Page 52 of Vendetta
‘Yeah, just relax, Sophie. Everything is fine.’ I felt a finger under my chin, nudging my head. My eyes rolled back as the sensation of warm breath tickled my face. I struggled against my drooping lids, forcing them open. When I did, I foundmyself staring into two hawk-like grey eyes an inch from my face. And just as my body relinquished control of my limbs completely, I felt his hands on my dress.
CHAPTER FOURTEENTHE DARK KNIGHT
Somewhere deep inside me, panic was rising. ‘Stop,’ I heard myself gasp.
Robbie’s eyes shrank to slits in his puffy face. ‘Just relax.’ I tried to shake my head, but could only make a sideways figure eight. ‘I don’t want this.’
He chuckled. ‘Then why would you show up to a party wearingthis?’ He tugged at the fabric of my dress. I tried to speak again, but I couldn’t conjure up enough energy to push the words out. He moved a rough finger against my lips and I moaned, feeling saliva pool at the back of my throat. He inched closer. Spittle gathered at the sides of his cracked lips as he said, ‘Stop playing hard to get.’
His hand moved to my hips and suddenly it was all I could focus on. He pressed his body against me, sandwiching mebetween his thick frame and the cold wall. He started to run a hand through my hair, tangling it and jerking my head backwards.
I struggled to remember how far I was from home, but everything was a blur. The panic grew and pulsed against my skull until it throbbed. I tried to move my arms, but they were unresponsive, crushed beneath his weight as he walked his other hand up towards the hemline of my dress.
My eyes fluttered back in my head as he shoved his salty mouth over mine. Fleetingly I thought of Nic: how butterflies had exploded inside me when I tasted his tentative kiss, felt his strong hands curling around my waist. But these were not his hands, or his lips. Robbie forced his coarse, snakelike tongue into my mouth, probing relentlessly until I gagged.
There came the sound of a roaring engine, then tyres screeching to a halt nearby. Robbie froze with his lips still on mine, and moved his hands back on to my waist. In my dazed state, I imagined we looked like two wooden puppets, propped against each other in the night.
I rejoiced in the welcome rush of cool air when his body was ripped away from mine. He let out a strangled yelp as he sailed backwards, taking the pressure with him so that my chest expanded again.
Someone was shouting. My body slumped against the wall and slid to the ground beneath legs I could no longer feel. Faraway gravel shifted, and a deep cry rang out. There was a resounding crack and an ear-splitting wail that sounded like a dying cat. Shoes scraped against the ground. High-pitched sobs descended into desperate pleas. I tried to understand, but the words became garbled and indistinct as my body slidtowards the ground and my head connected with the concrete.
‘Get out of here before I rip your heart out.’
Is he talking to me?
More shuffling.
Why is it so dark?
The sound of footsteps – further and further away.
Am I still alive?
Another set of footsteps, steadier and quieter than the last, moving towards me.
‘Sophie? Can you hear me?’
Something gripped my shoulders. My whole body shook gently, but there was no strength left to open my eyes. I was dead to the whole world. Dead to everything, except his voice.
‘Sophie? Come on.’ More gentle shaking. A finger pressed up against my neck. I could feel my pulse throb against it. There was a sigh – long and relieved. ‘Come on, Sophie. Wake up.’
I struggled for the energy, but I was spent, like a deflated balloon. Silence followed, and I found myself trying to remember where I was and what was going on. Had I left the party? Did I fall down?
‘Can you try opening your eyes?’
Why couldn’t I place that voice? It was so familiar yet so far away. An arm slid around my shoulders and another underneath my knees, lifting me away from the cold ground. My head drooped on to something hard, and I could hear a steady heartbeat drumming against my ear.
I sailed through the air, and into a warm place. The muffled sound of a car door gave way to the comforting hum of anengine, and soon I was rocking back and forth against some-thing soft. The minutes bled into one long stretch of darkness until I was soaring again, through a realm of a hundred distant voices, flashing lights and groaning beeps.
A lone finger trailed along the side of my cheek.
A faraway voice invaded the moment just as I was piecing together where I was, and the thought fluttered away from me before I could pin it down.
‘I located her mother. Don’t you want to stay until she gets here?’
‘I can’t.’
Footsteps clicked against the floor, getting softer, until I could hear nothing but the sound of my own breathing as it rattled through my chest. Feeling safe in the complete absence of everything, I fell into nothingness, where half-forgotten memories mingled with harrowing nightmares until I forgot what was real and what was imagined.
