Hammered Humanity (✅)

Chapter One

Ashlynn Greene got out of bed and got dressed. She looked around the dirty motel room where her newest boytoy had taken her.

'Jesus Christ, is it too much to ask for a man with abs and some fucking class?' she thought as she looked at herself in the bathroom mirror.

At an average height of 5'4 and smaller than most at 110lbs, her days of starvation had rewarded her with a rich husband and a big house in this shitty little town, but of course, the man pawing at her from behind wasn't that old coot.

"C'mon, let's go again!" he whined, pulling her to the bed.

"Not now, James. Besides, don't you have work?" she asked blandly, knowing his security shift at the Oakwood Inn had started over an hour ago.

'Ugh, he may have a shitty job at a crummy motel, but it does have its benefits,' she chuckled internally, watching his broad back as he quickly pulled on his tightly fitting shirt.

"I have the key, so don't leave anything behind. The guests and owners can't know we used this room," he said quickly before kissing her and quickly shutting the door as he left.

Ashlynn admired herself in the mirror again, something she did constantly throughout the day.

"I look the best I've ever looked! How could I stick with just one workaholic old man when I'm in my prime?" she chuckled quietly to herself. "Sure, he pays the bills, but I need some standards for who enters this temple."

She turned to leave, but as soon as she cracked the door, it was ripped from her hand. A man with a hood hiding his face locked the door and shoved Ashlynn down. She quickly jumped right back up and tried to run passed him, but it was no use.

This man was obviously experienced with handling victims that fought back, and this small woman was no different.

He effortlessly held her down by the face and zip tied her hands together, gagging her as well.

"It's time to face what you did, bitch!" the man sneered as Ashlynn began to sob, the sound muffled by her gag.

"You don't understand?" the man mocked, grabbing the woman's shoulders violently.

"Georgie Ricardo..." the man whispered into her ear, her face suddenly going pale in horror.

"You weren't always this way..." the unknown man continued softly, lifting her face to stare into her eyes.

"You married your first husband, a man named Hector Ricardo. Both of you loved each other despite your shared morbid obesity, soon reproducing an equally large son. You named him Georgie, and you loved him. One day, after he started high school, you had a heart attack and were told you needed immediate weight loss surgery or you would die the next time, correct?"

Ashlynn was shocked as much as she was scared. She had never told anybody about her past, how did this stranger know?

"So, your husband sold his car, took out loans from shady people, and even emptied Georgie's college fund just so you could receive it, but soon after, you changed, didn't you?" the man scoffed, his expression hidden behind the mask.

"First you banned all junk food from the house, then insisted on not working despite the bank threatening to foreclose on your home. When that got too much, you abandoned your family and divorced Hector. To top it off, you seduced a nice, rich man to pay for your expensive habits."

As the man told the story, he only seemed to get more disgusted.

"Do you want to know what happened to the lives you left hammered...?" he asked menacingly, pulling out a newspaper clipping.

"Teen Boy Kills Himself" it read, causing Ashlynn to let out a muffled scream and try to turn away, but the man grabbed her face, forcing her to look.

"You don't strike us as a reader..." he sneered, Ashlynn appearing confused at his use of pronoun, but not that much concerned with her life in danger.

"Let me just give you the Cliffnotes version then..." the masked man mocked. "Your husband's debt caught up to him and he had his head smashed in. With a dead father and a careless mother, young Georgie hung himself to avoid coming to terms with his horrible life."

Ashlynn let loose another muffled scream, but the man seemed unfazed.

"Now you get what you deserve!" the man growled, pulling a gun from under his jacket and pointing it towards her.

Ashlynn cried and begged, but the man's gaze remained blank as he pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The shot rang out...but Ashlynn fluttered open her eyes, having closed them in what she thought was her final moments.

What she now saw was the man holding the gun that did nothing but click after releasing a single bullet.

After a few moments of continuing to point with the useless weapon, he eventually stuffed the gun away in his jacket and grabbed Ashlynn by the throat.

"Don't you move! If you try to escape, I'll kill you with my bare hands! Do you understand me?!"

The terrified woman nodded fearfully as she watched the man leave.

As the violent man silently crept unseen from the practically abandoned motel, he removed his hood and made his way to a pay phone across the street

"We might have been a bit too dramatic," the man sighed to himself as if he was regretting sticking to a written script.

"Yes, hello?" he spoke into the receiver after dialling the police. "I would like to report a noise complaint at the Oakwood Inn. Yes, I heard screaming and a loud bang, I think someone might be hurt. My name...? My name's Justice."

Click.

After promptly hanging up, the man waited until the police arrived, making himself look inconspicuous the whole while. When they pulled up, Ashlynn came running out, screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Took her long enough," the man muttered to himself as he walked off, having wondered if the woman would've even attempted to escape the purposely loose restraints at all.