| A Second Chance |
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| A while later everything had been unloaded, the animals had been fed, the flowers were put in water, and I was resting comfortably on my bed. Brad came in and sat next to me, like he belonged there. That really started to irritate me.
�I think you should be going,� I said. �It�s too icy out there and too dark. It�s best if I just stay here till morning,� he said. I took a deep breath, doing my best to keep my cool. �You seem to be a good driver. You won�t have any problems driving back to town,� I argued. �I think it�s better if I stay here. I can sleep in one of the extra rooms and I promise you I won�t be any trouble,� he said and gave me a sad sort of puppy dog look, doing his best to try to win me over. I couldn�t take this anymore. This guy was really getting on my nerves. I pointed towards the door. �Leave now!� Brad arched a brow and stood up as if to leave. Instead of leaving though he took my crutches and stored them in the closet. �Hey! What do you think you�re doing? Bring those back over here,� I sputtered, moving to try and get myself up. �Sit down,� he told me calmly. Yikes that was an eerie voice he was using. I wasn�t about to listen to him but the look in his eyes told me I�d better do as he said. I couldn�t though. Doing what someone else wanted was just not me. I went ahead and stood up, placing all of my weight on my left leg and babying my cast covered right leg. The balancing act was rather difficult considering my situation. A frown crossed his face and in the next instant he was across the room shoving me back onto the bed. My body flopped on the white bedspread and my cast-covered leg hit the wooden frame of the bed, making me cry out as a jolt of pain shot through it. As soon as I was flat on my back he was on top of me and had pinned my hands above my head with only one of his hands. I squirmed and screamed at him to get off of me. I could hear in the background the sound of Rip barking in the backyard and scratching at the back door wanting in. It was almost as if he knew something was wrong. No one would hear Rip�s barking or the sound of my screams. I lived too far out in the country, with the nearest house over a mile away. This knowledge didn�t stop me from screaming though, and it definitely didn�t stop Rip from barking. Brad was quiet, quick, and efficient, squelching all my struggles with the weight of his body as soon as they started. I should never have let him bring me home, I thought to myself as my eyes burned with tears and my throat grew sore. My voice was getting horse from all of the screaming. It didn�t take him long to get me completely undressed. He was surprisingly strong and had ripped most of my clothing away. Everyway I tried to fight back was useless. It was like he knew what I was going to do before I did it. But how could he know? A thought that I had pushed aside earlier popped back into my head. Could he be the rapist I had read about in the newspaper? Everything he had done up until now and all that he was doing now, made me think that maybe he was. I begged and pleaded with him to stop, to not do this and have a heart. He never a said a word though and in the next instant he had taken me against my will. Tears poured down my hot cheeks, my most private of areas burned from how rough he was being, and the few struggles that I had been giving had weakened greatly in their intensity. It felt as if he had taken forever but in all actuality he hadn�t lasted long. My tears had stopped but inside I still cried as he pulled out, stood up, and put himself back into his pants. I stayed where I was at, feeling weak, vulnerable, and completely degraded and used. �You never met me. You�ve never seen me, and none of this ever happened,� he said, his voice cold but calm and collected. |