She woke up in the middle of the night shivering, the curtains were twisting and turning in the cold Manhattan breeze. She knew the windows had been closed when she went to bed. The thought would not strike her until later, but why was that her first thought? Why was the first thought that strolled into her head about usless curtains?
But the thought left as quickly as it had come. She look right into the eyes of the man on top of her. She couldn't get a good profile of him in the inky blackness of the night. But he saw her, he stopped suddenly and hesitated a moment before reaching for the nearest thing he could grab, a scarf, and shoved it into her mouth. Reacting sharply to the gag she started sputtering and coughing. How could she let this happen? She tried to fight the man who was violating her but she soon learned that her hands were bound to her bed post. She tried to fight in any way she could, turning her body against him, trying to kick him, anything, but it didn't work. He held her down harder, kicking her and punching her into submission. He caressed her and put himself further inside her, all the time saying nothing. Maybe he had said something before, before she woke up.
He stopped, and she stopped. She was unsure of what to do next, he was holding her arms, pinning her to the bed. He lifted one arm off her and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a small, sleek knife. She screamed but it was muffled from the scarf. Her eyes were on the knife, watching it, watching him put the blade to her skin. He began to carve something into her stomach. She screamed, cried, but she didn't resist. She knew that he wasn't killing her but if she moved the blade could slip which would kill her.
He stopped cutting her but he didn't put the knife away. He moved his face to within inches of hers and whispered, "You should have accepted my offer, because now no one is going to want you."
His voice was hard but she knew it was a cover on his real voice. Her mind raced trying to figure out who this could be. Did she have a stalker or was this some guy she rejected? He lifted his knife again and went back to cutting her. She felt the knife with every turn, every twist but she didn't want to move because of the risk.
Her rapist obviously wanted her to suffer because when he finally got off her she was bleeding, bruised and she couldn't move. He didn't say anything else but after her got off her he tied her legs to the bedpost and left, leaving her to bleed. She paniked, what was going to happen to her. She had no way to contact anybody and no one would realize something was wrong until tomorrow when her colleagues realized she wasn't at work.
Work! How would she explain this to her colleagues? She'd always told them she could protect herself, now that she had been violently raped she could claim that anymore.
She was lost in her thoughts when she heard a noise. It was coming from her front door. Instantly a wave of panic hit her, what if it was her attacked back to intimidate her, to hurt her more. She didn't say anything, not that she could with the scarf in her mouth. Then she heard it.
"Olivia, it's Elliot, open up."
Olivia silently rejoiced, she wasn't going to die and she wasn't going to be trapped anymore. She summoned all her strenght and screamed at the top of her lungs, which came out barely higher than a whisper, "Help me!"
Elliot heard her cry and lifted his gun out of the holster. He raised the gun and extended his arms all the way out in front of himself. He used his shoulder to open the door, like he had done many times before and began the searching the apartment for anything, or anyone, dangerous. Finding nobody in the apartment Elliot went into Olivia's bedroom. Elliot saw Olivia lying in her bed, bound and gagged, blood covering her entire torso and splattered on her legs and chest. He holstered his gun and reached for his walkie-talkie and called for a bus. Elliot called the police and waited for them and the bus to arrive.
When the ambulance arrived Elliot helped Olivia, who had been too shaken to speak, up from the bed careful not to make her bleed anymore than she had. Elliot helped Olivia onto the stretcher the paramedics had rolled in and walked behind it slowly, as if following a funeral procession. He climbed into the ambulance after shouting some last minute instructions to the officers who had just arrived. The ambulance sped toward the hospital.
Olivia was wheeled into the emergency room where a group of doctors and nurses immediately surrounded her. She was hooked up to IV's and monitors and Elliot was quickly lost in a sea of doctors, nurses and patients. He tried to move toward her but it was no use. Elliot kept moving around looking for her. He then caught a glimpse of her being wheeled out of the ER. He caught a hold of one of the doctors and asked him where Olivia was going.
"We are taking her into surgery to stitch up these cuts. She has lost a lot of blood and she is very unstable right now." The docotors said.
"She was raped, we need to do a rape kit." Elliot insisted.
"She's going into surgery, we need to get her stabilized first." The doctor turned back to Olivia, before Elliot could say anything else, and disappeared into the crowd leaving Elliot alone in the middle of a crowded emergency room.