How It's Going To Be [h.s.]

Chapter 48

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Eli and I spent the day wandering Stockholm while Harry and the rest of the boys practiced on the set of the Swedish singing competition show they would be performing on the following evening. It was easy to get lost in the beauty of Stockholm. The city had character and personality in a way that only old cities can have. Each city block told a new, intriguing story.

That afternoon, Eli became less of a security guard and more of a friend. He walked beside me, not behind me like he usually did. He showed me around his favorite places in Stockholm from when he lived there and acted as a translator for me at shops.

At dusk, we walked through a shopping district where the streets were lined with high-end stores. The security guard standing outside a jewelry store nodded to Eli before disappearing into the store to end his shift. A few straggling shoppers hurried to their cars from the threshold of lush boutiques. I looked down to check my phone. In thirty minutes, Harry would arrive back at the hotel and I wanted to be there to meet him.

When I put my phone away and refocused my attention on the street, it suddenly felt like the twilight zone. The street darkened exponentially in the few moments it had taken for me to check my phone. The sky was fading to a deep, royal blue. Streetlights had flickered on, but two of them up ahead were burned out creating a vortex of blackness. No more shoppers were on the walkways around us. Everything felt very eerie.

Eli fell out of step with me and returned to his normal position nearly ten paces behind me. I was just about to turn and ask Eli to rejoin me, but I became distracted. A cool breeze danced around my knees and carried a piece of paper from the center of the walkway to the edge of the street. My eyes followed the piece of paper as it dashed left then right and was caught in a grate along the pavement.

Something tightened around my forearm and pulled me to the right crudely. Before I could even scream, my mind flashed back to Berlin when the fan grabbed me. I stumbled along the pavement as the person dragged me into an alley nestled between the two burned out streetlights in the curtain of darkness.

I could only see shadows splashed across my captor's face. He was just slightly taller than me, but very forceful. He gripped my shoulders and shoved me against the brick wall of the alley. My head crashed into the bricks and I nearly saw stars. I shook my head to clear the blur from my eyes. I felt disoriented and my senses slowed, allowing the stranger to take more control of me. My body slumped under his relentless grasp.

"Eli?" It came out as a hoarse whisper. I was paralyzed by fear.

In a calculated motion, the man kicked my left ankle causing me to spread my legs apart. He forced a knee between my thighs and used his hips to hold me flush against the cold wall. I winced as the backs of my arms and legs scraped against the rough brick.

"Eli?" It was barely louder than the first time.

The man began speaking Swedish in a deceptively soft voice as if he were trying to soothe my rampant fear. Slowly, he reached down and took a handful of the skirt of my dress and dragged it toward my hip. The scent of his cologne was dominated by the scent of stale cigarettes. His words stopped suddenly. I tried to force my weight against him, but he was too strong. His breathing was ragged in my ear.

"Eli?" I felt a deeper sense of panic. Where had he gone? Wasn't he just behind me? 

The man pressed his hips against mine harder, the skirt of my dress still fisted by him at my hip. I felt the cool breeze caress my now bare thigh. I felt a cry building in my chest, but couldn't release it.