Chapter 6

Originally he had planned to knock her out, but now with his id in firm control, any thoughts or feelings of guilt or remorse were currently a very hazy memory. Something inside of him wanted to her to hurt. It wanted to see her pain, her suffering. The mere thought of it stoked a fire burning inside of him that would have disturbed him had he been his usual rational self. All those years of repressing his emotions and dark desires had built a mental dam that burst in spectacular fashion as the beast that dwelled just beneath the surface was finally unchained. Her soft whimper sealed her fate and with savage glee he tore apart her sweats with his bare hands and left her completely nude and bound.

Echo was ripped from her moment of solace, the fantasy of escaping the horrors that played out in her own cruel imagination. Her body jerked as the sweats were torn asunder, and some of the wounds along her back bled more freely, especially the deepest ones. This prompted the return of panic, but a sense of inevitability accompanied it.

Short, heavy breaths left her nose. The material crammed into her mouth was soaked through and dense, now compressed through so much gnashing of her teeth. She tried to spit it out, working her tongue against the ball of cloth. A frustrated, grating cry climbed to her molars when she couldn’t dislodge it. Her thighs tensed, desperate to close, to protect her most private parts, and through it all, her back still stung enough to keep the tears steadily rolling down her cheeks. She lifted her head, shaking it in a frenzy when the prospect of being raped by him hurt too much to think about.

Rational thought still existed in his current mental state, but only when it supported his primal hunger. He took a moment to soak in every detail of her exquisitely positioned and straining body. The way her inner thigh muscles flexed in an attempt to hide her treasures sent spine tingling thrills right to his loins. His brown eyes devoured those little details of her fear and distress like a Thanksgiving feast. In fact, that is just what she looked like, a sexually macabre trussed up raw turkey being served up on a black platter. For the first time, his fingers reached out and touched her in an intimate way. His fingertips lightly traced up the soft smooth skin of her inner thigh starting from her knee, but he stopped in mild distaste once he reached the regions of dried flaky cum near her crotch.

He grunted and left the room. When he returned, he was carrying a damp washcloth, a paring knife and two jars. He crouched at the foot of the bench out of her line of sight and set all of the items down on the floor except for the washcloth. After a moment’s thought, he leaned over and pulled the improvised gag out of her mouth. The beast wanted to experience Echo’s torment with every one of his senses to their fullest extent.

He shifted back between her legs and with the outward appearance of tenderness, he gently wiped the crusty residue of sex from her nethers until he was satisfied with their cleanliness. He set the warm cloth on the small of her back and used both hands to part both of her ass cheeks and spread them wide open. He lewdly smiled at his first up close and personal view of her vulnerably open lower lips and tight little flexing pucker. It was one thing to seeing her exposed and violated on a monitor screen and whole world of difference to seeing the trembling flesh live, to feel the silky smooth softness of her amazing ass, and breathe in her feminine scent.

Echo responded to the touch that crept up her leg with a mewl that, even through the wad of fabric stuffed in her mouth, was very clearly a ‘No!’. Confusion brought her brows to furrow. That touch hadn’t been painful, and in truth, the gentleness frightened her. It felt like a lie, a soft precursor to more pain. She couldn’t afford to let herself hope for kindness, for gentleness, because in his eyes she saw none.

He must have found something he didn’t like, because the moment he touched her there, he stopped and drew away. She didn’t know whether to feel relieved or humiliated. She couldn’t get a good look at his face to get a sense of what had happened, or what would happen next. He hadn’t killed her, and again, she had some very complicated emotions over this, because the knife and the pain it had caused was ever on her mind. It goes without saying that her heart sank when she saw him return with yet another blade after leaving her alone for a couple of minutes. The knife looked smaller, and although she’d only gotten a quick glimpse, she felt panic swelling like a balloon inside her chest.

She thought of ways to appeal to his mercy, at this point. Things she could say to get him to stop. Nothing logical came to mind, only a memory did whisper between her ears. A memory of her mother feeding her a strawberry, and telling her that ‘If you ever find yourself having words with someone who is upset, you only need to give them something sweet to eat. It’s impossible to stay angry if there’s sugar on your tongue.’ But Echo didn’t have any sugar for him, and suddenly she felt all the more upset for it. Everything was out of her control, everything!

But then the gag came out, and to feel her jaw close was one of the sweetest feelings she could remember. The relief was intense, and she found that she could breathe so much more easily now. She took a long moment to catch her breath, but it hitched once she felt the warm washcloth against her privates. Right. Because she was dirty from...

The warmth of the washcloth was unexpectedly soothing, until he deposited the used cloth onto her sliced-up back. It stung, and she sucked in a sharp breath. She absolutely stiffened when she felt him spread the pert, petite globes of her cheeks, exposing the small, delicate petals that lined her entrance. Curiously, there was only the smallest vestige of pubic hair present at the crest of her mound, soft and fine. Not that she was thinking about any of that, all she wanted was for him to, “Please ... stop hurting me,” which she said in a quiet, pleading tone.