It had been a hard limit for a long time. She had known how much he wanted to do this, and how the mere suggestion of it would awaken something within him that terrified her. She had not admitted it for a long time, but that part of him, despite the fear it instilled in her, was a fascination as well. For months, she had teased him, withheld or refused only to see the darkening of his eyes and the twitch in his shoulder followed by a forced relaxation as he kept himself in check. Finally, he confronted her, he knew the game she was playing, and they had come to an agreement.
She had no exam coming up, no essay to hand in, and yet she had stayed in the library until the wee small hours, nervously glancing out over the expanse of darkness where he might be waiting. The quieter floors were closing, her yawning companions were dwindling and her resolve was wavering when she received his text. It was blank, as he had promised. Her heart leapt into her throat as she quickly silenced her phone, which had woken a dozing neighbour and which, in her anxiety to receive word from him, perhaps calling it off, letting her off the hook, she had left on full volume.
She hurriedly gathered her things, dropping a folder whose contents sprawled across the floor and scrambling for her tangled earphones. The wind howled outside, shaking the plate glass pane slightly, and a sleety mist flew horizontally. She wasn't dressed for this weather, a patterned pencil skirt, some beat up Converse, a denim jacket, a t-shirt and some ankle socks were her only protection. It had been warm that morning. Nevertheless, she bundled her belongings into her satchel and hurried out of the echoey atrium. Just as she reached the electronic gates to leave, she was startled by the security guard.
"You alright to get home?"
"I, uh, I don't live far"
"Be careful", he replied, this was unprecedented. The guards at the doors of the library were malicious, constantly refusing you entry if you forgot or lost your card, carrying out airport style searches on anyone who set off a sensor and might have taken a book without checking it out. Never before had one spoken to her as she left yawning and drowsy into the night. She hadn't thought it possible to be more nervous than she had been, but this unexpected interaction had set her mind racing. Was he playing with her? Had he asked one of the guards to speak to her just to freak her out?
Fumbling, and bent against the blustery wind, she deviated from her normal, well-lit path to her damp, cold flat, and instead turned onto one of the many paths careening off in different directions across the dark expanse of grass. In the daytime, this park was flooded with students studying in good weather, sports teams, dogs and children, but at night it was terribly lit, disorientating and notorious for crime. She took one of the less maintained, narrower paths. It was unlit, she couldn't see far, and the evenly-spaced arcing trees made it feel like she was not advancing any further. The rustling of the wind in the trees made it impossible to tell if anyone was on the same path, or another, and in the wind and sleet, any turn she made to check rewarded her with a mouthful of her own hair, her eyes squinted against the sleet in the darkness.
The further she went, the less sure she was that she wanted to do this, there could be anyone out here, she was cold, she was soaked through from the rain, would he even have the guts? Was he even here? Was he just playing with her? How stupid she had been to trust anyone to put her in this position! What if she was grabbed, not by him, but by a stranger with that same dark part, one with no outlet or control. But she was just more than halfway across the park, it made no sense to turn back now. She would safe word. She could still say no she could still back out.