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“You’re so much better than those girls. Most of them come from money and have had it all handed to them. You’re smart. Different.”
“I want to be transformed.” Elisa’s words rushed past her lips, as if she sent a request to the heavens.
“You will be.” Again, silken words brushed over Elisa like a caress as the sun hung lower on the horizon, pulling with it the remnants of the day’s light. Shadows bathed the woods around them, creeping closer with each second. “It’ll be like nothing you’ve ever experienced before.”
Strong fingers gripped tighter around Elisa’s neck, sending tingles through both the seducer and the seduced. Skin tingled. Thrills shot as the pressure increased. So dangerous. So fun to enjoy such utter control.
Elisa closed her eyes, releasing the reins held most days in a white-knuckled grip. She wanted to be dominated. She wanted to be owned. Mind. Body. And spirit.
When the pressure constricted her airway ever so slightly, the first flickers of doubt sparked. Ah, there it was—the fear, which was far more intoxicating than sex.
“Feels good, doesn’t it, baby?” Grinning, the seducer squeezed harder, cutting off all air. The white-hot desire blurring in Elisa’s
thoughts cooled as quickly as molten metal plunged into ice water. Common sense elbowed past the dark cravings as she shook her head and raised her hands to the still-tightening grip.
“Stop,” she croaked.
Pain and fear collided in Elisa, driving more energy and determination into her hold.
“Stop.” The word strained to be heard as she dug nails painted a bright purple into ribbons of muscles streaming up powerful forearms.
In these moments, with their bodies joined in such an intimate embrace, their thoughts connected. Elisa, who had so desperately wanted a challenge more physically thrilling than math problems or debate team practice, wanted now nothing more than to break free and scurry back to the safety of her little house. She wanted to breathe. To live.
Malice dimmed all traces of humanity and opened the abyss now hungry for fear, pain, and panic. “Fear is part of the fun, baby. Fear shows us we’re alive.”
When Elisa’s breath caught in her throat and couldn’t pass to her lungs, she struggled with a renewed energy and then drew up her knee and drove it, with a desperate force, into bone and sinew.
Anger rocketed, stole breath and strength, and the deepening hold slackened. “Fucking bitch!”
Oxygen rushing into her lungs, Elisa gobbled it up as she raised trembling fingers and shoved back hard. Her fingers pressed to her bruised neck, she pushed away from the tree and stumbled forward, her shoe catching and slipping off her foot, before righting herself and sprinting toward the narrow path that cut through the thicket of woods.
“You can’t leave yet, Elisa!”
Screaming, she tripped over a root, bit her lip hard, and nearly tumbled before she caught herself. Lungs filling and refilling with a wheeze, she hurried faster and faster down the path toward Warner Park’s main road.
“You won’t get away from me, Elisa. I know the woods too well.” Jogging now under the light of the full moon, it was easy to follow Elisa’s panicked footsteps thundering down the path.
“Wondering where the road is, Elisa?”
Branches cracked and snapped, fusing with her cries and prayers. “I know you’re wondering where we are in the park. Let’s see, we drove up that main road just a half hour ago and parked in the lot before I kissed you on those lush lips and led you to the entrance of the woods. Thirty minutes ago, excitement and anticipation tingled your skin as you gave me just a peek at those panties and bra you bought just for me.”
“Leave me alone! I don’t want to do this anymore.” She sobbed, sucking in her breath as she raced faster.
“You aren’t scared, are you? You know I would never hurt you. This is supposed to be fun for both of us. I want you so bad, baby.”
As night squeezed the last of twilight from the trail, tree branches and briars reached out like specters. Their thoughts rejoined this time as hunter and prey. The roar of a truck engine told them both the road was close. A yelp escaped Elisa’s lips as she ran faster. She was calculating the distance to the road. Could she catch the attention of a driver? Would she be saved from the nightmare that had ensnared her?
Elisa could flag down a car and then, in a blink, she would escape. And the plans would be ruined. That wouldn’t work at all.
“Elisa!” Her name sounded twisted as the dark bent branches. “Elisa! Don’t be afraid of me. I don’t want to hurt you! I want you, baby.”
The woods grew silent, swallowing up the little fawn, who was, no doubt, clenching her mouth shut and swallowing her cries.
Ahead, a fallen log lay across the path, and to the right its large rotted stump was circled by a pile of thick branches. Had she burrowed those purple nails into the dirt, clawing and scraping and hoping the earth would swallow her up?
In the center of the path lay a shoe. It belonged to Elisa. She was close, hiding in the thicket. “Elisa, come out, come out, wherever you are. I won’t hurt you, baby. You can run, but you can’t hide forever.”
A twig broke. Leaves rustled. Another car raced down the road, chased out of the park by the darkness. Time stilled, sharpening all the senses. The hunter noticed the cracked branches beside the path and the freshly trampled path. And then Elisa’s soft, soft whimpers echoed in the darkness. The sound led down the path to a pale foot peeking out from under a log.
Five fast footsteps and the hunter grabbed her ankle as Elisa dug her fingers into the dirt, fighting to stay burrowed in her hiding spot. The will to live gave her strength.
“I don’t want to do this anymore. I want to go home,” she screamed.
Fingers bit into her skin, tearing the flesh, yanking her free of her sanctuary. “Got to finish what you started, baby. Got to finish it.”
She drew in a breath, but fisted fingers smashed against her jaw. She crumpled to the dirt, stunned.
Hoisting her wasn’t so difficult, nor was it hard to carry her back through the woods to the entrance of a small cave, which had been their ultimate destination since the first day they met.
Elisa fell to the cave’s floor with a hard thud. “Please, just let me go. I won’t tell.”
“I know you won’t tell.”
