“Jealous? You have to be kidding me,” I tell him, my stomach churning with the need to vomit.
“It’s okay Melinda, I can give you a pity fuck for old time’s sake,” he says moving in. He grabs my hair and gathers it in a tight hold, pulling my face closer to him and his lips are so close to mine that I am enveloped by his sickening scent. “I do remember what a wild girl you are, maybe I’ll let Donald join in. One last hurrah before you die, this doesn’t have to be a completely unpleasant experience.”
It takes everything I am and everything I have inside of me, not to close my eyes and get lost in the nightmarish memories he triggers. Instead, I beat them back down and give Michael my best fuck-you look and spit in his face. His face goes stony hard and I know I’m going to pay for that. I watch as he reaches into the pocket of his suit-coat and takes out a white handkerchief. He uses it to wipe off his face. Once that’s done, he takes his sunglasses off, carefully folds them and places them in his now empty suit-pocket. He then takes the handkerchief, and even though I try to scoot back and get away from him, he grabs me by my hair, jerks my head back hard, and slams it into the concrete wall behind me.
The pain from the blow radiates through my entire body. I feel like I’m in a tunnel and I’m having trouble getting the room to come back into focus. There’s a roar in my ears and I’m doing the best I can to shake it off. Before I can, he’s stuffing the handkerchief into my mouth. I gag and choke, but he makes sure the entire thing goes in my mouth.
“There, I forgot how fucking annoying your voice was,” he says, standing up.
“I believe it’s time for lesson number one, Donald,” he says and the sick pleasure in his voice is heavy in the air.
I push back further against the wall. I know it’s useless. I have nowhere to go even if there is some space between us—still, I do it. It must be some fight or flight reflex. It’s the absolute wrong thing to do. Now I’m against the cold, hard cinderblock with nowhere to go, and Donald and Michael are standing in front of me. They are the two most vile and disgustingly evil men I have ever known in my life. If I could talk, I would scream, yell, berate, and curse… anything to make me feel better and to feel less…helpless. I pull on the bindings on my wrists and there’s a little give. I pull and tug harder and harder, hoping with everything in me to get them free.
That’s when I see it. The shiny steel pipe that Donald is holding and that is why being against the wall is a bad thing. There is nothing to cushion me when my body absorbs the blow. It comes hard and the breeze from the swing reaches me first, sending chills from the cool air over my body. Then the pipe connects with my knees. As blows go, it could have been worse. There are much worse places to be hit than in your knees. I’ve had them all, so I know. Yet, the force is so strong and the pipe is so heavy that it doesn’t land with a thud. No, it cracks into the bone and pain radiates immediately. Tears gather in my eyes and spring free. I hate giving them tears, but there’s nothing I can do.
I’ve barely recovered from the first blow when another one follows it. This one is higher up on my legs, just above the knees. He’s trying to break my legs. I see it in their smiles, in the sinister way they look down at me, knowing they will get everything from me. I vow then when I die, I will find a way to reach around them and drag them down into fucking hell with me. Michael reaches down and grabs my head, pulling out the handkerchief he leers at me.
“Are you ready to be nicer, Melinda? Surely you’d rather this go easier on you? At least die with the dignity you never possessed in life.”
“Fuck…You…”
I’m gasping and the tears clog my throat, but he looks at me strangely. I think my reply surprises him. I count that as a moral victory. The pain in my body is so intense there are black dots floating in my eyes and I truly want to pass out.
“Melinda, you are even more stupid than I gave you credit for,” Michael says resignedly, stuffing the handkerchief back in my mouth.