"You can breathe, when I let you"
Was the last sentence he whispered into her ear before he pushed her head down beneath the surface of the bathtub.
Silently she kept her eyes open, blinking a few times to adjust to the liquid vision and above her, he became distorted. He positioned his hand to grip around the rope collar around her throat; preventing her from wriggling up but also constricting around her neck.
He watched her in the tub, watched her skin slowly change colour from both the tight rope bound around her torso, around her legs, leaving her vulnerable.
Shortly, her eyes squinted shut against the water, perhaps stinging or perhaps concentrating on the gradual build up of pressure in her lungs.
He pulled her up with a slosh, wrenching her against the back of the tub, just enough so her face was free. She sucked in a gasp of air and opened her eyes, her uncertainty and what to expect very clear.
He simply smiled, and pushed her back down beneath.
In his free hand he held a cane, she watched his distorted body move it over to her feet, tightly tied and pulled up to her belly in a way that left them exposed.
*crack*
She began to struggle, unable to scream, unable breath.
*crack*
Again now he struck, finding the soft instep of her sole, an angry welt burning to the surface.
A mass of bubbles exploded beneath the water followed by a garbled scream.
