Small Creek, Kentucky
August 5th, 2020
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It was a hot summer day, the kind that made AC an invaluable commodity. Sweaty, sticky, hot, humid air clung and stuck to everything, and the 80+ degrees was making the entire county moody and irritable. The cicadas were screeching this year like nails on a chalkboard, echoing out of the thick woods of the Boone National Forest.
Down a winding hollar road, a decrepit trailer-home on cinderblocks was nestled in its weed-infested lawn, a red truck parked outside. This was the home of Daniel Fulman, a 20-year-old mechanic that at first glance looked very out of place in the backwoods of Kentucky.
Shoulder-length dark brown hair that curled into gentle waves at the end, a strong Roman nose and jawline, and piercing eyes that nobody could agree on the color of. Most, Daniel included, just went with "hazel" as a lazy description, but that did nothing for the swirling brown, green, and blue miasma of his corneas, with a startling yellow sunburst around the iris. His girlfriend, Lyla, often said it was his eyes that caught her attention in the first place, but always claimed it was his loyalty and honor that kept her around.
Daniel's mother, Haylee Fulman, in handling her son all on her own did her best to turn her little boy into a gentleman, to her credit despite having been a high school pregnancy. Daniel never lied, and always kept his word, and never struck a woman.
Although... at this moment in time, Daniel was feeling a powerful temptation for the first time in his life to really, truly smack a bitch.
-----
Daniel closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, wincing as if a migraine was assaulting him. There was no physical pain, just emotions stabbing him as he read the words of the text message he had just received from his friend Dakota.
::Hey bro, i know u rly dont wanna hear this but i saw Lyla and Benny making out on his couch last night. youd tell me if my girl was cheating on me, so i figured... yeah. im sorry bro. good luck.::
FUCK!
The fact the text had only confirmed his recent suspicions did nothing to ease the heartbreak and utter RAGE that Daniel was feeling right now. So many "girls night out", the giggles elicited from mysterious texts, the odd scent of mens cologne lingering...
"Fucking bitch...!" he hissed through his clenched teeth. These thoughts were going to drive him crazy, mental images of his girlfriend making out and fucking that obnoxious hipster was making his blood boil and brain go dumb with anger.
Before he could realize what he was doing in his blackout rage, Daniel found himself grabbing his shotgun from the dresser and marching out the door to his truck.
"Motherfuckers gonna learn today... just you wait Benny, you are fucking DEAD!"
-----
Wheels skidding to a stop in the gravel driveway, Daniel flung his door open and marched up to the porch and kicked the screen door in with one sharp kick. Lyla was standing in the kitchen, frozen in fear from the explosive entry. She was practically naked, only wearing a threadbare set of pink panties, her small perky tits completely exposed and nipples stiffened. She preferred to keep her dirty blonde hair pixie cut short, something Daniel found cute and endearing... usually.
It took a second, but once it registered in her brain that it was Daniel... and that he had his shotgun in hand... and the twisted rage over his face...
it clicked.
"No!! No, no Daniel! Please!! I'm sorry, really! I won't..."
"WHERE IS HE!?"
"Lyla...?" a voice echoed from down the hallway of the trailer-home. "Everything okay? Wha...?"
"BENNY RUN!!! HE'S GONNA KILL YOU!!"
Even as Daniel ran down the hallway after the voice, he could hear the window shatter and Benny grunting as he clambered out as quickly as possible.
-BAM!-
The pellets exploded into the window frame, just missing Benny as he dropped out of sight. By the time Daniel had gotten to the window and had his sights up, the bastard had made his escape into the woods with nothing but his boxers.
Daniel growled with irritation, but it was too late to anything, and he could hear Lyla grabbing the phone. Turning on his heel he marched back to the living area and smacked the phone out of her hand before she could finish dialing 911.
"YOU FUCKING SKANK! WHY!? HOW LONG?? HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN CHEATING ON ME!!?"
Her face contorted as a dozen conflicting emotions rushed through her. Anger at being yelled at, embarrassment, regret, fear... but in the end, and probably because she was accepting the relationship was now beyond saving, Lyla decided to respond in anger in turn.
"FUCK YOU ASSHOLE! You think this is my fault? You constantly ignore me! You walk around all the time with your head in the fucking clouds! I -NEEDED- some attention!"
He couldn't believe his ears. Was this cunt actually trying to turn this around on him?
"Ooooh, that's rich, real fucking rich you narcissistic bitch! I literally just caught you with your pants down and this is MY FAULT?! Why, I oughta..."
Daniel caught himself, and growled at Lyla instead of finishing the threat. He had it beaten into him as a boy that he should never lay a hand on a woman, but this little bitch was really testing his limits.
"Oh? or what, big guy? You gonna hit me? Teach me my place? Mother-fucker, if you touch me I will report your ass so fast you-"
The next moment happened so quickly, Daniel wasnt entirely sure what happened, but what he did remember was the rage escalate from barely contained, to full on blow-out as his brain snapped. He could hear himself screaming at Lyla, the torrent of energy that had been building in him all day exploding out of him and crashing into her.
"SHUT UUUUUUUUP!!"
The last word strung out as he poured every last ounce of his enraged soul into the yell.
A half-second later, Daniel was staring in shock as Lyla was flung backwards into the wall, the impact shaking the entire trailer and leaving a large cracked hole in the cheap plywood wall. Lyla gasped and curled up in pain, moaning and crying to herself while Daniel stared.
~what the hell? what... I didnt touch her...~ "...what the fuck...? Lyla... are you okay?"
"nngh... mphhh... mmm..." she whimpered, curling up even further into a defensive fetal position, subconsciously defending herself from another attack.
She looked up briefly, eyes full of tears, hate, and fear as she burned daggers into her now ex-boyfriend. Her mouth opened as if she was gonna say something, but nothing came out. She looked confused, shook her head as if trying to clear it, and opened her mouth again.
And again, not a sound.
Now the alarm really set into her face, panic washing over her naked body in a cold sweat as a hand rushed to her throat in a unconscious movement of fear.
Now Daniel was confused, and while still absolutely fuming at Lyla, was feeling some concern.
"Lyla...?"
He gently set the shotgun down against the wall, muzzle up, and on the opposite side of the room from Lyla, and slowly approached her with open hands extended.
"Hey... just chill for a second. Let me help, baby."
Daniel subconsciously winced at himself using the familiar moniker he used to call Lyla in the past. Habits die hard, he mused to himself.
Although terrified of him, the now mute Lyla allowed him to approach, the fear of whatever was happening to her voice overpowering everything else.
Before Daniel could even take two steps forward, something else even stranger started to happen.
-----
At first, it felt like Time Itself was slowing down, like cold molasses running down a pipe. Daniel could feel it pressing in on him, unable to get his body to move in sync with his mind.
Then, though feeling it happen first rather than seeing it, Reality seemed to fade and shift away, until what WAS Reality seemed more like a Dream, and what SHOULD'VE been a Dream was now Reality.
Blinking as Lyla faded away and vanished in front of him, Daniel straightened up and numbly took in his new surroundings.
It was difficult to describe.
It was nothing like Daniel had ever seen in his life before, even the more inventive sci-fi or fantasy shows he enjoyed so much.
It looked as if this place was originally an underground cavern, complete with stalagmites and stalactites, and maybe even a bat or two, but as if somebody had come along and restructured everything to be more of an unconventional palace.
The cavern walls had been smoothed down to a shining sandpaper finish, but rather than chipping away at the rock structure to make the typical flat 90 degree housing walls, whoever designed this place had left the organic flow of the walls as they were.
Indeed, the entire architecture of the remodeled cavern seemed to be built to flow with the cavern walls, from the meandering two... no, three staircases scattered around, and the layout of furniture composed in a feng-shui dynamic.
There was a moderately-sized wooden oak table with one chair at the head, settled close to the carved out fireplace that had a steady, healthy flame burning away. To one side of the fireplace was an open doorway that led to a smaller cave repurposed to a kitchen, which was well stocked.
In fact, it seemed the entire place was set up as some kind of glorified billionaire's bunker, if not more than a little eccentric.
There was a large master bedroom with a bed that was so big Daniel wondered what even came after King Size mattresses.
A library with a comfortable, cozy reading couch, and maybe close to a thousand books on the shelves.
A bathroom with a walk-in shower, that with the natural stone walls, was modeled to make it seem as if the individual was bathing themselves in a small underground waterfall.
Exploring further, Daniel soon discovered that the strangeness of this situation was only progressing.
In addition to the usual amenities one might expect for a housing situation, this underground... "mansion"... had a sprawling dungeon one floor down with dozens of empty cells, and one large room full of sadistic bondage gear and furniture.