Be My December

by Rachel Brookes

  “You fucking bitch,” he roared and flung himself at me. His clenched fist came toward my jaw as if it was in slow motion yet I still didn’t have time to brace myself for impact. The side of my jaw took the brunt of his attack and the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth as a pain so aggressive shot though me. “You try anything like that again, and I will break you. I will fuck you so hard that you’ll be no good to anyone. You hear me slut? You. Fucking. Hear. Me!”

  “Get off her Chris,” Jeremy hissed from the end of the bed. With brute force he ripped Chris from my body by the back of his shirt. Chris crumbled on the floor and crawled to the chair in the far corner. He glared at me while he cupped his balls, massaging them so sickly that I had no clue whether it was because of his intent to carry through with his promise or because of the pain I had caused.

  “Already causing trouble? I’ve got to admit I like this new feistiness. It’s going to make for some very enjoyable moments between us.” Jeremey stalked around the bed until he reached me. His hands slid up my thigh, over my hip, and disappeared under my shirt to rest on my stomach. “Do you remember what I said to you the last time we were in this situation?”

  “Fuck you!”

  “I told you that you were mine, and that hasn’t fucking changed,” he roared and spittle hit my face as the vein in his neck thundered with fury. “I’m going to make sure you never forget it again.”

  I swallowed the lump of fear that made its way to my throat and awaited his next move. Jeremy’s malicious hands grabbed at my jeans, ripping them open and pushing them over my hips. The cool air swirled around the room and hit my bare stomach. The sound of buttons hitting the wall behind the bed sounded as Jeremy tore open my shirt and discarding it in one go.

  I lay on the bed dressed only in my red lace panties and bra. With my hands bound I couldn’t even cover myself. His greedy eyes ran over my body. I froze as his hand ran up my thigh and lingered on my hip. Jeremy leaned over my body and his heavy breathing hit my core, the flimsy lace providing no barrier to his evil. He inhaled sharply, taking in my scent, and I cringed as his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

  “I can’t wait to feast on you.” His hand slipped over the lace and he pressed down, rubbing his finger up and down my folds before his thumb pressed down on my covered clit. My eyes slammed shut in anger. “I wonder what your boyfriend would think of this.”

  At the mere mention of Ky my eyes flung open in rage. I didn’t want Ky tarnished by Jeremy. I had to protect myself even if it meant getting hurt in the process. Distraction would be my best friend.

  “You want to know what my boyfriend would think. He’d think that you are a fucking asshole who can’t get a chick unless you rape her. You are a pathetic piece of shit Jeremy Davis, and you will not get away with this again. Ky will be looking for me and when he finds me, I hope with everything I am he gives you exactly what you deserve.”

  I felt the snap of my rib as soon as his elbow hit into my side at full force. I gasped in pain and my body convulsed under the pressure raising me from the mattress momentarily. My back hit the mattress as warm tears flooded my cheeks. Waves of intense pain rolled through me and finally crashed as my breath came back.

  “Don’t fucking mention him again,” Jeremy hissed. He ripped my discarded shirt clean apart and shoved a piece of the material in my mouth, taking my ability to draw attention to myself and making my chance of rescue fade quickly away.

  The pain, the lack of oxygen, and the fear taking over my body brought on a darkness that I craved; before I could struggle any longer I slipped into oblivion with Jeremy and Chris lingering devastatingly close.

  The world around me felt like it was crushing every single bone in my body. My apartment was in a frenzy of chatter and anxious energy. Desperation lingered in the air. Police officers, my parents, Eden’s parents, Ashlyn, and Josh paced the floor as time slipped away from us. I couldn’t even comprehend what was happening; my fists were clenched at my sides, and my head thumped with a tension headache; I swear I heard every single click of the clock on the wall. Every single fucked-up second that he had her.

  “I need to get out of here. I need to find her.” I paced toward the door as I finally cracked.

  “Ky wait!” my father’s tired voice sounded from the couch. We had been sitting around for hours waiting for something, anything to happen, and I was absolutely done. “What good is it going to do if you leave? Where do you think you will go?”

  “That fucking asshole has my girl,” I roared in to the tension filled room.

  “Son, he has my girl too,” Mike Rivers said in a low voice, his brow pinched as he looked back at me.

  Mike and Anna Rivers had arrived alongside the police officers two hours ago. The first thing I noticed about Mike was how tall and broad he was. His face was covered in a dark beard, and he shared the same deep blue eyes as Eden. He was a threatening looking man, but the moment he shook my hand with a firm grip and looked me square in the eyes I saw that his world had also disappeared. Anna Rivers jumped into my arms as soon as her husband was pulled away Douglas. Anna’s arms circled my waist, and she didn’t say a word to me. She just cried into my chest, dampening my shirt with tears for her missing daughter. It shocked me at first, but I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and held her tightly against my chest offering all the support that I could find.

  I had never met these people before. What a fucked up way of meeting them for the first time. They had arrived back in the United States the day before and didn’t get the opportunity to see their daughter and now she was missing.

  “What the hell am I meant to do?” I groaned into the air. Anger seethed within me, and my hands rubbed furiously over my face as I stormed through my apartment toward my room. Our room.

  The moment I stepped foot through the doors, I froze as the intense smell of her perfume smothered me, clouding me with the sweet citrus scent that drove me crazy. My emotions bubbled within my tight chest and my eyes glistened as the reality of what happened stabbed at my barely beating heart. I collapsed on the edge of the bed and my face fell into my hands as a painful sob escaped from my chest.

  Knowing that Jeremy had her and knowing what he was capable of was tearing me apart. Hearing her petrified voice when she called was replaying over and over in my head like a constant reminder that she wasn’t safe, that I had failed her again. I had promised I would always protect her.

  All I wanted was a moment of peace, but how could I possibly find peace when a war was waging inside my head, my heart, and the world around me. Eden was my world, and my world was now being threatened in a way I didn’t even want to comprehend.

  I wasn’t sure how long I sat there, huddled over, my emotions seeping out of every pore of my body. My mind sorted through memory after memory I had of her. We had overcome so much. Fuck, I had asked her to move in with me just last night. I had already given my heart to her, and now I was ready to give my home, my life, and my future. I was ready to sit in the palm of her hands for eternity. She was stronger now, more resilient. She was trusting, and she was finally mine. But now Jeremy motherfucking Davis had her. He had taken her away from my protection, away from the safety that I had been desperate to provide her. He was making me live my worst nightmare all over again. I couldn’t save her once, and now here I was, in the exact same position.

  My head shot up from my hands as succession of soft knocks hit the closed bedroom door.

  “Son, can I come in?” Mike’s worried voice cracked through the thick wood.

  “Sure,” I replied.

  He walked in, closing the door behind him. I had no clue what to say. I didn’t know what he knew about me. Fuck, I didn’t even know if Eden had mentioned me before. As far as I knew, I was just as much a stranger to him as he was to me.

  He took a seat on the bed beside me, and we fell into a thick silence.

  “You saved her.” He finally spoke so softly that I almost missed it.

  I ne
arly choked on my own breath at his clearly delusional words.

  “If I had saved her, she wouldn’t be missing,” I stated matter-of-fact.

  “Do you know that she would call me and her mother every couple of days? Did you also know that she would text her mother every other day? It was all you Ky. Every single message we received, every single time we heard her sweet voice, we noticed a change, and it was all because of you. You made my daughter come alive again. I thought I had lost her four years ago, but now she has finally come back to us and it’s largely because of you.”

  “Did she tell you who I was?” I shifted my gaze to him, my eyes narrowing. “That I was best friends with the asshole who has got her again. That I was the one who wanted her all those years ago but didn’t have the balls to do a damn thing about it and then he came in and tore her away from all of us? I am that guy.”

  “She has told me enough.” He shifted beside me, nervousness falling off him.

  “You should hate me.”

  “Why would I hate the guy who has opened up his house for the police to work out of? Why would I hate the guy who has opened his home to me and my wife when you have never met us before? Why would I hate the guy who has finally brought a smile to my daughter’s face?” He stood from the bed and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Ky, I would be a fucking asshole if I hated you.”

  My lips twitched as his use of profanity. I didn’t think to watch my language around him.

  Fuck, I didn’t know how to act around a girl’s father before and I sure as shit didn’t know how to act around my girl’s father.

  My heavy eyes flittered open as daybreak cracked through the heavy blinds. Every movement I attempted to make, I was paralyzed as pain shot through my body. My ribs screamed at me and my face throbbed, making me aware that bruising was a certainty. I took a risk and gazed around the room. Chris’s large frame was curled in the chair by the window as he slept. His arms folded over his chest, and a permanent frown was etched on his face. I shifted my gaze to the left and found Jeremy’s sleeping form beside me, his hand resting heavily on my hip.

  I hated him. I despised every breath he was allowed to take. I wished for his death, and I didn’t feel any remorse when I prayed for the heavy hand of karma to fuck him over. I just hoped it was sooner rather than later. I knew my time was quickly running out and the realization that he would take whatever he wanted from me at any time caused a dreadful shiver of fear to run down my spine.

  My shoulders ached from being pulled tightly behind my back all night, and every single bone in my body felt like it was shattering. I was tired, hungry, and desperate for water. He was fucking torturing me.

  Thankfully sometime during the night I had been able to spit out the gag and with a husky voice I spoke. “Jeremy, I need to use the bathroom.”

  The monster beside me rolled to his side and shifted across the bed so he was hard up against my rigid body. His arm fell heavily over my stomach adding unwanted pressure onto my battered ribs. I hissed at the sensation grabbing his attention in the process.

  “Good morning princess.” His voice, hot and thick with sleep brutalized the skin of my neck as he nuzzled his face in close to my ear. “What can I do for you?”

  “I need to use the bathroom,” I repeated with no emotion in my voice.

  “Are we going to have a repeat of yesterday? Remember what I said about calling out like a bitch. One word and you know what happens,” Jeremy’s spiteful tongue warned.

  “I just need to use the bathroom.”

  He retracted himself from my neck and climbed out of bed. I watched him like a hawk, not daring to blink in case I missed any sudden movement. I could not allow myself to drop my guard. I had to fight. His thick, dangerously imposing body hovered around the edge of the bed until he stood beside me. He pulled me up with one swift movement causing me to wince in pain as my ribs screamed at me. His chuckle added insult to my injury. I timidly inched my legs over the edge of the bed and rose on shaky legs, legs that I hadn’t used in over twenty-four hours.

  I looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to untie the leather belt that dug into my bloodied wrists so I could use the bathroom like a normal human being.

  Jeremy snickered and shook his head dismissively and with that one movement determined my fate. I was nothing but an object to him. A toy he planned on playing with whichever way he so desired. I stumbled over my feet as he pushed me in the back, floundering like a rag doll down the hall, in the direction of the bathroom. “There is no way in hell that I am undoing your hands. You need to piss, you do it in front of me.”

  I didn’t even bother arguing. By now I was completely entranced with the thought of protecting myself. Call me weak, call me pathetic, call me a pushover—I didn’t give a shit. Jeremy was manic. He lived in a different reality, a reality where he clearly thought this was the norm and if going to the bathroom in front of him bought me some moments without injury then so be it.

  Once I had finished, Jeremy led me back into the main room and I took the same position on the bed. I was still only dressed in my panties and bra, and I shivered uncontrollably as the chill in the room hit me. My head fell to the side and my eyes followed Jeremy as he moved through the room like he didn’t have a care in the world, like this was normality, like I was enjoying being bound and gagged.

  What the hell was that noise?

  Swipe! Click! Snap!

  Curiously got the better of me and hauled me away from the trance of watching Jeremy in the kitchenette. At the foot of the bed Chris was hovering, holding a phone up which I instantly recognized as mine. I sucked in a breath as the noise sounded again, and I realized exactly what he was doing. He was smugly taking photos of me.

  My first instinct was to cower and cover myself. The thought of a photo being taken of me in such a submissive state petrified me. I had fought too long and too hard to be shown in this humiliating state. I wasn’t weak any longer, I didn’t deserve this. I tugged on my wrists for any sign of freedom. The more I struggled the tighter the belt got and the pressure on my raw broken skin intensified.

  The ear splitting sound of what seemed like hundreds of photos being taken tainted the room and infuriated me beyond limits.

  “Fuck off!” I spat. “You are a sick fucking bastard. You won’t get away with this.”

  His evil grin sharpened with my empty threats.

  Photo after photo of me sprawled out on the bed, barely covered by my panties and bra and with my injuries on full display were being taken and there was nothing I could do about it.

  “Yo Jeremy, what do you say? Should I send her boyfriend a nice wake-up message?” Chris taunted and continued his assault with my camera.

  Hearing them mention Ky sent me into a whirlwind of emotions and a bone shattering hope soared within me. Ky would save me. He had to save me. He was the only one who could. It was amidst the cruelty of Chris taunts with the camera that I realized how different this was to four years ago.

  Four years ago, in the loneliness and eeriness of Jeremy’s dorm room, I lost everything. I was ripped away from a life that I didn’t know could exist. I was a nineteen-year-old girl who didn’t have anything to fight for and certainly didn’t have a future waiting for me on the other side. Most importantly my heart and body hadn’t belonged to someone else—but now it all belonged to Ky.

  “Hold up.” Jeremy slithered into the room like a poisonous snake getting ready to devour the mouse before him. He slid onto the bed, a knee falling each side of my hips as he straddled me. The pressure he forced onto my core shot pain through me. My pain register was sky high and every time I inhaled, my shattered rib made me collide head on with my nightmare.

  “You ready to show your boyfriend who owns you?” he murmured as his thumb ran along my bottom lip. His eyes looked glassy and didn’t hold any conviction of reality as they glared back at me.

  “You will never own me,” I spat, refusing to break eye contact.

  He press
ed down harder onto my core, mercilessly grinding his erection deeper. I couldn’t stop the painful whimper that hissed between my clenched teeth. He knew he was punishing me, and he was gleeful in the knowledge. “That fucking mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble Princess.”

  “I’m not your princess. I’m not your anything.”

  With a loud snap his hand connected with my face, sending my head swinging to the side. The moment my eyes opened, I heard the sound of yet another photo being taken. Jeremy ran his hands over my stomach, pressing down where he knew I was hurting. I gasped in pain and my head swung back and forth yet I refused to beg for mercy. I clenched my teeth together and gritted on for dear life. His hands cupped my breasts and his thumb rubbed my nipples through the pathetically thin lace. The lingerie I was wearing was Ky’s favorite. He loved the way the red fit against the curves of my body, but now it would be forever tainted, and all I wanted was to burn them into a pile of ash.

  “Get off me,” I shouted.

  I thrashed around on the bed as best I could. Jeremy’s weight lay unscrupulously hard on top of me halting my desperation to escape. The more I struggled, the harder he pushed down on me. I didn’t care about the pain anymore. It had disappeared into my will to fight. It had ceased to exist the moment Ky had pierced into my thoughts.

  “Take the fucking photo Chris! Make sure you get a shot of my tongue down her throat and my cock grinding up against her sweet pussy.” His face inched closer to mine and his hideous breath hit my lips. “You ready to put on a show for your boyfriend Princess?”

  “Fuck y—” My words were stolen as Jeremy forced his tongue into my unwilling mouth. His brutal lips collided with mine in a kiss that stole my breath but for all the wrong reasons.

  Jeremy ground his arousal against me causing the lace of my panties to rub against my core. A burning sensation swam through me at the roughness of his assault and tears sprung to the corners of my eyes. His hands slid between our bodies and he grasped my breasts roughly and squeezed so hard that I knew bruises instantly formed. I wanted to be sick. I needed to be sick. I would rather choke on my own vomit than continue with this.