41. Sam
Sam
Muffled screams stay trapped behind the duct tape across my mouth as I’m jostled around over someone’s shoulders.
My wrists and ankles are bound, and I have a blindfold on.
The crunching of twigs and leaves tells me we are in the woods.
I’m just not sure what one. Who in the fuck would want to kidnap me?
For one, I’m dating a cop. Two, I’m not that interesting.
I flail like a fish out of water and beat against their back and ass with my fist, screaming as loudly as possible, hoping I can make enough “Mmm…” sounds that someone can hear me.
Kioni is probably already aware that I’m missing, right?
Please, baby. I need my overprotective, obsessed stalker right about now.
The person carrying me dips to the ground and then rises too quickly for me to try…
I don’t know…falling off him and rolling away.
My back and head slams against something hard, and by the texture, I’m assuming it’s a tree.
The only thing I can do is wriggle to make whatever they are doing more difficult.
They grab my wrists, shoving them above me, and something cool is pressed to the palm of my hand.
Pain sears through my flesh.
Red.
Red.
Red…I scream against the barrier trapping my voice.
They free my other hand, and I hit whatever I can before they shove it above me too.
More pain brings tears rushing down my face.
The harder I try to pull my hands free, the worse the pain gets.
Hot liquid drips down the palms of my hands, and I know it’s blood.
Everything in me is telling me to fight, but it hurts too much.
I’m…trapped.
The covering around my eyes is removed, and the glowing mask I saw in the window appears again.
It’s just like Kioni’s, but it’s not hers.
I’ve come to know her body and her scent.
It’s woodsy with a subtle floral undertone.
When she acted as Shadow, she covered it up with leather and campfire-like smoke to disguise herself from me.
This person smells like body odor and a car freshener.
Fear claws into me when I see the nail gun.
That’s what he used on my hands. A deep chuckle reverberates through him as he trails the tip of it through my tears, and I squeeze my eyes closed.
“No more running, sweet pea.,” he taunts with such dark, twisted humor in his voice.
It’s Tyler. It’s fucking Tyler! I plead with him with my eyes.
Begging him to tell me why he’s doing this to me.
And then I remember his finger in the gift box.
No, no, no. I didn’t ask her to do that.
He lifts the mask, tugging it back to reveal himself, a devilish smirk plastered across his face.
He takes a deep breath and sighs happily, as if he had just stuck his toes into the sand at the beach.
“You know, sweet pea, none of the other girls enjoy the chase like you did. They scream and cry and then run to the fucking police, traumatized afterwards. I finally found a woman who actually enjoyed being used. A little pet for the monster that lives in here.” He taps the side of his head with the nail gun.
“But you had to up and leave me. Guess what happened when I couldn’t find you anymore? ”
More tears fall. Did I do this to him? Did I create the monster he speaks of? Or was I the only one dumb enough not to see who he was?
“I found another little slut. I wore the mask, chased her like I did you, but when I caught her, she screamed. So I had to silence her. Have you ever used blood as lube?”
I wince when I attempt to pull my hands free again. The realization of what he plans to do to me sends a shiver down my spine, and dread settles in the pit of my stomach.
“It’s fucking euphoric,” he replies, licking the tears from my cheek and groaning in my ear.
My stomach churns, but if I vomit, I’ll suffocate.
“I was getting along just fine without you to calm the beast. Each new girl became more exhilarating that the last.” He chuckles as if a memory flashes through his mind.
“You wouldn’t believe the orgasm you get when you suffocate someone with your dick and come down their throat postmortem. I have an addiction, sweet pea.”
He sets the nail gun down and pulls out a knife, flicking it open, as I writhe in agony, my flesh tearing against the nails in my hands.
He trails the blade over my sports bra, taunting me, before cutting it off.
He sucks a nipple into his mouth when my breasts are free and bile rises in my throat.
It’s useless trying to blink back my tears.
RED.
My breath stutters as he trails the tip of the blade down my stomach to the waistband of my leggings. “As scared as you look, I bet you’re still soaked. You’re just as deranged as I am.” His voice makes me sick.
I’m nothing like you.
“I never thought I’d see you again. To be honest, I stopped looking for you after the next girl came along.
Until someone showed up at my house, knocked me unconscious, tied me up, and cut off my fucking finger, and the 911 call I accidentally heard was from none other than you.
It was a happy accident, actually. I was monitoring closely just in case someone found where I’ve been disposing of the bodies.
And then—” He pulls my leggings roughly down my legs, kneeling in front of me.
“The thought of fucking your deranged cunt while slitting your throat and pinning it on your girlfriend made me so fucking hard I couldn’t see straight. ”
That’s why he wore that mask and dressed like her.
“It was also a happy accident that I was in the woods when she took her mask off, revealing who she was. You ran from me, but she followed you. Lost one psycho just to gain another. How ironic. I have it all on camera, and the police will love it. Even if she can prove herself innocent, it will still be a stain on her reputation and entertaining for me while it lasts. Unless…” He pulls my panties away from my body and cuts my waistband on either side, then tugs the scraps away, leaving me bare to him with his face hovering next to my crotch.
“I take the tape off your mouth and you stay quiet while I fuck you. If you do as you’re told, she will mourn her dead girlfriend.
If you scream, I’ll send the video to the police, and she will be framed for murder.
By the time she figures out where you are, it will be too late, no matter what you choose. Nobody will ever look here.”
I glare at him, my nostrils flaring with each heavy breath. She will find me and she will fucking kill you for touching what belongs to her.
He taps the blade against my mound, “ticktock, sweat pea.”
My hands would tear open from the weight of my body if I try to kick him.
I don’t—I don’t know what to do. A wicked grin forms on his face as he spreads my lips apart and licks my clit.
It’s a reaction I can’t control. With a scream, I push off the ground, bringing my knees up.
The force was not strong enough to push him away, but enough to unlatch his mouth from me.
My hands. They hurt so bad.
“You taste exquisite when your life is about to end.” He rises from the ground, crowding me. “What’s it going to be? Mourning or Murder?”
His face his blurry behind the tears. I stay submissive, letting him dip his finger inside me. He rests his forehead against mine, and I flinch.
Red. I whisper into the void.
The tape feels as though it’s ripping the skin from my face.
My tears should have loosened it some by now.
Inhaling a discrete full breath, I scream the second my lips are no longer caged.
My mouth is still open when his hand slams into me.
Silencing my voice once more. I clamp down with all my might.
Showing him my fangs. I’m not his pet. I’m her little wolf.
Acid burns my throat the more his hot blood overloads my taste buds.
He clenched his jaw, a scream bubbling up in his throat.
My head snaps to the side when he pulls free and backhands me across the face.
Blood spews from my mouth and the tape doesn’t stick as well when he puts it back on, but it keeps my teeth away from his slippery flesh.
Blood trickles from his fingers onto my breasts.
I keep screaming. When he grips under my knee to pull my legs up, I do everything in my power to force them down.
The only time I think having my ankles restrained will ever be in my favor.
All the while I keep screaming. I will not make this easy for him.
My girlfriend is coming. And then he will be sorry.
“Keep fighting,” he snaps. “It’s only making me harder.”
His hand keeps my head pinned to the tree, but I can tell by the movements that he is unzipping his pants.
I squeeze my thighs together, and when he can’t easily push in between, he lets out a frustrated growl, squeezing my face harder.
It’s not so easy doing this one-handed, huh, psycho?
He squats, wrapping his arm under both of my knees, and lifts, forcing my knees to my chest and giving him the access he wanted.
“Maybe I shouldn’t kill you. Maybe I should keep you chained up in my basement so we can do this every fucking night.” His dick slides against me, but doesn’t penetrate. He has no free hand now to grip his length and guide it inside.
Bending his knees to get better access, his tip nudges my entrance and I thrash violently, pushing my legs down.
It only makes him push back harder. My eyes widen when he lines himself up and prepares to thrust. I don’t know if I’m screaming or if I’m bawling.
Maybe it’s both. But before he can force himself inside, a shadow crashes into him, and he’s gone.
My legs fall, and with the force, my body tugs against the nails.
I pinch my eyes closed at the jolt of pain but force them open to search for the commotion.
A sob of relief wracks my body when my eyes land on Nyx.
My baby girl. She’s here. She’s here, and she’s shaking Tyler like a rag doll while he screams. Only his screams are those of certain death.
Mine never was. I whip my gaze toward the sound of footsteps, and my entire body relaxes at the sight of Kioni.
I told you she was coming.
Her gaze meets mine momentarily before shifting to Nyx and Tyler. She runs to them, and then I see it, and my heart stops. Tyler stretches his fingers out, grabbing the knife he had dropped. I scream behind the bloody tape.
“Release, Nyx,” Kioni screams, and for the first time, she listens to her, and three rapid gunshots ring through the night.
My eyes frantically search Nyx for any injuries that I didn’t even feel Ryker pull up my leggings and is now wrapping his shirt around my chest. Kioni rushes to me, searching my body the way I was Nyx.
She grips the tape around my mouth, and I nod. It comes off more easily this time.
“I’m so fucking sorry it took me so long.” She’s trembling as much as her voice.
“I knew you were coming and you’re here.”
“If it hadn’t been for her, I wouldn’t have found you. I owe her my damn life.”
We both look at Nyx standing next to us, whining up at me. I wish I could pet her, but Kioni does for me.
“You’re such a good girl, Nyxie baby,” I praise, my voice hoarse from screaming.
Kioni’s fingers tremble against mine as she studies the nail in my palm. “I can’t get you down, love. We have to wait for the paramedics.” Her voice cracks, and I wish I could hold her. “Ryker called for them the second Nyx bolted back here. They should be here any minute.”
A humorless laugh escapes me. “We are in the woods behind my house, aren’t we?”
She clenches her jaw and gives me a quick nod.
That’s why he said nobody would ever look here.
“I love you,” I tell her, and a tear cascades down her nose.
“I love you, too. So fucking much.”
Her hand cups my cheek, and she gently rubs her thumb back and forth in soothing motions.
“Nothing in this life matters if you are not in it. You are everything, Sam. My life, my oxygen, my heart, my joy, everything is tethered to you. You’ve marked me so deeply, I wouldn’t survive even a second without you. ”
Her lips find mine in a slow, gentle kiss.
Sirens and lights blare just outside the treeline.
They must have driven through my backyard.
Ryker leads them to us and then steps behind Ki, wrapping his arms around her while they free my hands.
Her fingers go to her lips, covering her mouth when I show pain.
It’s hurting her as much as it’s hurting me.
Her other hand holds Nyx’s leash. She’s panicking watching people so close to her mommy and whines each time I hiss.
They leave the nails in to be removed at the hospital.
“I’ll carry her,” Ki rushes out, slipping between the paramedics and carefully scooping me into her arms.
Police presence is heavy now, and cars are everywhere.
Kioni and Ryker refuse to stay behind, driving me themselves to the hospital while I remain in Ki’s arms with Nyx in the backseat.
She doesn’t ask me any questions. She just holds me close and keeps kissing my forehead, reassuring herself that I’m here.
My girls saved me.