by Riley Moreno
“Me neither,” he said. “More for them I guess.”
Kim and Matt finished the joint, and he started to lead her out of the room.
“Let’s see what you got under there,” he said as he played with the bottom of her blouse.
“Think you can handle it?” Kim challenged.
“I’m pretty sure.”
They left Julie with Pete. He was nice, but she imagined him frustrated with the hand that he had been dealt. His pal got the uninhibited sex goddess, and he was left with the scraps. Julie hated her hang-ups, and she thought of playing the part of Kim right here even though her inexperience meant that she’d be nothing more than understudy hopelessly aping the leading lady.
Pete held her face in his hands and smiled down at her.
“And what should we do?”
They should, she should show him the good time he was missing out on. Julie’s gaze lingered on his eyes, and she again she wanted to know his taste. Their mouths met in a soft kiss, and she felt his arms surrounding her. She could do this. Really she could. His hand moved up her shirt, and she felt it on her breast. He started to unlatch her bra when Julie backed away from his touch and folded her arms around her.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t know what to do.”
He regarded her curiously, and Julie searched his face for some hope. She knew he’d have to be disappointed, but she wanted him to understand.
“It’s okay, Julie.”
“No it’s not.”
She got to her feet and paced the room. Her buzz was still intense enough to keep her from getting very far, and she steadied her stance with hands on a table meant for meals. She pushed her hair from her face and saw Pete. He was still sitting, waiting for her to say something else. Julie had no more words, and she slumped to the floor. The effect of the alcohol was nothing in comparison to her lack of artistry. She could already hear Kim moaning her pleasure from the unseen room.
“Julie?”
Pete started towards her, and Julie automatically turned her head away from his hand. She wanted to explore his mouth. And other parts. But it wasn’t supposed to be like this. It was always supposed to be with someone she knew inside and out, someone she trusted with her life, someone she knew would never hurt her. That boy, that man would take her slowly, and not on the floor of a foreign cabin. He would lead her into a room that was already familiar and make it a home in every sense of the word.
“Julie?”
Pete stroked her hair and pressed his brow to hers.
“I got that you… that you haven’t… you know.”
Kim had revealed the secret to the boys. Even as she hoped that that the truth of her statement might be attributed to one more part of a drunken fog, it reared its head again as she sadly closed her eyes.
Pete’s hand found her neck.
“And that’s okay. Really. Your first time should be more special than me.”
She scanned his face and believed him. He wasn’t going to make her do anything she wasn’t ready for. He was too nice for that. Kim’s continued moans aside, Julie had got the better partner, and she touched his hand at the realization.
“Thanks, Pete. I mean that.”
He slid back and splayed his finger against the hardwood floor.
“So do I.”
Julie barely had time to blink as his hand formed a fist and smashed into her face.
Then everything went black.
4
Pete.
Pete was kind and awkward and gentle when Julie needed it most. He had held her hand and made her feel like she was the golden girl even as Matt reached new heights with Kim underneath. He liked her. It was more than she had bargained for.
And so was this.
Julie turned on her side and tried to bring her hand to her eyes. She was just at her shoulder when she realized she couldn’t go any further. As she struggled to sit up, she realized that her wrist was cuffed by a metal bracelet that extended to a chain. She blinked at the realization and forced her eyes wider at the sight of the metal links dangling from the space just below her hand until they met a bolt in the wall. She tugged once, and found nothing but limitations. Hard as it was, she leaned forward and found the place where the business end of the binding met the wall. As hard as she pulled, there was so separating the chain from the wall. Julie was panicked, and she started to stand in the hope that her feet would succeed where her wrist had failed.
She was just up and staring to move when a vicious tug that she couldn’t see or comprehend sent her back down. Julie’s face was buried in a filthy mattress reeking of urine. She lifted her head from the vile stench and reached down her legs. Her right ankle was also shackled, and Julie clawed at the restraint. She could see a padlock touching her toes, but she still tried to free herself even as she knew there was no escape without the key.
Where was Kim? Was she in a nearby room, similarly bound? Julie’s mind returned to the moment she considered escape, and she shook at the thought that she had missed the chance of returning to the parking lot and the safety of Kim’s old Camry. It was only a question of being braver or more insistent. But Julie had been swayed by Kim’s suggestion of fun. There was no fun now. Only chains.
“Kim?”
She called out for her again and again. Let this just be a game. Let Kim be having a fabulous time while she was out of the loop. Kim would reappear, she just had to, and she would assure Julie that this was just another effort to loosen her up. She’d be loose. She would do whatever was required.
She just wanted to get out.
Out was easier said than done. She managed to stand up to where she could just make out windows. They were too high to open, but Julie still stood on tiptoe at the promise of a latch. If she could just get her fingers around it, she would turn it fast and force the pane open until the night air rushed into her lungs.
The night.
But was it the same night that had brought her to this place of captivity? How long had she been out? It felt like days even as she thought she recognized the space of the stars so far beyond her reach.
Pete.
He had seemed so sweet and a perfect match for her as his friend turned his attention to Kim. Matt was all Kim wanted. Matt and a good time. Was she having one now? Julie hoped. The alternative was something that was unimaginable. Julie slipped to the cold ground and furiously scraped at the chains that kept her from reaching the windows and flagging down a helping hand. Forget their smiles. Forget the supposed kindnesses.
This was bad.
The sound of a door opening pressed Julie and her bonds deeper into the concrete. She had to turn her head at the shock of light, and she heard footsteps nearing the spot where she trembled. Julie looked up to see Pete smirking down at her.
Julie had to say something.
“What the hell is this? Where’s Kim?”
Pete laughed as he ran his hands through his sandy hair then moved to touch her. Julie scrambled away from his hands and met the wall. She had to keep a clear head if she was going to get out of this.
“What was that?” he asked.
Julie wanted to get out. She wanted to find Kim and move down the path, even if it was cloaked in darkness, in the hope that they would just get back to the Camry and speed off into the night. But Pete’s eyes were suggesting other things, things that Julie couldn’t bear to contemplate. She stated to speak again when he drew his hand back and rammed another fist into her face.
“Please! Please don’t hit me. I’m sorry. I’m sorry”
And she was. She was sorry that she’d ignored the first signs of trouble. Every worry her mother had tried to slam into her now echoed through her brain. This was far worse than the car simply stalling on a lonely road or getting so turned about that they feared finding their way back. Either of those fates had eventual fixes. Not this. This was a smiling stranger whom she knew next to nothing about, and she had just been so stupid. The walk, the beer, the cabin.
All along it was a trap.
“You’re sorry,” he scoffed. “Fucking cherry.”
“Please---”
He slapped her face, and Julie wrapped her arms around her shaking body.
“No better than a cock tease. Not my scene.”
He leaned close to her face, and Julie could smell the weed wafting off his breath. So he smoked after all. There were probably many other things he could and would do if given the opportunity, and now he seemed to have it. Julie blinked back tears and weakly pulled at the binding around her wrist.
“I’d save my strength if I were you, but hey. Your goddamned funeral.”
He reached into his pocket. Julie flinched and expected a knife or a gun. Pete produced a lighter and a pack of smokes. He lit up, inhaled deeply, and blew the smoke in her face. With her eyes stinging, Julie turned away with a cough.
“I’d offer you one, but you don’t do this kind of thing, right?”
He grabbed her hair and lifted her to a standing position. Julie started to scream, and Pete silenced her with his tongue in her mouth. She tried to wriggle away from his cruel kiss. He pulled her head closer to his and kept suffocating her with his rank breath. Julie didn’t see him push his cigarette into her arm, but when she felt the burn, her thrashing intensified. He finally pushed her away, and Julie was back on the ground, grimacing in anguish as she clutched her injured arm.
This was what he really tasted like, and Julie fought the urge to vomit
“It’s just a little secondhand smoke, Jules. Don’t freak out about it.”
The sound of Kim’s name for her coming out of his mouth seared her with the same force of the cigarette. She glared up at him through her hair and sobbed uncontrollably. Pete regarded her coldly as he continued to smoke. When he was done, he flicked the cigarette at her. Julie backed deeper into the wall as it landed just inches from her bare feet.
Bare feet.
For the first time since regaining consciousness on a night whose date remained a mystery, she realized that she had been robbed of her sneakers. It occurred to her that the theft was meant to slow her down should she find her way back into the shadows of the trees and their promise of escape. But just that gave her the slim hope that she could get away if given the right moment.
Julie pushed her hair out of face, away from her sweat and her tears. She knew she had to try to get a handle on the situation.
“What’s happening? Why… why are you---?”
His foot crashed against her abdomen, and Julie found it even more difficult to breath. She curled into a fetal position and folded her arms around her vulnerable frame as she tried to crawl as far as the chains would allow. It wasn’t the escape she longed for most, but she had to put some distance between her aching body and the threat of further blows.
“Don’t you fucking move, cunt.”
Julie obeyed and lingered in the space between the cold floor and the soiled mattress.
“And don’t speak unless you’re spoken to. You got that?”
She was too terrified to make another move. Pete stomped his foot on the floor.
“What? You forget how to nod?”
Even in her fear, Julie could sense what he was trying to do. He was giving orders followed by contradictory demands that were intended to make her even more confused. She nodded weakly, and Pete let out a loud laugh.
“That’s a good girl.”
And then his harsh tone switched into something reminiscent of his former voice, but now it was just revealed as one more part of the game he had played. The sweet, shy boy was a con.
The monster was real.
Pete retrieved a chair from a gloomy corner and placed it near Julie’s head. He sat down and leaned against his thighs.
“Get on your knees, bitch.”
Julie hurt all over, but she followed his commands and kept her eyes on his feet.
“Look at me.”
Again she did as he was told. He lit another cigarette, and Julie felt the smoke drifting through her hair.
“So you want to be in the service industry. That’s the plan, right?”
Not now. At this moment, all plans stopped and started with a way to free herself from her chains and run despite her bare feet until she was free of this awful fright.
“Answer me!”
Before he could hit her again, Julie nodded and managed to say yes.
“Right. All those interviews. Frustrating when nothing comes of them. Well, you don’t have to worry about that anymore. Consider yourself employed, Jules! The pay’s not great, but you’ll have a roof over your head. Fair trade, no?”
Julie couldn’t comprehend what he was alluding to, but it promised to be something so harsh that it would rival her present state of confinement.
“Pete---”
He raised his hand to hit her again. Julie begged him no, and he brought his hand down on her hair. Twirling a lock around his finger, Julie tried to shrug him off, and he gave her hair a hard tug.
“It’s Sir now, Jules. Think you can remember that?”
Addressing him politely was the last thing she wanted, but she murmured the show of respect. Pete chuckled and patted her head.
“Nice. I like how that sounds. Get used to it. You call all your customers Sir from here on out.”
Customers?
“And you better learn fast, cherry. They pay big bucks for a good time.”
There were the stories. Everyone knew them. Girls taken and forced to fulfill the most deviant desires for the most preserve patrons. Some were found, forever scarred by forced acts that were too horrible to repeat. Others never made their way back home. Julie’s blood ran cold at the thought of both possibilities, and her tears flowed more freely as Pete left the chair and join her on his knees. He wound his arm around her shoulders. She tried to shy away from his touch, but he held her fast and pressed his lips to her ear.
“I’d show you right here, right now, but we got some guys waiting. They’re paying extra for the chance to bust you wide open. And like I said, not my scene. So maybe I’ll take my taste after they’ve had a turn.”
This couldn’t be happening. Not too her. Julie started to give over to despair at the thought that something sacred, something she’d been saving for someone who would take her slowly, tenderly, was about to be ripped from her grasp in the most vicious manner. Pictures of her body, stripped and violated, repeatedly, achieved a horrible clarity, and she tried to push them away. When Pete reached under her shirt and pinched her breasts, previewing the abuse, she cried out and shoved him away from her. She moved as far she could from his hands, but Pete grabbed her ankles and twisted her onto her back. He hit her face, her stomach, but Julie kept fighting.
“Let me go!”
“Feisty! I didn’t expect that, but I like!”
Julie hissed and spit at him as he hovered over her tear-stained face. He prepared to land another blow when she had a thought of deliverance, and she spoke without Sir’s permission.
“You can’t do this!”
“Can’t I?”
“People---”
“What people?”
“At the diner! People saw us. With you. Our car is still there. They’ll look for us. They’ll---”
He silenced her with another slap. Then another. And another. Julie didn’t speak and tried to protect her head with her hands. Pete stopped hitting her and pulled her up by her shoulders.
“Look at me.”
She wanted to see anything but him, but Julie did as she was told.
“Car’s gone, idiot. No trace of it.”
Julie tried to think of a moment when he would have given the order to erase the best clue to where they had stopped. Probably after he knocked her out. Or maybe before? But it didn’t matter. Without the car to go on, it would be harder to connect them to the diner, to the boys who had come to their rescue…
And if anyone did remember that they had seen them, it would make more sense to take
a long hard look at the scary guy who made the unwelcome pass. Moment by moment, things felt more and more hopeless.
Pete stepped away from Julie and undid her chains. She was relieved to be unfettered, but the feeling disappeared as her arms were tied behind her back with a length of rope. Pete started to walk her from the room. As soon as he opened the door, Julie saw a steep staircase.
“Let’s check in on your girlfriend, huh?”
He led her up the steps, and Julie swiftly realized that she was still in the cabin. The pictures and statues of birds that had suggested the quaintest of settings passed by her eyes like vultures, and Julie felt like their future prey.
But they were still in the cabin.
She tried to calm down. Okay. So even without the car, they weren’t that far from civilization and aid. If she could just get outside, even in the dark, she could retrace her steps and…
Pete opened another door, and any idea of running was replaced by the sight of her best friend. Like Julie, she was bloodied, but her clothing was torn, and Julie retched at the realization of what had been done to her.
“Kim! Kim, no!”
She tried to run to her shaking friend. Kim looked up at the sound of Julie’s voice and instinctively reached for her. Pete’s hands prevented her from taking more than one step, and the girls’ eyes met in hopeless horror.
“Jules?” Kim feebly whispered.
For the transgression of speaking when not addressed, Matt pulled her off the bed and shoved his fist into her stomach. With a tortured cry, Kim fell back the bed. Weeping, she crawled towards the pillows. Matt spit on her battered body then turned his vile intentions to Julie. She didn’t move as he approached her slowly, but she kept her eyes locked on his punishing stare.
“Welcome to the party,” Matt said through a leer. He placed his fingers under her chin. Julie trembled at the thought of his palm flattening and striking her where she stood. The smack didn’t come, and he grabbed her face and kissed her. His lips weren’t as brutal as Pete’s, but she didn’t want either of them invading any part of her. It was all too apparent that it was a futile wish, and Julie closed her eyes and prayed for this to be a nightmare. Let her wake up beside Kim in the Camry. They would be miles from the diner with nothing to hold them back. Or let her just be home. Her mother’s face appeared in her mind, but it was rapidly replaced by an image of her father. Could he see what was happening from his own private corner of eternity? What he saw had to sicken him, but Julie wanted him to turn angel and somehow save her from this night.