Nicole ran as fast as her legs could carry her. Her lungs were burning, her feet ached with every step, she was stepping on pine needles and other things, but she didn't care. She had to get away. She was slowing down and she knew that she was dead if she stopped. She had to get away; for herself and her best friend Jayne.
A branch smacked her in the face and this time she felt something wet on her cheek. She slapped a hand to her face and looked at it. The blood was almost black in the night. She slowed down more and tried to get her bearings. She heard a car horn and ran in that direction. Just up a small embankment was a highway or road or street. Nicole didn't know and right now she didn't give a fuck. All she knew was there were cars and intermittently she could see car lights.
She ran up the embankment knowing if she tried to scream she would run out of steam and never make it to safety. A car just passed as she ran onto the pavement. Her bare feet slapping loudly to her ears. Another car was coming around the bend. Nicole waved her hands and stood in the middle of the street, stumbling towards the oncoming car in desperation. Suddenly she felt someone grab her around the waist, pick her up, and throw her down the embankment she had just climbed. She stared up at the man her eyes wide. She started to crabwalk backwards, whimpering as the car drove past, and her eyes fell on the blade at his side slowly dripping blood.
***2 days earlier***
Nicole never liked camping. She hated it. She hated the bugs, the forced topics, the boringness. She just wasn't a camp person. Roughing it just wasn't her style. However, Jayne wanted to go out and get drunk in the woods for the weekend.
"Come on Nicki pleeeeeeeease," Jayne begged standing over Nicki's desk. "It'll be fun. I'll bring the beer. They'll be no guys, just us girls roughing it and having fun."
"What about toilets? Food? SEX!"
Jayne looked at Nicole as if she had just said the world's dumbest joke. "Are you serious Nicki? We won't be so far from a camping site that we won't have toilets. We'll bring food, and Sex... really? Is that really a concern for you?"
Yes it was and Jayne knew that, but either forgot or conveniently forgot. Either way Nicole was tired of explaining that sometimes she needed sex. She hadn't gotten laid in 2 weeks since her and her boyfriend broke up. Rat bastard. She was starting to feel desperate and really needed a long hard pounding. She needed a strong man to dominate her, control her. She needed that and badly. Instead she smiled and shook her head no.
"Come on Nicki. I need this. I ..." Jayne paused and looked up as tears welled in her eyes. Nicki sighed. Jayne's one and only lover had left her at the altar. In 2 days it'll be 1 year. The real fucked up part was 7 months later he got married to a voluptuous red head. Jayne hadn't been the same since.
"Fine."
"Yes," Jayne cried as she hugged Nicki. "You won't regret this. I promise." Jayne went back to her desk before Nicole changed her mind.
Nicole was an accountant at Posterize, a company that handled the financial accounts for other businesses. She was 1 of 20 accountants. The money paid well and what was better she had seniority to choose her hours. Meaning while everyone else worked 8:30am to 5:30pm, she worked 7am to 3:30pm. She usually only took a half hour lunch. Nicole signed out and left for the day.
Nicole stared at her closet. She didn't have any flannel. What does one take on a camping trip if not flannel? She grabbed a pair of jeans and tossed it into her waiting black bag. 2 pairs should do the job for a weekend. She added a swimsuit. People usually swam in lakes at these things right? Nicole started to add a pretty white top that had ruffles. She stopped and threw it back in her drawer. She walked over to her drink, a light red wine, and finished it off.
"Why am I doing this again," she said out loud to herself. "Because you love Jayne. She deserves this. Because you're a sucker who doesn't even know what to bring on a camping trip!"
Okay so Nicole was a little drunk. She stood up and the world spun. She sat back down. Okay, so she was a lot drunk. Nicole fell back on the bed laughing. She had gotten drunk while trying to figure out a wardrobe to an event she didn't want to go to when she could have gotten fucked real quick. One night stands weren't so bad. It had been a while since she done anything like that, but she knew what kind of men she usually went after. Tall, dark, with piercing eyes; the silent, but strong type. The type that would be satisfied with a wham -- bam -- thank you maam. Would immediately stand up, make up some lame excuse, promise to call, then gets the hell out of her home. That's the man she should have gone out for. That was adequate vanilla sex. If she really wanted excitement she would go to a dungeon and find a strong dom. One that ...
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep!
Nicole woke up to the sound of a car horn. She glanced at the clock to see it was past noon. She had fallen asleep and worse in her clothes. She stared for a moment as that damn horn went off again followed by Jayne bellowing her name. "Fuck!" Nicole threw a bunch of clothes into her bag, swigged some mouth wash, and ran out the door.
"You look like shit," Jayne commented. Nicole just glared at her and got in the car. No more than 15 minutes both girls were singing tunes to the car radio. 3 hours later they had made their destination and were traipsing through the wood looking for the 'perfect' spot to stop and get drunk.
"What about here?" Nicole asked for the thousandth time.
"No, not far enough."
"Jayne. We are as deep into this damn forest as we can go. If we go any deeper no one will ever find our bodies!"
"Fine," Jayne finally stopped. She shook her head at Nicole's joke, but it was true. They were pretty far into the woods. "You go collect some sticks and I'll start on the fire." Nicole looked at Jayne like she lost her damn mind. "Okay, I'll get some sticks for our fire. You like rabbit right?" Nicole's eyes went wide. "Kidding. Kidding."
As Jayne walked off Nicole unpacked their belongings. She was trying to put up the tent when she whirled around. She could have sworn she heard something. She stared hard into the greenery expecting to see something.