Taint

Chapter One - Subjugation

It's funny how one day, one f*cking day can unravel everything. An entire life down the sh*tter, she thought as she stared up at the line of trees that surrounded her back yard. Images of it replaying in her mind just like always, always in the same clarity, never blissfully fading.

She walks down the empty hotel hallway to the indoor pool, going to find a bag they'd forgotten.

She sees two men in the hall walking toward where she'd come from, the elevator that led to the lobby. Some perverse cat calls ensue since she was walking around the maze of hotel hallways with nothing but a long see-through top to cover up her skimpy bikini.

One's face is a blur but the others is all too clear, dusky skinned, not a bad looker, with stubble all over the bottom of his face. Her eyes meet his as she walks by, his eyes containing an almost insane glint as he obviously appraises her.

She's stricken by a flash of fear but then the moment is gone and she shakes the feeling off. She should be flattered that anyone finds her stick thin body even slightly attractive.

Thea turns down a few more halls until she gets to the pool area; its night so there are only a few other people there, all women, a little girl along with them. She glances quickly to the area her and her friends had all been siting. Nothing there, nothing had been forgotten.

She had gone there for nothing; hadn't forgotten anything at all. At that point she finally remembers where she had put the supposedly abandoned bag.

It must have been destiny, this slip of thought.

Thea had paid for it thoroughly.

Maybe god was just sadistic. Making her vulnerable. Forcing her to the wrong place at the wrong time.

Why me? Maybe if Thea had been born with a p*nis she could have fought harder.

No, if she had been male she probably wouldn't have even drawn the attention.

Unaware of her destiny being set in motion she leaves the pool and goes around and around the winding halls, ready to go home.

When she rounds the second to last corner to the elevator though, she sees him there sitting against the wall nonchalantly. The dusky skinned man she'd passed before.

He's mumbling something to himself she can't seem to understand.

The man sees her then and stands up.

"Knew you'd be back." He opens the door and motions her inside.

She stutters, "I-I-I have to get back to my friends mister. S-s-so I'll just be on my way," she says taking a step back, planning on running back to the pool, where there was at least some other people.

His face turns angry,"Come on bitch I don't have time for your fucking games, If you want i'll pay, just get the fuck in," he slurs.

Her eyes wide Thea starts to back away fast. She turns to run.

Thea feels his hand grasp her arm, she turns to see his face close, the stench of alcohol thick on his breathe

"Come."

He looks at her with cruel dark eyes and she starts to shake, scared to her very core. In a panic now she kicks him in the groin.

Thea runs then, as fast as her feet can take her, heading to the pool where it was safe. Blessed safety.

She never gets there. She's too slow, her legs too short.

Thea's heart rams into her ribs as she feels the heavy body tackling her from behind.

She hits the carpet, her cheek getting rug burn as its pushed down. Thea, lungs evacuated of air, has to waste a few precious seconds trying to force it back in. She finally gets enough air and tries to scream but her vocal cords are paralyzed, too much in shock to function properly. Then rage comes.

"GET THE F*CK OFF ME! HELP! SOMEONE F*CKING HELP ME!" at that moment she can't think clearly, only anger fueling her as she writhes violently beneath him.

The freedom to make any noise is short lived though. He flips her over quickly and punches her so hard in the stomach her vision swims and she feels like she'll choke on the vomit making its way up her esophagus.

"You make one more mother F*CKING sound and I slit your throat!" he violently whispers, putting a pocket knife to her slender neck and pressing down slightly, cutting just deep enough to make a bead of blood drop from the torn flesh.

She looks up at him, her vision dark at the edges.

He was her Death, her own personal Reaper. No matter the outcome, no matter if her body lived through this, she felt her soul would die today.

Two months later she continued to stare off into the trees as her mind started to replay it all over again. It wouldn't stop no matter what she did. Always in the back of her mind; and sleep didn't offer any downtime so she'd pretty much abandoned any hope of a reprieve.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd slept actually.

Whatever. Whenever she slept she was transported back to that room, but this time while her body was violated violently she began to decompose. She'd look down at herself and stare into her own midnight eyes as the skin all over her body would flake off and rot until all that was left was a skeleton. And at the end the grisly left overs of what had once been her face...smiles. Content with its demise.

Stupid melodramatic subconscious.

Emotionally speaking it was like Thea was a great big hole. It all passed right through her, nothing sticking. Outwardly though, she laughed when she was supposed to, smiled, frowned, but it was all automatic. Knee-jerk reflex. Thea was the living dead without the cannibalism.

She was fake like a china doll. Hollow, just for show.

Thea turned onto her back and the hammock squeaked. She looked up at the twinkling stars surrounded by black void, their glow visible to humans only because of the darkness that had shrouded them. And for no good reason other than they were so pretty and pure, she started to sob. Not pretty little tears but gut wrenching sobs of pain. And the realization of what had been done to her body finally hit her.

I am tainted.