ALICE (Book 1)

Chapter 2 : Dangerous Stranger

     It has been a week.A week of running.A week of the cold and a week of empty living. I have kept to the dark corners of the streets always holding my bag tightly and waking up to the lightest of sounds.It is a bit tiresome to keep overtly alert all the time but it's been worth it all.
     The street is crowded and my face is concealed by one of my larger wraps with some of my hair flowing out.My bag is held tightly in my arms and I take quick glances of the people around me.I get anxious in places like this.I feel like they are all watching me,trying to peek and see the girl under the wrap.The girl with the strands of thick auburn hair and steely blue gray eyes.
     I get a small bit of food from my bag. I am going to ran out of food soon and this distorts my thinking a little. I sadly ran out of my little savings in getting more food  so I can't buy anymore resources. I have to find a way of getting my necessities and survive in anonymity. I have been trying to come forth with ways but my brain fails me.My brain never fails me.Why should it fail me now at the greatest point of vulnerability?
     As the day gets darker and reaches its end steadily I feel more relaxed. I stop hearing the beat of my heart or feeling like a million eyes are on me.The dark is my greatest conceal and calms the anxiety temporarily. I look up fully for the first time today and notice a tall man walking in my direction. He has on a black suit and has curly short strands of hair. He looks at me as he walks towards me.His stare is intense.A hard green gaze.
     I panic and contemplate running but come to my senses knowing that would be suspicious. I know that some people don't let go or stop thinking of suspicious acts easily. From the look that he gives I can tell he is one of those people. What if he is part of the police......I should definitely not leave reason for suspicion.
     He reaches and stands closely in front of me.He is still and erect as a pole. Him standing still in front of me goes on for a few minutes before his hand rises and he begins to caress my hair. Whatever fear I had of being a victim of suspicion and possibly caught melts away at that moment. I begin to move my leg to kick him but he moves aside quickly and clamps my wrist in his hand.I am too stunned to think and too tired to put up much of a fight.Before I begin to understand all that is happening he puts his arms around me and quickly shoves me into a darker corner.
     His body is pinned to mine and the first thought that flicks in my mind is if anyone noticed or coming to my rescue. No one around seems to have noticed thus causing me to wonder whether he was too swift or made it look like I was willing possibly.I should feel more panic and unsettlemement but instead I am flooded with slight relief. A relief that no one noticed or bothered to act hence I get discovered and found.
     Fear ,however, settles in when he whispers in my ear,"I will pay you any amount for a night with you." I curse the size of my body.He definitely would not possibly know that I am only a child. Judging by my five feet nine inches at age twelve.
     "No," I whisper coldly."You know,my dear, what brought me to you is not just a mild itch that needed to scratched by only a woman but...," he whispers and chuckles softly with his lips on my ear completely ignoring my answer,"I find you a spectacle for mesmerisation." "I watched you for hours wondering who the girl with the most beautiful shade of hair is." So he managed to tell my humble youth by calling me a girl.I try to fight him but he is too strong. "Dark,naturally silk,deep hints of rich red but appears at  the same time to be a gorgeous shade of umber,thick," he speaks as though my hair gives him a deep rooted satisfaction. "Your eyes when I moved towards you nearly stopped me in my advancement,"he breathed into my ear."The most striking pair of eyes I have ever seen."
     I begin to cry.Why is he saying all this? Pinning me hard under his tall form?He is my punishment. My castigation for my transgression. For wanting to see my Father bleed to death and eventually killing him for not loving me."The shape of your eyes are sinfully provocative. Your Irises remind me almost of diamonds, accentuated by long thick lashes of the same almost otherworldly shade of your hair,"he almost groans the whole vivid description of my features and I am completely repulsed by the sound of his voice.
     "The rest of you strikes me as quite plain actually......but that makes you even more of a goddess in flesh.It gives your features attention.Gives your hypnotic parts more power,"he says with hot breath against my ear . "I am a man who is very sentimental.That, I quite believe, may have played a big role in my drawness to you."he whispers impossibly quieter.Words meant only for me.He unknowingly seduces me with hope.Hope that I could be loved because of the blessing of my features. Showered with a multitude of affection.
     "Who are you?" I say a little breathless."A man who wants a night,my sweet. I will pay handsomely. It is that.....or I take by force and sink that life out of your eyes with my bare hands around your little neck, " he puts his hand around my neck mimicking his words."I promise you,my darling, I always keep my word."
     I whimper pathetically. This stranger.This dangerous stranger would be the cause of my death if I do not comply to his requests.He may have seduced me a little with the most delicious hope that I was nearly tempted to do anything he asked of me; but I know he is only a dangerous man.He would be a big regret. I have no doubt that he would rape me and kill me mercilessly if I foolishly refused to satisfy his wants. His gaze holds promise. A promise of ruthlessness and apathy.
     I hesitate to give him my answer. With his free hand he reaches for the pocket of his slacks and pulls out something that looks like like a syringe. He glides the sharp tip of the needle over my skin. "My weapon, "he whispers. "It never fails me ; taking my victims into deep unconsciousness for me to do anything I wish to them, " he says the last few words louder."The clock is ticking darling," he says as he begins to inflict pressure with the needle slowly. When I still don't answer he inflicts more pressure piercing into my skin.
     "Alright,I agree,"I say immediately I feel the sting of the needle piercing my flesh. He quickly puts the syringe back where it belongs.Making it almost seem like the graze of the needle's sharp tip on my flesh was nothing but an imagination ."Good girl.That is what we want,don't we?" he says with a wide smile.

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     We arrive at a luxurious mansion.Big and intimidating. He had driven us here in an expensive looking car I have only ever seen on the television. Everything about this man is purposeful and calculated. The Devil incarnate. He has forced me into a temporary, I hope, captivity.But not without my resistance or acts of attempted escape. 
       He walks out of the car and closes his door.He then walks to my side,opens the door,holds my hand firmly and helps me out.
    He does not let go of my hand when we enter through the the tall thick double doors of the mansion. Not when we climb the curved left hand staircase of marble or when we pass each opulent floor; not even when we reach his large decadent bed chamber.
     "Let me assist with your undress and then you can assist with mine," I say quietly. "Oh,yes,indeed my sweet.I am all yours," he says with a small hint of excitement. My hands are clumsy and they shake as they go over to his belt. "Are you an innocent, dear?" he asks slowly. "Ye-yes,"I stutter.
     He closes his eyes at my confession. Like it gives him a pleasure of some sort.He speaks into my ear,"I think I will keep you.Keep you forever." His eyes are still closed.This is my open chance.I quickly grab the syringe from his pocket and waste no time jabbing it into his neck and pressing the colourless liquid into him at the tip of the syringe.
    "You stupid little idiot!" he exclaims. "I will end you," he says with deadly menace.He tackles me to the floor strangling me with an incredibly tight hold.My breathing starts to labor but I refuse to show any weakness or try to gasp for air.I look,instead, fiercely into his eyes.
    The liquid is quick and his hold on my neck softens.He is still looking at me trying to say something but he only collapses on top of me heavily. It is then that I take my gulps of air.Relief like I have never known comes upon me.
     I push his heavy body off of me.I try to tie my hair securely and hide it completely under the protection of my wrap.I then sprint with everything in me out the door of my destruction. A destruction I escaped almost narrowly.