by J. A. York
A wave of excitement shot through her. She stood up, and wondered for a second why her knees hurt. She opened the bedroom door and walked quickly into the living room.
Holly was sitting on the couch, darning a pair of Benjamin's socks.
"Good morning, honey," she said with a smile. "How do you feel this morning?"
"Mom, did we get a new dog?"
Holly knitted her brow. She shook her head slowly. "N … no. No. What … why …"
Suddenly Rachel remembered. The images came flooding in. Riding up the hill with Sheldon and her friends. The thump to her back that nearly knocked her unconscious. The bright moon over the cemetery as she lay among the headstones. The whiskey breath of Danny Jackson and Oscar Olney. The fall on the road that tore up her knees and knocked her out. The long crawl on her hands and knees down the driveway to the trailer. The kindly silver-haired doctor standing over her, telling her she was going to be all right.
"It was just a dream," Rachel said. "But it seemed so real."
It seemed so very, very real.
She sat down beside her mother on the couch and laid her head on Holly's shoulder. Why, she wondered, why did this happen to me?
Holly put her arms around Rachel and rocked slowly back and forth.
"My baby. My baby," she said, fighting back the tears.
●●●
Monday morning, Benjamin Stark called Chante High School and told Mrs. Wright, the principal's secretary, that Rachel was quite sick with the flu and wouldn't be at school that day, and maybe even for the next several days.
"Just following doctor's orders," he said after he hung up.
Rodney, who did not know about the rape until Sheldon brought him home Saturday afternoon after basketball practice, was given instructions not to mention the rape to anyone.
"Of course I won't," Rodney said, a little offended that Benjamin would even think it was necessary to tell him that.
"Rodney, wait," Rachel said. Rodney was about to leave for school. He stopped by the front door and turned around.
"I need some air," Rachel shouted into the living room. "I'm going to walk Rodney down to the road."
"OK," Benjamin said.
When they got out onto the driveway, Rachel took Rodney by the arm.
"Rodney," she said, "can you keep a secret?"
"Good grief! You too, Rache?"
"No, no, it's not what you think!"
"Well, then, what?"
"Can you give a message to Jimmy, Tabby, Sheldon and Bull today?"
Rodney noticed that lately, whenever Rachel mentioned their four friends, Jimmy's name always came first. He wasn't sure what to make of that, if anything.
"Sure. What message?"
Rachel hesitated. "I," she said, "I … would like them to know."
Rachel, Rodney and their parents had spent the better part of Sunday discussing Dr. Green's recommendation that they report Rachel's rape to the police, and that the sooner they reported it the better.
But there was no debate among the four family members. They unanimously agreed right from the beginning that it was best not to report the rape. Their discussion was a matter of listing all the reasons the rape should be kept quiet. So Rachel's request that her friends be told came as a surprise to Rodney.
"You can trust them," Rachel quickly added before Rodney had time to object. "You know you can. Right, Rodney?"
"Well, yeah, but … but I still don't know why you want to bring them into this."
"Because," Rachel said, "I think it would help me if they knew. And it would haunt me if they did not know. I don't think I could bear being around them if I had this dark secret I had to hide from them."
They continued to walk down the driveway. Here and there, Rachel thought she saw red spots in the snow. She tried to drive the image out of her mind.
"I get that, Rache. I really do," Rodney said finally.
"But let me say this. I think that the more people there are who know about something like this, the better the chances are that the word will get out. Even if you trust someone with your life, sometimes things just … slip out. You know?" He paused. "But as hard as I've tried sometimes, I've never been able to say 'no' to you, Rachel. So OK. I'll do it."
Rachel gave her brother a hug.
"But what's the secret?"
"What?"
"You asked if I could keep a secret. What's the secret?"
"Oh. Right. The secret is, please don't tell Mom and Dad that Jimmy, etcetera, know about the rape. I'll tell them later. Just not now. I have too much other stuff to deal with."
"OK. I won't. By the way, how long are you going to stay out of school? They'll want to see you, you know. Jimmy, etcetera." He paused. "I mean, how are you, Rache? Really."
Rachel's face darkened. She thought about Danny Jackson and Oscar Olney. How would she react the first time she saw them in school? How would they react when they saw her? Could she really go to school each day, knowing they were in the same building? Laughing, perhaps.
Or lurking.
She shook her head.
"Oh, I don't know," she said. "I have my good moments. I have my bad moments. I'm taking it one day at a time."
Tears filled Rodney's eyes. He put his arm around Rachel.
"I'm so sorry, Rache, I'm so sorry. If they ever find that guy, I'll kill the sonofabitch."
Rachel gave him a squeeze.
"I appreciate your devotion to your sister, Rodney. You know how much I love you. But I'm not sure that's the answer. Piling one evil on top of another."
She thought about what she had just said. She did not know she was capable of such a sentiment at this time in her life. It gave her hope that someday she might conquer her devils.
Chapter Nine
Rescued
"OK, that's long enough," Celeste said. "This is your last chance." Benjamin followed her into the bedroom.
"She's asleep," Holly said.
Celeste made no reply. She reached into her case and took out the long, leather straps and tied Rachel's arms to the bedposts, crucifixion style. Rachel moaned but did not appear to wake up.
"All right, you know what to do," Celeste said. She pulled up Rachel's nightgown. Benjamin and Holly spread Rachel's legs.
Rachel wiped the knitting needle with a soft cloth she had in her bag. She bent down and inserted the needle into Rachel's vagina.
"OK, let's go find the uterus," she said.
Celeste started to push the needle when suddenly there was a violent banging on the front door that seemed to shake the trailer itself.
"Police! Open up!"
Celeste jerked out the knitting needle. Then everyone in the room froze, until Holly pulled Rachel's nightgown down and pulled the blanket up over her. Rachel opened her eyes.
"This is the police! Open up now!" The banging grew louder.
"What do we do?" Benjamin asked. There was no answer.
Rodney, in the other bedroom, screamed: "Break the door down! Break it down!"
Bull heard. He backed up a few feet. "Time to run between the tackles," he said. He lowered his shoulder and drove his 240-pound body into the metal door, much the same way he blasted through his Dad's bedroom window as his home was collapsing in flames.
It was overkill. The door popped open with hardly a whimper and was nearly blown off its hinges. Bull's momentum threw him headfirst onto the entryway floor, where he slid on his stomach and slammed into a kitchen cabinet door. He jumped up.
By that time, the others had entered the trailer. Jimmy knocked the chair loose that had kept Rodney from opening his bedroom door.
Rodney came out and pointed to the bedroom door, still closed, at the other end of the trailer. "Down there!" he shouted.
Sheldon was the first to reach the door. He yanked it open.
"You?" a wide-eyed Benjamin said.
"You kids get out of my house!" he screamed. "Now!"
Fists clenched, he charged Sheldon, who sidestepped Benj
amin as neatly as he would an opposing lineman hell-bent on a sack, then slammed him into the wall, where Jimmy grabbed him and wrestled him to the floor.
"Mr. Stark, Mr. Stark," Jimmy said over and over.
"This is none of your business!" Benjamin shouted. "Who the hell do you think you are?"
Holly was shouting at everybody ... to stop everything. And Rachel screamed and struggled to get free from the straps. Tabby managed to untie one of them.
Meanwhile, unnoticed, Celeste reached into her case and pulled out a gun.
She fired into the mattress, missing Rachel's head by inches.
And the Earth stood still.
"Thank you for your attention," Celeste said in a calm, even voice. She kept the gun pointed at the intruders.
"Holly, please untie your daughter. I'm sure that strap must be uncomfortable for her," she said.
Holly, hands shaking, did as she was bidden.
Once Rachel was free, Celeste waved the gun to motion Holly aside. Then she grabbed Rachel, pulled her out of bed, wrapped her arm around Rachel's neck from behind and put the gun to Rachel's temple.
"Now, everybody," Celeste said, "we are all going to take a little walk. I want all of you to go slowly and quietly into the other bedroom where the rest of the kids are and close the door behind you.
"I will be watching all of you very closely. If you try anything … untoward, shall we say, I'm sure all of you know precisely what the consequences will be. The gunshot you heard earlier was only a warning. The next one will be for real.
"Once you are in that bedroom, you will stay there while Rachel and I go for a little ride in my car. She will not be harmed as long as you do not try to follow me.
"It is now 11 p.m. At 11:15 it will be safe for you to leave the room and go look for Rachel. You will find her in the cemetery. Keep in mind that it is very snowy and cold outside, and note that Rachel is barefoot and dressed only in a flimsy nightgown. So don't wait too long. We wouldn't want her to freeze to death, now would we?
"Rachel, pick up my coat there and my case. Now, Holly, you go first. Lead the way."
The hostages did exactly as they were told. Jimmy was the last to go in the bedroom. He closed the door.
Almost.
What Celeste did not know, and could not have known, was how bad the doors were in this wreck of a trailer the Stark family lived in. Some of the doors did not work at all. Those that did usually were badly fitted.
The door to the kids' bedroom was no exception. When Jimmy closed the door, he noticed that a tiny crack in the door allowed him a partial view of the front door.
Squinting through the crack, he slowly turned the doorknob to the open position.
When Celeste and Rachel started to go out the front door, Celeste's back was turned to Jimmy, and he noticed that she had lowered the gun so it pointed at the floor.
That moment, that split second, was all the time he had to act.
In one motion he flew out the bedroom door, dived for Celeste and swatted at the gun like a linebacker trying to force a fumble.
The impact knocked Celeste and Rachel down, and when the gun was torn from Celeste's hand it went off.
The bullet ripped into Jimmy's right thigh. He screamed, but he managed to hold Celeste down and keep her from retrieving her weapon.
A moment later Benjamin, Rodney, Sheldon and Bull were there to take over.
Chapter Ten
The Aftermath
About the Author
Instructions for this section: This is the first section of your end matter, a.k.a. “back matter.” End matter helps you connect with the reader. This first section is the bio. Put a short bio here. The reader just finished your book, they think you’re super-awesome, and they’re curious to learn more about you. Short is important. You don’t want to beat them over the head with a long resume. If you created a Smashwords Interview, include a link to it at the end of your bio so they can learn more if they’re interest. I’ll use myself as an example. Note how I’ve applied the NoIndent style to this section. I think it looks better this way, but it’s totally up to you.
Mark Coker is the founder of Smashwords, the world’s largest distributor of indie ebooks. In 2010, The Wall Street Journal named him one of the “Eight Stars of Self-Publishing.” His three books about ebook publishing best practices have been downloaded over 500,000 times. When he’s not running Smashwords, he’s probably hiking, gardening or traveling. Read Mark’s Smashwords Interview at https://www.smashwords.com/interview/mc
Other books by this author
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Please visit your favorite ebook retailer to discover other books by [Firstname Lastname]:
The Smashwords Guides Series
Smashwords Style Guide
Smashwords Book Marketing Guide
The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success
The SuperFab Thriller Series
Book One
Book Two
Book Three
Book Four (Coming July 4 2014, available now on preorder at select retailers!)
Connect with [Firstname Lastname]
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I really appreciate you reading my book! Here are my social media coordinates:
Friend me on Facebook: http://facebook.com/markcoker
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Favorite my Smashwords author page: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/mc
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