The Way Back Home

Chapter Twenty Six: The Devil in the Ocean

TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter contains depiction of drugging a woman's drink to keep her subdued and further implication of somnophilia and just pure nightmare fuel... 

CHAPTER SONG: "The Devil in the Ocean" by Erik Enocksson (from the 2013 film 'For Those in Peril' starring George MacKay)

March 18th, 2020

Richmond, Virginia

Emmanuelle Hunterson slammed the door to Erik's car, feeling his ever-watching gaze on her as she turned away from him without a goodbye or even looking behind her for a farewell glance.

If God knew what sins they had committed in that vehicle, He'd send them both to Hell. It'd certainly be preferable to being in his company for another second, having his hands all over her and being trapped in his inescapable grip, welded to his side...

The rain splattered on top of her head and soaked her blouse and skirt as she opened the door to her apartment complex, the urge to vomit nearly making her bend over and retch in the lobby, but she gathered up her wits and made her way up the steps, anxious to get inside her modest dwellings, strip herself bare and scrub every inch of her skin raw in the shower to rid her body of any trace of her employer's patron...

With herself as the payment on the side for Erik's generosity...

The thunder rumbled outside as Emmy finally arrived at her apartment door and unlocked it to let herself inside. Immediately, she kicked her flats off her feet and threw her purse down onto the wooden table by her small sofa.

She went to her tiny kitchen, pulled out her only bottle of sweet red wine and poured herself a glass half full , allowing it to sit and brew while she went to bathe...

Her hands began to unbutton her blouse as she went to the bedroom, clutching her phone in her other hand.

Ignoring the rumble of hunger in her stomach, she took a long hot shower while blasting out some Muse from her iPhone speaker. The scorching hot water burned her skin into a pink color, the steam making her relax, but her muscles were still tense as she scrubbed herself with multiple soaps, cleansing herself of Erik's nauseating use of her body as his personal plaything...

Emmy turned off the water and squeezed out the water from her hair and wrapped up her head into a towel before covering her body into a larger towel. As she stepped out of the shower and onto the bathroom rug, she looked up in alertness at the sound of a creak on the floor...

Was it from inside her apartment...or from the floor above hers? She couldn't tell, but then she didn't hear the sound again as she held her breath to listen closer. Turning down the music from her phone, Emmy dressed into a pair of small shorts and a loose gray t-shirt.

Her wild brunette hair hanged loose around her shoulders to air dry as she went back out to the kitchen and took a few sips of her wine. She wasn't one to normally drink as such after a work shift, but the whole ordeal with Erik called for her sorrows to be drowned out...

Emmy took a larger swig of her drink, swallowing it with a satisfied gulp as the expected numbness filled her head... or was it?

She set her glass down onto the counter, her hand feeling heavy as though she couldn't move it... She lifted her other hand to her head, a sensation of dizziness spreading through her equilibrium as she pushed herself away from the counter, desperate to make it to the couch before she collapsed to the floor...

What was happening?

Every limb of Emmy's body felt heavy, her arms hanging useless at her sides and her feet too weighed down to properly allow her to walk...