I head out the door at 6:00 am, just like I do every Saturday morning when preparing for an upcoming marathon.
Just a few blocks from my house is a wooded trail with a 5 mile loop around a lake. I love jogging this trail; it's so peaceful and serene being out in nature.
At 18 years old, my life is very structured and orderly, very predictable, and I like it that way. I like knowing exactly what I am supposed to be doing at any given moment, without having to really think about it.
Saturdays I jog for about 2 hours when you count the time I take before and after the jog to stretch. Then I come home and take a shower before putting some coffee on for my mom and watch a little TV before heading to my job at the coffee shop in the mall.
This is a typical April morning, the air is crisp and cool and the ground is still a little wet from the early morning rain. I walk to the beginning of the trail, wishing I had opted to wear my jogging pants instead of shorts. I take off jogging down the trail breathing the crisp, refreshing air into my lungs.
With my I-pod jamming my favorite tunes, I'm in my own little world as I jog the isolated trail like I have done a million times before. All of a sudden, an odd feeling comes over me. I can't quite place what it is but something just doesn't feel right. I could swear someone or something is following me. I look around but nothing is there, I'm all alone.
I slip the earbuds out of my ears listening for anything out of the ordinary but I don't hear anything other than the chirping of birds in the nearby trees.
"Shake it off, Ava." I tell myself. "It's just your imagination."
Giving on last glance around me, I place the earbuds back in my ears and take off running again. As I make to the halfway mark on the trail my heart begins racing, but not from jogging, it's that same strange unknown feeling. I reach for my cell phone but realize my shorts don't have any pockets. My phone is in the pocket of the jogging pants I had debated on wearing. A vague panic stirs inside me.
Something hits me from behind, knocking me to the ground. Momentarily dazed, I look up to see a hand grabbing my hair and yanking me to my feet. I scream but a hand covers my mouth while another grabs me around my waist. I'm carried off the path into a clearing in the woods where a large fallen tree limb lays on a patch of thick green grass. The man holding me throws me to the ground, jumps on top of me and begins tying my hands together with a rope he pulls out of his jacket pocket.
"Get off me!" I say, kicking and thrashing underneath his weight.
"Stop it! That hurts!"
"It's not supposed to tickle, sweetheart." The man says with a crazy look in his eyes.
"Why are you doing this to me?" I say, trying to hold back the tears that are welling up in my eyes. But I don't want to give this asshole the satisfaction of seeing me cry.
A devious smile stretches across his face as he looks me up and down, making me shudder at the thought of what he is thinking.
"You're messing with the wrong girl, you stupid son of a bitch. My mom is the county prosecutor and she's gonna nail your ass to the..."
"I know exactly who your mother is." He says, matching the disdain in my voice.
A shiver runs down my spine when I realize this wasn't just a random attack, this was planned! I start screaming at the top of my lungs, kicking at him in an attempt to knock him off guard just enough to be able to run away. I know if I get the chance I can definitely out run him. Not that he's fat or anything, he actually looks to be in good shape but I'm a pretty fast runner and given the present incentive I think I could outrun just about anyone right now.
"Get the hell off of me!" I say, swinging my tied hands wildly landing a blow to the side of his face, thoroughly pissing him off. He grabs my bound hands and weaves them in between the limbs on the fallen trunk, effectively restraining me to the tree.
"Shut up!" He backhands me across the face, instinctively making me scream louder."If you don't shut the fuck up I'm going to have to shut you up!"
There normally isn't anyone else on this trail at this hour but I have seen people walking on it occasionally. Maybe, if I'm lucky someone will hear me.
"You don't listen very well, do you?" He says, grabbing my legs in his grip, like a vice. His question hangs in the air, seemingly etched in my memory. It was something my mother had said to me just the other day. She hated the fact that I jogged this trail by myself all the time.She warned me about something just like this and I laughed it off, thinking she was just being an overprotective parent. I wished I had listened.
"Get off!" I scream.
"Okay! You asked for it!" The man says, grabbing both my legs with one large hand. With the other he reaches up and grabs the waist band of both my shorts and my underwear and in one motion he pulls them off of me. He grabs the hot pink cotton panties out from my shorts and crams them into my mouth so that I am unable to scream, barely even able to breathe.
Terror seizes me as I sit naked from the waist down in the damp grass. Tears stream down my face as I realize just how much trouble I'm in. The man, who appears to be in his late twenties, licks his lips as he looks at my nakedness.
I shake my head violently, knowing exactly what is now going through his mind. I try to plead with him, try to talk him out of what he was planning to do with me but my words are impeded by the cotton fabric in the throat.
His eyes widen as he pulls me into a laying position on the grass pulling me as far as my tied hands will allow. He climbs on top of me, holding my legs down underneath his body. All I can do is squirm and buck underneath him, which causes the bulge in his pants to grow.
He gently lifts the sweat soaked shirt up over my head gently rubbing his hands down my arms as he goes back down for the rest of my clothing. He grabs my sports bra, lifting it up above my head, making a sickening hissing sound as he looks over my nakedness.
His hand cups my breast as he reaches down and attacks them with his mouth. Licking and sucking at my nipples as he massages them in his hands. He starts out gentle, almost passionate, until something changes, like he suddenly remembers what he's supposed to be doing. He starts pulling and pinching at my breasts, biting me with his teeth until tears flow down my cheeks.
He then moves down, licking my stomach as he finds his way to his next destination. His fingers follow and make their way to my nether regions. He slowly circles his finger around my clit, watching me shudder each time he presses his fingers against it.
"You like that?" He whispers in my ear.
"No! I hate you! Quit touching me, you nasty bastard." I mumble intelligible words.
This makes him laugh and circle faster. With his other hand, he pushes one finger inside my body causing me to arch my back off the ground. He slides his finger in and out of me several times and then adds another finger and then another.