The skin was raw and the gasoline smell from her clothing that was all but dried made the burn much worse. Brenda winced and slowly rolled to her side. She had yet been able to even get a look at what he had done.
–That son of a bitch bastard- had done to her.
Brenda's mind spoke to her in anger and in comfort. She sucked in a very painful and tight breath, let it out slowly, and trembled as she did. She attempted to curl her knees to her chest for the third time in the past 15-20 minutes, but the tearing of tender skin at her abdomen halted that action for the third time…again.
"Damn it!" Brenda said to herself and sniffed back a few loan tears that had started to break free from her swollen, red eyes. She sighed and let her head fall against the tile floor with a soft 'thud' and closed her tired eyes. Brenda licked her lips and tried to focus on something other than the raw pain. However, in the darkness of her own mind she could not stop reliving the last few hours.
Over and over…
Screaming and screaming…but never pleading…that would be too easy…that would pour more fuel into his flame.
Open and
close.
Open and close.
Then the pain…
…Brenda screamed with so much intensity that she could swear her eardrums bled violently. Her entire body convulsed and pulled back in primal instinct from the burning flame of his lighter. Yet he kept coming. He kept holding her down. He kept burning into her flesh.
Croelick was enjoying her torment with great pleasure. After all that time he had spent in prison for a crime people thought he did not commit. Why shouldn't someone not pay for that? Did it matter who paid? No…just that someone did. The corner of his mouth curled into a grin and he closed the lighter for one brief moment.
Brenda took in anguished breaths. The tears she had forced back earlier were pouring from her eyes as if a water's faucet was broken. At her stomach, she could feel the burn throbbing along with her manic heartbeat. Beneath him, Brenda trembled just slightly, but it was enough for Croelick to relish.
"Damn you Croelick! Damn you!" Brenda said in pain trembled lips.
"Sure, damn me, Brenda," Croelick said and opened and closed the lighter again which caused Brenda to cry out instinctively in protest. "But, unfortunately, I have already heard that one before. Just doesn't seem to have the same affect as it once did. And coming from you, why, it is just plain said, just plain Brenda. I would have thought you could have come up with something better." He smiled and his eyes twinkled with delight. Then he leaned forward and took in a long breath; his nose close to the burned flesh right below her navel. Brenda jerked hard under him in disgust and horror.
"You are filthy and you are sick!" She said enraged.
"Why, thank you, Brenda, " he laughed.
Croelick then scooted upward on her body and Brenda bit her lower lip to keep from crying out. However, a small whimper did escape. Her eyes shut tight for a moment as his straddled position stopped right over the very place he had just burned.
"You will pay for this Croelick…when I get free…and you damn well be sure I will. What I will do to you will be worse than putting you into the prisons again and having you labeled as a child sex offender! Brenda spat back at him. "You will be praying for mercy that WILL NOT COME! I will make sure of THAT!"
Croelick had his hand around her small neck before she could blink and her entire face went red from the quick halt of oxygen. His face came down close to hers and all she could do was look right back up into his sadistic glare. Her own eyes widened and her brow furrowed into worry and fear all mixed into one. She was not afraid of dying…she was afraid of what she would leave undone. Croelick felt her struggle under him and fight even as she slowly began to loose consciousness. Brenda could hear her heart beating fast in her ears and right before her world did turn to black she saw his face, felt him kiss her cheek, and whisper in her ear. "Nighty night, Brenda. Don't stay away too long…or you will miss all the funnnnnn…"
The world before her eyes went black and she hoped not forever…
Brenda shook out a sigh and swallowed in an attempt to forget what had happened to her. –I need water- she thought and opened her eyes slowly to come face to face with Bill Croelick. Brenda recoiled out of instinct and yelped in terror. Parts of her sticky, stiff, blond locks collapsed over her eyes with her startled movement and Croelick reached out to place them behind her ear. Brenda jerked back again before he was able to touch her.
"I told you to stay the hell away from me!"
He reached again and she pulled back again.
"Are you deaf? Or just plain slow!?" Brenda asked him and found before she had actually finished her sentence that she was against the wall. There was nowhere else left to go. –Might as well face him-
"Why!" She said finally able to manage a word and not sound as if she was stuttering. "Why are you doing this? What do you want?"
There was a long pause and then her path to see him was cleared as he brushed the stiff locks from her eyes. Brenda just looked at him. She wanted an answer. Croelick just studied her. He was not yet willing to give an answer. His eyes took in all the details of her pained, angry face, the barely there quiver of her bottom lip, the slight twitch of her eyes, the way her lips parted in order to take in another breath, and how her fair skin revealed every change in her emotions. Her cheeks were flushed pink as if she had been out for a morning jog and her skin glistened with sweat as if she had just stepped out of the shower. He imagined her soaked and standing with a towel tugged tightly around her slender body just above the breasts. He had been attracted to her from the start and her high position within the LAPD had turned him off for a brief while. However, he simply could not get her out of his mind. He wanted her to be the way she could never be…and that only made him cherish her more.
Why!?" She screamed at Croelick again and ripped him from his small day dream. He blinked a few times and smiled down at her.
"To be honest?" He asked.
"Why not!" Brenda countered.
"Because you have changed something in me that I rather do not like. My desire, "he held up his fingers in a quoting fashion, "my M.O. as you would put it…is the dumb, simplistic blonds, that have intelligence less than that of an infant. I initially thought that was you. However, finding that my new object of desire was none other than a Deputy Chief of the LAPD priority murder squad..." He sighed and shook his head. "Was incredibly disappointing." He shrugged a cheeky grin.
"That is a pile of sh…" Brenda was cut off and moreover pissed off because her range of emotions kept reversing on her
"Ahh!" Corelick's finger on her lips had silenced her and he did not remove it while he finished his thought. "However what I just said is not entirely truthful. I do like you, Brenda. I more or less wanted to see how one such as you reacted to the thought or reality of dying. You pick your poison. And like all those others? The stupid blonds? I am rather pleased to inform you, that when it comes right down to facing death...everyone pleads for mercy. Even you will, Brenda. Oh, yes, even you will…"
Brenda could do nothing more than stare at him in disbelief. She began to wonder if this was her rightful end. After all those years of saving people's lives, of finding the criminals who did the innocent wrong, of putting away evil behind solid steel bars…was she really going to go out in this fashion? As soon as those thoughts crept into her mind, she threw them out. As long as she was still breathing, she would fight.
–I will not go down without a fight…-Became the mantra that played over and over in her mind.
Croelick, after what seemed like a very long minute removed his hand and let Brenda speak her mind. He could see the words forming over her lips and saw the tiny muscles in her jaw tense. He was prepared for another round of Brenda threats and another round of Brenda vulnerabilities. She was hard and stubborn like he expected her to be. But…she was also the vulnerable woman that he desired her to be.
Brenda was seething.
Croelick lifted her up even with her fighting back and slammed her against the wall in a sitting position. She winced at the pressure of her arms against the wall from the force of his actions. Fear was gone now. The wound he had inflicted on her hours before had accidentally backfired and Brenda worked fast and quiet to rip at the loosened tape around her wrists. Croelick moved closer and leaned in, putting his face nose to nose with hers. Brenda never let her eyes leave him for a second. She snarled and he smiled. Then he hit the wall on both sides of her face and flattened his hands against the wall. Brenda jumped and blinked a few times. He glared at her.
"I won't beg for mercy Croelick. You are wasting your time," she said and the tape broke…and Croelick did not notice. He huffed a laugh, moved his cheek to brush against hers, and placed his lips against her ear.
"Why don't we just find out," he whispered and then ran his tongue along the edge of her ear. Brenda trembled with rage that finally cracked. As he pulled back to see her reaction Brenda struck…hard. Her hand attacked his throat and remained where they landed, tightening like a snakes body around newly surprised caught prey. Croelick's mouth hung open, frozen in a silenced scream. Brenda brought his face right back to hers. Her eyes were wild and frightening.
"Burn…in…hell!"