The small petite woman lay in some kind of hard bed, a bright light flashed into her eyes and it made her head pound with pain. The light was suddenly gone and then moments later, it returned again. She wasn't sure how many damn times that light flashed into her eyes, but it was torture. She tried to concentrate on the intrusion, but her vision was too blurry. She tried to move from the light, but each time, something pulled her head back towards the light. She wanted to scream, tell who ever it was to stop, they were killing her. Her head felt like it had been squeezed into a vise. She wanted to yell out in pain, but she had no voice.
She was finally able to get some peace as the light diminished and her brain was able to focus on where she was. She was in a bed, that much she knew. The mattress was lumpy and a few springs poked painfully into her lower back. The walls were stark white and looked to be made of concrete and what was that smell? It reminded her of her fathers old rusty Cadillac that had set in the garage one to many years. A pain of nostalgia gripped her heart as her father sprang to her mind. How she wished he was here right now.
As the memory of her father came to her mind, her senses snapped to, letting her remember what happened to her. Panic overcame her and she tried to sit up, but something was stopping her from moving. She was paralyzed. That was the first thought that had snapped into her fog filled brain. She was paralyzed.
She closed her eyes, tears squeezing out and falling onto her cheeks, and the memory came to her in a flash.
She had gone out on this date with a man she had met at her job. He had strolled into that diner, sexy oozing from every pore. Logan had been his name and he asked her out to dinner.
Kara Palmer was instantly attracted to Logan and she couldn't help but say yes. Her inner gut was screaming at her, but she tossed it aside. She was tired of being lonely, tired of coming home alone. Maybe Logan would be "the one", but sadly, that was not to be.
IT was halfway through dinner that Kara finally listened to her inner gut. Sure Logan was handsome, but there was something about her that tickled the back of her head. What made her rethink him was the way he said everything she wanted to here. Most men ignored her, just wanting a piece of her. Logan, on the other hand, seemed to be weaving some kind of spell over her.
Kara had to come up with some kind of excuse, so she politely excused her self from the table and walked into the restroom. As soon as the door shut, she took out her phone and quickly sent a text to her best friend. "Date is horrible. Call me in five minutes with some kind of emergency!'
When she walked back to the table, Logan was on his second glass of Scotch and his eyes moved from the waitress to see Kara approaching the table. "Everything OK?" His voice was smooth as the scotch he was drinking. Kara felt her heart pounding in her chest as she moved her chair back and quickly sat down. "I order us some drinks." He motioned to the waitress as she sat a glass in front of Kara.
She gave him a half smile as she placed her phone on her lap, making sure she could feel it vibrate. "Thank you."
Logan's smile slipped from his face as he heard the vibration of her phone. "Do you need to get that?"
Kara felt her face grow red as she picked her phone from her lap. "It's my dad..he's uh...really sick.."
"I hope it's not serious?" Logan kept his dark eyes on her, watching her fidget.
"I'm sorry," Kara stood up from the table and reached for her purse that was under the table. She fished out her wallet and opened it up. "I had a really good time..but I have to go.." When she looked up at Logan, he was staring at her, his eyes studying her. "I hope we can do this again.." She took out a twenty dollar bill and handed it to him.
Logan kept his hand on the glass as he raised her pinkie at him. "It's my treat Kara." He slid back his chair as Kara got up from hers. "Be looking for my call."
With a frustrated sigh, Kara threw her purse on the couch and sat down, propping her feet up on the coffee table. She laid her head back on the couch and covered her face with her hands. What was it about her and attracting the jerks and the creeps. Just once she would love for a date to end beautifully, with the promise of another one in the near future.
Her phone beeped next to her and she saw the text from her best friend. Another bad date?
The worst, Kara typed back, I will call you first thing in the morning and tell you the details.
You got it! Breakfast on me tomorrow. The same haunt.
See you then! Kara clicked her phone shut and threw it on the couch next to her and laid her head back on the couch and let out a huge sigh. She was going to delete that damn dating membership.
She raised her head to see her lap top sitting on the bar, so she moved her feet off the table and walked over to it. She placed it under her arm, grabbed a beer and walked to her bedroom. She sat the laptop on the bed while she quickly changed into a pair of short boy shorts and a blue camisole top. She took out her hair from the pony tail and shook it loose with her fingers.
She pulled back her purple bedspread and crawled underneath the covers, propping herself up with the pillows. She twisted off the beer cap and took a sip.
"OK…no more jerks and creeps for me," Kara took a sip of her beer and scrolled through her history and found the website she had been on just a few weeks ago.
She accessed her account and found the delete profile button and pressed enter. As she waited, she took several swigs from her beer, when she heard a thump coming from the front door. She took the earphones out of her ears and waited, the beer still in her hands. When the sound didn't come again, she went to take another sip.
She paused, the bottle halfway to her mouth when she heard it again, than seconds later, the sound of breaking glass. She quickly sat the beer down on the night stand and slowly slid out of bed, creeping to the door. She put her hand on the knob and slowly moved it open and peered into the hallway. Right away she saw two men moving through the apartment and bile crept up into her throat.
She quickly grabbed the phone off the night stand and went into the closet and slid inside, tucking her self behind her clothes. Her hands shook as she dialed 911, whispering to the dispatcher that two men were inside her apartment.
She gasped as she heard her bedroom door squeak open and then the footsteps of one of the men. She opened her phone again and scrolled through the numbers and landed on her fathers number.
She hit send and the phone rang, but before she could answer, the closet door was yanked open. Kara let out a scream as one of the men grabbed her leg, dragging her out. She tried to grab onto something, but the man was so much stronger than her. In the struggle, she had dropped her phone.
Kara was thrown to the ground as the man tackled her, the breath whooshed out of her lungs. She was yanked over on her back and she kicked out with her feet. Her aim was off and she just grazed his arm. The man sat on her thighs, raised his hand back and slapped her. The hit was so hard, she felt her ears ring, stars exploded behind her eyes and she tasted blood.
Her arms were yanked above her head with one hand as the other ripped the straps from her tank top. That's when her flight or fight kicked inside of her. She heard enough of these stories, she knew how the all ended. The cops find the woman dead.
She reached under the bed and almost cried out as she felt the metal handle of the object. She had placed it under her bed for just this very reason. With a cry from her lips she wrapped her fingers around it and slid it out from under the bed. She slammed the bat into the man's head, knocking him off of her.
She slipped in the blood, twisting her ankle as she fell. Her feet tried to get traction, but she was too hysterical. She let out a scream as she felt a hand grab her ankle and she turned her head. The man was lying on the floor, bleeding from his head and he weakly reached out to her. There was no strength in his grip and she easily knocked his hand away.
She grabbed the bat from the floor and ran into the hallway, completely forgetting that there was another one of them. She caught him off guard when she came running down the hall. He quickly stuck his arm up, catching her in the throat. With a loud thump she hit the floor, feeling a rib crack. She screamed as the man grabbed the bat from her hands, raising it above his head. She quickly brought her right arm over her head and felt the bat crash down. Excruciating pain snaked up her arm and the man raised the bat again.
And that was all she could remember.
Her eyes could only see shapes and shadows around her. It seemed they were talking to her, just standing around, but she couldn't make them out. She tried to focus on them, but it was just out of her reach. She closed her eyes. Opened. Focused. She did this for several minutes. The light was making her eyes hurt. She moved her eyes up to the source of the light and realized it was a halo. No. Not a halo. It was a round, domed light.
The door groaned open and Kara lifted her head to see a man with dark hair walk into the small room. She struggled against the binds as she recognized the man as the one who had been in her apartment.
He cocked his head to the right and smiled at her. As his lips curled up, Kara was horrified to see a second set of teeth close over the first set. The second set was much sharper and pointed and with a hit in her gut, Kara realized what this man was.
"Welcome Kara," He smiled at her as his tongue slid over the tips of his teeth. "I think you and I are going ot be great friends."
Kara screamed as the man pounced on her, his full weight pinning her into the mattress. No matter how much she fought, she couldn't get him off of her. He was very strong. With the room filled with her screams, the man bent down and placed his lips on her neck and sank his teeth into the tender flesh of her skin.