Page 4 of Anarchy

The incessant pounding in my head is the first thing I feel when my brain decides to enter back into my body. I let out a groan, clutching my head between my hands as I curl my knees into my chest. I can feel the warmth from the sun on my face, but I don’t risk opening my eyes yet because I know it will just come with more pain. The cold ground doubles as my bed until the sound of twigs snapping pulls my attention. Footsteps are heading towards me, making my body go rigid with fear but also hope that maybe someone has come to help me. Tentatively opening my eyes, sun rays flood through my lashes, making sudden tears well in my eyes. My vision blurs as three large figures move slowly towards me. Dirty pairs of work boots and tennis shoes stop directly in front of me, obstructing my view further.

“Well, well, well… Look what we have here, boys. A damsel in distress if I do say so myself.” The voice coming from the dirty boots to my left.

“Thank God, please help me. There was a party and everything went to shit; now I’m lost.” My voice comes out jagged while I use my hands to push myself up into a sitting position. I’m sure I look like a mess right now, with leaves and twigs sticking out of my hair and mud marring my skin. I finally get a peek at the three men standing before me, and they all look vaguely familiar. I’m sure I’ve seen them around campus before, but I just can’t place them.

“Awe, got lost on your own, did ya?” Dirty work boots says, his blonde hair flopping in his face, covering his eyes. He does one of those pretty boy hair flicks to get it out of his stunning blue eyes that are so distracting I miss what one of the other guys says. Work boots sees me admiring him, and a smirk appears on his face.

“Hey, I asked you a question.” The first pair of tennis shoes says as he nudges my leg with the toe of his black Nikes. I look up at him dumbfounded, because I swear he didn’t ask me shit. “I asked if there was anyone else with you?” He says with exasperation, the brown curls in his hair bouncing as he shakes his head, brown eyes rolling with annoyance.

“N-no. I’m by myself. Like I said, I was at a party, and it turned into chaos. Not sure why really… But everyone was screaming and running. I tripped, fell down that hill, and ended up here.” Shrugging my shoulders at the end of my rambling. The last man on the far right is quiet as he observes me, his blue eyes glittering with mirth. His blonde hair is longer than work boots guy and could probably be put in one of those man buns. He’s the first one to offer to help me to my feet as he stretches out his hand for me to grab. I wobble like a baby deer on my heels, and he steadies me by clutching my biceps.

“Oh Mallory…” Work boots guy tsks at me, shaking his head, a chuckle coming out of his throat. How the hell does he even know my name, because I sure as hell don’t know his. “A pretty girl like you really shouldn’t be out here in the middle of nowhere all by your lonesome.” His smirk growing into a full-blown smile housing perfect straight white teeth. Honestly, he’s beautiful, and I’m almost ashamed that I don’t know his name. I’m so distracted by his prettiness that I don’t notice the man bun guy creeping up behind me until his thick arm is wrapped around my neck.

Panic surges through me as my body goes into fight or flight mode, and it’s currently chosen to fight. I bring my heel back hard, catching him in the dick; he wheezes and drops to his knees behind me. The other two guys are momentarily distracted as I bolt to the right, getting as far away from them as possible. Work boot guy demands Nike guy to get me, and his feet pound at the cold earth hard as he charges after me. My heart feels like it’s going to beat out of my chest. I amnotbuilt to run like this, especially in these heels. Tree branches snag at my short dress, ripping holes in it and scratching up my skin. A large log is in my pathway, and I send up a silent prayer to whoever is listening to get me over the damn thing. I leap into the air like I’ve seen those track people do with hurdles, but as I’m sailing over the top of it, a hard body collides with mine, taking me to the ground.

The impact of not only the ground but also the human boulder on top of me has the breath whooshing from my body. The man seems dazed for a second, also phased by the impact, giving me a moment to scramble back away from him. A wheezing laugh comes out of his sinister-looking mouth as he watches me try to get away like it’s the funniest joke he’s ever heard. I back up into something hard, swinging my head around, my eyes connecting with the pretty blue ones of work boot guy.

“Come on, baby, how about you be a good girl and stay still for me, yeah?” Talking to me like I'm a scared animal as he crouches down next to me. My breathing starts to pick up, and I gulp in a lung full of air before releasing a high-pitched scream. Pretty boy's face goes fromboy next doortothe devil you may knowin less than thirty seconds. His hands wrap around my neck and push me back onto the ground, thick thighs straddling my hips. “You really shouldn’t have done that. We could have done this the easy way, Mallory, but you always did like to play hard to get.” He chuckles as he squeezes his hands around my neck. I scratch at his arms, trying to get him to let up, but he doesn't; if anything, it eggs him on more. My vision wanes for the second time in 24 hours as I float slowly into darkness; the last thing I see this time is sparkling blue eyes.

* * *

I am rudely awakenedby falling off of something and onto a scratchy floor. Angry voices surround me, all jumbled and hard to hear over the roar of an engine. Rough hands grab under my arms and tug me back up onto whatever I was lying on, my head lands on something warm and cushiony. I peek my eyes open and look up into a pair of blue eyes, his blonde hair pulled back into an actual man bun this time. He grins down at me when he sees me staring back, his fingers running through my hair, making my skin crawl.

“Was kinda worried you weren’t gonna wake up there for a second.” He chuckles, and I push myself up into a sitting position, scooting all the way over to the other side of the truck. Clutching at the door handle and pushing my whole body weight against it, I wave my hands and bang against the glass in a wave of panic. Hoping that a passerby will notice me. “Seriously? May as well save your energy for what we have in store for you, pretty girl.” That makes me pause and turn back towards him. I cross my arms over my chest and squeeze my thighs together. Tucking my legs underneath me to show as little skin as I can.

“Who are you?” The question comes out of me with venom making the two men up front cackle like hyenas.

“Finally asking the good questions, baby.” Pretty boy says as he drives the truck with one hand on the wheel. “I’m Chad; you’d think you’d know my name since we’re in the same chemistry class.”

“Derek.” Nike shoes say from the passenger seat, not even bothering to turn around to look at me.

“Last but certainly not least, I’m Jake. We have psychology together. The asshole up there is in your business class.” He points at Derek, rolling his eyes.

“Okay great… Now that I know who you are, what am I doing here?” I end in a screech, pounding my fists against the car seat. We sit in awkward silence, none of them daring to speak. The truck veers off the main road onto a partially gravel one that I’m pretty sure no one has driven on in years. I’m jostled in my seat as Chad hits every damn rock and pothole in this road. After what feels like an entire hour of bouncing around in the backseat, we pull out into a grassy alcove within the wall of trees, a log cabin sitting in the middle. Once the truck comes to a stop, all three look at me, and it makes my stomach roll and my skin crawl.

“Where are we?” I whisper out.

“You’re new home. At least until we think you’ve learned your lesson. We’re nowhere near Louisiana anymore.” Jake responds and ends in a chuckle.

“What the hell do you mean we’re not in Louisiana anymore!” I screech out because I swear I haven’t been out long enough for us to be in a whole other state.

“You’ve been out for days. Ever heard of chloroform? It truly is a beautiful thing.”I stare at him in horror at his admission before he continues on,“Do you like games, pretty girl?” Jake asks, and I shake my head like a demented bobblehead because I know what he’s about to say next will not be a good time for me. “Awe, that’s too bad… Because you baby are the game, and whoever breaks you first, wins.” He finishes with a wide smile on his face, as if he’s telling me I won the lottery. I let out an ear-piercing scream, turning around and reaching for the door handle again, but then my head is slammed into the window and everything goes dark for a third time.

ChapterFive

MALLORY

My head feels like it’s splitting into two, as if I’m on a tilt-a-whirl at the county fair, and it instantly makes me pissed. If their goal was to give me a concussion, then they just might have succeeded. Either that or the mass amount of chloroform they’ve used on me is taking its toll.

Something hard nudges my side, convincing me to wake up more, but I really don’t want to. I’m not ready to face the horrors that are sure to await me. When I don’t comply, the nudge turns into a full-blown kick to my ribs, making me whimper and curl into myself.

“Wake the fuck up already! We want to play.” I open my eyes to see Chad crouched in front of me, a not-so-friendly smile on his face. He grabs me by my hair and wrenches me into a sitting position until we are face to face. “You know, if you weren’t such a stuck-up bitch, this wouldn’t be happening.” He says, his head tilting to the side. My mind whirls with thoughts on how and when I was a stuck-up bitch to him, but I keep coming up blank. “You don’t remember, do you?” Chad whispers after analyzing my clueless expression. He leans in with his mouth next to my ear, warm breath wafting over it, his teeth nipping at my earlobe. In any other situation, this might turn me on, but right now I feel like I’m going to hurl. “Guess you’ll find out soon enough.” He jumps to his feet, his fingers still tangled in my hair, as he drags me across the floor towards the door.

My heels bang against the wooden floor as I kick and scream, my nails scratching his hands, wishing he would let go. I don’t particularly love my blonde hair, but I’d rather not have a large bald patch in the middle of my head either. He pulls me over the threshold before using his entire body weight to toss me into the middle of the next room. My body hits the hard floor with a crack as I roll to a stop in front of a black leather couch. I lay on my back, stare at the vaulted ceiling and try to catch my breath. My head flopping to the side, I check out my surroundings, which isn’t much. A large flat-screen TV is mounted on the wall with a small table underneath it. Multiple sets of footsteps echo through the almost barren room as they walk towards me.

Once again, I’m staring at the three pairs of dirty shoes that belong to the assholes who kidnapped me. Jake is the first to squat down to my eye level. He reaches out and pets my hair almost like you would a puppy, admiring how soft it is. Derek squats down next with an inquisitive look on his face, as if he’s trying to figure out what to do with me. Chad just stands there and drops some leather objects on the floor in front of me without saying a word. Jake picks them up, turning them over in his hands before grabbing my wrists and sliding the cuffs on so fast I don’t realize what’s going on until it’s done. Jake uses the chain between the cuffs to drag me to my feet, legs shaking with soreness from muscles I didn’t even know existed.

“Here’s what’s going to happen, Mallory. You’re going to be our good girl and follow all of our directions, and you just might make it out of this in one piece. Nod if you understand.” I go ahead and nod my head because what other choice do I have at this point? Jake walks me out the door by my cuffs like a dog on a leash. We trail around to the back of the house, and what I see immediately makes me jolt and plant my feet to the ground. Jake notices my resistance and the sun-shiny face he’s had this entire time clouds over while he tugs at the cuffs, making me trip and fall flat on my face. My nose bounces off the grass, and I’m surprised it doesn’t start bleeding with the impact. Next, I’m being dragged across the ground by my wrists, twigs, and small rocks cutting into my skin as we go. Once I’m where they want me, Jake drops my cuffs while they all stare down at me.

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