“Bitch!” a voice gasped and she shrieked when the backhand came out of nowhere-of course, she couldn’t see it coming. It was a hard hit, landing solidly against her temple, making her ears ring with the blow. She even saw stars for a moment and then her lip burst against her teeth like plump fruit, only fat with blood instead of juice, when they hit her again.
“She likes it, I’m telling you!” That was Brian’s voice-he was the one holding her. She struggled in his arms, twisting uselessly, tasting copper and swallowing her own blood.
“No!” Her hoarse voice pleaded with them. “Please!”
“That’s what she said last time,” Brian chuckled, hefting her arms, pulling her in tighter. “I’m telling you, she loves the rough shit.”
“Good.” The voice she didn’t recognize made Lindsey’s insides turn cold. “I’m gonna give her plenty of it.”
“Not like this,” Lindsey gasped as someone pulled the cloth or blindfold or whatever it was up over her mouth and tied it hard behind her head, leaving her bleeding lips free, but she was still unable to see.
“How are we gonna get her up there?” It was another voice Lindsey didn’t recognize, rougher than the first, like his throat was filled with gravel or grit.
“I don’t want her up there.” That was the smooth one-the one who’d backhanded her, she was sure. His voice was smooth and deadly, like a snake. “Hand me that rope.”
Lindsey moaned softly as they began to tie her, and she stopped resisting as hands pulled off her shorts and top. They pulled her hands up high, using some sort of tree limb, she was sure, stretching her so far that she had to go up on her tiptoes, losing her sandals in the process. She tried to balance in the dirt, feeling pine needles under her feet as they continued to work around her, pulling, prodding, spreading her legs and securing those, too, with rope. Her arms ached already, but she had a feeling that was going to be the least of her worries in the pain department in the long run.
She tried to think of things to say, a way out of this, to gain control, the upper hand. They had left her mouth free, and she could have talked, but everything that came into her head was a plea, and she knew it was what they wanted-it would only fuel things further-and she was determined, now, not to give them what they wanted.
Not until she had to.
“How are we gonna fuck her like that?” Brian sounded truly confused, but Lindsey wasn’t at all surprised by the answer.
“I’m not gonna fuck her.” Smooth’s voice was almost right next to her ear and she startled at his closeness as she heard Gritty laugh on the other side of her. “Not yet, anyway.”
“But—”
Lindsey winced at the sound of the blow, hearing Brian cry out, “What the fuck!?” He sounded genuinely surprised, but she wasn’t surprised at all. She knew their type- the two guys Brian had brought with him tonight would only get off on hurt, not just force, but the mean, sadistic kind of hurt that spilled over from the case of Bud they’d brought with them, but more, it spilled from them like pressure cookers gone too long with something really nasty boiling inside, something unable to contain itself. Brian was just starting to see the overflow-Lindsey knew she would be the brunt of whatever explosion eventually occurred.
“Shut the fuck up, kid.” Smooth grabbed the back of Lindsey’s head, her hair in his fist, the blindfold tightening to the point of pain. He kissed her, but it wasn’t any sort of real kiss—it was just an attempt to bruise her mouth with his, forcing her to cry out as her teeth collided with her lower lip and started the bleeding again. He wanted to hear her and she knew it, trying to keep her pain in with whimpers, trying not to show her fear.
“She’s got a nice little cooze.” Gritty’s fingers-she knew it was him, his voice was on the other side of her-were short and stubby, just as she imagined he was, and probably his little dick, too. They probed between her pussy lips, searching.
“No tits, though.” Smooth grabbed them again, twisting, pulling so hard she could almost feel instant bruises forming. “Might as well cut the damned things off and start over.” Gritty laughed, a dark snort and chortle, his fingers still probing between her thighs.
“What do you think, girlie?” The heat of his body felt huge beside her, overpowering, and she felt more than heard a gentle click beside her cheek. “Wanna just lose the baby tits and start over again?”
She felt a scream rising from her throat as he scraped the blade-end of a knife gently over her cheek, back and forth, and fought hard against it. There was no one to hear her, she knew, and screaming would just give them what they wanted. She held as still as she could as he drew the knife’s edge over her skin, petting her with it, as if he were trying to shave off the soft, downy peach fuzz covering her flesh. When he reached her breasts, he stopped, and Lindsey held her breath, trembling, willing herself not to panic.
“Answer me.” His voice remained calm-deadly calm, that same smooth tone.
“Please.” Lindsey moaned and tried to make her chest concave as the tip of the knife pressed between them. She felt something wet running down her belly and it was a moment before she realized it was her own blood. Panic rose again, long before she felt the burning pain at the site of the knife-tip grazing her skin, and she knew she was losing it. “I don’t know you! I just want to go home, now, okay? I need to… I have to go home and sleep now.”
Smooth’s chuckle was as smooth as his voice. “You can sleep all you want, sweetheart… when I’m done with you.”
I need to go to the moon.
The voice in her head was already distant and she looked up, as if she weren’t blindfolded, searching for a glimpse of it through the blackness. She knew the moon would just be rising, and in her mind’s eye, she focused there, feeling herself going, going… gone.
Daddy, I fell down.
Her little girl self was cowering somewhere, but she didn’t show it. Inside, she was filled with those hitching, uncontrollable sobs, and she saw her father’s face, his eyes soft with concern, kissing her to knee to try and make it better. She was afraid of the medicine, afraid of the band-aid, afraid of the pain.
Close your eyes and go to the moon, Lindsey, like we do at night before you go to sleep, and it won’t hurt so much.
So she did. She pulled back, away from herself, floating somewhere above it all.
And she could see them, somehow she could see it all, the looming shadows moving around her as she strained against the ropes, strung up and helpless. She wanted to
scream, but she knew no one would come. No one would believe her. No one ever did.
There was no one to protect her and there never would be. There was nothing to do except float, somewhere above it all, watching as they began to beat her, and when she didn’t respond to that, tearing the limbs from branches and using those to bloody her back and legs.
“Shit, man, what’s wrong with her?” Gritty smacked her hard across the face, rocking her head back, but Lindsey didn’t make a sound. She was far above it, a roar like the sound of the F-16s flying overhead filling her ears, the pain just a dream.
“Is she dead?” That was Brian’s voice, shaking, scared. Lindsey wanted to call to him, tell him it was okay, she was okay, but words wouldn’t form in her swollen mouth.
“Get her down.” Smooth sounded disgusted, very unsatisfied.