“Let me go!” the woman fights me. I smack her across the face and she nearly crumbles to the floor. I pick her up off of her feet and toss her over my shoulder. She’s skinny and dainty in size, so it’s not difficult to carry her across the room in several large steps.
I feel eyes on me, jealous and irritated eyes.
“Don’t worry, everyone! We’ll still have plenty of fun, believe me,” Dante assures the crowd.
My eyes meet Stephan’s from across the room, and his lips pull up at the corners before he mouths to me.
Have fun.
All the way up the stairs to my bedroom the woman kicks and screams, and no one does a thing about it. They all continue their conversations and God knows what else as I ascend the stairs with her.
She scratches at my neck and tries to knee me in the stomach, but it does no good.
“Stop it,” I growl the second we’re in my room, the door slammed shut behind us.
“Let me go, leave me alone! You-You fucking monster!” She flails her entire body as I set her down on the floor, and the second she’s free she goes flying across the room to the corner, covering her naked body with her hands.
“Calm down,” I tell her quietly.
“You calm down!” she cries, her dark hair knotted and tangled around her head. “Don’t touch me!”
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I tell her as I step closer. My voice lowering to a whisper. “I need you to shut up, though, just for a second.”
Her breath is ragged and she balls her hands into fists. “What do you want with me? My body? Money? I don’t have anything to give you!”
“Shhh,” I hush her as I step even closer and slip my hand over her mouth. “I’m not going to do anything to you. I’m going to get you out of here. You’ll be safe. Do you understand?”
She blinks her wet eyes. “Nod if you understand.”
She nods her head.
I pull my hand off her mouth. She’s shaking from head to toe. “Now, I need you to be calm,” I tell her. “What’s your name?”
I watch her throat move as she swallows, and tries to settle herself. “Jules,” she explains. “I’m Jules. I’m just here for Spring break, I—” she stops and shakes her head. “I want to go home. I don’t want to be here.”
“I’m going to get you home, okay?” I tell her softly. “These people are dangerous. You don’t want to mess with them. I have to make it look like I’ve hurt you and I’m taking you out of here to…dispose of you.”
She gasps. “Dispose of me?” she asks. “They expect you t-to kill me? Oh my God, what is happening, what the fuck is happening?” She starts hyper-ventilating.
“It’s okay, shhh.” I say as I pull my knife out of my side holster. She yelps at the sight of it.
“I know, okay, it’s going to…be rough, but we’re going to get through this. You got it?” I look her right in the eyes. “I need to cut you. I need some of your blood. But I’ll only cut you where you tell me to… Jules, Jules. Hey. Breathe in and out.”
Jules takes a deep breath in, and a deep breath out, and then a second time, a third time. She’s not trembling as violently anymore.
“Okay,” she mumbles. “If you promise you’ll get me out of here.”
“I promise. I’m going to take you somewhere safe, and they’ll help you get home.” I point my knife toward her. “Now, tell me where.”
She looks down at her arms and hands, seeming uncertain. “Here,” she says and points toward the back of her forearms. I slowly slice into her skin, just enough to make the blood ooze out of the wound.
Jules cries softly, squeezing her eyes shut and biting down so hard on her lip as I make a second cut that she nearly goes red from the pain.
“You’re going great,” I tell her. “Now, give me another spot.”
She points to her thigh and I make two short but deeper cuts along the top of her thigh, and watch as the blood drips out of the wounds. Something in me ignites as I do this. I feel a rush of pleasure through my body that makes me sick to my stomach.
Jules doesn’t want this; I shouldn’t be feeling this way. I swallow hard and remind myself that I’m doing this to get her out of here. The blood on my knife isn’t for me to consume; the cuts I’m making aren’t for me to get off on. Not like with Tommy.
