Page 124 of Creep

My body convulsed in disgust when I felt large hands pawing at my breasts, then my shirt.

His hands moved underneath, pressing down on my bare skin.

There was no escaping this.

I shut my eyes tight and hoped for it to end quickly. Or for something—anything—to happen, for me to be knocked out cold so I wouldn’t have the memory of what was about to occur.

Just…

Shouts echoed in my mind. It took me a moment to realize it wasn’t happening inside my thoughts but outside.

And as if by magic, the weight seemed to have been lifted off me.

I took in a huge gasp of air and sat up, looking around and trying to make sense of what was happening.

It didn’t work. My mind was in a jumble, and I obviously got my wish granted. I was dreaming. Perhaps one of them got too rough with me and knocked me out cold, and now I was dreaming about Mael being here.

Mael was fighting off the men.

Mael had always seemed larger than life and capable, but this?

I didn’t react when Mael punched the bald guy in the face, knocking him down. He wasn’t out cold from the punch, but it was hard enough for him to stay on the ground, giving Mael enough time to deal with the other guy.

Mael easily dodged the man’s arms, twisting around and kicking him on the side. The man stumbled back and hit the wall with a loud thud.

What was going on?

He recovered quickly and came at Mael, his fist raised. But Mael had been expecting that and obviously knew what he was doing because despite the man being bigger than him, he was slower and not as skilled.

Mael hit him on the side of his face, wrapping his arms around the man’s waist and pushing him back against the wall before he could recover. The man tried to throw Mael off by punching down his back, and even though I could hear the force of each hit, it didn’t seem to have any effect on Mael. He continued to corner the guy, hitting him over and over again until he was too tired to do anything.

Mael grabbed a fistful of the man’s hair, pulling back and banging his head against the wall. Blood gushed out from behind him, and I didn’t know how the man had bled, only that he had.

The man blinked slowly before he slid to the floor. That was when I noticed a nail protruding out of the wall, which was why Mael had pushed him toward it. Did Mael just…

Did Mael just kill the man?

The bald man had taken that time to recover, now sneaking up on Mael with a knife. And that was what pulled me out of my reverie.

“Mael!” I screamed just as the bald man rushed forward. Mael turned around in time and managed to knock the knife out of his hands.

The man grunted when Mael tackled him to the floor, crawling on top of his body and grabbing the knife, pointing it straight at the man’s nose.

The bald man froze, holding his hand up.

Mael looked over at me, his blue eyes glowing dark.

They seemed to assess me, his expression getting darker and darker over every injury he could see.

He moved the knife down and pressed it against the man’s cheek, causing him to squeal just as blood dripped down from the side of his face.

I flinched, trying to keep the nausea at bay as Mael tsked. “You know, my baby didn’t even make this much sound while you and your friend were holding her down.”

His baby?

Me. He was talking about me. I shook my head and tried to back away from the scene unfolding in front of me… trying to back away from Mael.

My eyes moved over to the prone body against the wall. There had been no hesitation in Mael’s movements. No regret. He knew what he was doing.

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