Relentless Man Eater

Word Games

I don’t remember how I got here, but I remember the pain of him in my loins. And now my vision blurs as I look into his somehow amused, green eyes while he chokes me. I can’t believe that he’s human though he wears skin just like anyone else. Maybe he’s from Hell.

I’ve always considered myself relatively intelligent. I know that to escape I must use every bit of knowledge I have.

“No,” I cry, scratching at his hand. He has big, bear hands and only needs one to wrap around my neck.

He laughs and shakes me, causing me to cough. My eyes roll up to the ceiling and I fall limp like a rag doll, collapsing on his bed when he releases me.

“Poor thing,” I hear him say. His voice is deep and raspy like he eats cigarettes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I try to keep my breathing still. I want him to think that I’m a poor thing—I want him to think that I’m dead. I feel him get off the bed and I think he leaves after a couple moments. I crack my eye open and I see the door ajar; a dim, heavenly light flowing in to tempt me. I don’t know where he’s gone, but I don’t care. I bolt upright and run—now or never.

I fiddle with the front door, but once I’m outside I regret my decision and curse my situation. The air pinches at my naked body and I don’t even know what direction to run.

“Bitch,” he snarls at me.                                                                                                        

I scream, trying to run any direction away from his house.

“No!”

But my legs are weak and my midsection is sore from him slamming into me like an animal. I don’t look back, though. If I look back he will catch me. He’ll take me under his lumbering body that stinks of ashes and rape me again and make sure that I really die.

But it’s so dark. I just can’t see. No lights in the distance—nothing. The sky is dead and black—no moon. The stars are too far away to assist me; they know they can’t risk getting any closer to the demon that has kidnapped me. I’m running into an empty abyss. The ground hurts my feet and I stop. Tears erupt from my eyes and I bend over, screaming out and covering my face with my hands.

“No-o-ooo.”

“You can’t leave here,” he says from behind me. His voice is calm but condescending.

I yelp and back away. I can barely seem him, but the lights from his house silhouette his giant body. 

He pulls my blonde hair and growls another obscenity at me.

I pathetically throw my arms out as if trying to fly. “W-wait. G-give me a ch-chance.”

What am I saying? I saw his eyes before. Those weren’t the eyes of someone who gave chances.

He shakes me and snarls into my face. “You already had your chance. And now I’ve caught you again.”

“W-w-wait,” I cry out. “I-I-I—W-we-we-we—can play a g-g-game. A g-game.”

I’m surprised when his grip loosens.

“What kind of game?”

I take a moment to catch my breath and marvel that my shoddy idea interests him.

“U-uh, riddles. How are you with r-riddles?”

He falls silent for several seconds. I wish I know what he’s thinking.