One review is better than no reviews. I know at least one living human being with the capability to type is reading this, so that's good. I'm not just posting this to ghosts and robots. I guess I'll post the next chapter for that one person. Here you go, new best friend:

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CHAPTER 4

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"Shhh." Holtzmann heard a male voice whisper into her ear and felt a hand clamp down over her mouth as she woke up.

Her instinct was to panic and try to scream, but she held back, choosing to judge the situation first. She breathed in and out sharp, quick breaths as she looked first to the man covering her mouth, and then past his body and toward Patty, who remained perfectly still, slumped slightly forward with her eyes closed. She must have fallen asleep too. She wondered what time it was... How long had she slept?

Holtz looked back up into the eyes of the man pressing his hand over her mouth. He was being a little needlessly rough considering Holtzmann wasn't even fighting back at the moment.

"Don't make a sound..." The man instructed in a low voice as he moved his hand slowly off of her face. This was the guy who had told Abby on the phone that his name was simply 'M.' The same one who told Abby that if she tried anything, Holtzmann would be the first to suffer for it. The guy who had made her sit with him in the car while he threatened to hurt Patty if she didn't play nice. The man who had tied her down to this chair. She wondered what his real name was. Had to start with an 'm.' Maybe Mike, Matt... Marvin...

"Is-" Holtz was immediately interrupted when his hand clamped right back down.

"Did I not just tell you to keep your mouth shut?" He growled.

Holtzmann frowned as she felt her breaths become more panicked. She hadn't screamed or anything. She just wanted to ask him what his real name was. She knew the other guy's name. Both of the men knew her and Patty's names.

"You say a single word, and I'm gonna have to do something neither of us wants me to do." He threatened in a low whisper.

She breathed as well as she could with his hand covering her mouth and a bit further up toward her nose. As she looked him up and down, she noticed he had at some point pulled a chair up and was sitting right in front of her. She could hardly believe he managed to place the chair practically touching her legs, sit on it, and reach up to her face before she ever woke up. Patty must have been right... She was exhausted.

"I don't dislike you, Jillian. And Patty's been very cooperative. I don't want either one of you to get hurt, but I'm gonna do what I have to... and if you make a scene, so will I." He threatened.

Holtzmann stared back at him, unable to and afraid to do anything else. His wording wasn't entirely clear, but if she had to guess, what he was saying was if she made a noise, either Patty or Holtzmann was going to get hurt... Maybe both of them. She certainly didn't want that.

"So you promise to stay quiet?" M asked.

Holtz swallowed and nodded what little she could.

"Good." He smiled and slowly moved his hand off of her face and down toward her thigh, gripping her leg above her knee. "I just want to talk to you." He noted with a soft smile as he stared intently into her eyes. "So there's no need to be scared."

Holtzmann stared down at his hand on her leg as she breathed in slow, shaking breaths. If she weren't worried for Patty's sake, there would have been no way she wouldn't be squirming under the ropes and screaming at this guy to keep his hands to himself. She swallowed as she felt herself shaking slightly. She pulled her hands into fists behind her while she watched M's thumb move slowly back and forth over her leg.

Logic reminded her it was only her leg. His thumb was touching her leg, over her clothing... That wasn't too much to worry about. It wasn't rough... It was on top of the rather thick material of her overalls... It was just her leg. She didn't need to freak out... But then, the fact that a man she didn't even know, who had already threatened both her and one of her best friends thought he had the right to touch her at all was alarming. If he felt entitled to this, how much further would he be willing to take things?

"I'm trying to talk to you, Jillian." She felt two fingers on her chin as he forced her to look up at him. Apparently, he had been talking this whole time, while she had zeroed in on his hand. "Are you always this fucking spaced out? How do you get anything done?"

Holtzmann assumed that was a rhetorical question, since the last time she made an effort to quietly ask a simple question, he had slammed his hand over her mouth and basically told her to shut up.

With his hand still on her leg, he leaned forward slightly, narrowing his eyes as he stared into hers, almost as though trying to read her thoughts just by staring hard enough.

She stared back, flinching away as he reached his hand toward her face again. Her breath caught in her throat. She wanted to demand that he back off. She wanted to yell for Patty, even though she knew the other woman was just as trapped as she was. She stayed quiet though, through her fear... because while a strange, violent man touching her face was scary, the thought of him hurting Patty because of her was even scarier.

"You're kind of cute." He noted, brushing a wild curl away from her eyes and back behind her ear. "I'm not sure if you're aware of that... but you are. It was my original plan to just have you here... I needed to take one of you, as motivation for the others. I chose you for a lot of reasons. I knew you'd physically be the easiest to take... I figured I could likely convince you to get in the car on your own - and I still think I could have if not for your buddy... You're weird as fuck, and I could see you really did want to help me... I bet you'd have gotten in the car and everything... You don't seem to have self-preservation skills... Or at least you let curiosity beat out paying attention to your surroundings. That's why I chose you. And since I knew I'd be spending time alone with whomever I took, I had to choose the cute one."

Holtz felt her chest tightening. She didn't like where this conversation sounded like it could be going.

She remained frozen, entirely silent as he continued messing with her hair, pulling pins out and running his fingers through the chaotic, twisted strands.

"Jesus Christ, Jillian." He laughed softly. "Your hair's a fucking mess..."

Holtzmann swallowed nervously, shrinking slightly down and pulling against the metal cuffs behind her. Maybe snapping her thumb back to get the things off her wouldn't be such a bad idea. A broken thumb would hurt... but pain might be a fair trade off if she could shove this gross bastard off of her.

"I mean, you really are gorgeous, Hon." M went on, letting his eyes roam over her body. "It almost seems like you're trying to hide it. You've got a nice body, pretty eyes... Your hair might look nice if you'd brush it." He laughed, running his fingers through her hair again. "You actually are pretty hot, Jillian... But you don't seem to want anyone to know it... Your hair's a disaster... Seems like you wake up in a ditch somewhere stick pins in your hair wherever you get get 'em to stick, and throw on dirty overalls that don't fit. Don't get me wrong. You're still cute..."

Holtzmann felt her lip trembling as she swallowed back tears. He was really scaring her... The last thing she wanted to hear was that this weird creep thought she was cute. She didn't dress or style her hair for him, or anyone like him.

Her breath hitched in her throat as she felt his hand on her waist, sliding under her overalls, but still over of the material of her tank top. She squirmed under his touch as she felt her voice rising in her throat. She wasn't going to be able to keep quiet and allow this...

She squeezed her eyes shut as she felt his fingers moving lower, trying to push up under her shirt.

"Don't!" She hissed in a low whisper as she tried to shrink away from his touch. She couldn't just sit quietly and allow him to do this. "Stop..." She breathed a shaking breath, wanting to obey his order not to make noise, but unable to bring herself to silently suffer through his unwanted touch.

She saw a scowl in his eyes as his hand pawed at her even more roughly. He brought his other hand up to her neck, wrapping his fingers around her throat. "I told you not to make a sound, girl." He growled.

Holtzmann bit back a sob as she felt his hand move up from fumbling with the hem of her shirt and toward her breast, groping and squeezing over her shirt. He was clearly being more rough on purpose now - angry that she hadn't kept quiet like he asked. But how could she keep quiet during this? She wanted to scream... She was already holding back a lot more than she wanted to.

He was so close to her now, leaning in and whispering softly. "You're just gonna make me mad, Sweetheart... and if I have to listen to Patty screaming and begging me not to hurt you, it's gonna make me more mad. When I'm mad, I get violent... and when I get violent, sometimes it gets me excited." He smirked down at her, squeezing his hands on her breast and at her throat, almost restricting her breathing. "Do you get that?"

"Please stop..." She whispered even lower, both to try to follow his orders to be quiet, and because he was squeezing her throat a little too hard. She probably couldn't have spoken loudly even if she wanted to.

Her attacker shook his head and exhaled as though annoyed with her. "No more warnings. One more word, and I'm gonna hurt your friend. Then you. What I'm doing is harmless... but it doesn't have to be. I can do much worse than this."

Holtzmann stared up at him with wide eyes, which she could feel were filling with tears. She felt her lip trembling, her body shivering thanks to chill and fear, and her heart pounding frantically in her chest.

"You've got beautiful eyes, Sweetheart." He smiled at her.

She squeezed her eyes shut, feeling tears clinging to her eyelashes.

"So do you understand, Doll? You gonna stay quiet now? You get it that I'm gonna hurt both you and your friend if you don't, right?" M asked.

Holtzmann felt her throat tighten, not because his hand was still lightly squeezing, but because her oncoming tears were literally about to choke her. She forced herself to nod. What choice did she have?

"Open your eyes." He demanded in a low whisper. "Look at me, Jillian."

She did as ordered, looking at him through a haze of unshed tears as he put his hand against her cheek, brushing a tear that had managed to fall away with his thumb.

Holtz whimpered as she tried to see around M's shoulder. She wanted to see Patty, to remind herself how important it was to keep her mouth shut, to assure her that letting him hurt and humiliate her without protest would be worth something. Just seeing that Patty was still okay would make it easier to keep her mouth shut.

She couldn't see around her attacker though though. He was too close, and was leaning in closer, bringing his face close to hers. She shrunk back as much as she could, still trying to see around his shoulder as her breaths quickened.

It wasn't like anything could stop what was happening anyway. Patty couldn't save her. She was still tied up. They were in an old warehouse outside of town. No one would hear her if she screamed. The only thing that would accomplish would be that Patty would wake up. It would just make the older woman upset... and then M would do something awful to both of them. Keeping quiet was her only option if she didn't want a horrible situation to get a whole lot worse.

M leaned in even closer, staring at her with a look that seemed like a terrifying mix of love, lust, and anger. She couldn't help but to let out a choked sob and a muffled whimper as he pressed his lips against hers, kissing forcefully as his one hand moved from her throat to her hair and the other continued groping at her chest.

When he pulled back, Holtzmann couldn't help but to choke out a shaking sob. She tried to be quiet - she really did... but this was just too terrifying, and such a horrible invasion of her personal space.

"Don't cry, Hon. I'm not hurting you." M insisted. "Shhhh..." He added, putting his hand over her mouth again, seemingly understanding that her sobs were out of her control, that she was still trying to listen to his demands that she keep quiet.

Holtzmann shook her head and whimpered as he ran his other hand from her hair, down over her throat, and over her chest. She felt him struggling to unhook her overalls with one hand as he kept the other firmly over her mouth. She tried to shrink down as she utterly failed to keep her tears from streaming down her cheeks.

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