Page 6 of Raw & Vulnerable

The engine revs, his gloved hand jerks the shift, and off they go.

They pull around a corner, stopping in an alley behind some building, just as three men blast out of one of the back doors, all masked, all dressed like death and murder. It’s like a bad dream, it must be, because they all hop into the back seat like they belong there. They just get in, as if they’re being picked up by their mother after a sports game.

Except not.

“Fuck!” One scratchy voice hisses from the back. “There’s a bitch in this one! What the hell, man? Couldn’t you grab an empty ride?”

“It was the closest SUV. I didn’t see her,” the deeper voice to her immediate left says irritably. The giant demon clown. “The last car is ditched; we don’t have time to pick a new one or we’ll be behind schedule. The alarms are cut, we have two minutes before sirens head this way.”

The wheels screech.

They tightly turn another corner, leaving Minnie’s father and sister far behind. Completely unaware of what’s happened to her. Her mind is locked, unable to understand what’s happening. Is…is she part of a crime? Is she being kidnapped?!

“…but the bitch!”

Minnie starts crying after that, because they’re scary, dressed head to toe in dark clothes, boots, terrifying ski-masks, gloves that scream criminal, and guns that yell murder. She’s going to die and her dad is going to be worried about his car. Why didn’t she lock the doors? He had told her to lock them, didn’t he? She’d been too lost in her book to pay attention.

Now, she’s going to die.

“Please, don’t hurt me, I won’t tell anyone,” Minnie cries softly when she finds her voice, tears streaming down her face as she shakes uncontrollably. She’s going cold, going into shock.

The man in the driver’s seat ignores her, zipping through the downtown. Minnie thinks she hears cop sirens in the background, but they sound so far away. Disappearing in the wrong direction. “Please! Just let me go!” She cries it out, nearly hyperventilating. It’s getting hard to breathe, why does it feel like she’s breathing through a small, shrinking tube?

They’re counting cash in the back seat, bags of cash. Bank robbers, these men are armed bank robbers! They ignore her, like they haven’t just hijacked her entire life. What are they going to do with her? What gives them the right to do this to her family?

Torn between panic and hysteria, she lashes out at the driver, catching him in the chin. He curses loudly, swerving as he backhands her hard. Minnie sees stars, swaying in her seat. She tastes blood in her mouth, a hot ache in her face.

She raises a hand to her lips, shocked. No one has ever raised a hand to her before.

He growls, “Fucking hell! Drag her into the back before she gets us all killed.”

Two sets of gloved hands reach around from the backseat and unbuckle her as she shrieks, yanking her backwards through the center of the vehicle. Minnie screams, terrified, struggling. What are they going to do to her? Hurt her? Kill her? They’ve already unwittingly kidnapped her.

Her lip is bleeding. Red, dripping onto her shirt, her hands.

She feels like she can’t breathe, her chest is tight, being crushed by the racing of her heart. She can’t get enough air. The car turns roughly, throwing her at the feet of one of the awful men in the back. His ski-mask has a wolf design detailed on it and he kicks her away with a heavy boot. When her crying reaches a fever pitch, the robber sitting to her left pulls her up by her arm, saying dangerously, “Shut up, stop with the noise. Just be a good girl and maybe you’ll get home at the end of this date.”

Sobbing, she says, “B-but I-I’ve never b-been on a date!”

They all laugh cruelly, the sound echoing in her head, like something out of a horror movie.

“Poor baby,” the nasty one with the scratchy voice sneers from the final row, pulling at her hair, the ghoul on his mask sneering obscenely.

Waking up with a gasp, Minnie covers her eyes with her hands, taking deep breaths. She’s shaking violently; her body remembers what terror feels like. She hasn’t dreamed of that day in years. Even in her waking hours, there are only flashes in her mind of that day, some things blurred, some things forgotten.

Some things remain only in a feeling or a tremble in her fingers. Flashes of horror in black and white. Bits and pieces remain in her memory, only a few scenes clear.

I wish it never happened. I wish I could forget it all.

Chapter 4

Sitting at the info desk, sipping her jasmine green tea calmly, Minnie flips through a book on Mary Shelley’s life. It’s early day time and children are at school still, so the library is like a tomb, adults coming and going at random intervals.

She enjoys the peace. The calm. The routine. When nothing changes, Minnie is pleased, because she always knows what to expect.

Loud places, filled with rambunctious people…aren’t for the likes of her. Her muscles tighten up with nerves and her flesh prickles with awareness, always mistrustful of everyone around her. Minnie’s anxiety is always worse in extremely active social situations. Her doctor always said it would get better with time, after the event, but it’s been thirteen years and Minnie is still waiting for that to come to fruition.

I’ll never be normal again. I’m just a mouse.

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