“What I’m worried about is that you’re still caging me in this bathroom like I’m an animal. If you were to back the fuck off, I’d feel better,” I said pointedly.
Derek’s shoulders slumped, but he didn’t budge one inch. “You really think I would assault you? Your dad is my boss, and I’d have to be pretty fucking stupid to think I could get away with it.”
His reasoning bulged my eyes so big, I could feel them enlarging in my head.
“You do realize you just said you won’t assault me because you think you’d get caught, right? And not cause it’s fucking assault?”
“Oh my god, stop twisting my words around!” Derek exploded, face red as a cherry tomato and bloated with anger. “If I wanted to assault you, I would have already done it, okay? Does that make your feminist pride feel better?”
I blanched, jaw dropping open to spew out bullets. “No, it doesn’t make me feel better. What would make me feel better is if you let me out!”
“So fucking go!”
“Move so I can!”
Derek groaned, the sound rumbling his chest as he raked his fingers through his stalky hair.
“Stop acting like I’m going to rape you.”
“Why? Because if you were going to, you would have done it already?” I threw back in his face.
A wicked shadow dropped over Derek’s expression, the hollowed bags under his eyes seeming darker. Crueler.
“I wouldn’t have to rape you. You’d fucking like it.”
That look. Those words. This tiny space.
It all finally pushed the nail in my chest through until it pierced all the way to the back of my heart, and I exploded.
I bolted around him, sucking my chest in to squeeze past his body that swooped right in front of me, crushing me against the wall until I wailed. Somewhere between a cry and a thrash, Derek released me with a violent shove, and I stumbled into the sink, grabbing onto it for dear life.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” he shouted, his voice stabbing in my ears as if it were made of glass shards. The malicious tone gored at my eardrums until I was sure they were bleeding down the sides of my face.
I couldn’t hear anything but screaming, see anything but vivid crimson washing my vision an ocean of blood-red terror.
Get out. Get out. Get out. Get out.
A hand locked around my wrist and I flailed, yanking myself away and tumbling back toward the doorway.
Jagged angles found and distorted Derek’s face as he yelled at me, spewing nasty words that I couldn’t make out.
All I saw was a flash of flesh reach out and cup beneath my elbow, fingernails breaking skin, and all I did was react.
I kicked my leg out, pushing at his chest with my foot and every bit of wild strength I had that sent us both toppling in opposite directions.
I fell back, slamming into the wall outside the bathroom with a grunt as I hit the ground. Heavy, quick breathing worked my lungs into a fit as my head snapped back up, and I jumped to my feet, ready to run.
On my toes and ready to sprint, I gave the monster in the bathroom my attention only long enough to gauge how much time I had to run and how fast I would have to be to escape.
Except, my energy to run stalled out to a pinch as I spotted him…
Still sprawled on the bathroom floor.
And he wasn’t moving.
Terror still inflaming my chest, I stood there frozen in place, muscles not even giving enough to breathe at this point.
Why isn't he getting up? Why isn't he coming after me?
Then something peculiar caught my eye on white tile floor. Something out of place.
Something red.
It seeped and oozed and stained the white grout, and my petrifying terror turned blistering cold.
And then the front door opened up, and James walked through.