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Yeah, duh.
Did he want to have a discussion about what was true and what wasn’t? Another thing that probably wouldn’t go well for her. What would he do to punish her if she did or said something he didn’t like?
This guy needed a little truth, but what about the consequences?Roxie managed to push herself to sitting in the trunk, her hands still bound in front. The prayer so strong it nearly escaped her lips aloud.How about a rescue? I don’t know how it works to ask for help other than to just ask.
This felt a whole lot different than it had with Mark.
Maybe becauseshewas different.
Is that Your doing?Maybe God had done this in her, bringing her to a point where she could face this man with strength and peace in her heart.
Roxie sat on the edge of the trunk and swung her legs over.
He touched the stun gun to her leg. Her entire body spasmed, and she hit the ground, her face in the dirt.Breathe.She coughed. Pain exploded in her chest. She started to count silently, tuning out the world and Brad, and focusing the way she’d learned.
Something.
She was lying on something.No.She refused to be incapacitated in front of him.
Roxie pushed off the ground, got her feet under her, and stood. She turned to face him, chin up. Head high. All that. Never mind that she could barely breathe. “So here we are.” Her voice didn’t sound solid, but it was what it was.
He studied her, unsure for a second.
“What do you want, Brad?” Maybe if she got him talking, she could drag this out until help came. Or until she figured out how to escape him.
All around them was nothing but trees. The full moon above shone bright enough that she could see plenty even without another light. Giant towering trunks and pine needles were strewn over the ground from trees that had been growing here for decades. In the center of a tiny clearing, there was a cabin, old and run-down. As if it had been here for the same amount of time.
She’d have cleared away more trees in case a storm blew one down and flattened the house. Still, it seemed to have worked since the structure was still standing where it should be.
“I’m Mark.” He came toward her, lifting that stun gun.
She backed up, stumbling slightly on the uneven dirt. Pain. “Sure,Brad. You’re Mark? Funny, because I saw him burn to death. All that flickering heat melting his skin.”
His hand whipped out, and he cuffed her across the face with the back of his hand that was holding the stun gun.
She reacted only in her mind.Ouch.That had hurt a whole lot. But she managed to straighten, pushing aside everything in a way that wasn’t going to last long. “The best part was the smell.”
He came at her.
Roxie kicked her leg out, smashing it down on his leg from an angle. The world spun around her.Breathe.
His leg gave out, and he went down on one knee. “You murdered him!”
He launched at her, but she started to run before her mind even processed what the sudden rush of movement meant.
Instinct and self-preservation.And You.
She made it two steps. Then, he grabbed her leg, and she hit the ground again. Far too slow. Too weak. Too much of nothing, the way Mark had said she was. Over and over, until she’d believed it.
Roxie pushed up. More pain.
He was on her then. Grasping. Hitting.
Flashes of pain sparked in her side, gone as fast as they came. She fought for air, his weight cutting off her ability to take a full breath.God.
She tried to push up. That didn’t work. Tried to use her legs, then her bound hands. Her feet. None of it could get his weight off her.
The same way Mark had beat her. At the end, when it became the worst of all.
