Page 24 of Choke

I’m unaware of the carnage my hands are creating. I don’t care. I’m no longer a man. I’m inhuman. A creature longing for vengeance and blood. I hear screams from behind me, but they’re faint and barely noticeable, much like the soft hum of the wind. Even if the shouts were thunderous, I would ignore them. It’s easy for me to shut out my surroundings when my brain takes on a mission. I see nothing but my target and the completion of the task bestowed upon me. A good little soldier. I know what my mission is and deliver results. The one time I couldn’t complete my task is the same reason I’m willing to murder a man in cold blood.

“Please,” a sweet voice pleads. “Please stop. You’ll kill him.”

“He deserves it,” I spit as my hand connects with the punk one more time, and his head lolls to the side.

Then I turn around, and my heart stops.

18

MONA

It’s dark. I’m freezing. Why am I freezing? My head hurts. My stomach throbs and stings a little—it’s not unbearable, just uncomfortable.

My fingers brush my abdomen, brushing a bandage covering what feels like a shallow wound. I shift in the bed, but before I can move, two hands grab onto my biceps.

“Take it easy.”

The man is tall, and a black balaclava shrouds his face. I can’t help but think how ironic it is to find ski masks both alluring and terrifying. The air of mystery adds sexual tension, but the men who haunt my nightmares also wore those masks. Men who abducted, beat, and harassed women. The same mask worn by the men who killed my father and beat my sister.

I stare into a pair of familiar steel-gray eyes.

“I know you,” I whisper.

“Yeah,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. “I saved you from being robbed last night.”

“No. I know you from somewhere else. Your eyes are so familiar, but I can’t place them.”

He chuckles dismissively. “You hit your head harder than I thought. Why don’t you get some rest?”

Get some rest? I’m in a strange space with a man my body recognizes on a visceral level peering at me. Sure, he seems familiar, but that means nothing. I could’ve bumped into him at the mall. I dismiss the thought immediately. The sensations bombarding me are far from vague.

“I think I should go home.” I try to stand, but dizziness forces me back onto the bed.

The man grabs my shoulder, his fingers warm against my bare skin. “You can’t go anywhere right now. Lie back in bed.”

“Listen, buddy, I don’t know who the fuck you are, but you if you don’t let me go, you’ll be dealing with my family—and trust me, they put thefunin dysfunctional.”

His laugh is warm and sinister. “Kitten, no one you know is more fucked up than me. But I promise you’re safe with me. I won’t do anything to harm you as long as you’re a good girl and do as you’re told.”

“So no harm will come to me as long as I let you rape me? You’ll violate me in exchange for not slitting my throat? What kind of fucking statement is that?”

He waves his hands up and down his body—his extremely chiseled, muscular body. “Do I look like a man who needs to force a woman to have sex with him? If I wanted to fuck, darling, I’d go to the nearest bar and flash some girl my smile and my baby blues.”

“Your baby grays.”

“What?”

“You can’t flash baby blues 'cause your eyes aren’t blue. They're gray.”

His smile deepens before he bends toward me and whispers seductively, “You noticed my eyes, didn’t you, baby?”

“You know, you could’ve just asked me on a date if you wanted to flirt with me? There was no reason to kidnap me.”

Maybe my sister’s right. I’m so used to lovable psychos that I think any madman who kidnaps me is a broken boy I can fix.

“This isn’t a kidnapping, pretty girl. Trust me.”

I turn my head and glance around the room, trying not to blush at the endearment from my very attractive captor. It’s not normal to think your captor is good-looking, but I’ve learned not to panic in situations like this. “I know what a kidnapping looks like. This isn’t my first rodeo. But you seem much more agreeable compared to the last guy who took me. Oh, wait. The first guy who took me wasn’t that bad. It was his boss who was certifiable.” I gaze up at the ceiling before turning to meet his gaze. “Is your unhinged boss going to join us now?”

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