It must have been six months or so after that night that I finally saw American Psycho, the movie I had intended to see, well... that night. I'd never made it inside the theater. My plans were rudely changed when I was abducted from the parking lot at knifepoint.
Thanks to my flirting, teasing and overall stupidity I spent the evening being brutally raped, abused and tormented by a real psycho....one I'd mistaken for a friend. I'm sure you remember Chuck. I know I can never forget him, no matter how hard I've tried.
Chuck. Former online friend...fellow writer...handsome.....sadistic...lousy bastard! I hated him still. Sure he could have hurt me a lot worse, but who cares? He hurt me enough. He hurt me plenty.
He was forced to give up his online pursuit of me after I blocked him from sending me any more email or instant messages. Poof...no more Chuck and his demented ravings about that night and how he knew I loved it. No more threats to come back either....those threats had totally terrified and unnerved me while sending my private parts into an aching, throbbing mess. And don't forget....I hated him. So you see, I couldn't talk to him anymore. It was all too confusing.
I was still hit with flashbacks on occasion, though not nearly as bad as before, when it was all still fresh...before my bruises and cuts healed. To my everlasting shame, I would not only remember the terror and violence of that night, but the stunning force of the orgasms he'd forced from me--mind shattering eruptions that came from God only knew what dark part of myself. But that's not the worst of it....I might as well confess further....It wasn't just the memory of the orgasms that would send my nether regions into a frenzy and set my whole body afire with lust. I wish I could say it was just that...then maybe I would've felt halfway normal....maybe. What bothered me the most was how the memory of the terror, helplessness and pain would bring on the same reaction.
How could the horrible memory of how the knife felt against my throat while being forced to swallow his cock make me throb?? How crazy was I to be able to bring myself to a crashing orgasm while remembering the rope around my neck, cutting off my air...re-living how it felt to face certain death while being painfully sodomized?? I'm no closer to understanding these things than I was when it happened, during those terribly strange days after the attack when I was forced by my own shame and guilt to stay silent and pretend it never happened. I was hoping that over time I could even believe my own charade.
*******
I had gotten to a point in my life when I no longer thought about Chuck and what happened that night every second of the day. I'd pushed the whole incident into the deepest part of my secret self. It seemed the best way to make it all go away. I still hadn't told anyone, although I wrote several more rape stories that had gained something of a dubious popularity on the net. My readers were impressed with the realistic edge my tales of peril seemed to have. I just smiled and kept writing. At least it gave me an outlet without having to confront all these conflicted feelings of rage and arousal.
The day I discovered American Psycho had come out on video something shifted inside me and that night came back to me. At first I passed it by, unable to even look at the picture or writing on the box. Then I was annoyed with myself for my cowardice and rented it after all. I reasoned that I'd been wanting to see the damn movie, and he hadn't let me, so why should I let him stop me from seeing it now?
Good attitude....Bad idea.
I was shocked and thought I must be losing my mind when the first close-up of the actor playing the title role revealed a startling resemblance to my rapist. Why the hell did he have to look like him?? Surely I was only seeing things because of the connection between that movie and that night, but I still saw Chuck when I looked at him. Several times I resisted the impulse to just turn it off, but I sat thru it all with grim determination. The dude playing Patrick Bateman was NOT Chuck, dammit! He was a handsome, very talented actor named Christian Bale, and I was just being ridiculous!
That night I had terrible nightmares about being chased down a hallway by a crazed naked man who was covered in blood and weilding a chainsaw. That happened to be a scene from the movie, but in my dream it wasn't Patrick Bateman that chased me. Do I really need to say who it was? I haven't had nightmares over a stupid movie since I was a kid!
The anger I'd never really dealt with took even deeper root after that. For a time after the nightmare, I would feel pure anger and nothing else when I remembered that night. Those pesky sexual stirrings even went away....to my relief. The anger felt good and I latched onto it.
I'd been blaming myself for so long, and still did to a certain extent, but in my mind at least, Chuck finally began to share in the blame. Ok, so I'd teased him. Ok, so I'd been tricked into giving him too much information. Ok, so I'd roleplayed the part of his victim perfectly during our computer chats. Did any of that give him the right to make me his victim for real?? Some of you may say no, of course not. Some would probably say Hell YES. To those I would say this-- there's assholes everywhere, so who cares what you think?
Soon I became angry with myself for hiding from Chuck online. Why should I hide? He couldn't hurt me over the computer. My anger was growing more every day and I decided it was time to face him again. Vague ideas of seeking some sort of revenge were trying to form, although I had no clue what I could possibly do to him...but the thought of making him pay somehow was too seductive to ignore once it entered my head. I unblocked him, and waited.
I didn't have long to wait before the messages began again. Our first conversation was something like this;
Chuck: Where have you been?
Heather: Nowhere. I've had you blocked.
Chuck: I see. So why did you unblock me?