Bitter Angel

by Megan Hand

  I moved to sit it up but was sucked backward. I was on a soft surface, hands bound above my head. As I tried to make a noise, I felt something on my mouth. It was sticky and unyielding. Tape.

  “Ah, she wakes.”

  I heard a voice to my left, and my head jerked toward the sound. It wasn’t H, Brandon, or Trigger. It was a new guy with brown hair, lighter than Brandon’s, and blue eyes. He was a little older but just as good-looking as H and Brandon. I was pretty certain he had a black heart to match.

  I could hear my breath pouring out fast and loud from my nostrils.

  The stranger came around to the right side of the bed and sat next to me, but I couldn’t look at him. My gaze flitted around the room, calculating quickly to figure out where I was. We were in a bedroom. The walls were peeling and rotting. The smell confirmed mold. In front of me was a closed door. To my left was another door, slightly ajar. A bathroom, maybe? I was on cheap flowery bedding. Across the room was a rickety-looking coffee table with a crappy fifteen-year-old TV.

  When my eyes rolled over my body, I shuddered, whimpering quietly. I was naked save my bra and underwear, wearing the black lacy lingerie I had, of course, chosen for tonight because I originally thought I would be spending it with Jay. My legs curled instinctively inward to cover my bareness. I couldn’t see either side of the bed to tell if my clothes were even in the room.

  When my eyes met his, I gave him the hardest, most convincingly hateful glare I owned. Hopefully, it had no trace of fear. Now was not the time to be weak. As I had proven to myself in the car, it had gotten me nowhere, not that the fighting did either. My lips moved beneath the tape, forming a sneer.

  He tapped his fingers on my mouth. “Sorry about this. Just had to make sure we’d have no more trouble from you.” In one sweep, he wrenched the tape away.

  I couldn’t help but cry out. Shit, that hurt! I moved my lips around to alleviate the sting.

  He was smiling at me, eyes bloodshot. He must’ve been on something. X maybe? Coke? I’d never done drugs. Just the thought of it and this situation was making me boil again.

  “I’m Alpha,” he said, putting his whole hand to my throat.

  So, this is the asshole they were talking about in the car? Well, well. The pack leader has arrived. Even in my dire circumstance, I was thinking, Alpha, how original. I yanked at my bound hands, desperate to protect myself as his fingers moved down my chest to my belly button. The lower they got, the more my nausea returned.

  Not on purpose, but definitely to my advantage, I leaned over and threw up on him. That was three. Now I was really starting to think that I had food poisoning or something. Or maybe it was whatever Trigger had shot me up with before I blacked out. Or maybe it was just the idea that this sicko had his nasty fingers all over me.

  Not much came up though, just some liquids. It was enough to piss him off and send him backward, shaking his hands toward the hideously stained carpet.

  He glanced down at his now wet clothes like I’d spoiled a sacred garment. “You bitch.” With one step forward, he raised his arm and backhanded me across the face.

  Trying to catch my breath from the blow, I licked a bit of blood off the inside of my cheek. “Serves you right, prick. Now let me the fuck out of here!”

  Unfortunately, my words didn’t faze him. He just laughed and wiped his hands on a dry piece of his shirt. “Oh man. We haven’t had one as feisty as you in…” He rested his chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Well, a long time.”

  My heart hammered, but I put venom in my tone. “What the hell kind of operation are you running here? And where are my friends? I want to see them.” I strained forward, listening for anything that would tell me they were okay and alive.

  I could hear music, loud and vulgar. Voices, all male. Laughter. Bottles clinking. I could smell the crusty scent of cigarette smoke.

  He pointed to the closed door. “They’re out there, being taken care of. Don’t worry. They’ll be fine. It’s you that I’m not so sure about.”

  “You sick son of a bitch. My friend could be on the brink of death, and you’re just gonna do nothing? If she dies on your hands, I swear—”

  “Relax,” he cut me off. “She’s still breathing. Enough. We’ll drop her somewhere when everyone’s done. She’ll be fine.”

  As I had kicked H’s seat earlier, I just as frantically pulled on my arms. “Let me out!” I screamed, hoping beyond hope that someone, inside or out, upstairs or down, could hear me in this hellhole. I had no idea if we were in a house or apartment building, if this was the only bedroom, or if there were others. From the looks of it and guessing the age of these guys, my bet was that this was their place of business where they brought all the girls just for this purpose. I highly doubted that they lived here, but I had nothing to back up my theory.

  Alpha rounded the bed. It creaked as he sat on the clean side. He caressed my jaw, my bloody lip. I cringed, ripping away from him, and he gripped me harder. From his pocket, he retrieved a knife. The blade winked at me in the dim light. I swallowed. He grinned.

  “Still wanna scream?” He waved the knife at me like it was my choice.

  I clamped my mouth shut, my breath quickening, eyes narrowing. I was way too close to tears. Jay. How did I let this happen? I should’ve stayed home. I should’ve…but no, I couldn’t have stayed back. Then Heather…

  The idea of what could happen and what was probably happening right now to my friends flooded my imagination faster than blood was pumping to my brain. I felt lightheaded.

  I watched the knife inch up to where my wrists were bound, and then I heard a snapping sound. My head—I realized I’d been holding it up this whole time—collapsed against the flat pillow. My arms fell loosely to my sides. Angry red marks wrapped around my wrists, and I rolled into a ball, holding them close to me as I tried to rub some feeling back into them.

  I heard Alpha’s voice float from behind me. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Your choice. Now let’s take a bath because I’m not gonna fuck a puker, and then we can have some fun.”

  I couldn’t believe how cavalier he sounded.

  I scrambled from the bed before he could touch me, but a pain ripped through my head and I swayed, almost colliding with the wall. Dizzy, so dizzy. Whatever Trigger had given me must not have completely worn off yet.

  I went limp, and Alpha carried me into the bathroom. He set me in the tub, still wearing my bra and underwear, and he turned on the faucet. The water was freezing cold.

  “Shit!” I squeezed myself to the back of the tub-shower combo, knees to my chin, toes curling against the frigid water. My teeth were chattering. It was my own personal response to the mixture of chill and pain.

  Forcing myself to focus, I tried to gather clues in the bathroom. There was a window above the nasty toilet. It was about the size of my head. The idea of fitting my hips through there was laughable.

  The state of the bathroom was worse than the bedroom. What used to be caulking in the tile around and behind me was now only mold. The retro flowery shower curtain was decayed and torn, barely hanging onto the shower rod. The mirror above the sink looked like it’d been hit with a baseball bat. The pedestal sink seemed decently clean from this short distance, but the only personal effects stacked beside the faucet were three large boxes of condoms. I started to gag.

  Alpha splashed a handful of water in my face. His eyes lit up. “We could have some fun in here if you want.”

  If I want? Is he serious! “Go fuck yourself.”

  In less than a second, his face was at my shoulder, the blade pressing to my neck, moving slowly up my jaw. He spoke in a near whisper. “I would really hate to ruin such a pretty face, but I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again.”

  The dark truth in his words made me gulp. With the sharp end of the blade still shoved against my skin, he began kissing my neck. The tub was filling with icy water, and I was sure my breath was rancid. He must’ve lost his concentration.


  “So worth waiting for you to wake up,” he mumbled. “Fighters are much more fun.”

  My mind went to work, panicked but swift. I let his lips work around my ear and waited for his grasp to loosen on the knife. Weak as I am, I might be able to get out and shut him in the bathroom, then I could—

  As I felt my window opening, I retched again, vomiting what little liquid was left in me but mostly dry heaving. It all landed on Alpha. Startled, he leaned back and lost his footing. The knife sliced across my cheek. My eyes stung with fresh tears as I gasped and pressed a hand to the cut. It wasn’t deep, but it was long.

  Alpha’s bloodshot eyes were wide and enraged. “Shit!” He wiped my spit off his face and sneered at me. “That’s what you get.” He stood up. The knife hung at his side. “Screw this. I’ll go fuck your friends.”

  At the thought of him on top of Heather or Nilah, I leapt to my feet, grabbing the rotting shower curtain for support. “No!” I swiped at him with my free hand, the other still clamped to my face. “I’ll do anything.” I meant it this time. Sort of.

  “Sorry, baby, you missed your chance.” His grin was back. “When I come back later, it won’t be fun.”

  As he pulled away from me, I slipped and toppled over the porcelain side of the tub, taking the shower curtain with me. My entire left side smacked against the cheap tile floor that looked like it was a hundred years old. Grime from the floor scraped the unwounded side of my face.

  “Please,” I begged.

  But he was already turning, his retreating figure swimming in and out of focus. The volume of the music and voices amped up, a thundering bass under me, then it went quiet again as the door slammed shut.

  On the floor, tears ran fast and hard down my good cheek and the hand covering my bloody cheek. As much as I wanted to retreat to a nice, numb spot in my brain, I wouldn’t let myself. I had to stay here, in the now. I had to escape.

  Hearing the door squeak open and softly close again, I silenced myself. The bed creaking was the only sound for a minute. I twisted around to see Trigger sitting there, hands folded in his lap. He wasn’t looking at me. Another zip tie hung from his fingers.

  I let go of my face, hoping the blood was clotting. I didn’t dare catch my reflection in the cracked glass of the bathroom mirror. On my knees, I braced my fingers against the wall to stand. Weepiness was just under the surface. I felt sick, weak, pitiful, and stupid. Maybe taking the tough girl approach wasn’t so smart after all.

  “What did you give me earlier?” I asked him. “What did you give my friends?”

  I was treading carefully in the bathroom doorway. Maybe if I could get him to tell me what it was, I could rewind to freshman chem class. As a pre-med major, I should know something! If you were to ask me what all the branches and nerves of the nervous system are, I’d tick them off in seconds. But chemistry? I’m not inept, but I’m sure there’s a word close to that with a picture of me next to it.

  Still…

  He remained silent, whipping the zip tie around like a lasso.

  I had to know what was going on, but I didn’t want Alpha coming back in, so I kept my voice low. “What are they doing out there? What the hell is this?”

  He didn’t speak, didn’t move.

  In the stillness, I visually measured the distance from where I was to the window that was to the left of the bed. One look out showed me a wall of windows recessed into brick about twenty or so feet away, which told me we were high up, probably in some slum apartment building. That seemed like good news. Apartments meant fire escapes.

  Please, God, I prayed.

  My feet teetered, rising slightly to the balls. I wasn’t sure if I had the strength to sprint, but I would try. Adrenaline would hopefully be my best friend.

  Suddenly, Trigger looked at me, and I tucked my plan away for the moment. As he approached, I felt myself sliding to the ground, either from my shaky legs or the sheer need to put some distance between us. In an instant, he grabbed me by the hair and yanked me back up. I yelped.

  “So, it’s my turn,” he said harshly. He gestured to the zip tie. “Alpha said I might need this.”

  With one hand, he tossed me on the bed, wrestling me to my stomach. My thrashing and writhing didn’t slow him down in the slightest as he bound my wrists again. I was making noises that were meant to be words, but they only came out as grunts and cries.

  He turned me onto my back. “You girls are all the same.” He seized my face by the jawbone, trying to be stern but noticeably avoiding my injury. “You all think you can toss me aside. I don’t matter. Go ahead. Say it!”

  I ignored him. “Where are my friends? Are they really okay? What did you give us…me…” Hell, I can’t think. If my hands were free, they’d be rubbing my forehead, but they weren’t. They were trapped beneath me. Once again, cutting my chances of escape. How can I get out the window with no hands?

  He leveled me with a black stare. “Tell me, who did you torture?”

  “What?”

  Gripping my shoulders, he held me up. “Tell me,” he demanded. “What did you think when you first saw me? Pathetic, right?” His eyes were wide with vindication.

  That’s what that look meant earlier when he’d pulled me out of my daydream. This geek was pissed off for being tormented in high school and for probably never getting laid?

  I chose a new tactic. “I’ll pay you,” I offered hastily. “Let me go, and I’ll pay you.”

  He laughed humorlessly. “How could money equate to what I’m going to get tonight?” The lust in his eyes was prevalent as they slipped down to my black lacy bra that left little to the imagination.

  “This is not revenge! It’s rape!” I fired back, forgetting to keep my voice low. I took it down a few notches, keeping my tone fervent. “This is sick, and you’ll never be able to undo it. You know this is wrong.” I was trying really hard to level with him and not plead as I looked him straight in the eye. “And what if my friend dies? Then you and your rat pack will be going to jail. For murder.”

  His split-second hesitation told me everything I needed to know. He was breakable. I just might be able to win this guy.

  “Let me go.” I tried again, softer and more urgent. “Let my friends go, and we’ll never speak a word of this to anyone. We won’t go to the police—”

  “You all say that.” His face twisted in anger again.

  “This is your first time, isn’t it?” I was totally going on instinct with this one. By the looks of it though—the awkwardness and delay as he touched me, the fact that he was still fully clothed—I was dead on. “I can tell. Whatever this is these assholes are running, this is your first time. You can end this now. Please.” My last word was a whisper.

  His lips hiked up into a sneer, and I saw a small minute shake of his head. “No,” he said, determined. “It’s my turn now.”

  With that, he kissed me hard on the mouth. I couldn’t fight back because I had no hands. Every brain cell was screaming at me. Every inch of my skin crawled as he ripped my bra and dug his fingers into my hip.

  His lips made it down to my collarbone, his body now on top of mine. I hadn’t realized I was crying again until I felt his cheek smearing my tears. Even if I could knee him somewhere, it’d be useless.

  “No, no, no,” I wept so softly. I was resigned now, I realized. How on earth did this night get so fucked up?

  “Shut up,” he barked. “Or I’ll get the needle again.”

  I began rambling, appealing to any fiber of morality left in him, because I knew there was none left in the other three. “Don’t you want to get married someday? Have kids? A good job? A mortgage? How can you do this and think you’ll have a normal life? Those guys out there are probably rich and used to getting their way. They’ll never have normal lives. They’ll be in and out of rehab, probably have a million divorces with kids they never see. Just because you got shoved into your locker or rejected by a cheerleader doesn’t mean you can do this to me. To us.”
/>   He grabbed a fistful of my hair. “Shut up!”

  Cheers resounded from the front room. They were congratulating him on putting me in my place. How kind of them.

  “Please,” I whispered. “Just let me go. Just me.”

  He didn’t have to know that I planned on bringing hellfire back to this place.

  A muscle jumped in his jaw. He backed away like he wanted to hit me, but I could see he was at war with himself. He was trying to be rough and dangerous, but he also knew that what these guys—and he—were doing was wrong. All of this was wrong.

  “What did you give Heather?” I asked again, keeping my voice subdued, alluring.

  He had to at least think I was on his side and that I wasn’t blaming him for all of this. I didn’t have much experience with this level of evil, but I’d seen enough hostage-type movies to know that I needed to pretend to be his friend, even if I wasn’t.

  “Is she okay? She has a heart condition. She could die!” I raised my voice again, and I swore under my breath. My gaze darted to the door as I waited, dreading Alpha’s face. Thankfully, it stayed shut, music still blaring beyond it.

  Trigger slowly, dazedly rolled off of me. His expression was like he’d just woken up from a horrendous nightmare. He swallowed a few times, his eyes growing more haunted by the second. I told myself not to get too eager. In choppy, methodical movements, he came to the edge of the bed and sank his head into his hands, rubbing his fingers from the nape of his neck to the crown of his head. Back and forth, back and forth. “Oh God.” The words had an ill edge to them. “Oh God, oh God, oh God...”

  I waited, not patiently, but I didn’t want to push it. He was cracking.

  “What did you give them?” I asked again, trying to tiptoe around his mental break.

  “I…I can’t tell you. It’s new. A mixture.”

  “Of what?” I whispered fiercely.

  He held his hands out, palms up. “I don’t know how to help you.”