She would never call it running away. She just needed to regroup her thoughts, be on her own for a while and know that there was a great deal of distance between her and Brad Richards. After she had snuck out of the house she had only just got to her car when she looked up and saw his silhouette in the doorway, his fists clenched and his eyes wild with anger. She had been sure he was out for the night. She tried to start the engine but in her panic dropped the keys. She immediately slammed her palms down on the locks, making sure the doors were secure. Brad stomped across the lawn shouting at her. She did her best to block the impending threat out in order to focus on her escape. She had to find the keys and she had to get the car moving. When she finally found them on the edge of the floor mat she picked them up with shaking hands and slid them into the ignition.
“Fucking bitch,” Brad spat at the window as he pounded his fist against it. She looked up at him one more time and she saw something in him she had always known was there but that was at last revealed, the maniac beneath the surface. He punched the glass with the full force of his muscular arms and it cracked as she threw the car into reverse and sped off down the drive. He chased her to the end of their road, jumping at the trunk and hammering on the back window as she slowed to turn the corner.
“Goodbye Brad,” she said, her voice faltering but determined. She’d done it. She’d escaped him. He grew small in the rear view mirror and was finally gone as she turned and drove out of her old neighborhood.
She’d chosen to go to a small town she had visited when she was a teenager, there were fond memories wrapped up in that place and it was only an hour’s drive from the city. Laurie had always promised herself that one day she would go back and relive her youth. She remembered being there one summer with her parents, she’d laid in the sun by the lake all afternoon and counted the clouds as they drifted overhead. In the evenings they buddied up with other families staying close by and had barbeques at dusk. She’d had her first kiss that summer with a boy who was staying at a lodge near theirs. He’d followed her around the back of the play park and into the woods where they’d wrapped their arms around each other and swapped spit for half an hour. She couldn’t remember his name but she remembered the t-shirt he was wearing. A black one with an alien head on the front. She had vague memories of him telling her about Area 51 and she had deduced he was a nerd and hadn’t spoken to him again. She was a bit too quick to judge back then, she thought in retrospect. She loved thinking of that summer because she didn’t have anything in the world to worry about back then. It was that feeling that drew her back there now. The promise of simplicity.
As she pulled off the highway she recognized the roads immediately, even though it had been ten years since she’d been there. She put on her high beams and followed each bend and dip cautiously. She knew there were a lot of animals in the forests around those parts and after the night she had had, she really didn’t need to hit anything. Soon the old familiar sign came into view in the distance. Blakestone Ridge. She was sure it was the same sign that had been hanging there all those years before, rusted and swinging on an angle by two chains of slightly different lengths. She looked down at her dashboard and saw that it was coming up on three in the morning. She had stopped on the way to fill up with gas and get her head together and it had suddenly dawned on her that there was no motel that was going to take her in at that time of night. In the city maybe it wouldn’t have been a problem, but out there in the practical wilderness she was going to have her work cut out for her finding somewhere to stay the night. She was exhausted and needed a warm bed, both for her physical comfort and her emotional stability.
She slapped her hands down on the wheel and bit her lip as she tried to figure out what to do. She was slowly moving along Main Street trying to be sure not to miss any possibilities. It was deserted and each shop window was darkened and closed down for the night. Her heart started to thump in her chest. She had forgotten just what a small town this was. After the girl had turned up at her store and scared her half to death with tales of Brad being abusive and practically trying to kill her, she had fled without thinking her plan through properly. And she had been so proud of herself for taking decisive action. She could have been better prepared, but at least she was out. She pulled to the side of the road and turned off the engine. The clock ticked over to 03:04. It was going to suck if she was going to have to sleep in her car, she thought. The streets were completely empty and it appeared everything was shut for the night. She looked over her shoulder and out the back window and saw nothing but dark storefront there as well. Well, it would be light in 3 or 4 hours, she figured.
How could I have been this stupid though? She thought.
She was about to admit defeat and crawl over the partition into the back seat when bright headlights came over the road and flashed into view. She held her hands to cover her eyes, they were so bright. The car was travelling in the opposite direction, and it was crawling along just as slowly as she had been a few minutes earlier. Being that this was a small town, and feeling a little desperate, she unclipped her seat belt and opened her door. She waved to the car to get it to stop, and to her initial relief, it did. It was a big old truck covered in mud and as it slowed to a stop beside her she heard music blaring from the inside. As she stood on the curb, already wondering what in the world she was doing, the window slowly came down and she could see a man sitting in the driver’s seat.
“You okay, miss?” he asked, looking over the ridge of the window at her. She could barely see his face but his eyes were dark and mean as he looked inside her car. Instantly she broke into a cold sweat as she realized that his real question was “Are you alone?”
“Yes, I…” she began, unsure of what to say without sounding completely vulnerable and simultaneously regretting and berating herself further for her decision to try and ask for help at all. What was she thinking! She was just all over the map today, she thought. “I’m fine thank you, I was just wondering where I could find…” she trailed off as she realized the man’s expression had changed again. She needed to get back in her car. His eyes were glinting, wide and amused. She was just about to turn when she backed into another body as an unseen hand quickly came down over her mouth.
She screamed beneath the palm, shaking and terrified. The man in the truck roared with laughter as whoever was holding onto her tightened his grip.
“Where’s your handbag, Sweetie?” he growled into her ear. His voice was deep and hoarse, like he smoked a pack a day. By the smell of him she was sure he did. He nuzzled his nose into her hair and said, “Where’s your purse and your keys?”
Laurie was shaking, her legs about to give way beneath her out of fear. The saying Out of the frying pan and into the fire appeared unannounced in her head. She tried to scream but he held onto her tightly, pulling her back from the road and into the shadows of a shop doorway, out of view of anyone who might decide to drive through Blakestone Ridge at that ridiculous time of night. They must have seen her when she first stopped. She was so out of it that she had allowed this guy to creep up behind her. She was so stupid, she thought.
“Take it,” she spluttered beneath his hand, “Take whatever you want.” She just wanted him to let go of her. She just wanted to run. She didn’t care where, she just had to be away from these awful men. The man in the truck had left the engine running but was out looking through the windows of her car, shining a flashlight inside and surveying the pile of clothes on the back seat.
“Oh, don’t worry little darling, we will take whatever we want,” said the man holding her, as one of his hands squeezed at her belly.
Just then, at the fringe of the beam of the headlights, as she was struggling to figure out how she was going to get out of this mess, she thought she saw some kind of big animal dart around behind the car and out of sight. It was only an instant but she was sure she had seen something. Her attackers were too busy toying with their new found prey to notice. It jarred her, not because it was odd to see the occasional deer or even moose out here, from what she remembered, but because there was something menacing and fierce conveyed in that shadow that made the hair on her neck stand up. It so scared her in fact, that for an instant she all but forgot about the dirty man who was holding her tightly against her will.
“Were you taking a little trip?” said the man with the flashlight, chewing gum and grinning.
“You see the keys?” the guy holding onto her called over to him.
They were both completely oblivious to whatever she had just witnessed.
“I sure do,” he replied leaning in through her window and taking them straight out of the ignition and holding them up, shaking them so they tinkled.
Maybe it had been nothing, she thought, as her mind came back to her present predicament.
“Please,” she spluttered, her mouth still covered by his hand.
“Shall we take her along for the ride?” the man breathed into her ear.
Laurie’s legs finally did buckle, but not before she tried to kick out at him as she struggled to escape. With that he forced her to the ground, pushing her down face first and climbing onto her back.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he laughed.
He pinned her hands and arms behind her, holding them right up to her shoulders. The pain shot through her and she screamed. She turned her head to the side and closed her eyes. He was leaning in closer, his rotten teeth bared, and she wished she had just not panicked and had just stayed home for one more night. She could have gotten up first thing in the morning and set off then. Brad would have been going to work, leaving the house early and going off to the construction site. She would have had all day to get her things into the car and set off at a leisurely pace. Why had she been so stupid to try and leave in the middle of the night?
She held her eyes tightly shut and was preparing for a blow to the head or a hand grasping at her crotch or breasts at any moment. Just in that instant she became aware of a low growl just off to her right. She immediately forgot about the man who was pinning her down. There was something about that growl that was unlike any she had ever heard, and it froze her blood. It sounded mostly like a dog, but it was not like anything she ever heard in her life. I would have had to have been the size of small moose to let out a sound so deep and rumbling. And it couldn’t have been more than 5 feet away judging by the sound. The man on her back obviously heard it too, as he suddenly froze as well, completely releasing her arms. As soon as they were free, she instinctively brought her arms up to protect and cover her face as she felt the incredible force of something colliding with both her and her attacker. The sound of the growl had grown into an explosive cry that was somewhere between a howl and a roar. The man let out a blood curdling scream himself as she felt him tossed completely off of her like he was a doll, the force rolling her over as well. She heard his head come down hard on the pavement with a crack, even as she heard the dog, or whatever it was, turn and face the other man. At least she imagined that was what was happening, since by now she was curled into ball, eyes still tightly closed. She could feel the hot rush of air as the animal panted just to her left. The other man screamed a stream of obscenities before she heard him take off at a dead run. She could feel the animal standing there for another moment, and then just as suddenly as she had heard it appear, she heard it bound off into the woods. Suddenly all was quiet again. Finally, overcome from the combined shock of the prior 24 hours, as well as pure exhaustion, she passed out entirely.
She came to slowly, at first having no idea where she was until she registered the hard asphalt against her cheek. Slowly it all came back to her, and finally she raised her head to survey the scene around her. The guy with the bad teeth lay off to her side, a thin rivulet of blood coming off his scalp, but still visibly breathing as he lay unconscious where he had fallen. Was that 10 minutes ago? Or was it an hour ago, she wondered. But even more shocking was that the other man who she thought had run off was now laying in a heap in the middle of the road as well. His face was now smeared with blood, and it looked like someone, or something had broken his nose. What was going on? Laurie scrambled to her feet and gawked down at her would-be assailants. At the same time she quickly surveyed her own body. She was a little banged up, but apparently none the worse for wear. The men were both out cold though, or maybe worse, she thought. Her mouth dropped open as she looked up at a figure emerging from the darkness behind the truck.
“Are you alright?” a deep, silky voice called. The lights were still blaring and the music was still pumping, but she could see over the high beams the outline of a man moving towards her. A huge man, one taller and more muscular than anyone she had ever seen. Her heart pounded in her chest. As he came into the light, coming towards her… she could see more blood, this time, on his knuckles.