It's 11:30 PM. She wearily unlocks her front door, walks in her house, greets the cats and heads for the kitchen. She flips the light switch, the bare bulb turning her pale skin yellow, the shadows in the corner flickering as the bulb sways in her barren kitchen. Now illuminated, now shadowed. She opens the fridge, pulls out the box of wine and pours it into a mug emblazoned with a logo from an insurance company, one of the motley that had been left behind by her last roommate.
She heads to the bathroom, ignoring the broken tiles on the floor. She turns on the hot water, plugs the bathtub, pulls back the curtain and squirts some bubble bath into the water. As it suds up, she goes back to the kitchen to grab her mug of wine. Returning to the bathroom, she rests it on the side of the tub. Grabbing her grey sweatshirt, she tugs it over her head. Reaching behind her, she unclasps her bra, letting the black lace fall to the ground. Slipping out of her skinny jeans and wriggling out of her black lace panties, the pile of clothes grows on the floor. She catches her reflection in the mirror, her red hair piled in a messy bun on top of her head, her eyeliner smudged beneath her eyes as another day ends at her dead end job. She lets her hair down and it falls like a curtain down her back, creating a halo of unruly curls around her head. She looks exhausted but her green eyes sparkle with energy.
Dipping her toe into the water, she deems it a passable temperature and slides into the bubbles. Tracing circles along her body with her fingertips, she thrills at the sensation of the warm water caressing her curves, lapping at her breasts. She closes her eyes and takes a sip of her wine. Grimacing at the taste, she knows she only needs to drink a little more before the taste isn't so bad. As she relaxes, she hears a crash in the living room.
Startled, she sits up, listening intently. Unable to shake the idea that she was no longer alone, she grabbed her worn out towel and wrapped it aroung herself, her damp hair cascading around her shoulders. She creeps out to see a large, burly man attempting to unplug her TV She screams at the top of her lungs and he immediately looks up. He's not handsome, scarred with watery blue eyes. In two steps he reaches her and grabs her shoulder roughly with one hand, clamping his hand around her mouth with the other.
"Well, and here I thought that the TV would be my prize..." he growls, shaking her. She struggles against him, trying to free herself as he forces her down to the ground. She shivers against the cold cement of her basement apartment floor as he pressed one steel toe boot clad foot against her throat.