Strong Enough (5 page)

A firm grip on my upper right arm stopped me
in my tracks. His grip tightened causing me to wince in pain.
Opening my mouth to yell, his hand clasped down on my mouth as his
fingers dug into my cheek while he pushed backwards.
SMACK!
Right into the brick. My head
is spinning from the pain, and my eyes are closed tightly.
Jesus Christ that hurt
. I open my
eyes and try to focus on his face. I can feel the warmth of the
blood trickling down my skull and my neck. It is an effort to keep
focused. His face is blurring in and out. His lips are moving, but
I can’t hear what he is saying. He is getting angrier I can see it
in his eyes.

“….are, fucking bitch, you think you can
just turn and walk away from me? You think I’m not worth your time?
Where is your protector now you fucking bit…” He said with an eerie
calmness as he slammed me back into the brick wall. My head bounced
off the brick again. The back of my head is throbbing, and I can’t
focus as my vision is blurred. I tried to gather my thoughts to
talk to him, hoping that I could somehow calm him down. My attempt
was futile as I opened my mouth and nothing came out.

With my eyes, I looked at him with a plea
for him to stop. His gaze changed from anger to lust. The whites of
his eyes grew smaller as the green of his eyes grew bigger. His
grip on my arms lifted just a bit, as he now had me pressed firmly
into the wall. I could smell his whiskey breath as he leaned closer
to me. He drew a long sniff of my perfume from the base of my neck
up to my ear. Pausing he pushed in closer to me. “You smell good
enough to eat” was all I heard before his lips were on my neck. I
pulled my head further away from him as he attempted to kiss up and
down me in a feverish way. My stomach was starting to turn in
disgust. My chance was now. As his face was still pressed to my
neck, I lifted my right knee and swung forward trying to connect
with his manhood. His hand landed right at the end of my knee
knocking it down.

“Apparently you don’t seem to realize I am
more aware of you than you think.”
POP!
My body shook and I began to slide.
What just happened
. My knees began
to give. Two extra sets of hands grabbed me before I hit the
ground.

“Dude, what are you going to do now? She
can’t even stand. Bro, you punched her like a dude that was
awesome.”

“Holy Shit, what do we do with her now, if
we leave her here someone will see us.” It was all muffled although
they are standing right here. I’m attempting to open my eyes, but
the swelling has already set in.

Using all the force I have I pushed outward
with both arms trying to break free. A fist connects with my
stomach and causes me to hunch over then another punch to the same
spot. I gasp for breath as the cold wet wind burns my lungs. My
knees connect with the ground, and I am being held up underneath my
arms. Each breath I take causes me to wince from the pain and all I
can see is darkness, and it seems so calming.

Cold leather pressed against my skin is
beneath me now. I don’t know for sure where I am. Still barely able
to move, I can tell I am about to lose consciousness again. The
seat shifts to the left of me and then to the right all around my
body. I feel heaviness over me almost like darkness is hanging over
me and pressing down on my chest. I attempt to breathe when I catch
a whiff of his cologne. I can pick out the lemon and lavender mixed
with citrus. I know this smell, but where do I know this smell? The
touch of a hand on my thigh pulls me back to the present. A hand is
running up and down my thigh and curving over to my hip. “Mmmmm do
you know how fucking hot you are?” Broke the silence. His voice
deep and one I don’t recognize. “I watched you all night, bending
over that table with your ass in the air teasing me. You knew what
you were doing. You knew you were making me hard.” His voice full
of lust and demand. I attempted to speak but his hand quickly
covered my mouth. Unable to open my eyes, I was still helpless,
hopeless, defenseless. His free hand traveled up my left arm and
back down across my t-shirt. Somehow I lost my jacket. It just
registered with me how cold I was. I’m not sure if it’s from the
weather or from the chills I am getting from the groping going on.
His hand rests on the button to my jeans and the bottom of my
t-shirt. I can feel him playing with the button but not trying hard
to unbutton it.
Wish I was wearing button fly
jeans right now
. “You don’t have to worry sweetheart, I
am going to make you feel so good.” Hearing these words increased
the panic. I attempted to scream but his hand still covered my
mouth and was clenching down so hard I could feel his fingers
digging into the skin of my cheeks. I could tell he was gritting
his teeth as I heard his breath passing his lips with force. As his
hand slides down the top of my jeans and pry’s its way between my
legs, my thoughts drift.

I can see Adam when we were 15. Sitting on the swing
set in the park behind my house on base. Both hands holding on to
the swing as his head is bowed. His dark blond hair is falling in
his eyes as he tilts his head toward me just past the chains of the
swing and just smiles. All I can see is his smile, his sweet,
innocent and full of joy smile, but now he is starting to fade, and
I can barely make out him sitting on the swing. I’m being pulled
back to the present.

The pain is immense and I can’t move. My chest is
tight. I’m trying to cry but nothing is coming out and I’m having
trouble breathing. The seat shifts below me and I can hear a second
voice a bit muffled but not sure why. I’m trying to move away, to
find a way to move up the seat toward the door that I can’t see but
know has to be there.

The end of the bench gives away a bit as he
climbs off me but only for a second because it seems he is climbing
back in.
Dear Jesus, I’m so scared. Please help
me.
I pray to myself as I notice the cologne is
different as he climbs closer. “Oh Yeah, My turn”
NO! Noooo No No!
Please God
No!
Is the only thought I have before it all goes
black.

A
aaggghh
, I thought to myself,
God I hurt
. I was trying so hard to get a bearing
on where I was, but everything was blurry and out of focus. All I
could feel was pain and heaviness.

In an attempt to sit up, I slowly moved my
arm away from my body to grab the wall for balance. Sudden,
excruciating jolts of pain shot up my right arm. “AAAAAAAHHHH,” I
cried out, with no one to hear me.

In the distance I could hear scuffling and
pounding that reminded me of heavy bags of cement being thrown to
the ground. I could hear murmurs of people talking, maybe more
begging than talking.
What’s going
on?
I thought to myself.

Still trying to gain awareness of my
location, I shifted the best I could to try and sit up, trying to
block the pain as much as possible.

Leaning back, my body slumped against the
brick building wall and my hands rested on the cold cement ground.
My eyes wouldn’t open, and I was having a hard time holding my head
up.

Suddenly the little hairs on my neck stood
up as I could sense someone was coming toward me. Panic grew in my
chest as I attempted to breathe. The closer the steps came, the
more my breathing became labored and erratic, panic was setting in,
and each breath caused me to shudder from the stifling stabbing
pain in my chest.

“Who’s there? Don’t come any closer, I… I
will scream,” I managed to get out, as the footsteps increased with
urgency.

Oh my god, they are coming back for me.
Please dear God, please make them go away.

The fear that ran through my body made it
hard to breathe. I didn’t want to die this way, alone.

Just as the footsteps grew in intensity,
they stopped. I moved my head left and then right trying to see
anyone, anything. My eyes were swollen shut. The rest of my face
was swollen and my body felt like it had gone a few rounds with
Pacquiao. There was a burning aching pain between my legs. I really
just wanted to curl up and die.

I softly whispered to myself,
“
God no, no…(sniff sniff) this can’t have
happened, not again
.”

“Please, d…d…don’t hurt me anymore,” my soft
and vibrating voice let out.

I could sense someone standing over me, so
close to me. As the person hovering over me let out a mangled
breath I stiffened, confirming to myself it was a man. What was he
coming back for? Hasn’t he done enough?

“Please.” Was all the protest I could muster
as a cry.

With a deep and hard sigh, he leaned down
next to me, hovering so close but not touching me. I could feel his
heated breath close to my face. Even though the sun had been long
gone and probably closer to making a new appearance, I could feel
his shadow over my body which was acutely aware of his immense
size.

He slowly, with the most tender and gentle
effort, slid his right arm under my limp legs while simultaneously
wrapping his left arm around my back. This man was huge! I could
feel the sheer size of his arms wrapping around me and it gave me
an instant sense of calm as he pulled me close with the smoothest
of motions into his arms.

My brain was telling me to panic but my body
sensed something else from this man and melted against him. I was
able to tilt my head slightly to let it rest against his
well-defined chest that could be felt through his soft cotton
shirt.

Being 5’9, I don’t consider myself a small
girl, which made imagining the man now holding me in his arms to be
quite a statue. He would have to be to make me feel so small.

I managed to lift my left hand and rest it
in the center of his chest. His body tensed under me. My hand
splayed out pressing into him as if he was a lifeline. I couldn’t
see, but I could feel, smell and hear and I was on sensory
overload.

I rested my head just ever so slightly back
and against where my hand resided and his pec muscle flexed under
me. His hand splayed out against my back and with the gentlest of
grips pulled me closer to him. Every muscle in my body was in pain.
I let a small whimper escape my lips as I resisted trying to open
my eyes.

“Sssssshhhhhhhh, don’t try and move,” a
silky seductive southern voice spoke. The vibration of his voice
left me calm but anxious.
Mmmmm, what a sexy
voice
,
WAIT, it’s him, he’s the
voice.

Suddenly I was airborne and moving. The
jostling from his steps was causing my body to wince from the pain.
I turned my nose into his shirt and attempted a deep breath but was
only able to manage a decent sniff. He smelled seductive and fresh.
I breathed in again and got hit with a mix of grapefruit and ginger
wrapped with cedar and tobacco. His smell was intoxicating.

“You keep breathing me in like that and you
really will feel the pain in your ribs,” he said with a slight
chuckle.

Still unable to open my eyes I left my head
resting on his chest. His breathing was shallow and calm until he
felt me shift from pain and I could feel his breaths increase.

“I know it hurts, I’m going to get you help,
just hang in there with me,” he said as I felt myself start to
drift off.

I was able to lift my left hand to rest it
at the base of his neck and stretch my fingers around with a slight
grip. My thumb pressed gently against his Adams apple providing me
with his pulse to focus on, almost like a lifeline.

“Come on sweetheart, stay with me.” I heard
him say with a little bit of urgency in his voice.

I was trying hard to focus on his pulse and
stay awake, but I was being pulled into a slumber.

“What’s your name sweetheart?” He asked.

“Reece, Reece Miller,” I managed to
whisper.

Waiting for him to respond, I tried to focus
and listen. I heard him say “My name is” as the darkness surrounded
me, and I faded.