To Trust a Giant

Chapter 23

Stella awoke from her slumber in an unfamiliar place. She was on a cold wooden table, this was definitely not in Jason's apartment. But where was she? Stella sat up and tried to look out to in the distance but everything was so dark. Yet, this place felt eerily familiar to her.

“Hello?” Stella called out. “Is anyone there?”

Footsteps echoed in the distance. Stella should have felt relieved that someone heard her call, but a sense of dread grew in the pit of her stomach as the steps drew closer and closer to her.
A quiet but cold laugh rang out from the darkness. “I found you, Stella.”

“NOOO!” Stella's eyes widened with horror as she realized where she was. What happen to her? How did she end up back at Mike's house? She couldn't remember anything but she knew she had to get out now before he caught her. Scrambling to her feet, she bolted away from the loud footsteps following her, but before she could get very far, a large butcher knife slammed down in her path, just inches away from chopping her in half. But the most haunting thing was looking into the reflection of the knife.

Stella wore the little black dress that Mike always made her wear. It revealed all the jagged scars that she tried to hide on her arms and legs.

“Just where do you think you're going?” Mike's voice growled.

His hand shot out from the dark and grabbed Stella. She screamed in terror as she was roughly pinned to the table and forced to look at her captor in the face. Mike was a beautiful man, but that's how gets people. Black hair slicked back with the most expensive hair gel, intense blue eyes that shot daggers at her, and a twisted smile that froze Stella to her core.

“You ran away.” He said coldly as he dragged his blade towards her left arm. “I didn't appreciate that.”
Stella screamed out in agony as the knife slowly cut into her skin. Tears spilled out of her eyes as blood oozed out of her forearm. “Stop, please I won't run again. I promise! I promise!”
To her surprise, Mike stopped cutting into her arm. Stella stared up at Mike in shock, watching what he would do next.

A cold smile formed on his face. “I know you won't, because I'm going to make sure you never run again!” He rose the butcher knife high in the air. Stella cried and begged him not to do it, but he only laughed as he swiftly brought the knife down.

~~~~~~

Stella woke up screaming. The room around her was still dark, but she knew she was in Jason's apartment, but that didn't make her feel safe. Mike was out there, Ed was out there, a whole world of giants who wanted to hurt her were out there. How could she go back out on the streets if her abusers were still out there, possibly looking for her? She began sobbing. What was she going to do?

Suddenly, warm flesh began to wrap around her. Stella screamed out and started to lash out at the hand as flashes of her past reminded her that her nightmares were a reality.