by Sam West
Even so, the waist-height, wooden fence that separated her garden from theirs didn’t feel like much of a barrier. She felt vulnerable sitting there, exposed.
Stop being stupid.
The end of her short garden backed onto the row of gardens of the parallel street. All those houses looked down on her, their upstairs windows glinting in the sun. She was overlooked. Safe.
The constant hum of traffic – normally an irritant – was a comfort, reminding her that she was surrounded by hundreds of people.
The sound of a near-by door banging made her jump, and she sloshed hot coffee on her thighs.
“Shit,” she muttered, pinching her tight jeans away from her heated flesh. The fabric quickly cooled, soothing the mild burn.
Her heart started to hammer when she realised that the banging door was next door’s kitchen door, and Mark was standing there, shin-deep in weeds in his overgrown garden. His back-door was situated on the back wall next to the kitchen window like hers, so there was nowhere to hide.
“Hello,” he said, smiling at her.
“Hello,” she managed to get out, hating the way her voice trembled.
Why was he outside? She had never seen any of them in the garden before. If she had thought for a second that one of them might come outside, she would’ve stayed in.
“Beautiful day, isn’t it,” he said, staring intently at her.
“Yes, it is.”
She got shakily to her feet, not wanting to be outside with him for a second longer.
“Are you going in already?”
“I’ve finished my coffee, and now I’ve got a lot of things to do.”
She took a step towards her kitchen door, then forced herself to stop. She really shouldn’t go scurrying into the safety of her house like a scared little mouse. If he knew that she was frightened of him, then he had won. She would be buggered if she would give him that satisfaction.
“Have you got a day off today, then?”
Yeah, I do, she felt like saying. That’s pretty bloody obvious, wouldn’t you say?
“Yes, two days, actually. I was just about to go out, I’m meeting a friend for coffee in town.”
That was a bare-faced lie, especially as she didn’t have a single friend in Tyldesley. Still, he didn’t know that, and for all he knew she could’ve been meeting someone from work.
“Is that a fact?” he said, his blue eyes squinting in the low sun.
He took a step towards the flimsy fence and gripped the top of it. It barely came up to his hips. He wore a white t-shirt with a big, blue tick on the front and his muscles bulged. He cut an intimidating figure with his buzz-cut hair and chavy attitude, but she was determined not to let him see how much he intimidated her.
“Yes, so if you’ll excuse me, I have to be going. Enjoy your day.”
“Shame. I was hoping you was gonna do a bit of topless sunbathing.”
She froze, just a few steps away from the door. Should she tell him to fuck off, or just laugh it off? She took the coward’s way out and pretended she didn’t hear.
“Oi, you gone deaf, bitch?”
She gripped the door-handle. “Leave me alone,” she called over her shoulder.
She could feel the tears brewing, and as soon as she was inside she was going to bolt the door and let them come…
She didn’t get the chance. He jumped the fence before she could shut the door behind herself, and wedged his considerable bulk between the door and the doorframe.
“Go away!” she cried incredulously.
He grabbed her, spinning her round so that her back was pressed against his front, his hand over her mouth.
She screamed into his palm, her mind reeling. This couldn’t be happening, it was broad daylight. Surely someone from the row of houses opposite had seen and were calling the police at this very second…
“If you scream, bitch, I’ll make this so much fucking worse for you.”
She barely heard him and she struggled in his arms, sickened by the feel of his flesh pressed against her mouth.
A hundred, horrible memories of Justin raping her slammed into her mind.
Oh God it’s happening again I can’t let this this again…
“Come on, we’re going back to mine,” he said, bodily walking her back into the garden.
Still she couldn’t believe that this was happening. Her eyes darted over to all the houses, to all the other windows. Could no one see the trouble she was in? Was the old guy that lived on the other side really not seeing this? Surely he would be calling the police, right this second…
How can this be happening?
When they had reached the fence, he snaked a hand under her rump and lifted her legs off the ground, still managing to keep one hand clamped over her mouth. With seemingly no effort whatsoever, he lifted her legs over the fence and her feet connected with the overgrown lawn on the other side.
Now there was a thin strip of wood that separated their bodies from the waist down, and she renewed her thrashing. One hand was round her shoulders and neck, the other still clamped over her mouth, but she managed to squirm out of his grip.
“Help!”
She lurched forwards, stumbling in the weeds and almost landing smack on her knees. She was aware of Mark behind her, she could practically feel his breath on her neck. She danced out of reach – all she had to do was reach the edge of the house and run up the narrow alleyway that separated the house from the empty house next door.
She never made it. Mark grabbed her from behind, and they both went sprawling in the long grass. He pushed her onto her back and straddled her chest, his hands round her neck squeezing lightly, a warning not to fight him.
“Do you really think anyone cares what happens to you? People round here are fucking blind. This is what happens to nosey bitches who fucking look, who can’t mind their own fucking business. I could fuck you, right here, right now, and no one would fucking see. Do you get that now?”
Her vision swam in and out of focus as she stared up at him. The sun lit him up from behind, making it look as if he had a halo. The corner of his top lip was pulled up in a sneer, his spittle shining in the sunshine.
Without warning his hand lifted from her neck and in the few seconds before she passed out, she watched him draw back his hand, which was balled into a fist. It flew through the air and connected with her temple.
For a second, stars brighter than the sun exploded behind her eyes, and then there was blackness.
*****
Julie opened her eyes to a throbbing head, feeling utterly confused and disorientated. She was lying on her back on a scratchy carpet, and the ceiling above her was unfamiliar. A bad feeling churned in her guts, the memory of the events leading up to this moment dancing on the edges of her mind.
Then it all came slamming home. She gasped and went to sit up, but found she couldn’t move. When she summoned the energy to lift up her head and peer down her body, she was greeted by the sight of her bare tits. Her wrists were bound together with black electrical tape and she pulled her arms upwards, cradling her forearms against her bare breasts. Her ankles were bound too and her heart thumped hard in terror.
At least she was still wearing her blue, skinny jeans, although that fact provided little comfort.
“Hiya babe. So glad you’re awake. Your tits are fucking amazing, Steven’s gonna fucking cream himself.”
It hurt to hold her head up like that so she let it flop back down again, squeezing her eyes tightly shut to stem the rising panic.
“I ain’t gonna be doin’ much filming seein’ as it’s just me here right now, but we might as well get something down while we’re here. We’re gonna make you last, baby, you’re so fucking beautiful.”
For the most part, the full extent of her nightmare wasn’t sinking in. She knew that she was in next door’s house, that Mark had kidnapped her. But the whole situation was so ridiculous, so outrageous, it hardly felt real. Despite the throbbing pain in her head and the
fact she was topless, it still didn’t quite feel like it was happening to her.
Her own home was just a few measly metres away and this was all just some horrible mistake…
“Why are you doing this?”
When she opened her eyes to look up at Mark who was standing over her, she saw that he was pointing a mobile-phone down at her.
“Because you are going to be the star of our next movie. Man, you’re so beautiful, the best yet.”
She had no idea what he was taking about. She licked her dry lips, her brain whirring with the horror of her situation.
“Grant will be home soon,” she said.
That wasn’t quite true, though, was it? Unless she were to class at least six hours as ‘soon’.
“And? He doesn’t know where you are. And I ain’t gonna tell him.”
“But my car’s still parked outside.”
“So? Yeah, he might wonder where you’ve gone, but believe me, he won’t be wondering for long.”
A fresh bout of panic fluttered in her stomach as his words sunk in. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“You’ll find out.”
Relax, she told herself. When Grant comes home, he’ll call the police.
Will he? You sure about that?
“He’ll call the police,” she said, more assertively than she felt.
“No, he won’t.”
The cockiness in Mark’s voice made her blood ran cold. “Of course he will. He’ll know something is wrong right away. And then he’ll fucking kill you.”
“Which one is it, Julie? Will he call the police, or will he kill me?”
She realised how pathetic she sounded and bit down the urge to blurt out ‘both’.
“As it happens, Dairy is gonna wait for him to get home for work, then he’ll bring him round here to join the party.”
His words had her stomach twisting up into fresh knots, because what he said was all too plausible. Her back door was open, and if she could be snatched in broad daylight, then Grant could definitely walk into a trap in his own home. This realisation caused hot tears to sting her eyes and blur her vision. She blinked them back, refusing to give in to the rising panic.
Keeping her forearms clamped to her breasts, Julie struggled against the tape wrapped thickly around her wrists. It was no use – the tape didn’t budge so much as an inch.
Mark licked his lips. “Keep doing that, it makes your tits wobble real nice. What are you, like a DD? They’re fucking amazing.”
He was right about her bra size, and she fought down the urge to tell him to fuck off. She had to think, she had to remain calm.
She closed her eyes for a second, concentrating on getting her breathing under control. She opened them again just in time to see his back disappearing into the kitchen. In the few seconds that he was gone, she looked wildly around herself, searching for a way out of this nightmare. Her fevered brain came up with nothing.
When he came back, he was holding a large kitchen knife.
“Especially sharpened for the occasion,” he said with some pride.
The sight of it knocked her breath out.
“I live next door for God’s sake. You can’t do this, you can’t just kidnap me, loads of people would have seen you dragging me in here.”
“I thought you were supposed to be smart, Julie. No one fucking saw because they didn’t fucking want to see.”
“Help!” Julie screamed suddenly at the top of her lungs. “Somebody, please, heeelp…”
Searing pain engulfed the side of her face, cutting her cries dead. She gasped in agony, her bound hands flying up to cradle her pulsing cheek.
He kicked me, came the incredulous thought.
The horrid truth of her situation suddenly hit her full force. A man that was capable of kicking a bound and helpless woman in the head was capable of anything.
“Shut up, bitch, no one’s gonna hear you. There ain’t no one in the house on the other side of us and that old fart next to you is deafer than the lot of ‘em in every single possible way. Now, if you don’t shut up, I’m gonna kick you pretty little face to a bloody pulp. So, are we gonna do this the easy way or the hard way?”
The blood whooshed in her ears, partly drowning out his voice. She heard a woman sobbing, and realised that the sound was coming from her.
“Please, just let me go, I won’t tell, I promise…”
Her words gave way to sobs which she fought to get under control.
This can’t be happening, it just can’t…
But it was.
Mark chuckled and crouched down next to her. With the hand that held the knife, he popped open the button of her jeans, keeping the camera of his phone trained on her with the other. He inserted the knife inside her opened jeans, sharp edge up. They were cheap, high-street jeans and the knife effortlessly sliced through the flimsy material, as easily as if he were slicing open a letter.
She hardly dare move, hardly dare breathe as he ran the knife down her thigh, then her shin. Her right leg was exposed, her jeans flopping pathetically either side of her exposed flesh.
He did the same at her left leg, the blunt edge of the knife sliding against her goose-bumped skin, causing her heart to slam painfully hard and fast. She wanted to scream at him to stop, but the throbbing pain in her face reminded her not to.
Her black, cotton knickers were the last to go, sliced off her body with one flick of his wrist.
“Nice. Fucking nice.” His appraising gaze trailing over every inch of her exposed body knocked her sick. “I would love to fuck you, but I promised the lads I wouldn’t. I promised your first time would be with all of us. ‘Cause nothing beats the look in your eye when it’s the first time, and we need to capture that look.”
Capture that look? What the hell was he going on about?
He turned his back to her, pulling open the drawer of the seen-better-days sideboard behind him and rummaging through it. When he turned round, he was holding a coil of thin rope. She shrank away from him, withering inside.
As she lay there on the floor, he proceeded to wrap the length of rope around her neck.
“Please,” she whimpered, terrified of angering him.
Except it wasn’t the pig next door standing over her anymore, it was Justin.
No! I am not a victim! I will never be a victim again.
A wave of anger so pure, so strong washed over her as he secured the knot around her neck and took the long end, bending her knees and looping it around her ankles. If she straightened her legs, she would strangle herself. He topped the whole thing off with black electrical tape slapped over her mouth.
“There,” he said, when he was done. “Fucking beautiful. You are going to look amazing on film.”
Her mind jolted. Was he going to film her?
“Don’t look so confused, sweetheart. I know actresses are supposed to be dim, but it’s still quite a simple concept.” He leaned in close and leered in her face, making her wince as surely as if he’d struck her. “We make snuff movies, and you, my darling, are going to be the leading lady.”
Inside, she recoiled.
Snuff movies? He was going to kill her on camera?
Already, her body began to shake with the effort of holding the positon. She held onto the anger – it was a damn sight better than the fear – knowing full well that when she got the chance, she would do whatever it took to survive.
She was going to kill him. She was going to kill them all.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
At half past three, Steven stepped off the bus. For once, the grey skies of Tyldesley did little to dampen his good mood. He had never been so pleased to be home. College had been shite, all Steven wanted was to be home with his brother. With the guys. Okay, so Dairy and Curly weren’t coming round ‘til later – Curly was working in the sex shop and Dairy had long-standing commitments with the drugs he sporadically sold.
Coming home today for the first time in a long time felt like exactly t
hat; coming home.
He walked the short distance from bus to door, his heart tripping at the sight of Julie’s car parked in her usual spot on the drive.
Did my brother take her?
He’d checked the screen of his phone compulsively throughout the day, but he hadn’t heard from him. Nothing new there, but still, given the monumental task he was supposed to be performing today, a text would’ve been nice.
Nothing on God’s earth could’ve prepared him for the sight which greeted him when he let himself into the house.
“Surprise, bro. Happy belated birthday.”
He stared down in wonderment; it was indeed as if his every birthday and Christmas had come all at once.
“Jesus,” was all he could say.
“Not quite. Just Julie.”
Julie was as naked as the day she was born and lying on the ground hog-tied, a length of rope around her neck that was attached to her ankles. Tape covered her mouth, and also bound together her hands and feet. Her forearms pressed to her breasts, like she was praying, and Steven licked his suddenly dry lips. Looking at her like this was torture, and his cock strained against his jeans. He could see the firm, generous curves of her arse, but not much else. Not in any detail, anyway. Her nipples were hidden, her breasts mashed against her ribcage with her arms, their true shape disguised. Her thighs were firmly clamped together, hiding the fleshy folds of her vagina that he longed to explore with his fingers and tongue and cock.
“Jesus,” he said again, his voice cracking and his throat as dry as sandpaper.
It took every effort on Steven’s part to wrench his gaze away from the spectacle when Mark started talking.
“Her cunt of a fiancé won’t be back until half five or so, and Dairy’s gonna be waitin’ for him in the house. Curly knocks off work about then, too, so he’ll be here soon.”
“Have you fucked her?”
“No, I promised I wouldn’t, didn’t I? We do it together, remember?”
“Yeah, I remember.”
He didn’t know if he was disappointed or relieved. He was glad that Mark hadn’t been at her already, but at the same time, he really wanted to do it before the others got here.