by Mike Duke
It was almost 1 am when Brad stumbled outside.
“FUCK!!” Jack muttered. Brad had a girl with him and they were headed for his vehicle.
“How the fuck am I gonna make this work now?” he thought.
The pressure was on now. Improvisation. Thinking ahead. Determining an effective way to adapt and still achieve Checkmate.
Jack acted as he thought, no time for deliberation. He had to just roll with it. Sliding the skull mask on he stepped out of his car and started slipping in between vehicles on an intercept course with Brad and the girl, who also appeared quite unsteady on her feet. He stayed bent over so as to conceal himself till the last possible moment then popped up a mere three feet in front of them, Bowie Knife brandished, point towards Brad’s belly.
“Don’t make a fucking sound,” he said quietly, changing his voice to a lower tone and forcing it to become gravelly sounding.
Brad about jumped out of his skin, grabbing the girl and pulling her in front of him. She stared at the large blade glistening in the moonlight.
“Wow, honey. You got a real man there don’t cha?” Jack let out a small chuckle then extended the blade towards the female shield.
“Beat feet bitch. I like man’s butt, not your kind.” He waved the blade behind him, away from the bar, noticing Brad’s eyes bulge wide with unbelief as he did so.
“That way,” Jack indicated with a backward nod of his head, “and don’t you dare stop to talk to someone or I’ll hunt you down and kill you….Understood?”
The girl nodded, never saying a word, still frozen in place. Jack waited a couple of seconds before realizing he would need to give further direction.
“Then beat it!” he spit sharply under his breath.
That reconnected her feet and unfroze the brain. In a fraction of a second she was off and running, a real track and field star.
“Walk straight ahead, slowly.” Jack stepped offline, pointing Brad in the right way with an outstretched hand, like some game show model presenting the next possible prize. Jack slid in behind him, pressing the point of the blade into Brad’s right kidney while grabbing his collar to maintain positive control.
“We’re going to my car this time, Brad.”
Brad’s stomach dropped like a rock down a well. He knew it was Jack, then, and would rather it had been a male rapist. Jack felt him tense up and pressed the blade just hard enough to prick the skin through Brad’s shirt.
“If you want to live to see a minute from now, don’t do anything stupid Brad. Keep moving. My car is right here.”
Jack guided Brad around to the trunk, forcing him to walk until his knees were pressing against the rear bumper. Jack let go of the collar, retrieved his keys and unlocked the trunk from under Brad’s left arm, the blade ever pressing into the right kidney area.
“Lift the trunk lid, Brad.”
Brad moved slowly but obediently, doing exactly what Jack requested.
“Jack. Man. I swear. I haven’t been near April since we talked last. Please. Please, man. Don’t hurt me.”
“Climb in Brad.” Jack prodded him with the blade and he complied.
“We’re going to have a talk Brad…just the three of us.”
Brad’s brain connected the third dot and his eyes looked like an animal about to be slaughtered and incapable of doing a thing about it.
Jack tossed him a roll of duct tape.
“Tape your mouth.”
Brad tore off a large piece and affixed it across his mouth.
“Now put these on,” Jack said as he tossed a pair of handcuffs on his belly. When Brad had clicked the cuffs in place Jack tightened them up a little then zip tied Brad’s ankles together and ran a short bungee cord between the zip tie and handcuff chains.
“Alright. Lay back and enjoy the ride. It’ll be a little while.”
A coward’s desperation covered Brad’s countenance as the trunk lid clicked quietly into place.
*****
Jack’s heart was beginning to beat faster the closer he got to the barn. This was it. This was the moment he had been waiting for. April would take out her abuser just like he took out his mom’s all those years ago. Then he would know that she was strong enough to live free…and strong enough to be his girl.
He pulled up, car facing the barn door and left the lights on while he got out and went inside. He retrieved a chair and brought it outside along with several large bungee cords. He grabbed some lighter fluid and started the campfire for a little ambiance. Then he grabbed a beer, cracked it open and flipped the grill lid up to grab some of the meat he hadn’t put away earlier. He was famished and wanted to have a full stomach for what came next. He scarfed multiple pieces of the pig down along with two beers. Afterwards he opened the trunk, undid the bungee cord and helped Brad out and over to the chair where Jack seated him then bungee corded his feet, legs and chest in place.
Brad stared at Jack the whole time, silently pleading with him to not go through with whatever he had planned, all to no affect.
“Alright, Brad. Let’s go get April. She needs to be in on this.”
Jack turned to walk away, but stopped suddenly and turned back around, a shit eating grin spreading across his face.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Where are my manners, Brad? You’re a bit…tied up right now. I’ll take care of it.” Jack indicated himself with an upturned hand and nodded as he spoke, his face oozing pretentious hospitality before turning to walk inside.
Jack opened April’s door slowly. She sat on her bed, back to the wall, feet pulled up to her butt, both arms hugging her legs, head resting on her knees but unable to sleep. She turned her head slowly and looked at Jack, tired, her spirit disheartened and subdued.
“Where is all this going Jack?” She asked quietly and sighed, eyes longing for an honest answer, for complete closure to this nightmare.
Jack smiled, a hopeful enthusiasm responding to her inquiry.
“We’re almost done April. One more test and you will be free…for good.”
She looked at him, clearly distrusting.
“Seriously, April. Right now. Final answer and we’re done. C’mon.” He waved her to come out of the room and follow him. She hesitated but finally complied, not hopeful but at least willing to see what awaited.
They walked to the barn door and Jack pulled it open. The car headlights blinded her for a couple of seconds but then she saw the silhouette of someone sitting in a chair. Jack waved her on once more. April tread slowly, cautiously, not wanting to get hit by a stranger again. She walked wide of the seated individual, a male, she could tell now, and circled around to the front, her back to the headlights.
Brad’s face came into sight. She recoiled in surprise and disgust, hands flying to cover her mouth as a startled cry escaped. His eyes were wide and full of fear. Much like hers had been the night he raped her, she was sure. He was mortified, a craven bastard who could dish it out but not take it. Not one bit.
April looked at Jack where he stood just behind Brad, resting both hands on trembling shoulders.
“You kidnapped him too, huh?” she asked bluntly, more of a statement than an actual question. “So, what’s the game Jack? He here to beat my ass too? Or do you want me to beat him up so I’ll feel better about myself? Which is it?”
She leaned on the car hood and hooked her thumbs in her front pockets, resigned to whatever role she had to play to finish this shit show and get away from Jack.
“Well, April, you tell me. What would it take to free you from what Brad did to you? From all the collected abuse that other men have put you through? Brad raped you, brutally, but he is representative of so much more. What will it take to erase that weakness from your conscious? From your soul? You tell me. What’s it gonna take?”
April stood there in silence. Her brain processing the questions, the insinuations.
“You want me to hurt him…badly, right?”
“April, this is not about me and what I want right now. This is
about what you want. Stop worrying about what other men want out of you and think about what you want out of life and particularly what you want out of life right now. This is an opportunity few rape victims get. He is helpless, a captive audience.”
April stared at Brad like a baby lion unsure what to do with the crippled prey mom brought back to the den.
Jack realized he would need to lead April a little to get things going in the right direction.
“Let’s start simple, April. Is there anything you would like to say to Brad about what he did to you that night or about how he treated you on all those other occasions?”
“Is there anything I want to say?” April’s temper suddenly rose, thinking back to that night.
“Fuck yeah!”
“Well, let him have it then.” Jack stepped off to the side.
April stood up from the car and took a step forward, her brain searching for the words her tongue would lash Brad with.
“Brad, you’re a fucking douchebag and a criminal. A fucking dirt bag criminal. You know that?”
Brad just stared at her, face blank, body unmoving. April’s indignation flared when he didn’t respond in the affirmative to her challenge.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!? You don’t think what you did was wrong?!?” April scoffed furiously.
“You fucking RAPED me, Brad!!! You dragged my ass in that room, punched the shit out of me and had me so scared I laid there and just LET you rape me. I just fucking took it.” Tears began to flow and merge with the rage she felt building.
“I didn’t make not one god damn peep for fear of getting worse. I just took it…Helpless. Weak. Afraid. Unwilling to do anything to protect myself. Had never really even learned how…physically or mentally.”
She walked right up to Brad and leaned down to look him in the eye.
“But I have now you low life motherfucker,” she growled then let a right elbow go, cracking him on the orbit and splitting the flesh wide open. She stepped back to admire the handiwork, blood already starting to flow down his face and into his left eye.
The world spun and tilted like some carnival ride for Brad, blackness mixed with twinkling white lights filling his vision. He never saw the front kick drive into his groin. The pain was overwhelming, took his breath, the chair alone holding him up.
April tucked her hair behind an ear, staring at Brad’s groin.
“A hammer,” she said calmly. “I need a fucking hammer.”
Jack smiled and quickly retrieved one. April was breathing deep and fast, building up to a genuine release of rage. Tangible. Undeniable. He handed it to her and stepped out of the way.
“You’re a fucking piece of shit, Brad! You hear me? A piece of shit! A fucking coward who can’t hang with the big boys so he preys on little women. You’re fucking disgusting. A loathsome, nauseating, repulsive little pussy!”
She slapped him hard across the face.
“You hear me, Brad? You get the picture? You’re no better than a shit eating pig.”
April shifted the hammer into her right hand, and held it stiffly by her side, her voice coming back down to a restrained volume.
“A pig, Brad. That’s all you are….and you know what,” she whispered in his face, eye to eye. “I want to hear you squeal.” Her eyes squinted, piercing him with malicious intent as the hammer suddenly rose and fell, crushing his left testicle against the chair. Brad threw his head back in shock and pain, a scream escaping from the bottom of his lungs and pouring out into the night for several seconds before its fuel failed.
April stared at him and smiled, then let the hammer fall again, this time mutilating the head of his penis. Blood began to seep through his pants, a bright crimson stain spreading out rapidly.
She tossed the hammer down and backed up to the car hood again and plopped down on it, watching Brad squirm the whole time.
“What’s next April?” Jack said inquisitively.
“What do you mean?” she asked, still not taking her eyes off of Brad and the faces of pain he was transitioning through.
Perplexity quickly turned to disdain.
“You mean that’s it, April? That’s all you want to do to him?”
“What else is there? I just smashed his dick!” she replied, genuinely clueless to where Jack wanted things to go.
“How bout object rape? I’ve got a devil’s walking stick I brought in from the woods laying over there by the pig pen. That’d be a helluva way to pay him back. Make him feel violated like you.”
April’s nose wrinkled in disgust. Brad cringed, terror mixed with the torturous pain wracking his groin area.
“Object rape? Are you fucking sick, Jack? And I don’t even want to know what a devil’s walking stick is.”
Jack was frustrated at her lack of imagination and commitment.
“Then just fucking stick him with the knife and be done with it.” It rolled off Jack’s tongue so matter of fact that April had to pause to process what he had just said.
“You want me to kill him, Jack?” Disbelief filled her voice.
“Of course I want you to kill him, April? Don’t you after what he did?”
April’s mouth hung partially open, her brain considering what Jack said but not drawing the same conclusion as him.
“Jack,” she said slowly, “No. No I don’t want to kill him. I don’t want to take that plunge. Being raped is bad enough. Becoming a killer is even worse. I don’t want that on my conscious. I fucked him up good. He’ll never have sex with a normal cock again.”
Jack saw an opportunity for manipulation and instinctively seized it.
“And are you ready to serve the jail time that comes with the injuries you inflicted on him, April?”
Jack’s challenge hung in the air, his face smug in the knowledge that he was right. April hadn’t even considered it.
“Jail?” Her voice was weak and timid suddenly. “I figured you would just threaten him to keep him quiet. I don’t want to go to jail.”
“Well, I think it might be kind of hard to play off these injuries as anything other than what they are. And if I were him and you let me go, I’d go right to the police and get you arrested for malicious wounding. That’s a felony charge, too, April. You could get up to five years for that.”
April appeared flabbergasted at the thought that she might go to jail, but at the same time her stomach turned at the thought of killing Brad. The rage within her had climaxed, just like a cheating lover’s orgasm. All the hormones driving her to fulfill the need for revenge were now diminishing and so was her confidence in the acts of violence she had just taken against Brad. Shame at what she had reduced herself to, what she had gladly done, invaded her thoughts and eroded her former resolve.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” she muttered.
“No!” Jack shouted, trying to snap her out of her doubts.
“No, April! You can’t falter now. You’re too close to freedom. Kill Brad! Kill him and you’ll be free! Free from the weight of the past, from its defining power. Free from weakness. Free from future abuse…and free to walk about as you please without going to jail.”
Jack paused and looked at her, his own eyes pleading with her to do what needed to be done. She stared back, horrified by the idea.
“THIS is the solution! Kill him, April! Just kill him!” Jack emphasized the last command by extending the Bowie knife out for her to take.
Brad shook his head, little jerky twitches mixed with trembling moving it back and forth.
April slowly shook her head as she met Jack’s gaze.
“I can’t do it, Jack,” she whispered. “It’s just not me.”
Jack’s dreams were expiring before his eyes, imploding on themselves like some dying star becoming a black hole. He refused to give them up so easily and raged against their death.
“YES. YOU. CAN!!!” he screamed, stalking forward towards where she stood, intimidating her with the proximity of his presence and the intensity of his count
enance and words, trying to control her and force her to act against her own conscious.
“AND YOU WILL!!!”
Jack pulled her away from the car and moved behind her, hugging her and pushing her closer to Brad. April struggled half-heartedly, subconsciously not wanting to test Jack in his current state. He forced the Bowie knife into her right hand while digging his same side fingers under hers so they both had a grip on the blade.
“STAB HIM APRIL! STAB HIM!!”
April shook with adrenaline, its powerful chemicals cascading through her system. All she wanted to do was run but she couldn’t. Brad struggled impotently against his bonds, muffled screams trying to break through from behind the tape, eyes bulging in horror as they fixated on the shining blade.
“DO IT, APRIL! OR I’LL MAKE YOU DO IT!” Jack screamed in her ear.
“NO!!!” she screamed back, her body sinking into Jack, refusing to make a move toward Brad. “NO!!!”
Jack plunged the blade into Brad’s heart using April’s own hand. Once. Twice. Three times and then ratcheted the blade around inside.
“No. No. No. No. No.” She blurted out, a whimpering scream in rapid succession as the blade moved on its own in her grip.
It seemed to go on forever then suddenly she felt Jack’s hold on the handle relax. The loss of control now returned stoked her rage once more and her whole body coiled.
“You bastard!” she shrieked then spun, “YOU FUCKING BASTARD!”
The blade whipped through the air on the back hand, catching Jack off guard. Reflexes alone saved him, head leaning away and shoulder shrugging to his chin all at once. The blade filleted the very top skin of his shoulder off then laid his right cheek open, barely missing his eye. If he hadn’t moved it would have been his throat and he’d be bleeding out right along with Brad.
The fury erupted instantaneously.
“YOU FUCKING CUNT! YOU TRIED TO KILL ME!”
Jack’s whole countenance changed in a moment. A ferocious hate blossomed across his face, his eyes dark and dreadful to behold, their malevolent intent piercing April and making her feel small, insignificant and powerless, like a pauper before a raging king.
