Lily
Frozen with fear, I couldn’t move when he gripped my face with his large hand. His fingers dug into my cheeks painfully, and I started to choke on the terror caught in my throat.
Reality clashed with memories, and my brain struggled to distinguish between the now and the past.
I couldn’t move my petrified stare from the scar on his face. The image had never left my nightmares and seeing it for real once again calcified every muscle in my body.
“How you’ve grown, little girl.” His accent bruised my mind. I never thought I would ever hear his voice again.
Once again fate mocked me.
A whimper was the only response I could give when he ran the flat of his tongue up my cheek. He buried his nose in the hair behind my ear and inhaled deeply.
“You smell good.”
Fright made my breath catch, and when he heard me gasp, he chuckled darkly. “I’m so pleased that you remember me, Lily.”
Remember him? I’d never fucking forget him! His image was carved into the caverns of my mind, cursing me every time I closed my eyes. Over and over again. Its refusal to leave me not only haunted my dreams but every waking hour.
“Did you miss me?”
The hand he held over the expanse of my throat slowly ventured down. Down my chest and then over my breastbone. Coming to rest upon my breast.
“Please.” It was the only word that I managed to choke out. It was so quiet I wasn’t even sure if he heard it. Nevertheless, he laughed once more.
“What exactly are you begging me for, little girl. Huh?” He reared back to look at me. The leer on his face made my blood run cold. “You want my cock inside you again? Huh? Is that what you want?”
I whimpered, shuffling backwards. The metal wall at my back prohibited my attempts to put distance between us and I pushed against it, praying for it to disintegrate behind me. His breath was rank, as putrid as I remembered, and my stomach revolted at the stench.
In the time it took me to blink, his foul mouth crushed mine and he stabbed his tongue between my lips. Bile flooded my mouth, and I fought against him, beating him with my hands as I tried to get him off me. But he was too strong.
His fist connected with my cheekbone and pain ruptured across my face when I sank my teeth into his tongue. The taste of copper exploded on my taste buds, and I gagged when I realised his blood contaminated my mouth.
Yanking my head back when he grabbed a handful of my hair, he brought his face within an inch of my own. The viciousness in his snicker terrified me. “Like it rough, huh?”
I kicked out at him, hitting my goal with one swift strike. He keeled over when my foot and the chains connected with his stomach.
It was stupid, a foolish thing to do.
I cried out when he punched me in the stomach. The force of his blow far outweighed the strength of mine, and my body doubled in on itself with agony. Stars exploded behind my eyes when he brought his foot down on the side of my head.
“Play nice!” he spat, taking another section of my hair and dragging me out of the corner. “Otherwise this will start to become way more fun.” He laughed. “For me that is. Not you!”
He ripped at my t-shirt, exposing my breasts. The cold air felt intrusive on my skin and goosebumps flourished with the freezing temperature.
“I’ve watched you, you know,” he mumbled as he threw the material to one side and stared at my chest. He licked his lips and grinned. “Especially since your band hit the spotlight. That wasn’t a good idea. That bated the beast, Lily. He became incensed with rage at that move. Silly girl.”
I shook my head at his mumbling. “I don’t… I don’t understand.”
“I don’t expect you to, not really. That’s because ignorance warps the truth. You’ve always been lost in your own world, little girl. You can’t see what’s in front of you. The undiscovered pieces of your past that could become a revelation, if only you looked at it. Properly. It doesn’t matter now, anyway. Does it. It is over.”
It is over.
“Get off me!” I screamed and struggled when he took my ankle and dragged me towards him. He tore at the buttons of my jeans and yanked them down my thighs. I wanted to be strong, but he was too powerful. Too fearsome.
He laughed as he flipped me over in one smooth move. My cheek slapped the harsh concrete and my forehead bounced down heavily. I nearly passed out. I wish I had.
“No! Please. God, no!” I wouldn’t survive this again. My mind would fracture beneath his invasion. I had barely existed since the first time he had taken me. My heart had struggled to beat after he had snatched my innocence as a girl.
Now, it wouldn’t ever beat again. And I prayed for that to be the truth.
Heaving me up, so I was on all fours, he positioned himself behind me.
I gave in. It’s all I could do. Choices left me, and I abandoned the fight.
The sob that left me was faint and serene, a mere exhalation of a fragile breath. But it wasn’t weak. It was so compelling that I felt my soul slip from my body with it. I became a ghost within a living form. A void shrouded in a costume of flesh, bone, and blood.
Closing my eyes, I willed my mind to collapse, begged it to shatter within my head and take me on a journey of insanity so I wouldn’t suffer this all over again.
My body hit the floor in a split second, the cold concrete becoming a mattress for my squashed breasts and stomach. The weight of him on top of me confused my already obscured mind, and for a moment I didn’t understand.
Blood pooled across the floor by my head and I stared at it until my mind started to split in two.
“Lily!”
Was it my blood? Was I dead?
My lungs guzzled oxygen when the weight crushing me down lifted from me.
I was moving, pulled into arms that felt too big around my frail body. His scent hit me when my face was pressed against a firm chest.
“Lily!” Scarcely a whisper, but I heard it. “It’s okay. It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
Did he? Did he have me?
Hands held my face and slowly directed my head back.
The stormy waters of Harrison’s eyes drowned under a river of my tears when belief secured my sanity.
“Harrison?” It wasn’t my own voice, the sound that left me foreign to my own ears.
He nodded briskly and bundled me up again, flattening me to his body as if he wanted to absorb me.
“You’re okay,” he reiterated. “It’s over, Lily. It’s over.”
It’s over.
The last thought that entered my damaged mind spun on a loop as the darkness took mercy on me and dragged me into its depths.
It’s over.
It. Is. Over.