But now all that was finished. The closeness she had once felt to Jennifer could never exist between them again after what she had just seen down on the beach. Yes, her own sister was nothing but a cheap little whore and probably always had been one, and Ellen had been gullible and loyal enough not to believe the pointed hints and insinuations that Bob had constantly been making about her.
But she wasn't thinking clearly. She had to find a way to leave her mother and sister without resorting to moving in with her father. What she would have to do was take a job where she could save up enough money to return to college in another part of the country. She had about five hundred dollars in her bank account from summer jobs she had worked at during high school and that would be enough to get her settled some place else. New York would certainly be far enough away from her parents and her sister so that she could begin to have a life of her own. She knew that her father would want to help her out, but she just couldn't permit that if she wanted to be independent and prove that she could support herself without parental assistance. Yes, this would resolve so many things. It just might be possible to get a modeling job in New York, but if this didn't work out, her secretarial skills would be helpful in getting work almost immediately.
She was so lost in her thoughts that it happened before she knew it!
"Well, hello there, honey," a low voice suddenly broke through the darkness.
CHAPTER THREE
Ellen stopped in her tracks and jerked around looking to see where the voice was coming from. She heard some rustling in the grass beside the road and made out two dimly silhouetted forms below the culvert.
"What you doing way out here in nowhere, baby?" the voice echoed out across the road.
Ellen quickened her pace, turning away from the two men. She saw lights coming from a beach house up the road but it was quite a distance away from her, and she didn't know if she could make it before the man's comments turned into something more serious. They were probably two drunken college students from the beach party, but she wasn't going to take any chances. She had heard some frightening stories of rapes and murders along these lonely country roads, and she didn't intend to become another unfortunate victim.
She heard a light scurry of feet a few yards from the ditch beside her. It was then that she saw the face of one of the men coming out of the dark shadows of the tall grass. The men measured their pace just behind hers as though they had plenty of time to follow her. Ellen knew that if she began to run from the two men this would be the final stroke, so she slowed down, almost imperceptibly, yet kept herself ready for that burst of energy and strength she would have to put out once they began advancing more rapidly.
"I'll tell you what I think, Billy. I think she's playin' a little game with us," another unfamiliar voice remarked in a sinister tone. "She's playing the stuck-up little bitch, don't you think?"
"Just give her some time, Cash. All that walking her little ass is doing should warm her up."
"Yeah, and them watermelons of hers sure look juicy," the man named Billy replied, an obscene vicious tone evident in his voice. "I'd sure like to get my mouth around those tits."
Ellen involuntarily moved faster as she heard the men's feet scuffling up onto the shoulder of the gravel road. They were walking directly behind her now, but she didn't dare look back. Suddenly she knew she was really afraid, and she became sure that the two men were not part of the group at the beach party. None of the boys, no matter how lewd their intentions, would have spoken to a girl like that. She found herself moving at a half-run now, and she measured the distance to the tiny lights of the shack ahead of her. If she could only get within shouting distance of the beach house she just might have a chance.
"Now you just look at that. The little girl knows what to do with what she's got, wouldn't you say so, Cash?"
"I'm just thinking about them big sweet titties, and that hot lil old pussy I know she's got."
Billy laughed. "You'll have time enough to get into that. Now just watch the way she works that tight ass; look at it now, Cash!"
Ellen grimaced in fear and revulsion at the horrible insults the men were hurling at her. She heard the men chuckle and quicken their gait behind her, and she adjusted her pace, almost running now and feeling her heart pound desperately into her throat.
"You know, Billy, I don't think this hot little bitch likes what we're saying about her. Maybe she'd rather have us do it to her, rather than talk about it. Whaddya think?"
"I'll be the first to find out, Cash. And, man, do I have a cock that wants to find out!" Billy shouted out so that Ellen could hear each obscene syllable of his words.
"Now you just remember, don't stretch it too much," Cash chortled loudly, "she's got a lot of fucking ahead of her."
"Damn, man, don't you know you can't use up that kind of pussy?"
That was it! Ellen could stand the vile remarks the men were making to her no longer, and suddenly, from sheer panic she broke into a desperate run. She felt her sandals scrape on the loose gravel beneath her feet and the tightness of her jeans impede her speed, but she gave it all she had, churning her legs with a rapidity that astonished her as the adrenaline pulsed into her blood stream, quickening her flight. She could hear the men running behind her, and though she was fast, they seemed to be shortening the distance between them. The house was coming up closer and she could almost see inside the windows, but as she approached the fence that bordered the yard of the shack, her sandals tripped her up and she lost her stride.
"Goddamn, grab her before she gets on the porch," one of the men gasped almost out of breath behind her.
"Don't worry about me, worry about those little titties you were talkie' so much about," the other voice rang out from the darkness behind her.
She was just a few yards from the lawn that surrounded the house, and she strained and plunged in a final desperate surge of energy to go to the porch. God! It didn't seem to get any closer! Then from a short distance down the road she spotted the headlights of a car approaching them. The thought flashed through her mind that if there weren't people in the house she would be done for. So, abruptly changing her direction, she sprinted towards the center of the road, waving her arm at the headlights of the approaching vehicle.
And that had been her mistake.
Suddenly she felt her arms wrenched violently backwards and the steel grip of a hand muffle her mouth. She stood in the center of the road with the two men grappling violently against her, and her arms and legs flailing out wildly in a vain attempt to free herself from her captors. The only hope now was that the car that was nearing them would stop and offer her some assistance.
But it didn't.
It slowed down as it approached the struggling figures and Ellen could see a face press against the side window, then she heard the motor gun as the automobile shot out again into the murky darkness. It disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, phantom-like from nowhere, leaving her to suffer her fate alone on the empty shore-line highway.
"Help me! Oh God, please! Help me! Pleeeeaaase," Ellen finally wrenched her mouth from under the man's hand and wailed uselessly into the night after the disappearing car.
"Goddamn, she's a tough little bitch," she heard come from behind her, and felt the vise-like grip against her arms send piercing stabs into her straining shoulders. Once again the hand clenched tightly over her mouth.