Page 86 of Shattered Skull

I stood, rubbing at my lower back, which was throbbing from my fall. Then once again, I tried to make a run for the door. I hated leaving Dad’s urn behind, but at least it was hidden beneath the bed. I would come back with Zada when Mom was home and get his ashes.

This time his fingers dug into my arm when he caught me. The room spun when he wrenched me around and tossed me onto the bed like I weighed nothing.

“Will, stop,” I said, kicking at him when he began climbing over me.

He didn’t listen. Instead, he wrestled with my legs before he gave up, leaned forward, and backhanded me. My head was jerked to the side, and fire exploded behind my cheek. The sound of his hit echoed through the room, making my ears ring.

“Stop fucking kicking me,” he yelled down at me.

My cheek stung, and I blinked away the dizziness that moved over me from being his so hard. Then I began to fight him again. I screamed when he pinned my arms down above my head and began to buck my hips, hoping to knock him away from me.

He laughed. “Keep fighting, bitch. All you’re doing is turning me on.”

Capturing both of my wrists in one hand, he reached down and began undoing my jeans.

“No. Please don’t do this,” I cried, feeling weak from fighting so hard.

My loud breaths filled the room, and my panic attack pushed ahead, making my body shake. Once he got my jeans undone, he pushed them down around my hips. I kept fighting, pulling against his hold and screaming. Leaning up, I headbutted him in the nose.

He drew back, reaching for his nose and pulling his hand back to see that I had made him bleed.

“You bitch!” he shouted.

Then he reared back with his fist and punched me in the face. Things went black for a second or two, but once I was able to see again, all I saw was his fist as he brought it down against my face once more.

Pain exploded behind my eyes and nose, and I gasped, trying to catch a breath. I coughed, unable to breathe through the pain. Once I caught my breath, I continued to scream.

He stood, dragging my jeans down my legs. My panties followed, and I found that I could no longer kick with my jeans and panties trapping my legs. He flipped me onto my stomach, and I looked down at the blanket and the droplets of blood coming from my face.

His belt jingled behind me, and when I felt his naked hips and hard penis against my backside, I doubled my efforts, fighting the best I could with any part of me I could move and screaming so hard my throat burned.

“Shut the fuck up!” he yelled, punching me in the back of my head.

My face went into the mattress with the pressure of his fist, and he held it there, the palm of his large hand pushing my face into the blanket so hard I couldn’t breathe.

He was going to suffocate me and rape me at the same time. I hadn’t pictured my death this way, not that I pictured my death often, but I had always imagined I would have more fight.

My lungs sizzled, needing air, but just before I was sure I was going to suffocate, he let go of my head. I lifted my face from the mattress and took a deep breath. It was then I realized he was lying on top of me, his body weight pressing me into the bed. He wasn’t moving.

Pressing my palms into the bed, I used all my strength to lift myself. I flipped him off my back and scrambled from the bed. My jeans had fallen to my ankles, making me trip and fall into the dresser behind me.

Will wasn’t moving. His eyes were closed, but he was breathing. It looked as if he had passed out. Quickly, I tugged my panties and jeans up, then I dropped to my knees and reached under the bed for Dad’s urn. Then before he woke and came at me again, I darted from the room and stumbled down the stairs.

Swinging open the front door, I sprinted across the porch and down the steps. I didn’t stop running until I reached the driver’s side door of Erik’s Mustang. Once I was in the car, I locked the doors, set Dad’s urn on the passenger’s seat, and fired up the engine. I peeled away from the house as if Will was chasing me. As far as I was concerned, he was.

My heart drilled behind my ribs, and I gasped for breath, sucking blood into my mouth from my pouring nose as I escaped. I didn’t calm down again until I found myself sitting in Zada’s driveway. I couldn’t even remember the drive from Mom’s house to Zada’s.

The front of my shirt was covered in drops of blood, so I pulled down the visor and had a look at myself for the first time. Blood was smeared across my face and into my hairline. There was a gash above my eyebrow, and there was already bruising beneath my eyes. Pain radiated behind my eyes as I cried, my tears mixing with the blood on my skin.

Will had almost raped me—he almost smothered me. I didn’t know what to do, but I had a feeling calling the police would do nothing. Instead, I sat in Erik’s car and cried, wishing more than anything I had been invisible to Will the way I was nonexistent to everyone else.

28 Aiken

“YO, JUNIOR’S OUTSIDE.He wants to talk to you,” Saint said when he came in the front door.

I was sitting on the couch, watching TV, and smoking a blunt. I nodded and shut off the TV before going outside. Junior usually came through the front door as if he lived there. Instead, he was parked out front in the driveaway, the speakers in his trunk bumping and smoke rolling out the driver’s side window.

“What’s up?” I said, leaning into his window.

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