SWNOVELS Fear The Reapers: Chapter 22
“No! Please! Get off of me!” My pleas fell on deaf ears as they continued to rip more fabric off of me.
“You wanted to act like a whore Stevie, I’m just giving you exactly what you wanted.” Spat Gavin, as his two masked friends continued to paw at my exposed flesh.
I stared into his eyes, silently pleading for him to stop this, but nothing but cold soulless orbs stared back at me. The Gavin I once knew wasn’t there anymore.
It was only a few months ago that he was the guy invading my dreams and here he was orchestrating my worst nightmare.
“Hurry the fuck up!” He barked, causing the foreign hands wrapped around my wrists to dig deeper into my flesh.
Surely someone would stop this. Someone would hear my screams and pull them off of me. But the more the crowd cheered, the more my hope dissipated. No one could hear us, and no one was coming to my rescue. It was the biggest football game of the year at CHU, and Gavin and his friends had somehow overpowered me and dragged me underneath the metal bleachers filled with drunk college football fans.
There once was a time when I thought that garnering Gavin’s attention was the best thing that could ever happen to me. He was charming and sweet. Not the funniest or handsomest guy on campus, but he was from a good, reputable family. The fact that he even noticed me felt like a tremendous win. I wasn’t even technically enrolled at CHU. I just helped in the library and in exchange, the school offered to let me sit in on classes during my free time. It was in one of those classes that Gavin noticed me, and for the first time, it felt like my bad luck was finally turning around.
Everything took a turn for the worse when his actual personality began to show. Slowly, Gavin’s superiority complex seeped into our relationship. He didn’t like the way I wore my hair, so I changed it. Then, he didn’t like my clothes, so I changed those. It soon got to the point where I felt like being with him was changing who I really was. So, I ended things. Gavin couldn’t stand the fact that I, the orphaned girl from the wrong side of town, rejected him.
From that moment forward, he made it his personal mission to make my life a living hell. The rumors he’d spread around campus were vicious, but I always held my head high and came off unaffected. I didn’t give a fuck what he or his douchebag friends thought of me, and I think that alone was what drove him to tonight. His ego needed him to affect me, to leave a permanent scar in his wake.
“Don’t do this.” I begged, as salty tears rolled down my dirt covered cheeks.
“Shut up, bitch!” Gavin spat as his free hand pressed my face into the ground and his other hand worked to unfasten his belt.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I braced myself for the pain that I knew was coming. My watery eyes focused on the hazy crowd above me as he violated me. I refused to look at his friends as they watched. If I couldn’t picture the looks on their faces, maybe tonight’s events wouldn’t haunt me. Maybe I’d be able to have a normal life after all of this.
After he finished, I laid there numb, staring off into the distance. Gavin’s icy hand painfully squeezed my jaw, forcing me to look into his eyes.
“I don’t know boys, she doesn’t look broken enough yet.” He hissed, pulling out his silver pocket knife.
“Gavin, come on, bro.” The guy holding my wrists mumbled.
“Dude, Zeke is right, she’s had enough. Look at her.” Argued the guy holding my ankles.
“Fuck off, Derek!” Gavin spat, tilting his head to stare back at my lifeless eyes. “She’s a whore and I need to make sure anyone who ever touches her knows it.”
The swift flash of metal reflecting light caught my eye just before the pain smashed into me. I shrieked in agony as the jagged blade bit into my flesh. My screams were gut-wrenching, and despite my attempts to quiet them, they were unstoppable.
Darkness surrounded me and my body became encapsulated in soothing warmth. I no longer felt the blade piercing my skin or the rough hands pinning my body to the ground.
Did I die?
This flashback came to me almost every night, and it always ended the same. With me cold, broken, bloody, and alone on the hard dirt underneath the bleachers. I’d envision the moment the poor janitor found me and threw his jacket on me to offer me some decency. And relive the painful realization that what Gavin did would scar me for life. I’d see the sad and remorseful looks each officer and medic gave me as they wheeled me into the ambulance. See those same looks on the doctors and medical teams that helped me in the hospital.
“Shh, everything’s going to be okay.” A familiar voice whispered into my ear.
My eyes flashed open, and I took in my strange surroundings. This wasn’t my room. It looked similar to mine, but the color scheme was different. Instead of classic black and cream tones, the room was doused in icy blues and soft greys, almost as if I were in some alternate universe. Maybe I was still dreaming?
I shifted my position slightly, trying to get my bearings, and that’s when I felt it. The warm body pressed firmly against my back.
Where the hell was I and who the fuck was that?
My breath hitched as a heavy arm wrapped itself across my stomach and pulled me closer, enveloping me in the distinct scent of lavender and smoke. Ezra.
“I know you’re awake.” Ezra whispered, snuggling his chin in the crook of my neck. “Go back to sleep, Angel.”
“Wha- where am I?” I whispered, trying to hold back the terror inching up my spine.
“My room.” He explained, in a sleepy voice. “I figured you’d rest easier here.”
Either I was really going crazy or every answer he gave made sense. Still, that didn’t explain why I was naked. I couldn’t feel any barriers between his skin and mine. I had fallen asleep in my sweatshirt, but the only fabric attached to my body was my thong.
“Why are we naked?” I asked.
“You sweat through your sweatshirt and I’m wearing boxer briefs.” He mumbled, matter-of-factly. “It’s not like I’m seeing anything you didn’t already show me.”
“I-” I hesitated, at a loss for words. He had a point, but still. He shouldn’t have taken me without asking. “I shouldn’t be in here. I should go.”
I made a move to leave, but his arm gripped me tighter in response.
“Look Angel, if it makes you feel better, this means nothing. I still want to hurt you. In fact, I’ll probably dream about hurting you in the most delicious ways possible, but tonight, you need me to be someone else. Someone safe. I’ll be that man for you tonight.”
I wanted to fight him on it. I wanted to scream bloody murder until one of the other guys came to pull him off of me. But something about what he was offering had me intrigued. His warmth chased away the nightmares that haunted me almost every night, and he hadn’t tried to kill me. Yet. Maybe it would be okay.
I told myself that the only reason I didn’t fight him on it was because he would kill me. But the truth was, there was something calming about his room and the feeling of his arms around me.
I barely slept the rest of the night, but it wasn’t because of the nightmares. The comfort I felt in Ezra’s arms terrified me more than any nightmare ever could.