Unplugged

“Yeah, but that can be fixed.” He smiled at me, yellowed teeth glinting under the light of his Scroll.  He moved his cold, hard nose towards the side of my face, “You scared love? That’s good. They like them scared.” He moved back again taking in my features, “She’s blonde. We haven’t had a blonde one to sell in a while. They would pay…”

As soon as he said sell, my adrenaline surged. Never moving my eyes, I lifted my boot and brought it down hard on his foot.

He let go in surprise and pain, cursing.

I didn’t stick around to hear.

I ran.  

Three more steps… two…

Suddenly, my head jerked to a stop as my feet kept going. I landed on my back with a thud, the air wooshing from my lungs. The same hands that had grabbed my hood pulled me to my feet, slamming me roughly against the wall.

“Oh, that was a nice try, lass,” Hal hissed as he jammed my arms behind my back, “but you can’t get away that easily.” He leaned his head into my neck, grinding my face into the brick behind me. 

Andre laughed, humorlessly. “Do your thing, and let’s get outta here.” He threw down his cigarette and started towards the dark street.

I shifted back and forth, trying to free my arms, but he was too heavy. In trying to get them free, I was only scraping them harder against the wall.

Hal started wedging his leg between my thighs. My body betrayed me; my breath caught.

I could feel his cheek move up in a smile, “Yeah, baby. You just remember…”

I brought my knee up with as much force as I could. Even though there wasn’t much room for leverage, I connected well enough that he let go.

Sliding out from under him, I took off only to be jerked back again by my arm. I hit the wall at the same time he slapped me across the face with his large hand. My vision erupted in bursts of bright light.  

“Bad mistake,” he hissed, and barred my across the chest with a thick arm. “You will play nice, or we will do this until we do.” Despite my efforts to get free, he reached his arm inside my coat. Without giving it a second thought I turned my head, latching on to his face with my teeth. He roared in pain, “Why you little…” he brought his head forward, slamming it against mine.

The world started to go dark. My body limp.

My captor gave a sharp intake of breath, and let go.

I must look pretty bad, I thought. I laughed as I slid towards the cold floor.

Hal was lying in front of me, lifeless eyes staring above my head.

My vision grew darker.

A pair of black patent leather shoes stepped into the edge of my sight. A tanned hand reached down and closed Hal’s eyes, before reaching over to my own. I flinched. “Shh, go to sleep,” he said.

My eyes obeyed. My vision went dark. I slept.

______________________

My eyelids felt like sandpaper. My whole body ached, the sharpest pricks of pain radiating through my arms and my face. I turned my head and let out an involuntary groan. Scratch the previous statement. My head felt like someone had beaten me with a baseball bat.

“Your head?” I jerked my head towards the deep voice. My hands brushed the thin blanket laid across my body. He had put me on his couch. Without my coat and shoes.