I
The Ford Fiesta pulled into the Walgreens parking lot and slowed to a stop beside an abandoned shopping cart. I was at the point of falling asleep and waking up but only to fall right back asleep again. “You look tired,” Leon said, “so I guess I’ll just zip in and out real fast and I’ll drop you off at your … apartment?”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” I whispered. I saw a distorted vision of my boyfriend walking towards the Walgreens through my squinted eyes. My head was rested against the soft cushion of the headrest on the passenger’s seat. It was a lot warmer in the car than it was on the porch -- Leon had the heat turned on full blast.
I didn’t really want to go back to the apartment, but I knew it would be kind of an awkward morning if I stayed over at Leon’s, with his parents and all. I had slept over there a couple times, and each time his mother almost caught me when I was sneaking out --
I heard a noise. Like somebody stepping on a pile of leaves. I turned my tired head to the right and saw a blurred object swing towards me. The glass from the window exploded in my face and before I could react, two greedy hands were pulling me through the now shattered window. I felt a horrid pain as the shards of glass still sticking out the window scratched against my stomach and tore part of my hoodie. The warm sensation of blood began to flow out.
My attacker threw me on the slushy pavement and then almost immediately picked me up to my feet. I felt the cold steel of the barrel of a gun push up against the side of my neck and I squealed out in fright. Then a low, desperate voice found its way into my right eardrum.
“Don’t say a fucking word. Start walking towards those woods over there and keep going. Get moving.”
I started to slowly walk towards the forest at the other side of the parking lot. I thought about yelling Leon’s name. Yeah, this guy might shoot me if I did that, but he was probably going to kill me anyways. I inhaled some air and was about to scream my head off when I heard the hammer of the gun slam down. I froze with fear and almost urinated in my pants.
“Don’t even think about it, bitch. Get moving. Faster!”
Tears began to escape my eyeballs as I made my way to the woods. When I got there he told me to keep going. I did as I was told. We went about fifty more yards and then he pushed me against a large log, which I of course tripped over and tumbled to the snowy ground. I turned around on my back and finally got a look at my assailant. He was tall and skinny, not very muscular but strong enough to pull a woman out of a car window. He wore a brown unzipped coat covered in dirt and underneath the coat he wore an old gray hoodie with the hood up. His big toe was sticking out of his left combat boot and there were countless tears in his dirty blue jeans. He had crumbles of food still stuck in his black bushy beard. The man smiled, revealing that what teeth he had left were stained with yellow nicotine. He gripped his hand (which was wrapped in white tape) around the handle of his snub nose pistol and raised it towards me.
“Take your shirt off,” he commanded.
“No,” I whispered, still crying. He ran at me and kicked me in the gut. I gasped in pain.
“Take your fucking shirt off!”
I reluctantly slid my hoodie off.
“Your shirt, too, bitch.”
I did as I was told.
“Oh … nice,” he said, showing off his yellow teeth again.
Fucking scum. I wanted to strangle the life out of him.
“Now your pants.”
I did as I was told. My shoes came off with them.
“Your little panties, too. You should know the drill by now, lovely.”
“Fuck you,” I said. He kicked me in the gut, again. This time he rabidly swung his boot five times. I felt the blood rising up in my throat. I never vomited my own blood until then, and let me tell you, it doesn’t feel good.
“Take … them … off!”
I did as I was told.
I saw his repulsive smile again as he unbuttoned his pants, letting them fall to his ankles. When he got on top of me he pushed me farther down into the snow. It was cold. So cold. I felt unwanted warmness when he made his way inside of me. He began to thrust awkwardly but soon found his loathsome rhythm. I yelled out in pain. I screamed until I thought my lungs were going to collapse then I screamed some more. I cried for help. For God. For anybody, really. I reached my hands up and scratched at his eyeballs. I heard him yelp out in surprise. “Bitch, you’re pay for that,” I heard him whisper. He reached his head down and bit a chunk of skin out of my left breast. My cries turned inaudible, my tears increased, and his thrusts evolved more violently.
I thought it would never end. Would this go on forever? Him moaning and me crying? Then I saw a figure approach us. He was a muscular man with long red hair. He was holding that log that I had tripped over before. He raised it above his head and swung down on the side of my aggressor’s face. He fell off of me and into the snow. I looked up and saw my boyfriend. My Leon. My savior.
He looked at me with pity then turned his attention back to the rapist. “Fuckin scum,” Leon said. “You like doing this shit, huh? Motherfucker!” He swung the log down on him again. “What the fuck did you do? You fucking bit her? Jesus Christ!” He swung down again. “You like to rape people!? Is that what you do, huh? You fucking piece of shit!” He swung down again. Leon tossed the log away and picked up the fallen pistol. “I hate motherfuckers like you, you know that? You’re nothing but a wasted load from your father. You ain’t never gonna hurt anybody again, you hear me? Never again!” Leon raised the gun two inches away from the rapist’s penis and pulled the trigger. The gunshot echoed throughout the forest and no doubt through the Walgreens parking lot.
I was sitting a couple feet away from them with my bare knees to my face and my arms wrapped around my legs. It was so cold but I was in too much pain to get up and find my clothes. Blood trickled down from my breast to my stomach to the ground. I sat there and watched Leon take action. I watched as he blew off the man’s penis and I watched as the man screamed. Screamed as I had screamed.
Leon started walking towards me. He saw the blood on my body. He saw the look of terror across my face. “Goddamnit,” he whispered. He turned back around and raised the pistol again. “It just ain’t good enough,” Leon whispered, and then pulled the trigger. The bullet was injected out of the muzzle like a fighter jet and whizzed through the man’s skull and came to a complete stop a couple miles under the earth.
Leon approached me with my clothes. He helped me put them on and then carried me back to the Ford Fiesta. We drove away from the distant sirens in utter silence.
II
He stopped the car in his driveway and looked at me. “Hey, are you alright?”
“I’ll be fine,” I whispered. My chest was throbbing with pain.
“I got some peroxide so if you don’t want to go to the hospital you can pour that stuff on your bite mark. I’m sorry I let that happen to you, Kristie. I should have never left you alone. It’s my fault --”
“No it isn’t. It’s no one fault. You could have never foreseen that happening.”
“It just isn’t fair. Why you? What makes somebody do something so disgusting like that?” Leon asked. “He didn’t deserve to die, though. He deserved something much worse then death. We can only hope he suffers an eternity in Hell now.”
“And more,” I smiled. It was the first smile I was able to make since before the attack. I actually thought I would never be able to smile ever again.
“I’m in trouble, aren’t I?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, Kristie, I killed a guy.”
“Yeah, but you were protecting me. You’re not to blame.”
“I didn’t have to kill him, though. We had a chance to run away, and I’m sure the evidence will discover that. They’re charge me with manslaughter. Probably as an adult, too.”
I tried to think about it, but it was hard to get a good clear thought. I was still trembling with pain and fright. “So what are we going to do?” I asked.
“Well, you’re not going to do anything. I’m probably gonna have to go on the run for awhile --”
“What? Why? They won’t catch you.”
“Everybody gets caught eventually, Kristie. It’s as simple as that. But I can get away before the investigation gets underway.”
“Fine, but I’m going with you.”
He looked at me in shock, as if he never expected to hear those words come out of my mouth. “Okay …” he said. “but we’re gonna need some money, of course. A lot, since we’re gonna be living a life on the run. Oh Jesus, did I just say that? A life on the run? Heh heh.”
Leon actually laughed, which in turn made me laugh. Another thing I thought I’d never do again. “How are we going to get money?” I asked.
“Well, I don’t know yet. I guess I can sell some stuff at the pawn shop or something. I’m gonna sleep on it, okay? Maybe something will come to me in my dreams. Do you want me to drive you back to your apartment, or do you wanna come in with me?”
I desperately wanted to go into Leon’s house, but decided against it.
III
I creaked the front door open and looked around. It was almost four in the morning. It seemed Mom and Craig had gone to sleep. Good. I limped in the bathroom with the Walgreens bag and gently closed the door. I took my soaked clothes off and tossed them in the corner. The bastard had bit down pretty good. It was still bleeding a little bit. I took a wet washcloth and pressed it against the wound. Then I unscrewed the cap of the peroxide bottle and poured some of it in the hole. It stung a tad bit but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. Bubbles began conjuring like a witch’s cauldron. When I got out of the shower I opened the medicine cabinet and was psyched to see a box of gauze. Just what I needed. I fixed up my wound and limped to my bed. It was so hard to walk; everything was sore. As I lay there I hugged an old stuff bear of mine tightly, silently crying again. So many thoughts were going through my head. The most recent one was what if I had AIDS now? Some kind of sexual transmitted disease? I would go to the doctor soon. I would make up some lie about why I wanted the checkup, but no matter what; I was going to find out. A half hour later I drifted off into an uneasy sleep.
