Breakdown (pt 2)

Calloused fingers wrapped around the back of Susan’s neck. Before she could react she was shoved past the dark curtain into the van.

Pitch black. It was impossible to see as she scrambled forward on hands and knees. The hand on her neck shoving her along. The man gripping her neck crawled in behind her. She could feel his bulk as he corralled her. The door slammed shut. She was alone. Trapped in the back of a van, with a strange man guiding her along.

Susan tried to turn, to say something. Instead, she was shoved down hard against the steel floorboard. Twisting onto her back her hand instinctively reached up grabbing the man’s wrist. It was hard, unyielding, tugging and pulling with all her might resulted in nothing. He pinned her down to the floor.

Panic set in. Flailing with arms and legs Susan desperately tried to free herself. Fingers squeezed. Breath became impossible. She tried screaming only to have a gurgled squeak come out. Her struggles slowed as her lungs burned, desperate for a breath of air. Silver spots danced in the darkness. In a last burst of energy, Susan tried to sit up. All in vain. The hand never left her throat while the stars grew more numerous. Her movements became erratic. She felt herself falling, falling, falling down an invisible well, deeper ever deeper into the inky black.

She woke with a start coughing and choking. Her arms wouldn’t respond. Lying immobile she could feel the cool metal of the van floor beneath her. Stars burst behind her eyes as she was wracked with a coughing fit. She tried again but could not bring her hands to her mouth. Her wrists were painfully held over her head by something cold and biting into her skin. She tried to pull her legs up only to discover that they too were bound, spreading her lewdly open. Unable to see she was grateful to still be clothed.

The van rocked. A door slammed shut. With a lurch, she heard the engine start and the metal floor vibrated. Gravel crunched, the van rocked, and Susan knew they were moving. She tugged violently at her bonds. Nothing. She was leaving the last place anyone had seen her. She hoped her daughter had enough sense to look up from her video game, note the license plate, but Susan knew that was pure fantasy. She was now abducted.

“What's happening?” She called out.

“Shhh, just going for a little trip.” A gruff voice explained.

“Please you don’t have to do this,” she begged.

“Sweetie, shut that fucking cock sucker before I stick something in it to shut you up.”

The van rocked, someone was moving.

“What are you doing,” a second man’s voice.

“I spotted her, I got first dibs.”

More lurching. In the pitch black Susan heard and felt someone shuffling coming from overhead to stop beside her. She noticed that there was pressure on her eyes, something was blindfolding her. She wanted to cry at the hopelessness of the situation.

“Now let's see what we got.” The gruff voice said just above her.

There was a long pause. The van continued rocking gently, driving down a highway to destination unknown. Susan could only imagine a rough man, leering over her, his eye crawling across her bound and helpless body. She was again glad she was clothed, a small mercy.

Calloused fingers touched her face and she flinched.

“Please don’t…” Susan whimpered.

“You want to change the deal? You want us to go back and add your daughter?”

Susan moaned pitifully.

“Well?” the gruff voice demanded. “Answer me.”

“No,” she choked out.

“Then relax. And thank me for just taking you.”

She could feel tears welling behind the blindfold. Susan knew exactly what was going to happen. Abducted. Bound. Helpless. There were no happy ending in this story.

“I said thank me.,” the gruff voice said with a hint of annoyance.

Susan couldn’t believe what was being asked. It was difficult to even grasp what this animal expected. He wanted her to thank him? That she was about to be raped? Brutalized? Used? It was unfathomable.

She heard the crack before she felt the sting across her face. Dazed. Numbed. Madness.

“You going to thank me or you want some more of that?”

“thank you thank you thank you…” Susan spat out in a whimper.

“Better. Glad we can all be reasonable here. Now let's get another look at you.”

Fingers touched her face again, this time she forced herself still. A pathetic sign slipped past trembling lips. Thumbs hooked under the blindfold and tugged on it. Suddenly there was light. Dim, but Susan could see. The dark-haired mechanic loomed kneeling over her in the back of the van.

She watched in horror as he lifted a beefy hand. There was something in it, a handle. With a blur he flicked his wrist and the handle now had a wicked-looking blade.

Susan’s breath hitched. She couldn’t breathe again. Her arms ached being held over her head. Her body struggling with being stretched out. Her lungs simply could not draw breath as the blade made lazy figured eights over her face.

“Please…” she whispered.

He smiled. The blade descended. She struggled to keep her eyes on it as it descended to her chest. Breathing was still impossible. There was absolutely nothing she could do as the blade slipped into her blouse, just behind the top button.

There was a tug. The fabric parted. And the top button tumbled away.

Susan looked wide-eyed, still unable to breathe at the man over her.

His deep smile told her everything, he was enjoying this.