Chapter 34
Anna
“I can’t wait to rip you to pieces!”
The door crashed into the wall and I jumped at No One’s booming voice. In three strides, he made it to the bed. With my arms tightly secured to the headboard, I couldn’t do anything but turn my head to the side at the slap. Pain scorched into my skin and his fingers and thumb dug into my cheeks as he turned me to face him and hit me again. It was so different than when he had left. He had been so loving then. Now this?
“I’m going to get that detective. I’m going to take him, and I’m going to kill him in front of you. Then, I’m going to cut my baby free and bath in your fucking blood, bitch.”
Whack!
Whack!
“Stop!”
My head thrashed as I tried to get away from his hand. He kept squeezing into my face and hitting me before coming back to grab me.
“He knows nothing. I will be a great father! Better than mine ever was.”
“Yes,” I sobbed. “Please! There won’t be a baby if you don’t stop.”
A loud sound left him and he spun, clearing the dresser of the knickknacks with a swipe of his arm.
“Mark my words, before this is over, Detective Casey will breathe no more. Play time is over. He says he’s glad you’re dead so you won’t have to carry my child. So you won’t have to suffer! I’ll show him suffer. Now that he knows you’re alive, he’ll get to experience it right along with you.”
“W-What?”
“You heard me,” he said, pulling out his phone and holding it up. “If the detective thought he hurt for you before, wait until he sees what I have in store for him now.”
The click from the phone sounded through the room and my head turned away as wetness raced down my face. I thrashed against the cuffs, feeling the anger peak to a level I’d never experienced. It was more intense than when my captor beat me. Than when he tortured me. Not even when he threatened my life did I feel such rage.
This was going to destroy Braden even more. If what my captor said was true and Braden believed the child wasn’t his…God, I couldn’t think about that. Or the fact that he was glad I was dead. Janneke. This was all her fault. She’d tempted him. Probably seduced him in his grief. Were they together now?
My heart was broken—my mind unraveling under this killer.
“Don’t do this,” I choked out. “Please leave him alone. Just…”
“Just what?”
Again, I jerked at the cuffs. “You’re already going to kill me. Leave it at that and then go away from here. Or better yet, let me free and go while you can. If you push Braden, you will eventually make a mistake. When you do, he will find you. Be smart. Let me go and just disappear.”
Silence had me looking up through my lashes. I was raging, despite my calm tone, and I knew he could see it. The challenge that met me head on should have had me looking away. Thing was, I couldn’t take anymore. The calmness was enough to show me that. I was losing it. Killing those two women mingled with the toll the constant abuse was taking.
Click.
Click.
“Keep looking just like that. Show him the darkness you keep hidden inside. I told him about your little high school crush. How you killed her. Do you suppose he’ll investigate?” Click. “I told him he should.”
Trembling took over and it had nothing to do with the fear of my secret being discovered. I couldn’t even think that far ahead. I wanted No One dead at the mere thought that he’d exposed what I confided in him. The repercussions for the crime didn’t exist within my mind. Just the betrayal.
“He won’t believe you. He won’t look into anything.”
“No? I think you’re wrong. I think curiosity will get the best of him.”
“Ahh! You had no right! Take. These. Off! I want out of these cuffs!”
Laughter.
Click.
“That’s it. Go crazy for us, Annalise. Go mad.”
Mad. Mad. “If I could have one wish for you, I’d pray you never found true love. You don’t want to hurt like this. You don’t want to go mad, Annalise.” Mad. Mad.
Yes, I was mad. I could feel insanity growing and breaking through my reality. It found its way in with the voices. In with the gruesome fantasies. “Take them off. Take them off right now!”
“Or what? What are you going to do?” Click. “Do you want to hurt me? I bet you’re dying to play in my guts as well. You know what…” The camera was shoved in his pocket and he lunged forward, grasping my throat as his other hand rose. The buckle to the first hand was removed and my pulse thumped hard as I waited. “I’m going to set you free, Annalise. Show me what you want to do. I dare you.”
The other cuff was tugged free, and I didn’t wait. I couldn’t. Freedom from my own craziness drove me forward, crashing right into No One’s hard body. My hands shot up and my nails tried digging and clawing at his eyes. I was desperate to escape. Frantic, even. In the moment, I didn’t have any more time. I knew no other way but to try to get the upper hand on his stupid mistake.
“There she is.”
Arms tried wrapping and pinning me down, but I rolled on the bed over him, throwing my weight around as we neared the foot of the mattress.
“On top? Never.”
“I’ll kill you!”
“You wish. This is foreplay, bitch.”
My arms and hands continued to swing and scrape at his skin. A fullness from the torn skin embedded under my nails and blood beaded along the marks on his cheeks and neck. Where it should have given me fear over what could happen, it didn’t. The blood urged me on, blinding me to the danger of my situation. I was a predator who’d tasted her kill. Perhaps I would taste him like he had tasted me when he’d broken the skin on my back.
“Is that all you got? One hit and I could break your face clean open. Shall I do it, Annalise? I want to. God, I want to fucking bash in your skull until your body stops reacting and your minds fades away.”
Fabric from the loose t-shirt I wore ripped at his jerk and I pulled back, feeling urgency spark. My hands clasped over my head and I brought them down, slamming them into his face like I would have done with a knife. I hit in the stabbing motion…once. Again. Blood poured from my captor’s nose as his head lifted and gravity disappeared.
My back was suddenly against the bed and his weight was pushing into me with ruthless force. Pain and lights exploded as a high-pitched noise pinged in my ears. I could still feel my arms moving, but they felt so heavy, as if they weren’t even really attached to my body anymore. When my head lifted, my teeth were already sinking into his neck. A metallic taste washed over my tongue and I ripped to the side, taking a chunk of his flesh with me.
“Cunt!”
Whack!
Whack!
From the faraway tones, I knew No One was screaming at me. What he was saying or yelling, I had no idea. The room wouldn’t come into focus. Motion blurred and it only registered that he was rearing back again—then…nothing.
****
“There, now that’s better. Shhh. No crying.”
Pressure pushed into my most private area and my loud whimper and sob couldn’t be stopped as his cock stretched me even more.
How long had he been raping me? I wasn’t really wet and the pull of my channel with each of his thrusts made me feel like it hadn’t been long.
“S-Stop…”
“You know better than that. Besides, you don’t want me to stop. Not really. You love this. And I love you.”
“No.” The baby moved inside me and I cried harder. So hard, before I knew it, I was damn near hyperventilating. I didn’t feel good. I felt nauseous and sick. The room kept spinning around me and there was nothing I could do to stop it. My hands were restrained again, leaving me incapable of doing much of anything.
And there was that loveable, smooth tone again.
My thighs were spread wider as No One pushed to his knees. The pace slowed and his deep moans left vomit burning the back of my throat. The rocking…the way his thumbs separated my folds as he watched his length go in and out of me—I couldn’t continue this for another second, yet I was powerless to stop it.
“Let me loose.” Each word was like a mallet hitting into my head. “What are you so afraid of? Let me loose.”
A deep laugh rumbled from his throat. “You think I locked you back up because I fear you? Not even close.” He reached down and grabbed his phone. The ding had me sobbing harder. I knew he was recording us.
“The mother of my child.” A hand rubbed along my exposed stomach, tracing around the slight roundness to hold position at the bottom side. “Pregnant, bleeding, and beaten…I have to admit, I don’t think you’ve ever looked more beautiful to me, Annalise.”
“I wish I were ugly so you’d leave me alone!”
“You are ugly…on the inside. That makes me want you even more.”
“I hate you,” I choked out.
“I know you do. A part of me hates you, too. But I love you more. I love you so much.”
The thrusts deepened and my face turned, trying to bury into my bicep.
“You know better than that. Don’t you fucking look away from me.” Pressure squeezed into the agony throbbing in my face and I cried out at the pain as he forced me to look back at him. The phone got closer and he kept it aimed at my face as he increased the speed. “There we go. Yes. Fuck, yes. This is what we both needed.”
“What you need is a knife though your heart.”
“You first. And soon. Only a few months left.”
His hand dropped to hold my hip as he brought his focus and the camera to where he was entering me. Disgust had me trying to buck against him, but the action only had him pushing his cock deeper and letting go long enough to slap me.
“I can’t wait to cut this baby out of you. I want to pound that pussy while your insides rock to my fucking. We know how that looks, don’t we, Annalise?”
Fingers molded around my swollen stomach, pushing into the side as he stared down with morbid fascination. What he was seeing, I could imagine all too well. His sick words warped my own mind. My fantasies sparked and his grotesque statements took talking dirty to an entirely different level, a sick level—a butchered realm of blood, death, and sex over our victims.
“You get so wet when I talk about the ways I’m going to kill you. Shall we dance with the devil? Flirt with our disgusting fantasies? Who bleeds this time? Will it be you? Me?” He paused, cocking his head and bringing his shoulder closer to it. “You already bit me. I think it’s your turn.”
My eyes widened as he dove to my neck. I screamed, thrashing as much as I could. Pain didn’t come like I’d expected, just suction as he buried his cock in completely. The rotation as he grinded his hips left me panting as I waited for the torture I knew he’d bring. Fear and pleasure collided with the friction against my clit, and still, I waited.
“You like this.” He went back, sucking harder and swirling his tongue over my skin as he did. And his thrusts, they continued in their deep, hypnotic rhythm. My core tightened, and I could feel my body betraying me.
“That’s it. Moan for me. Clench around my cock with how much you want this.”
I pushed my head against the side of his with everything I had, letting out a frustrated scream that came from deep within. It was only met with his steady strength, leaving him unmovable. “I don’t want this. I want you to stop!”
“Do you really?”
He paused, fisting my hair as his other hand leaned the phone against the lamp before settling between us to rub over my clit. “You’re so swollen and wet. No, I think you want me to continue.”
Fire and aching took over the sensitive nerves as my orgasm beckoned. I detested him for drawing out that part of me when I didn’t truly want to enjoy this. And to record the betrayal…there were no words for how much it sickened me.
“Don’t.” My hips tried to twist, but it only brought his nails brutally raking down my inner thigh before he came back to tease the sensitive nerves all over again. My cries grew louder—half-hated ecstasy, half disgust. Back and forth, my head shook, and I didn’t care that my cheek was knocking into his. My brain ached from the beating—from the denials I kept trying to feed myself. From the hate. I had so much hate and madness circulating throughout, I almost felt like I was shutting down. But where was I going if not here? I was stuck. Trapped. Hostage to a man who held my child’s life in his hands.
“Mmm, I love when you beg. Do it some more.”
“Fuck you! Get off me.”
“You get off. Come on, Annalise. You’re so close. I can feel it.”
A whimper left me and there was nothing I could do to stop it. With his cock thickening, it triggered my need to release. There were too many sensations.
“God, yes. Shit, you feel so good. I’m not going to come in you this time. I’m going to do better.”
Pain stung along my scalp and I screamed as my body shook through the spasms of my orgasm. I didn’t even get to finish before my captor pulled out and stroked his cock near my face. With the way he held me, I was powerless to move away. Hair tore at my constant jerks, but I cared not for the fire it brought. Nothing burned me more than his cum shooting into my open, screaming mouth, then my eyes. The thick substance coated my throat and vision, making me roar and gag. Moaning and laughter sounded in the distance, but it was a white noise compared to the pulse beating wildly in my ears.
He meant to belittle me. To put me down so far, it was worse than being six feet under. It was rape and the killer in me knew his essence was marking the ultimate claim of victory—of the power he truly had.