Page 43 of Drawn To You

“I am not yours, Sterling. I don’t want you to touch me.” His hand clamped down on my throat, and a terrifying scream lodged there. The pain was blinding. My neck was aching, and his fingers felt as if they were clawing into open wounds.

“If you keep fighting me, it’ll only get worse for you. You will learn to be obedient to me, Abigail. It is your sacred duty as a woman to submit to Man.” I thrashed beneath his grip, and I tried to push away the pain radiating to my temples. His hand came off my neck, and a look of excitement filled his eyes. He was liking this. He wanted me to fight him and he probably didn’t even realize it himself until now.

What if I don’t make it out of this alive? Panic started to blur my vision. Sterling‘s large hand brutally grabbed onto my thigh, “No!” I yelled. “Stop!” Sterling straddled me, his hardened erection pressing into me. His hand came down over my mouth as he glared down into my face.

“Why can’t you just do what you’re supposed to, Abigail? I’m trying to be patient, but you are testing me. You will learn to do as I say. Don’t you realize what I’m offering you? Eternal Salvation. I can give that to you. I’m literally pulling you from the pits of hell. You should be grateful.”

He was out of his fucking mind! I opened mymouth wide against his skin, and I clamped down as hard as I could, tasting the metallic taste of blood in my mouth. “You just have to be fucking stubborn!” he yelled, anger flashing in his steel blue depths. His fist came down hard and fast and I was suddenly silenced by the blinding pain. The room started spinning again as my head fell to the side. Darkness swallowed me, and suddenly, I was back on the carnival ride “Why are you doing this to me?” I whispered, shutting my eyes and slipping into the void.

* * *

When I came to a little while later I realized that Sterling had left me untied. I looked around and couldn’t see him anywhere. It was now or never. I didn’t wait. I saw the open door and the opportunity that I would probably never be given again.

I fought through the aches and pains in my body and took off through the open barn door. I half-ran/half-stumbled outside. “Abby! You won’t escape. This is God’s will. Can’t you see that?” Sterling’s voice rang out behind me. If he thought I would stop running just by his command, he was even crazier than I thought.

There were loud sounds coming from somewhere close by, what sounded like sirens in the distance, but I was too disoriented to be sure. I was yanked from behind when Sterling caught up to me. It was like something out of a horror film. There was a crazed glint in his eye, showing that he really enjoyed the chase. No! I screamed as the sirens grew louder.

I tasted the salty tears on my lips, and I quickly pushed them away, pausing at the sight of my wrists. Oh my God. They were torn, and bleeding from the ropes. “You think I’m the one destined for hell, Sterling?” My body flattened against his against my will, and I didn’t know what to do. Fear was driving me, and I knew that if I tried to run from him, he’d catch me again.

At that moment I knew if I didn’t get away that I would die at his hands one day. Maybe not physically, but emotionally, I would be dead. “Abby!” My chest rocked as I stifled a sob. That sounded like Joshua’s voice inside my head, urging me to fight a little longer. But this was it. There was no other choice now. The hope I’d felt a little while ago was diminished as I stood alone, staring at Sterling with a clearer head than before.

I saw the blow before I felt it. My head cocked back, and I was momentarily blinded. “You think you have any control here, Jezebel?” He started to violently shake me. “You are a fallen woman. It is my sacred duty to either purify your soul or cast you down into the fiery pits of hell.” My fingers scratched and clawed at his skin, and I felt his flesh beneath my nails.

My head exploded with pain.”Look at me when I talk to you. You will beg for mercy, and you’ll be sorry you ever let him defile you. You knew the rules, and you broke them.” He shoved me back once more. I wanted to fight back, but my body was no longer acting the way that I wanted it to. I could feel the blood dripping over my face and the breath leaving my body. He’s really going to kill me I thought before I suddenly collapsed to the ground. “Abby!” I heard somebody scream nearby and it sounded a lot like…“Joshua!” I managed to scream just before everything went dark.

* * *

Joshua

This was chaos, but I kept moving forward as fast as my leg would carry me. My feet slammed against the uneven ground, and my mind was centered on one thing: the small body lying motionless that I’d just watched crash to the ground in a heap of blood with my name on her lips. There was so much blood. It was all I could see, and the panic threatened to overwhelm me.

I watch on in horror as the cops fired on Sterling taking him down. I didn’t care one bit about him, but I was terrified that Abby would be hit in the process. My knees hit the ground as I bypassed an unconscious Sterling. If we were in any other situation and my girl wasn’t lying in a pool of her own blood, I would have killed him on the spot, but she needed my attention.

“Abby,” I gasped. My face was wet with tears and I didn’t give a fuck. I could feel my hands shaking as I reached for her. I was always in control until it came to her. Without Abby, I was fucking lost, I need her to be OK. Her limp body felt almost weightless in my arms as I rushed toward the paramedics that had just arrived on the scene. I went straight past the police officers like they were not there.

“I need medical attention over here!” my voice rang through the chaos, and Maddox and Lily, who were two steps behind me when we’d finally made our move, stopped dead in their tracks when they got a good look at Abby in my arms. Maddox’s mouth fell open, and the hard shell that he’d formed around himself the last few months seems to crack just a little. They rushed over to me. Lily’s hand came up to reach for Abby, but she halted her movement, probably too scared to touch her. “Abby, what did they do to you?” she whispered with tears streaming down her face.

There were marks everywhere, all over her body. Blood and bruises covered her whole fucking body. I almost turned around and went back down to grab Sterling by his throat, but I didn’t. Abby needed me right fucking now.

I had tried to rush the Barn by myself but, the police were telling us to stand down, I didn’t want to listen. But Maddox and Lily had literally held me back. As soon as the police arrived we moved to storm the place. But that was when we saw Abby running from the Barn and watched on in horror as everything unfolded. I ran with Abby in my arms toward the paramedics.

As soon as I reached them Abby was ripped from my arms, and a police officer was in my face, forcing me backward. “Let them take care of her!” I glanced behind his shoulder and watched as two paramedics started working on Abby, feeling for a pulse, opening her eyes with a small flashlight, and then placing her onto a gurney and loading her into the back of an ambulance and turning their sirens on.

“No!” I tried to push past the officer but he held up a hand to stop me. “Let me go with her! She can’t be alone!” “She is safe with them. I promise you.” The officer’s words reached my ears, but it did nothing to settle me. “You can head to the hospital as soon as we get your statement. We need to know what the hell happened here today first.”

“Is he still alive?” He nodded. “My men were able to bring him down, but he only suffered flesh wounds, but we got him.” The officer looked at Maddox as he said.”Let him go be with his girl, I’ll stay and give a statement. He should be with her when she wakes up.” If she wakes up. The ugly thought and the pain that came with it radiated all the way down to my heels.

“I guess that’s good enough for now. But we may need you to come down to the station later to give your statement.” “I’ll answer anything you want as long as you let me go see my girl now.” Maddox looked at me for a long second. He nodded. I nodded back. And then Lily and I were both in my car, on our way to see Abby.

* * *

The doctor wouldn’t speak to us about Abby because we were not immediate family, although it took a lot of coaxing and explaining. “Abby is my fiance.” I don’t care if I hadn’t asked her yet. If she would just pull through this I was marrying that woman.

The doctor finally gave us an update on her condition and I was almost gutted when words like severe trauma, medically induced coma, and Rape kit were mentioned. “We need to let her heal and monitor her closely. Her body has been through a lot of trauma.” the Doctor explained as I stood there, feeling as if my entire world had just been ripped out from under me.

The shock was starting to set in. My face was wet, and my chest felt cracked straight down the middle. If I could take her place, I would. But I could do nothing but stay by her side and hold her hand. I wanted her to know that I was here. She looked so small and fragile lying on that hospital bed, but I knew my girl was a fighter. She had fought him with everything she had.

We had no idea the shit we were up against that first time I kissed her. And I had no idea that she would be able to crawl under my skin and bring me back to life. She showed me what true love looked like and made me want to open myself to another person after I had been determined never to do so again. Abby taught me that love truly was a verb. It’s an action. “Please just open your eyes for me, baby, so I can tell you that I love you!” I whispered quietly with tears openly streaming down my face.

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