Chapter 43rd

Amidst all that commotion, amidst all the drama that took priority in my crumbling mind, I still found it in me to color with shame as the cop stared, dumbfounded.

"Surprised?" Chris teased, pacing conceitedly towards me, staring me down as if I was a criminal on the stand "I know! She tricked me too…" he moaned "She told me she was 17! Can you believe that? 17… and all hot for me!"

I tried to dodge his fingers as they came for me, seizing my face. It made him laugh.

"You see, I'm not the cradle robber you've taken me for. I mean, now that I do know, I suppose I am…" he rolled back his eyes comically "But I didn't plan on being one, originally. I had no idea I was being led on by a mere child! And you, my little plaything…" persistent, his fingers pried on: the tip of his index brushed my lips, framed my face, pushed my hair from my forehead as he amusedly watched me shrink between my shoulders. "…you had no idea what you were getting yourself into, did you?" he squeezed my cheeks together, smiled pleased at the image of my pursed lips. "We tricked each other, lied to each other, lured each other in... This makes us even, in a way: some sort of poetic justice that gives us a claim on one another! As for you…"

Once again, he turned towards the cop, a new determination driving him:

"…What's your excuse?"

"I… I didn't – I never thought-"

Unexpectedly to all, Chris administered the bound cop a serious kick to the side, the latter groaned a wet, suffocated cry. Another followed before he could recover – and yet another.

"STOP IT!" I shrieked. "Please!! STOP IT!"

By word of my plea or not, Chris did stop. The cop coughed vertiginously, recovering his breath and writhing across the floor.

"You shouldn't have gone after her… And you shouldn't have come here!" he sentenced.

"Leave him alone!!!"

Chris turned his hawky, keen eyes back towards me – a scary determination announcing itself in his eyes.

"I'll show you…"

And Chris walked to me again, his face once more enticed, amused, transformed as he focused on the prize, and on finally exacting his revenge upon it. It made me shudder, and it made me want to shrink into myself, further away from him. My bound limbs offered no small degree of despair when such feeling took over me…

"Why kill her…" the cop coughed up from behind him, just as Chris began towering over me. "Why break a perfect record, over a child? She's…" he gasped, speech hard to come by for him "She's not in your age group. She's not your type…!"

It was enough to give Chris a pause – it was enough to pause me as well.

"I…" the cop panted "…I know it's not."

"And what would you suggest?" Chris casually turned to face him, while his hand reached and threatened to encircle my neck, resting on my collarbones instead – heavy, but listless. He didn't mean to choke me, not just yet: just to scare into my flesh the awareness that he could. "…keep her until she turns 17?" And he offered a chuckle for the absurdity of the proposal just as its threat chilled me on the inside "…or even better, let her go? Come back later? And after all the trouble getting this far? No…" His face turned back to me, a fascinated look about his eyes "No, she's all mine: And I'll enjoy teaching her as much!"

His hand hovered by my face, I tried turning away as much as a bound body could… but ultimately, he contented with grasping the tip of my hair between his thumb and index finger, brushing them together as he mused whatever disturbing thoughts pleased him into such an expression now.

"She's… she's just a child!" The cop repeated, all the more distressed by the knowledge – the number.

"Make no mistake, she's as fierce as they come… as wild… just as delightful too, I'll assume!" His fingers pried, caressing my turned cheek just as it recoiled from his touch – a cornered animal that could do nothing but shrink. It amused him into a smile. "I'll admit I would have been biased against such young brats had I suspected of it before… but even then, I don't know if I would have been able to help myself, not when she pranced before me, star-eyed as she did…"

Funny… to experience dread as I did, when worst fates awaited: I dreaded it with all my life that Chris would disclose how I was the one to chase him, to linger in his presence, to invite him into my house because I was infatuated. It wasn't fear of the consequences of such transgressions that disturbed me into pain now… it was raw shame. Strange, pointless shame that showed up only to add to my final sufferings.

"I like to think I'm better than that, but then again… she's just as fine as any other. What big difference is there, after all? Teasing little things, ready for the taking: and this one knows how to incite me, even though she's painfully naïve. So, in the end, the only difference is that her careless young age placed her right here in my hands. That and… well…" he cocked that sideways smile of his, meant to provoke my pride and disturb my peace "…a certain 'seal' that guarantees I'm her first, and her last, too! I accept the treat, Abby: I'll give you what you want, but I'll break you in all ways I can in the process!"

His smile was thrilled, wicked, self-assured! My breathing was haggard, my limbs trembled, my shoulders ached.

"I won't ask you how you know what you just said… I'll just assume. You have been looking for me, I take it?" Chris turned. The air in the basement seemed to grow denser, quieter. The cop breathed. Somehow, that seemed like enough of an affirmation.

"Well, this changes things a little. I'll take it I have a reputation out there – one to protect. You have convinced me, Abby" He turned to look at me "I have yearned and prepared for this for too long to end it so soon…" he pulled the knife from his back pocket and moved it close to my face again. "I want to take my sweet time with you… And for that, I have to take care of some things first. Starting with your cop buddy and his trail of crumbs." His hand left my face rather abruptly as he walked to the cop, who all but started screaming at the approach… But Chris didn't kill him as perhaps we both thought he would: he rolled him over with his boot and yanked a radio from his belt, along with his badge and wallet. He fumbled through the latter and produced a small I.D card, which he brought closer to me to peruse under the dim light hanging from the wooden beams of the ceiling.

"Joseph Weiss, huh? Well… it was nice knowing you, Joseph!" and, turning to me "I expect you'll be saying your farewells, too. Be quick about it: I'll come back soon." And he left, leaving me to feel my heart beating in my ears.