They open the doors of the back of the van and man two pulls me out by my hands. I trip and stumble a couple times, while I am trying to figure out where we are. Forest and woods, a tiny one-room shack. One thing I am absolutely sure of is that no one is going to save me. Even if someone wanted to, they couldn't. If they could, they wouldn't. I am worth saving, but no one is going to be my saviour.

                The men push me into the shack and down on a old, creaky chair. They both start tag-teaming and tying my hands and feet to the chair. Finally they take the rotten-fish rag out of my mouth. "Aw ain't you even gooder lookin, without them rag" he snickers. Gooder. You have to be kidding me. Couldn't they at least be the least bit intelligent, seriously God? Man two comes and brings his face practically less than inch away from mine and whispers "We gonna have fun tonight" and starts guiding his hand through my hair. I move my head away and try to keep him from touching my hair. Man one gets behind me and yanks my hair back, "Don'cha struggle now, gonna make it all the more worse" he says snorting. I don't say anything. "Hey guy, you think she a mute? I don't like em' mutes, they creep me out" Man one says to the man in my face. "Aw shut up, she ain't a mute. She just a little frightened" he grins wickedly. I struggle to talk, but manage out "What do you want? I will give you anything, please just let me go" I am practically whispering. "Oh, good lookin' it's you we want, though" Man two or Guy says in a hushed tone. I start to realize that I may not make it out of here alive. "What are you going to do to me?" I whimper out. Man two chuckles "Every single thing, you have ever had nightmares of" he clenches his jaw and starts guiding his knife along my thigh. After a few minutes of silenced patience for him to stop, they start making me drink liquor. I only remember two beers, but I know there was more. I wake up the next morning on the wooden floor of the shack, and have a smelly, bedspread covering me. I suddenly feel bare, oh God. I look under the sheets and see that my underwear and bra is still on. Thank Jesus. Only then, that is when I noticed the marks. Their were at least five different bruises on my stomach and back. Oh my.. are they still here? I start to look around and don't see anyone. I get up and put my clothes back on, beer cans are all over the shack, I don't want to know how many of those I had. Plenty enough to have a horrific migraine right now. I open the crooked, wooden door and the sun glares straight into my eyes. I squint and things are blurry for a minute. Finally I am able to see, I look around and no one is here. They must have thought, I would sleep longer. Then I start hearing something. It's a car engine. Damn. I run back in and wrap the bedspread over me again and pretend to sleep. Hoping idiot number one wouldn't notice that I had been up. The door slammed open and made me jump a little. It was Guy. He strolls in and comes up right next to me. "Hey good lookin', how long you been up?" he asks. I don't answer. "I don't have a good temper, you better answer" he starts to get an irritated tone of voice. I still don't answer. He pulls my hair and drags me up to my feet. "YOU UP NOW, AIN'T YA!" he yells at me. No answer. He slaps me good and hard, knocking me to the ground. "YOU LIKE THAT?!" he screams. I just lay there and start to cry and attempt to crawl away. "Please, don't" I weep. He comes up and drags my feet and then throws them down. He gets on top of me and starts yelling things, I can't even half understand what he is saying. He slaps me again when I don't respond to whatever he said. He takes out his knife and starts carving into my thigh. OH MY GOD! STOP! I can't make any noise to say anything, so I just scream. Deeper and deeper he digs the knife into my thigh. It feels like someone is burning it, and it's getting hotter and hotter. Finally he stabs it in, and leaves me there to suffer. He walks out of the house and leaves with the car. I can't bear the pain and start to grasp that I am going to loose too much blood. The only thing I can think to do is take the knife out and then wrap my leg with my shirt. HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO TAKE A KNIFE OUT OF MY THIGH?! God! I look away and start breathing heavily, as I touch the handle of the knife and take it in my hand. One, two, three... I breathe in and out and quickly tear it out of my flesh. I start to feel the blood flowing out of my thigh like a river of wine. I promptly take off my shirt and start wrapping it around the injury, all the while I am still in unbelievable pain and moaning in agony. My hands are shaking and I am feeling lightheaded. I get my thigh wrapped, but then collapse.

                My eyes flicker open to the ceiling of the shack. Still here. I try to move, but can't gather enough strength to move. How long have I been laying here? Where are the men? I turn my head over to the left and right, only to see an empty and bare room. After staying still for a couple minutes I sit up and lean back on my arms. I look at my thigh and see the pool of crimson blood surrounding it. I start getting light-headed again, but then remember I need to get out of here. I still had a chance. I grunt as I start to stand up, and finally use the chair I had been tied to, to help myself up. I start limping to the crooked, wooden door and start thinking about my friends. God I miss them. I miss the comfort and safety of our complex. I missed Elvis, and his kisses, his warmth, his protection. He would never talk to me after me disappearing though, he would think I making up the story. My friends probably just think I am still with him. It's been a day now since I left the complex to go to Elvis'. Finally I reach the outside and I see a car. Oh God. I can drive. Thank God. I start quickly, walking over to the jeep, and see if the keys are in the ignition. There they are, the keys to my escape. I stumble into the dark green vehicle, and turn the keys. The engine starts up beautifully. "beautiful baby" I whisper to the car. I start driving away from the misery shack and torture chamber. As I drive down the dirt road I watch the scenery go by. I drive about a mile and see them. They are walking from the tiny market where the road leads to. They instantly see me and start running towards the car, attempting to get me off the road. I keep driving forward. I didn't care if I hit them, they were monsters. They deserved it. Lucky for both of them, they jump out of the way as I fly past and down the dirt road. I hadn't realized it until I was in the market place, that I had been gunning it. I drive past the market, and as I go another couple miles I start seeing familiar surroundings. Oh God, I hope I am getting close. I can't wait to embrace them all.

                Finally I get into town and have never been more thankful to see all the obnoxious people. I hurry the rest of the way to our complex. My headlights light up the road as it gets dark, and I soon see the flashing lights of the police cars. As I drive up a police man puts his hand up. I stop and he comes up to the vehicle. "Ma'm you may not enter this area, we are on lock down" he commands sternly. "It's me though, Kimberly! I live here with my girlfriends" I hastily answer. His eyes widened and soon he was calling over my friends. I get out of the car and they all come running up to me. "MARY, ANG, STACE!" I shriek as they practically tackle me to the ground. "OH MY GOD WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Angela screams at me. "I'll explain later, I want to get inside and change" I breathe. "He is here Kim" Mary says softly behind me. I turn around in confusion, who was here? Elvis?! How? "Yeah, he is in the house" she smiles at me. Oh my God. I run into the house only to see Elvis's back to me facing the window. "Elvis" I exhale softly. He quickly turns his head my direction, and then glides from across the room to me in a second. He picks me up, his arms wrapped around my waist, "Oh baby, I have been so damn worried. Are you alright? What happened? God, I am so happy to see you!" he says in one breath. He sets me back down but holds me close to him and doesn't let me go for some time. We just stand there in each others arms, warmth. "Are you alright?" He says again this time pulling me away to look at my face. "Yeah, I am now" I manage out. I wanted to cry, seeing him and my friends, it all made me so happy. I go into my bedroom and start slowly taking off my clothes, but that's when I remember my thigh injury. The pain came flooding back, and I fell onto my bed. Jesus, get a hold of yourself. Elvis runs in and sees me laying there. "Baby, are you okay?!" he practically starts shouting. "God, yeah, can you help me?" I say as I sit up. He walks over to me and sees my thigh and the blood wrapped shirt. "What happened?!" he says tensely. I can see his jaw clench down and can tell he is getting angry. "Help me first, please" I say and take his hand in mine to try to calm him down. He looks at me and his eyes quickly become sympathetic. He helps unwrap my thigh and get it re-wrapped and changed shorts and into a shirt. "Thanks" I whisper as I stand up off the bed. He takes me into his arms and rests his chin on my head. I can feel his heartbeat and body heat, God he made me feel so safe. "We should go into the living room. You need to tell us all what happened. The police included" he breathes. He kisses the top of my head and then wraps his arm around my waist. We walk out into the confrontation together hand in hand.