Time Sensitive Target

Part 7 - The Worst You Can Imagine

[This scene contains sexual assault and rape]

I gingerly outstretched a fingertip until it reached rough skin, crusty with dried scabs and blood. I scratched my nail against Jas's hand, praying for a reaction. All my life I was sure I had never prayed for anything before. Now, I prayed for a flinch, a tiny shudder, a barely noticeable twitch from my friend.
Anything, I prayed. Anything to tell me you're alive.

I felt marginally better than before. The young, limping apprentice had given me some water and medication of some kind. He'd injected the same into Jas but she hadn't moved. I didn't even ask if she was alive, I didn't want to speak. My vision had cleared and the buzzing in my ears had dimmed slightly, though the feverish temperature fluctuations seemed never ending and I tossed and turned between shaking and sweating.

We were going home, Hackney had promised. Someone was coming for us, and as long as they stayed true to their end of the bargain then we'd be taken safely home. Hold on Jas, we're getting out.

Fervent conversation came from outside the metal door in Arabic.
"Waqal rayiysih edm aldhabab 'iilaa alddakhil!"
Something about a boss, and not going somewhere. My Arabic wasn't great. I turned my head uneasily to face the door. It creaked open and a man entered with the young apprentice close behind. The apprentice tugged at the new man's sleeve.
"Laa yujib ealayk!"
You must have... no that wasn't it. You must do? You must not. You must not! What must he not do? Hackney was nowhere to be seen. As much as he terrified me, I knew the one thing he protected us from was the other men. We had never seen anyone else apart from the first Turkish cameraman, the young limping apprentice and our captor, but he had always threatened that the people he kept outside the door would do much worse to us. I had sneered at the word. Worse than what he had already done, how could that be possible? I vowed never to admit it to another living soul now I knew the end was in sight, but I had actually begged him for death. I bit back tears at the thought.

My brain raced back to the present, where the new man paced across the concrete ground with alarming speed and sneered at me. He stood beside Jas and gave her leg a kick, but it dropped back limply. Oh god, was she dead? We were so close, she had to have some life left in her. Her legs were splayed apart, her knee length skirt now in complete tatters so it skimmed her thighs, her white vest top brown and red with stained blood and whatever else.

The invader acted quickly. It was only when he began to draw up his robe that I understood what was going to happen.

"No!" I screamed. The barbed wire was back around my wrists, the sharp metal teeth biting in to my already broken and scarring skin. I dragged myself upwards, ignoring the breathtaking pain in my ribs and choking on whatever liquid had started to come up my airway. I spluttered it on the ground and grasped the bottom of the intruder's robes to try and drag him away from Jas's defenceless body, gritting my teeth as the wire tore into my skin at the movement.

The intruder shifted and kicked me hard under my chest. I keeled over instantly, the impact to my already shattered ribs leaving me completely incapacitated.

"Stop!" I stifled a sob as I lay on the ground pressing my arms against my side to try to soothe the pain. I felt trickling down my hands, running in between my fingers. And there I lay, and watched. I watched everything, completely numb. I wouldn't have been able to stop him anyway, and I knew I was next. You're next, I told myself. He's going to rape you. He's going to lay on top of you and violate you. And you're going to live, and you're going to have to remember it for the rest of your life.

He was finished with Jas quicker than expected, and I realised that was because he was saving his finale for me. He smirked down as he stood over me, his erect dick protruding under swathes of his rolled up robe. He smacked me hard around the face, then grabbed my chin and forced me to face him.

"You look my eyes," he crooned.

He knelt down and forced my legs apart. I didn't even protest, but I began to close my eyes to try and take myself away to somewhere else. Another sharp blow landed on my face.

"Look my eyes!" He shouted. Tears leaked out. I couldn't look him in the eyes. The worst part wasn't what was about to happen, it wasn't the knowledge that it was going to, it wasn't the act itself, but it was knowing that I would have to live with it for the rest of my life. Would I ever have a relationship after it? Would anyone want me if they knew? Would I think of the man who violated me when I trusted a man enough again to be intimate with him for the first time?

I felt his rough hands on me and my underwear being slid down. Fuck, it was going to happen. As his eyes looked south I took the opportunity to close mine. Breathe, go somewhere else, this will end soon.

"Khalid! Shakhs qadiman!"

The intruder leapt up suddenly just as I had felt the tip of something between my legs. Before I even opened my eyes he was up with his robes rearranged and had began a hasty run to the door where the young accomplice stood. I felt my arms trembling, my wrists bound together by the wire arranged on my chest in a praying position. I tried to steady my breathing, my legs still dragged apart and my underwear pulled down. Tears flowed, my breathing turning into sobs, the congealed snot and blood up my nose dislodging so huge slugs of blood snaked down my face.

Hackney opened the door to the basement and entered, glancing over with confusion when he heard the strangled sobs coming from the corner. He paced over quickly.

"What the fuck happened? Who? Who!" He shouted, dragging me up to my knees by my hair. "Who the fuck was in here?" Spit flew in my face as he roared. I couldn't speak. He pulled at a coil of discarded barbed wire nearby and wound it round my neck until the teeth started biting at my flesh.

"Who?!" He demanded, pulling the homemade collar tightly. I sank down and succumbed to darkness.