by J. Thorn
Jasper laughed. He knew there was work to be done, but he always made sure to build some playtime into every task. “You think you’re one bright Yankee bitch, don’tcha? Jasper’s got more surprises for you, dear.”
She saw his face disappear from the hole in the door, and Karen thought about whether she could dress in the pitch blackness or if she should simply wait to see his next move.
“Let me out, please,” she said. She did not want to resort to pleading, but the initial adrenaline rush had subsided, and she felt very, very tired.
“I ain’t done lookin’,” came the reply from the other side of the door.
She reached over and turned the light back on, the burst hurting her eyes. Karen stood upright, feeling much like one does on the exam table of a physician’s office.
“That’s better. I need you to sit down, put your back against the wall.”
Karen did as he asked, knowing where it was headed.
“Yep. Now bring your knees up and push ’em apart.”
“No.”
“Do it or I’m coming in with the knife.”
Karen did as he asked, spreading her legs, showing him the whites of her thighs.
“Oh, honey,” she heard as he began to moan on the other side of the door.
She waited, biting her lip through the lump of humiliation lodged in her throat.
“Now take your hand down there and show me your blossom.”
She refused, glaring at the door. It would take a fight and a knife for her to go any further.
“I’m almost there, hon. Don’t leave me high and dry.”
Karen stood up and folded her arms over her chest.
“You fucking cock tease,” said Jasper. “How dare you get a man all worked up and then don’t let ’em finish.”
“Open the door or do what you gotta do,” she said. “I’m done playing.”
Jasper sighed, and his eye backed away from the door. Karen heard more scraping noises and saw the door budge inward slightly. A moment later, the door slammed against the interior wall, leaving Jasper silhouetted against the black, starlit night, tinted copper by the parking-lot lights. He held his knife up, and she noticed her bikini bottom was wrapped around the handle.
“It’s time to go,” he said.
Karen looked at Jasper and winked. She put one finger in the corner of her mouth and took a step toward him. “Your boss. He won’t know if you and I finish business right here, will he?”
Jasper looked and laughed. “You really think I’m that fucking stupid, don’t you? All you northern sons of bitches think just ’cause we got a drawl that we’re dullards. Goddamn, woman. I can’t believe—”
Jasper could not finish his sentence. Karen’s knee came up as she lunged forward, striking his testicles in a near-perfect strike. Her self-defense instructor would have called it a “perfect shot.” Jasper doubled over, and the knife flew from his hands and rattled to a stop at the base of the toilet. Karen stepped to the side and leapt over his body, now balled on the ground. He swatted at her as she passed, but the pain in his groin stole his strength. Karen kicked through his arm and dashed onto the gravel path, naked, tired, but free.
***
Her first thought was to run into the woods and hide, but her brain fired off a warning, letting her know that Jasper probably knew the forest as well as he did his gas station. Karen changed directions, sprinting around the building and toward the car. She had passed another ladies’ room, this one with an “out of order” sign hanging on it. Karen didn’t have time to contemplate why she had not exited the same one she had entered. She kept running toward the front of the building, and when she came to the corner, she froze. The car was gone. Ravna was gone.
“He wouldn’t have left me,” she said aloud.
Karen spun and surveyed the rest of the service station. The lights above flickered, and she thought about sprinting down the highway. Jasper would not be able to catch her unless he climbed into a pickup truck with a Confederate flag and gun rack and hunted her down like an animal. She reconsidered and spun back toward the garage when she saw him stumble around the corner.
“Gonna make you hurt for that one. I swear I’m gonna git me my due from the boss. Y’all gonna wish you never stopped here.”
She looked back toward the forest and spotted a trailhead where the darkness of the night gave way. Karen shuddered. She was not the outdoorsy type. She loathed bugs and thought of camping as nothing more than organized homelessness. However, Jasper lurched toward her with his knife extended.
Karen sprinted.
“You stupid fucking bitch. Don’t go makin’ me chase you through there! He ain’t ready for you yet.”
She dismissed his comment and pushed her legs toward the relative safety of the trees. Once there, she had to believe her chances of survival would be higher than if she were sitting in a porcelain and tile cage. Karen reached the trees and stumbled through the darkness, burrs and branches slapping her in the face. She felt trickles of warm blood where the thorny brush cut her naked flesh, but she kept running. She tried not to think of herself as the prey, or what the hunter would do when he caught her.
***
The stupid fucking bitch. She’s gonna ruin it all.
Jasper shoved a hand into his pants and felt around to make sure everything was still in place. The slow, throbbing ache had moved north into his abdomen, and he knew he would be sore for days. The last woman who kicked him in the balls had ended up in a world of pain. Jasper removed his hand and looked at it, confirming that he was not bleeding.
He placed his hands on his hips and reached into a pocket for his can of snuff.
“Don’t care if they are putting fiberglass in this shit,” he said, opening the can to a tantalizing whiff of moist tobacco leaf and spice. He took a pinch and dropped it between his bottom lip and teeth, where the wad settled into a worn, raw pocket. Jasper savored the initial burn, watery eyes, and head rush that came with a new chew. He used his tongue to push it to the side, massaging brown saliva from the tobacco and then launching it through pursed lips.
Jasper drew a breath, drawing the clean evening air into his lungs, which helped to clear his head. He smiled, pushing the ball cap up with two fingers before sliding it back down into place on his forehead. He turned to look past the service station to the empty roadway and figured there would not be another car until the next day. While Skyline Drive was heavily traveled, the country road branching off of it did not bring much traffic.
There was something about this woman that made Jasper lose his mind. He had taken his share of women since Gaki had come along. Jasper was not sure if the creature had a name, so he stuck with Gaki. The guttural, primal sound seemed to fit. Gaki always let him have a piece as payment for services rendered, but he had refused with her, and Jasper thought that made her all the more desirable, the forbidden fruit, like in the Bible stories. In addition, she was the best-looking woman to come through in a long time, a bit older than Jasper and slightly past the age he preferred, but still supple, strong, and tight. This one had hips he wanted to hold on to and ride into the sunset. She had curves that rivaled those of the ancient Appalachians.
Despite his bruised groin, the thoughts of the woman stirred heat down below, and Jasper began to refocus. “Kar-en,” he sang in a childish voice. “Oh, Kar-en. Come out and play, little girl.”
Jasper stepped onto the trail and walked toward the fork. He remembered that he had her bikini bottom still wrapped around the handle of his knife. He pulled it off, shoved it into his face, and inhaled.
“I can smell the excitement on ya, ma’am. You and me are going to have fun. I know how to do that and not piss off the boss.”
Jasper continued walking the trail, feeling her eyes upon him. He would let her have the illusion, the slim hope that she could somehow wait him out or escape through the trees. The mountains would not let that happen, and Jasper knew it.
Jasper approached the clearing
and saw the glow of the torches. Gaki loved the drama of it all and would be pleased that they were lit. As soon as he took care of the woman, Jasper would see to his other duties.
“Olly, olly, oxen-free!” Jasper waited, spitting another wad of chew from the side of his mouth. “You’re it!”
He laughed, never tiring of the childish games. It had been months since he let a woman escape from the hidden restroom, and he enjoyed the mild challenge posed by this one. Jasper detected movement to his right and caught a glimpse of her alabaster skin as she moved from one tree to another. The warmth in his groin turned to a blazing fire that pushed against his greasy jeans.
“Kar-en. I wonder, oh, I wonder, where could you be?”
***
Karen had not realized how cold the night could be on naked skin. She shivered, wrapping her arms around her breasts and crouching low at the base of the tree. She heard him coming down the trail and did not want to risk being seen. Karen listened, her teeth chattering inside her own head.
“Oh, Kar-en. Come out and play, little girl.”
Does he know where I am, or is he trying to lure me out?
She let the question linger and decided that all she could do was wait. Surprise was all she had left, and if that was her last card to play, she wanted to take full advantage of it. Karen buried her head in her knees and listened for his boots scraping down the trail with no pretense of subterfuge.
She thought of Ravna and wondered what Jasper had done with him. If he was able, Karen knew Ravna would fight. He would be searching for her and was prepared to die to defend her.
I love him, but I don’t need a man to save me, she thought. I’m capable of handling myself.
The statement sounded foolish in her head. Here she was, naked and freezing in the remote wilderness, and being chased by a sexual predator with a knife.
“I can smell the excitement on ya, ma’am. You and me are going to have fun. I know how to do that and not piss off the boss.”
Another reference to someone else. Karen tried to force her mind into a rational place. Jasper was following orders, and those orders did not involve her. At least not yet. Jasper had the chance to forcibly take what he wanted, yet he had restrained. In a way, Karen felt a pit of despair in her stomach. If this redneck creep was restraining himself out of fear for his boss, what must that man be like?
She saw the back of his baseball cap through the trees as it moved on a disembodied head. The foliage hid his body from view. Karen maneuvered around the base of the tree, keeping the trunk between herself and the trail. After moving several more yards, she decided to dash to the next closest tree, trying to circle back around to the trail behind Jasper where she could outrun him back to the service station. Karen was not sure what she would do once she arrived there, but she forced herself to focus on small victories.
“Kar-en. I wonder, oh, I wonder, where could you be?”
She saw his head turn, the top of his baseball cap, as he stepped off the trail and into the forest toward her.
***
Karen stood and pushed her legs as hard as she could, angling away from Jasper, but toward a place she believed would put her on the trail ahead of him, and moving back toward the gas station. She ignored the sharp branches cutting her feet and the thorny brush tearing at her shins. Karen tried not to think about the pain in her lungs or the cramp now gripping her side like a fatal stitch. She glanced over her shoulder and could not see Jasper, but she heard him crashing through the underbrush like a wild boar. He had done what she had hoped, coming straight for her instead of anticipating that she would run for the trail.
“You’re delaying the plan and that’s only gonna make him madder!”
Karen ignored Jasper’s comment and became hopeful at the sound of his voice through labored breathing and grunting. Whether it was the effect of her kick to the groin or the fact that he was not used to this kind of exertion did not matter. What mattered was that it allowed Karen to put more distance between herself and her predator. She pushed through tall brush that reached for her. Karen felt as though someone was grabbing fistfuls of her hair as it tangled. She fought the pain on her scalp, bringing tears to her eyes. The moon had risen enough to cast a silver shadow on the path that she saw five feet in the distance, on the other side of the brush. When her feet hit the dirt, Karen brought her knees up high, sprinting through the forest and toward the orange glow hovering above the gas station. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Jasper emerge from the undergrowth, his lanky body clambering over itself until his feet came down on the path. His body odor cut through the powerful scent of pine.
“You’re making it worse,” he cried out, his boots slapping the ground as he regained his stride.
Karen pushed herself, putting more distance between them. The glowing lamps of the gas station came closer as her mouth went dry from the exertion. Karen turned to see Jasper’s ball cap in the distance, and she let a smile slide across her face. Her brain began contemplating the next step as she approached the top of the trail. As she ran, Karen figured she had two choices. She could attempt to lock herself inside the building or continue sprinting until she reached the road. While holing up in the station seemed the more desirable choice at first, she thought that Jasper probably had access to every part of it or had the tools to gain entry where he did not. Running down the roadway would make it easier for him to chase her down, but she would have time to veer off and hide by the time he was behind the wheel.
Those decisions raced through her mind as she ran. It was the reason she overlooked the root sticking up from the dirt, the one that snagged the top of her foot and tore the ligaments in her right ankle.
***
“Now I’m gonna hafta shower this week.”
The words came from Jasper through a series of ragged, rusty breaths. He bent over at the waist, cold sweat dripping from his forehead and off the end of his nose.
“Toldja to stay put, didn’t I?” he asked while using the heel of his right boot to step down on Karen’s torn ankle.
She screamed and felt the pain radiate from her ankle, up her leg, and into her head. Her eyes flickered as the shock of the injury and Jasper’s pressure on it forced her vision to sway. “Please. Please don’t hurt me.” She winced.
He looked down at her dirty, naked body on the ground. His emotions battled, lust and loyalty in the center of the ring.
“He’s gonna have to understand that you needed a bit more persuasion to fall into line. I did my job, but you didn’t make it easy.”
Jasper raised his boot and brought the heel down again on Karen’s ankle. Her mouth opened in agony but was unable to form any sounds through the intense shock. He bent down and yanked her by the hair as tears cleared white lines down her dirty face. The moonlight made her face appear as though she had just crawled out of the grave.
“Git up,” he said, almost whispering the words into her mouth.
Karen cried, burying her chin to hide the pain. She did not want him to be excited by her suffering. “I can’t, you stupid son of a bitch,” she gasped. “You’re on my ankle.”
Jasper looked at her nipple and felt the uncontrollable urge to bite it. He could not remember ever having bundled his aggression like this. He would be ready whenever Gaki gave him permission, and he would release a torrent upon this woman like she had never experienced.
“No problem,” he said.
Jasper reached down and grabbed a fistful of Karen’s hair. He dragged her across the gravel path toward the first bay, her one good leg attempting to dig into the ground and slow the inevitable.
“Hope you don’t mind the smell of motor oil and tranny fluid. Gotta keep ya safe while I go deal with your boyfriend.”
Thursday, September 5th
“It ain’t time yet.”
“I don’t care. I need to eat or I’m going to pass out.”
Jasper looked down on Karen and wondered if he had another round in the chamber. He had to admi
t, she was looking a bit ragged since their first introduction, not that it would matter at all to Gaki. He reached into his front pocket and pulled out a strip of beef jerky. Jasper ripped the plastic off and tossed it into the tub.
“Eat some beef, bitch,” he said, enjoying the juvenile comment with a dirty smile.
Karen abandoned her stringent vegetarianism by ripping into the salty beef stick with her teeth. The spices overpowered her tongue, and she dribbled saliva from the corner of her mouth. As soon as the half-chewed meat hit her stomach, Karen felt it rumble.
“That’s all ya get until he calls. I think he’s got something nice planned for y’all.” Jasper turned to walk out.
“Hey,” Karen yelled as he stopped in the doorway. “I could use some water now. That thing was filled with salt.”
He smiled, and Karen regretted the request as soon as she made it. Jasper walked to the sink and grabbed an empty green beer bottle off the floor, shoving the end underneath the faucet and cranking the rusty knob until brown ooze flooded the bottle. He threw that into the tub as well, knowing Karen could not catch it with bound hands. “Bottoms up.”
Jasper left, and Karen decided it would not make any difference if she drank or not. She thought about Ravna, her parents, and her life, which seemed so distant. Karen resigned her fate to this moment, dying in a filthy bathtub, naked and beaten like an animal. Jasper would come back and take her to the “boss,” whoever that might be. She would resist or she would give in, and either way she would end up in a shallow grave in an empty, urban lot.
“Jasper, come back. I want to make a deal with you.”
He reappeared too quickly to have gone farther than the hallway. “What?”
“I’ll give it to you and I won’t tell him if you just get me a drink of water.”
Jasper seemed to snicker. He looked her up and down as if she had nothing left to bargain with. “I could take it and do the same, ya dumb bitch. Why wouldn’t I just take it?”
“Because somehow he’d know. The boss would know it was taken, not given, and that would go against his order.”
