"Are you ready?" Then a harsh tug on Amy's blindfold.
She blinked, dazed by the light, and took a moment to breath as she looked at the trees. The woods were beautiful. Serene, empty and silent, not even broken by the faint sound of a driving far away.
Amy kicked the earth to realize that there wasn't even a dirt path. They were nowhere. She didn't even know the time from the sun in the sky and would have to wait for it to move in order to its direction.
Not that it would help. She knew nothing of the area. She was helpless and, for a brief moment, considered giving up. Something in her face must have betrayed her-because he laughed. "Oh no, little girl. Too much for you? Scared of the big bad woods?"
Amy turned to him, but he hardly acknowledged her. Instead he pulled out his phone, twirled it around and unlocked it. He shifted his tall, lean frame against the jeep and pressed a few buttons. His tee tight-fitting under a large flannel shirt and it made her aware how ill-prepared she was in shorts and a tank top-even with her running shoes.
He pressed a button on the phone that made a small beep before he bent over to fish around inside the jeep's cabin. He reappeared with a canteen, unscrewed the top and took a sip before Amy realized how thirsty she was going to be.
The man shook it, made the water slosh around before offering it to her. She reached out to grab it and, just before she took it in her hand, he dropped it intentionally looking her dead in the eye.
"Whoops."
Amy glared at him before she bent over to pick it up, uncap it and take a swig. She offered it back to him but he shook his head in protest. "No. You'll need it more than me."
"What makes you think I'll need it? That you can even find me out there?" She asked.
"If I were you I'd save my energy for when I catch you. What I'm going to do to you."
He looked at her without blinking with sealed lips and a tautness in his chest, his voice. He looked at her like she was food.
"So when do you want to start the timer?" Amy asked while pondering how much quicker he was in a straight line than her.
"The timer?" He asked as he pulled out his phone.
"The thirty minutes head start..."
He showed her the screen. Twenty-six minutes and change.
"I didn't agree to that!"
"Oh?"
"That's not fair!" Amy screamed, looked to the woods and back to him.
Instead of responding he cricked his neck and placed his feet wide apart before moving his arms to the sky to stretch.
"Reset the timer." Amy insisted.
"I asked if you were ready."
"Do it now!"
That got his attention. He stopped the stretch, stepped towards her and tilted his head down to meet her furious gaze. "I don't think you appreciate how little power you have here. How the only thing that's keeping you from being ripped apart is the hourglass that is ticking away. How your no's will mean nothing and even when you scream as loud as you can nobody will come to save you."
He leans down and puts his lips just beside her ear. "When you beg me to stop? I'm just going to fuck you harder." then rises back to full height. "But by all means," he says as he shows off the large Twenty-Four on phone, "keep standing there."
Amy runs.
She runs like her life depends on it. She runs like she didn't need breath, then she runs faster. In the back of her mind was the knowledge that her ancestors would chase prey to death, exhaust them until they fell over. She was the result of that strategy. If you had to run for days to survive, you would.
The panic left and her presence of mind returned. She slowed o a jog and changed course. Downhill, she thought. She's smaller, weighs less, takes less energy to go down a steep decline than it would for him.
Don't run too fast. Don't run so fast you need a break. Keep some in the tank in case you need to book it at the last minute. He's big, he's determined and can beat you in a straight line for a while, but only a little bit. So get somewhere safe. Somewhere that he can't come at you, not right away. Amy changed directions again. She observed the sun through the treetops. East. She headed east as the sun was starting to sink.
She found her gait. Light easy steps took her down the heavy slope until she saw a small spring. Will you risk it? More water is good. He didn't have a canteen, he needed it more than her.
The canteen top came off easily as she took long, heavy pulls. She looked around the near straight-away. Safe from any direction. If anything came near her she'd see it from half a mile away. Contented, she filled up the canteen. As she did the birds began signing and she realized that she had been still long enough that she no longer disturbed them.
She looked around for her next move. If you keep heading in in a more-or-less straight line, she thought, you're bound to find something.
Then she realized how untrue that may be. She did not know where she was. He had driven nearly the whole night while she was blindfolded, only stopping to sleep a short time.
They could be anywhere.
The realization came with a smack-the only person that was anywhere around here would rape her violently.
She surveyed her surroundings. There was a nice hill in the distance where the slope seemed to continue down. It would make an excellent area to rest, keep an eye on things and even have a place to put her back against.
It took her too long to realize the birds were no longer singing. She felt a chill she couldn't place, shot up and capped the canteen before strapping it on. Then she spun, looking in every direction.
A whistle from the west. She looked out of habit. There he was, flannel tied around his waist, backpack properly secured over both shoulders, walking casually toward her from a half-mile away. Knowing that they could see each other, he gave her a big, friendly wave.
"I don't think this is a good idea." Amy shouted.
He just kept walking forward.
"I mean it! I'm going to use my safe word!"
He keeps coming.
"Cinderella! I'm saying it! Cinderella!"
He stops. "Are you sure you want to use your safe word?"
"Yes!" Amy screamed it again. "Yes!"
"Well, alright then." He stopped dead and even from that distance she could hear his laugh. "You know I love you, right?"
"Of course I do!" Amy took a step towards him, a smile on her face, the air feeling suddenly more free and alive.
"Good. Because I don't fucking care!"
And with that he bounds towards her, full speed and shoulders down. The shock takes her just a second to process before she turns to run.
He hadn't even been running, the disquieted part of her mind said. He hadn't even started by the time she was winding down. He's full of energy and he's faster than you, the voice inside berated. He's going to catch you, he's going to hurt you, you're so fucking stupid for letting it happen.
How had he found her anyway? Her mind drifted back to the start.
"Are you sure?" Amy asks him with a laugh.
"Of course I am," he says with a smile.
Amy shook her had as she took another piece of her birthday cake. "Why?"
He looks at her as the smile dims, he's going over her body, her face like he has a thousand times before. Then there's just the hint of something new, right beneath the surface. "There's a monster in me," he says with eyes shining. "There's a monster in me and it wants you to meet him."
Amy told herself to focus.
She could hear him now. His heavy football a hundred times louder than hers, every branch he snapped sounding like a shot. She didn't look back; she wasn't some horror movie floozie.
The fear pushed her to another level and didn't relent there. She could feel fire in her lungs and stomach but only give them the faintest of acknowledgments. There were pain, but not suffering. Her entire life she had never known what the word meant. Even now she didn't-only what it could mean. What it would happen if he caught her.
The slope deepened, the grade becoming steep. Amy slid down the hill, using the reflexes she had learned from skiing to contort her body to avoid the trees and rocks. When she reached the bottom she looked up at the near 100 meter ramp she had just descended.
He appeared at the edge, only a few hundred feet between them. They looked at one another with new eyes. The way you can only seem someone once civilization had bee stripped away. Who they really were.
"How'd you know I wouldn't follow you down?"
"Because you're a pussy." The words were out her mouth before she had even thought them. "Because you're a coward."
She wanted to rile him, get him to edge so he'd make mistakes with his anger. Waiting for his next move, she uncapped her canteen and swished some water around before spitting, all while holding his eyes. "Remember when you said you didn't need this?"
"I don't.." He said it evenly, but with forced control.
They stared at each other until she leaned against a tree, still looking up at him. He followed suit. "What's your game plan now, big bad man? You gonna go all the way around and find another? Could take hours." She used the leverage of her body to snap a sizable, pointed branch off a dying tree and held it up like a spear. "Maybe I'll have this waiting for you at the bottom."
"I'd ask you what your plan is, but I know you don't have one."
