CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO #2
He was quiet for so long, but I felt his slow approach as the seconds ticked by. My body didn’t tighten. I felt as relaxed as ever. Euphoric even. Knowing how this was going to end. I embraced the surrender. I looked up once more at the sky, entranced.
“What a beautiful day,” I whispered with awe.
The words had hardly left my mouth when my body was violently thrown to the cool ground.
I landed face first and immediately thrashed at his grip.
He was over me, everywhere, his hand in my hair, pressing my face into the earth.
For several seconds, I couldn’t breathe as he soundlessly contained me.
The silence was the most terrifying part of his assault.
Because I could picture him so vividly in my mind’s eye.
Could feel the coldness emanating from him as he blankly looked down at me, suffocating me.
Then he turned me over, and I gasped for air, but only for a moment because his hands wrapped around my throat, squeezing. The darkening sky was obstructed by him as he came forward, his nose bumping mine.
“I like this,” he hissed. “Every time you act out, Daisy, it breaks through the monotony. It makes me feel alive.” His voice broke into a growl. “But you’re not supposed to push me so hard I want to draw blood.”
He let go of my neck, but the relief lasted only a second. His hand closed around my jaw and drove the side of my face into the ground. Pain burst through my cheek. When he pulled me back, he struck me across the mouth. My lip split against my teeth, and the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth.
I thrashed beneath him, but he pinned me harder. He leaned close enough to speak against my ear, his cheek brushing the blood at the corner of my mouth. When he lifted his head, a red streak marked his skin. He saw me looking at it and laughed.
“You… sick… fuck,” I forced between pants. “You fucking monster…”
His laugh deepened as he came back over me, that streak of blood on his face made him look insane. “I could kill you,” he said. “It would be so easy, Daisy. So perfect. I could end you right now and it would hardly take effort. How could you think you’re my weakness?”
I looked at him, my eyes full of loathing. “Because I already won.”
His eyes twinkled with amusement. “Did you?”
I nodded, tasting blood on my tongue. “Uh-huh.”
He pressed my nose like it was a button, and then slapped my cheek so hard, my whole face whipped to the side. “Adorable, Daisy.”
I felt my being shake, the vibrations delightful against the pain. I laughed so hard, my tears of agony were replaced with joy. “Professor Black committed suicide.”
“What did you just say?” he growled.
I could hardly catch my breath as I looked up at the swaying leaves.
“His wife left him. He made it very clear about that in his personal notes. She took everything of hers and fled, and he doesn’t know where she went.
He’s facing ruin because a student got the best of him.
He escaped to his cabin, depressed and broken, to take his final breaths, surrounded by the faceless dead he put in the ground. ”
His hand jumped to my jaw. He forced my head down to look at him. He stared at me for several moments, nostrils flaring. “You’ve gone crazy.”
I raised my head, giving him my full attention, as I whispered, “I thank you for showing me what I’m capable of, Professor Black. Now tell me, is the world starting to spin? Has the pain in your stomach gotten worse? Do you still have movement in your limbs?”
His brows came together slowly, his intense stare dancing from eye to eye, searching for a bluff. Some kind of lunacy in my expression that told him I’d lost the plot. But he found nothing but satisfaction staring back at him.
“You didn’t,” he whispered tightly, his voice full of hope.
I leaned closer and lapped my blood off the side of his stunned face, cleaning it off him. “Didn’t I?”
I watched him closely as he absorbed my words.
His eyes were growing cloudier. He tensed slightly, and I knew it was from the pain building in his gut.
In an instant, his shock morphed into rage.
He grabbed at me suddenly, and I let him.
He forced me back down to the ground and choked me, hard and ruthlessly, his crazed eyes full of determination.
If he was going to die, he was going to take me with him. I thrashed beneath him, though deep inside, I didn’t mind dying. Because I knew he would be dead too. He couldn’t harm another soul again. And I felt such pride at that, even on the cusp of death.
Just as my vision began to spot again, he let out a sharp yelp and the grip around my throat loosened. His body collapsed over mine. I immediately kicked out beneath him and scrambled backward, even as his hand reached out to run along the length of me, desperate to grab at me.