13
Aria
It’s a nightmare.The worst nightmare I’ve ever had.
Only it hurts. It hurts so much. Nightmares don’t hurt. They don’t make tears spring to your eyes when the pain gets to be too much.
I always knew Dale wanted to hurt me. I knew he hated me.
I had no idea it was like this.
“Why are you doing this?” I’ve asked him so many times, but he doesn’t hear me. It’s like he’s not here. He’s walking around the cabin, staring at me and muttering to himself, but his brain’s someplace else. “Dale, talk to me. Why?”
“Shut up.” He goes to the right side of the bed, where he’s tied my wrist to the heavy wooden post. Same with the other wrist, so both arms are outstretched.
The rope bites into my skin when I stay still, so moving around and trying to get free makes the pain agonizing. But I have to. I can’t just lie here and let him do things to me.
His face looks like a Halloween mask, and I’m glad it does. I’m glad Knox hurt him like that. There’s a gash on his forehead, stitched and bandaged. His nose is broken, and both eyes are blackened. His upper lip is split, and it looks like he’s missing at least two teeth when he offers a grotesque smile.
I force myself to keep looking at him rather than turning away in disgust. I won’t let him intimidate me like that. He can’t win.
“Why did you bring me here? Why couldn’t we stay at the house?” My voice is trembling. I have to stop that. “What are we doing here?”
“I told you to shut up! Bitch.” He takes my hand and twists it, making the rope chafe my skin worse than ever. I bite down on my lip until I can taste blood, but I won’t scream. I won’t.
He lets go, grinning with those awfully, bloody lips of his. “You made him come to the house, didn’t you? You told him you wanted—what? For him to kill me? Or was he supposed to beat me and scare me off? How did you plan it?”
“I didn’t plan anything.” I smile at him. “He kicked the shit out of you because he wanted to. Because you deserved it.”
“Shut up!”
“You asked me a question.”
What few parts of his face that aren’t bruised turn red. “Smart-ass with a smart little mouth. I’ll show you how to use that smart mouth.”
Oh, my God.
I never once got the idea he wanted this from me. Not once. He hates me because I cost him so much money and was such a burden on him. I’m not really his kid, so he hated having to do so much for me.
That was what I always believed, anyway. Now, I’m starting to think he treated me like he did for another reason. He never touched me in a sexual way. I never caught him looking at me like he wanted me.
Now? There’s no reason for him to hold back. We’re alone, in the middle of nowhere, and only one other person knows where to find us. If Mom didn’t try to stop him from taking me here, she’s sure as hell not going to do anything to stop this.
Does she even know what he has in mind? She couldn’t, or why would she have let me go with him?
Sweat starts to run down the back of my neck. Cold, icy. Nauseating. It intensifies when Dale comes closer to the bed. He’s staring at my body, his eyes moving over it, one inch at a time. He looks like a man who’s been starving and finally made it to the feast. I’m going to be sick.
He climbs onto the bed, then reaches into his back pocket. My heart clenches at the sight of a pocketknife. “Finally. You’re mine.”
“No. No!” I try to twist away from him, but it’s no use. The ropes are burning my skin. He tied them so tight, there’s no chance of me getting free. Still, I don’t make it easy for him, twisting and bucking my hips while I scream. While I shriek.
He flings himself over me and eventually straddles my body. I try to throw him off, but it’s no use. He’s too heavy, too determined to hold me down. I try to raise my knees into his back, but I can’t reach. I can’t reach his balls, either. All this is doing is hurting me, exhausting me. My strength is already starting to wane.
And all he’s doing is laughing. “Keep fighting. See how far it gets you.” He opens the knife. The sight of it gleaming in the light from the bedside lamp makes me fight harder than ever. I’m panicking. I’m starting to lose it.
“All mine. Nobody here but you and me.” He sighs almost sweetly, staring at my body again—my chest, mostly. “You have no idea how many nights I’ve spent thinking about this. Dreaming about all the things I would do to you if I had you alone. All the ways I could use this body.”
“Don’t do this! You’re my stepfather, for fuck’s sake! Doesn’t that mean anything?”