Page 4 of Bound to Death

Like I was trained to do, any emotions I felt didn’t surface in my expression. I didn’t let the fear reach my chest. Doing a slow turn, I counted off the barking assholes. Normally, I’d laugh at the outright ridiculousness of their joint endeavor to appear intimidating while sounding like a bunch of house pets, but it was me who’d pay the heaviest price if I didn’t focus.

Five.Shit. I could take two, maybe three if I was in better shape, but five wasn’t something I trained for. Street fights didn’t compare to competition-level fighting. Guys like them played dirty. I’d need to be clever to get out of this unscathed.

This wasn’t the movies. I couldn’t pull a Jackie Chan no matter how much I wanted to. The fighter in me yearned to stick around and see if I could make any of them cry, but I knew I was better off running. So, that was exactly what I’d do once they gave me an opening.

No doubt, they’d underestimate me, so I was the one with the advantage, not them. They’d get cocky with their man-muscles and overwhelming number, but I was fast as shit and hadn’tgotten the buzz I wanted earlier. Now I was starting to think that getting splashed with my drink was a blessing in disguise.

“Bitches like you need to be taught a lesson,” Bad Lay growled, the charming mask coming right off.

I’d called him right from the start. What we had here was a full-grown, bona fide predator. Even his lines were right out of the serial rapist playbook. Worse, he’d found people as equally depraved and violent as he was. From the way they closed in on me, they’d done this before.

Someone out there had been their first victim. Someone was already living every day with unresolved fear and trauma because of this shitty group of beasts. So, for that victim and any others targeted by these bastards, I’d get a few hits in before I made my escape.

Funny how I’d been running from an unknown offender every night in my dreams for months, but now that I was surrounded by them, I wasn’t panicking the same way. If anything, I was numb and terrifyingly calm. I didn’t have a reason to think this would end well. To anyone else, I wasn’t going to come out of this night alive. But for some reason, it felt like I wasn’t alone. Like there was a force greater than myself keeping me safe.

Before I could ponder the feeling, one of the assholes from behind made a grab for me. I evaded his reach and used his own weight to send the bastard colliding with the asphalt. He hit the ground with a groan. I drove my heel into his stomach, intent on puncturing it, and his cry told me I’d at least done damage.

His buddy ran at me next, far larger than the first. He wasn’t strong in the sense of muscles. He just had weight on him. It’d be harder to lift his body over mine without causing substantial injury to myself, so I opted for assaults that crippled him quickly. I’d use his excessive fat against him.

Before the new asshole could get close enough to get his arms around me, I landed the flat of my foot on his kneecap todisable it. Without wasting another movement, I kicked my leg out and sunk my heel into his stomach. I used all my strength to push him back, because heavy bastards like him couldn’t keep their balance at a certain point. He teetered, his own weight his greatest adversary, and fell straight back. When the fat bastard cracked his head on the ground, I recovered several steps to get space between us.

I didn’t have time to worry if I’d killed him or not. With my exit cleared of attackers, I started to run the opposite direction so I could get to a more trafficked walkway. But one of the bastards on the ground snatched my ankle, and I lost my footing.

Protecting my head, I hit the asphalt on my side. The impact took the wind out of me. It’d been a long time since I landed on something hard enough to feel the echo of it in my bones, so it took me longer than usual to recover.

It was a mistake I couldn’t afford to make.

Bad Lay was already flipping me onto my back, his confidence that I was subdued lifting his mouth into a sinister smile. I got my fingers on him, ready to rip his face to shreds, but the other two pack members held my arms down while the first two I’d taken out recovered from what I’d done to them.

Not dead.Unfortunately.

“That’s better. You put up a good fight, but you’ll be crying when I put this massive cock inside you. You’ll hate how much you like it.”

I spat in my attacker’s face, grunting and fighting off one of the guys who tried to slide his hand up my leg. “Your micro-penis has never satisfied a woman, which is the entire reason you’re here forcing it on one, you sadistic shit.”

Murderous rage burned in my attacker’s eyes before he wrapped his hands around my throat and squeezed until I couldn’t take in air. “I think it’s better when you can’t talk, slut. Let’s hope you don’t die too quickly. I want you to feel everysingle cock that rips you wide open everywhere there’s a hole before we leave you here like the whore you are for everyone to find.”

So not just a serial rapist. A killer.

The reality of my situation settled into my stomach, and the urge to vomit struck so hard I worried I couldn’t stop it. But I’d be the one to suffer if I threw up. I didn’t want to fight this hard only to asphyxiate on my own disgust.

The asshole relinquished his hold on my throat long enough to allow me to cough and suck in greedy gulps of air, but it was only so he and his revolting asshole crew could get the button and zipper of their pants open to do what they threatened.

But not without a fucking fight.

I kicked my legs up, hitting the gross pervert hovering over me in the stomach. Growling, he violently prized my thighs apart, and his buddies pinned my feet to the ground to keep my legs open. I struggled, bucking my body and trying desperately to dislodge the weight restraining my limbs, but my head knew what my heart refused to acknowledge.

They’d gotten me.

I wasn’t going to get away. I was better off waiting for another opportunity. But I kept fighting. I tried over and over to outmaneuver them and get the bastards off me, writhing and struggling because my life depended on it. I’d never let them have the satisfaction of my tears or fear.

I’d fight until I was fucking dead.

Bad Lay tore through my pantyhose to get it out of the way, but then the weight holding down my arms and legs was suddenly gone. I could move them again, and it didn’t make any sense why. In my confusion, I peered down, thoughts in disarray. I couldn’t see them. And then I noticed Bad Lay was no longer above me. He’d just disappeared…

I couldn’t figure out what was happening until I heard someone out of eyeshot make a sound that was an odd mix of a moan and scream. The sounds that followed were grotesque. Like I was in the middle of a horror movie where someone was dismembering several bodies. It was the haunting sound of bones breaking and flesh tearing. Deep voices groaned and pleaded for their lives before they all went deadly quiet.

The sound of liquid hitting the pavement finally encouraged me to sit up. It wasn’t happening to me, but I couldn’t be sure I wasn’t next. If I had to run, I needed to see what I was running away from. Because the way it sounded, it wasn’t human.

---