16. The Gift
Chapter 16
The Gift
I feel Toothless’ wet tongue against my still face, and it has me swatting at him from below the cumbersome covers, as he whines loudly to be let out to pee. For a moment, I freeze, a thought entering my mind like a lightning bolt. I can move; nothing is restraining me. I wiggle my toes and rotate my ankles, all of them moving in time with my mind’s command.
Was it all a nightmare? Did any of that truly happen? It’s not possible. I’m just slowly losing my mind. I blame all the hours I’ve been working, and all the stress of constantly trying to figure out how I am going to survive. I push my hair away from my face and rub my tired eyes. I feel like I’ve been up all night, and the horrifying dream I had didn’t help. Jesus fuck, get it together, Chrissy! We have to be up soon and at the diner shortly.
I shift my body, a feeling of soreness, and fullness, in my core causing a gasp to vacate my lips. Did I masturbate in my inebriated state last night? The sound must frighten Toothless, because the fearsome giant hound slides back and barks at me, as if I might be a threat to him. I’m just about to force my body out of bed when something shiny catches the corner of my eye, and has all the breath stalling inside of my chest. What the fuck is that? Is that a blade? Panic settles inside of me and has me darting from the bed with a screech, and when I do, my pink vibrator drops from between my legs to my bedroom floor with a heavy thud. Toothless darts forward towards it, and I have to dive for the bloody thing to keep him away from it, and from thinking it’s something he can chew on. “No, Toothless, yuck. Don’t lick that!”
I grab the warm vibrator and stare at it, with not only awe, but foreboding. All of that was real; everything that happened to me last night actually really occurred? I thought I was tripping on Daisy’s weed, and the half a bottle of wine from the anonymous crates I guzzled before I went to bed. I search through my room, racing to the window and yanking up the old blinds to check the window. The glaring sunlight hurts my eyes, and I squint at the frame that is firmly shut. I spin around, pulling back the comforter, and stare at the stain on my sheets, realizing parts of it are still damp. My legs tremble, and threaten to have me collapsing to my bedroom floor, as I grasp onto my dresser for support, and get entangled in all the clothes I have haphazardly everywhere.
“No, no, no, no, this can’t be happening,” I whisper, as my hands shake with the forgotten vibrator still clutched tightly in my grip.
Toothless’ barking and whining pulls me from my disbelieving thoughts. I drop the vibrator back on my bed as if the pink phallus burnt me, and race across the room, needing to get far away from the space where something unquestionable, and inconceivable, happened to me last night. Is it possible I hallucinated the whole thing, or did it all to myself? I’ve been watching too much unhinged porn. How do I explain the blade though? As I race from the room, cold sweat erupts all over my body, and my ass stings. I come to a thundering halt in the hallway, and lift the back of my nightshirt and get a glimpse of my ass, covered in small cuts, and dried blood. Jesus fuck, not a dream. There is no way I did that to myself.
I don’t have time to think clearly. I can hear Toothless barking at the back door, demanding to be let outside. As I cross to head into the kitchen, I almost collide with a half-asleep Daisy, coming out of the bathroom in nothing but a pair of green panties. “Daisy, fuck, put some damn clothes on, before one of the neighbors gets a glimpse of you through the windows.”
“Ugh, they’re just titties, Chris. No big deal, and if they want a closer look, they can come check me out any night of the week at the club,” she yawns and pushes past me to the fridge.
I roll my eyes at her antics and release a frantic Toothless into the yard, before he leaves a puddle on our kitchen floor, or breaks through the door. “Did you hear any noises last night? Anything suspicious happen in the middle of the night?” I bite my bottom lip, fear racing through my veins as I wait for her to respond, and shuffle side to side uncomfortably as my sore core clenches, and my full bladder demands relief. Surely, if all of that happened, she would have heard something, right? What about Toothless? If a strange man had broken into our home and came to accost me, there is no way that he wouldn’t have attacked him. He’s completely loyal, and protective of both Daisy and me.
“Girl, I have never had a better night’s sleep. I slept like a damn log.” She pulls our newly gifted eggs and bread out of the fridge, and gets to work on making breakfast. I begin to really consider that I have lost my ever-loving mind until she goes to pull her hair up into a messy bun, and I get a glimpse of her neck. There’s a small bruise forming right where her pulse throbs, and I shift forward, grab her jaw and force her to tilt her head to the side, so I can get a better look, as she releases a surprised gasp. In the bright daylight streaming through the window, I can see a faint prick mark right in the center of the bruise. Shit, someone drugged her, probably the same asshole that drugged me. Did he touch her too? How did he get past Toothless? Did he drug my dog too? Oh my God, what kind of psycho drugs a dog? Somehow, the thought of him drugging Toothless enrages me more than him doing it to me or Daisy.
“I’m going to ask you something messed up right now, and I know I’m about to sound like I have lost my damn mind, but I need you to answer me truthfully. Please , Daisy, it’s important.”
“Shit, girl, you are scaring me. What the hell is going on?” Her blue eyes stare into mine with concern, the food forgotten, as I contemplate how to phrase what I need to ask her without sounding like a complete basket case.
“Did you wake up feeling like someone had touched you, especially your vagina? Was anything inside of you when you got up this morning?” I raise my hand at her look of stupefaction. “I know I sound insane right now, but I’m positive someone was in our house last night and drugged us. I... I woke up with my dildo inside of me, and I wasn’t the one to put it in there. Plus, I have cuts on my ass, and a blade was on the bed next to me. I didn’t cut myself, Daisy.”
She blinks a couple of times, like she’s not quite seeing me, or able to process the unhinged words leaving my lips. Her mouth opens and closes, then opens again. “How much of my weed did you smoke last night? Girl, I think you went on a bad trip. I’m going to kill Tyler if he laced that shit with something.”
Frustration courses through me, and battles with the fear that is snaking up each of my limbs. She doesn’t believe me, but I know I’m not wrong about this. Someone was here last night; they did something to me to ensure I couldn’t move, couldn’t fight them off, and used me for their pleasure. Maybe it’s best if she doesn’t remember; what if he hurt her too? I shrug my shoulder and step away from her. “Yeah, maybe it was the weed or the wine. I must be trippin’.” I go to open the door for Toothless, and an image of black eyes and a skull mask enters my mind. It’s so vivid and realistic that it has my breath catching, causing me to choke, and forcing me into a coughing fit.
I force myself to make coffee, and all the while, images from last night race through my mind. I relive every moment, every touch, every depraved word that he uttered to me, as if it was happening in technicolor in my mind. It plays out like some fucked up porn movie that I starred unwittingly in. All the while, this psychotic asshole played with my mind, and my body, and made me orgasm again and again under his ministrations. Just as I’m about to argue with Daisy, taking back my words about the drugs, and instead insist that we both head to the hospital to get tested, or file a police report, his words come back to me.
“I know what you’re thinking, sweet temptation. You believe the minute this wears off that you’ll go to the cops and report me, but here’s the thing, pretty girl, you won’t. We both know that you enjoyed that. That it’s what you want, deep inside in the secret places you hide from the rest of the world, because you fear others will judge you, if they only knew how depraved you are.”
I can feel the ghost-like sensation of his cum on my lower back, the warm stickiness, coupled with the harsh stinging from the combination of his sweat and mine, on my ass against the cuts he made with his blade. The same blade that is still in my room. The sensation of his thick, long fingers stroking my hair as his intense black eyes, and the frightening skull mask, stare back at me as I lay there, unable to move or speak. My core clenches again, and I feel wetness dripping out of me. What the hell is wrong with me?
“I will never judge you for any of those needs, my sweet temptation. You belong to me now, and I protect what is mine. You can’t escape me, Chrissy, and if you try, I will murder your friend Daisy, and anyone else you care about, including that fucking beast, Toothless.”
Oh my God, he threatened to murder Daisy and Toothless. This psychopath believes I belong to him. What the hell am I going to do? I have no idea who this could be. He could be anyone, and we are all in danger.
“I will never let you go, and you won’t want me to, soon enough. I am what your heart desires, the monster you call out to, and beg to come and save you. I am as much a part of you as you are of me.”
His final words have my legs finally caving, and I have to grip the rickety kitchen table to prevent myself from falling to the ground. Toothless comes over and licks at my hand, a whine leaving his lips as he senses my distressed state. Daisy looks over at me with concern and brings me a glass of water. She thinks I’m still on a bad trip; she doesn’t realize how close we both came to dying last night in our beds. What’s to stop him from doing it again tonight?
What’s to stop him from fucking me and carving me into little pieces? A part of me wants to run screaming from this house with Daisy and Toothless. The need to run is visceral, but so is the dark desire that is pooling in my stomach, and running through my veins. His words keep replaying over and over in my head.
“I am what your heart desires, the monster you call out to and beg to come and save you. I am as much a part of you as you are of me.”
Is it possible that he’s right? I do have a bunch of dark and depraved fantasies, ones I hide from everyone but myself. Did I summon this man into my life with all my dark cravings? Is it possible that he’s just living out the fabrications my perverse mind has conjured up? Do I really want to stop him from coming back?
All these thoughts race through my mind as I try to reassure Daisy that I’m fine, and as I get ready for my shift at the diner. Only one thought keeps relentlessly circling through my mind: Do I know him? My mystery man, who went to extremes last night to recreate one of my recurring fantasies. The mask he wore ensured that he could be anyone, and I wouldn’t be able to tell if he was right next to me in public.
This can’t be a stranger; it has to be someone I know. Someone with intimate knowledge about my darkest desires, the question is who?