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Something acrid stung her nostrils as he took her into the house, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw a black tendril of smoke.
Kimberly caught her foot on one of the rickety wooden steps and went down to her knees again. She felt the Velcro-like sensation of several chunks of her hair tear free of her scalp when he shoved her onto the porch and into the door. Her hands didn’t come up in time, and her skull made a crack as it connected, while the pain in her head swelled viciously. She vomited onto the dried-out planks, and he kicked her in the stomach while she did. The sick flew across the porch like putrid confetti, and the sadistic monster behind her laughed.
“Look at the range you got!” he goaded. “You wanna see if you can top yer record?” He reared his boot back to strike a second time, and Kimberly cowered into the door behind her to curl up in the tightest ball she could manage. He didn’t kick though; instead; he opened the door, and Kimberly tumbled backward into the musty room.
All thought evaporated then. He’d gotten her into the house, the house where there were chains and whips and torture devices hanging from every wall. Kimberly started screaming. It split her head into bloody fragments, but she was not going to go quietly into this fucking night. She kicked out when he swung a leg at her, and kept screaming as she rolled away and tried to scramble to her feet. He was on her in seconds and had his meaty hands manacled around her throat, cutting off her screams and breathing both.
Kimberly’s hands went to his. Her nails scraped and dug, but he only squeezed harder and shook her aching head until she thought she was going to vomit again.
He stood to his full height, bringing her with him, and kept pulling until Kimberly had to lift to her toes in order to keep him from ripping off her head.
“Look whatchu did, dammit.”
Kimberly heard hoarse cries from above, and her heart clenched. Whoever that was sounded as terrified as Kimberly felt.
“Now, I gotta go up there and deal with that shit. Fucking slut’s more trouble than she’s worth; I swear to God,” he grumbled and shoved Kimberly roughly to the center of the room. She told herself to fight, told herself not to let him get her anywhere near a restraint, but the man was huge and strong as an ox. Kimberly felt useless as a child as she struggled against him.
One of his hands tightened unbearably on her neck, and his fingers curled around her windpipe. Kimberly was sure he was trying to tear the thing right off her. His nails curled in, punctured her skin, and her chest burned with choked-off screams. Leviathan released his other hand, and the next thing she knew, he snapped a lock onto her collar, and a fucking hood was shoved over her head. The chain on her collar tightened with a metallic zing and click, then Leviathan stood back from her with a satisfied laugh.
“Ha! There ya go. Nice of them boys to leave yer collar on. Comes in real handy. Shame ‘bout the hood, but we don’t really need yer face,” he told her disparagingly. “It’s already banged up now anyway. But I tell you what—maybe you start behaving, we’ll take the hood off and let you see what’s goin’ on.”
Kimberly couldn’t see. She didn’t know what was more terrifying to her right now, the loss of sight or the fact that his hand was gone but she still found it difficult to draw breath. It was like she was trying to breathe through a straw, and the lack of oxygen made her head spin and unconsciousness threaten. She fucking had to keep her wits. Her fingerprint opened this collar too, so yeah, she thought, she’d have to agree—that’s gonna come in mighty handy.
If she could keep the bastard from tying up her hands.
The stench of smoke got stronger, and Kimberly felt a whole new fear take root.
“Smoke!” Her voice was a witch’s craw. “I smell smoke! F-fire? Fire!”
“Probably just some asshole burnin’ they trash.” He was completely unconcerned. He snagged one of her wrists, and she started sobbing, punching at him with her other until his booted foot came down hard on her bare one. The shocking pain paralyzed her long enough for him to get her wrist secured.
Then he froze, and she heard horror inhisvoice, and nothing had ever frightened her more. “Oh shit!Fire!” he shouted in her ear as if she hadn’t just told him that. Then he shoved her into the wall and took off in thunderous boot clomps of cowardice.
God, where was the cavalry?
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
Dean tookan army boot dangerously close to the groin and grunted at the painful hit to his thigh. They had the fucker on his back, but he fought like a man possessed. Dean finally managed to land a few gut shots and secure his legs long enough for Sam to rear back and nail the snarling madman in the jaw. It took two more just like it before the guy lost it enough for Dean to cuff him.
Unbelievably, the asshole started laughing again and lifted his hands to his chest in a classic sign of surrender.
“Shit, man, shit.” He spat, struggled to sit up as Dean and Sammy eased back a little. “Okay already. Damn. You win, all right? Good enough. Fuck. Fucking assholes.” He spat again, a huge, nasty glob, then glared from one of them to the other. “We wasn’t gonna hurt her bad or nothin’. We was only gonna fuck around some and bring her right back when we were done. Plus, I was even gonna roofie her, so she’d enjoy it and not bitch about it after.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Dean knew though; he looked at Sam and saw they both knew. What had he said when he’d come up on Dean? That he was early and Leviathan wasn’t even back yet. Dean pulled his gun and had it pressed to the creep’s nose in a blink.
“Shit, man,” Grunge complained as blood started flowing, “I told you! I give! I give! You can have her back! We were just fuckin’ around.”
“On your feet, you worthless bag of shit.” Sam yanked him up by the scruff as soon as Dean eased back, then kept a hold on the rabid fucker as they made for the cabin as fast as they could drag the man. These assholes had Kimberly.
As soon as she heard a door banging on its hinges, Kimberly used her free hand to release the collar. When she managed it, she fell to her knees hard. She tore the hood from her face and wretched at the burning smoke that was filling the room. She could hear the crackle of flames now, and renewed panic had her struggling to her knees and reaching for her captured hand with her free one.
The woman trapped upstairs was still calling hoarsely, hopelessly for help, and Kimberly was ready to gnaw her own hand off by the time she managed to get free. She wanted to call out to her, reassure that help was coming, but her damaged throat was burning even more now in the smoke-clogged air.
The front of the house was already engulfed in flames. She could see the bright orange and angry reds through the closed curtains. Kimberly looked frantically for another way out and saw the busted back door Leviathan must’ve gone through. No sign of fire out that way. She didn’t stop to think about her own chances of getting back out if she went in search of that terrified woman; she only thought the other would have none without help. The cabin was an old, rotted thing and was going to go up like a box of popsicle sticks, she thought in horror. In the middle of the California woods in the middle of summer too. Kimberly pushed harder and clamored up the stairs on all fours when her spinning head drove her into the wall.
“I’m coming!” she croaked, but even she couldn’t hear herself and just pushed harder.
Dean saw the flames seconds after he smelled the smoke, and a fear like he’d never known grabbed him by the throat. “Kimberly!”He and Sam were cut off from the cabin by a wall of flames; they couldn’t even see the house.
