Shadowed Strength: Shadowed Series Book One (3 page)

She
finally reached the corner of Tanglewood and Cedarwood, after what seemed like
an eternity. She needed to turn right on Cedarwood, go down two blocks and hang
a left to get to her house. She had walked these streets a million times, but
tonight she just stood there on the corner, not moving an inch.

Cedarwood
was nearly pitch black. Some dark rain clouds had obscured the moon, and none
of the streetlights on it were working. Not a single one. The light nearest the
corner, which was the only one she could make out, had shards of glass
underneath it. It had been broken. They all must have been. "Damn stupid
people," she muttered under her breath.

"Ok,"
she said out loud, loud enough so that it echoed back at her faintly. "I
can walk another block down and go 'round the long way, or I can stop being
such a big baby and walk down a dark street."

After
all the negativity directed at her tonight, from Sissy and from herself, she
decided to be strong and brave and just walk down Cedarwood. It was, after all,
only two blocks.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Where's
Melanie?" Jeremy had made a beeline for Tara as soon as she walked back
into the house.

"She
left. She said she had a headache and she wanted to go home."

"A
headache, huh?” he said skeptically. “I bet I know just what that headache’s
name is, too.” He sucked in a deep breath. Then exploded. “Damn it! This is all
my fault!”

Tara
shook her head. “How is this your fault? You’re not the one with the bitchiest
mouth in town.”

“Yeah,
but I brought her here. I waltzed her right over to Mel, with my damn arm
around her! I let her accost Melanie.”

“Jeremy,
stop it. If she hadn’t come with you, it would’ve been with someone else. No
one can stop that mouth. Except...”

“Except
what?”

Tara
hunched her shoulders, put a stern look on her face and said “Try me,” in a
deepened voice.

“You
little sneak! What, were you hiding in the bushes or something?” She could tell
he was trying hard not to smile. “Who took Melanie home?”

“Well,
I offered. Nagged, actually. But all I got was an emphatic ‘no.’ She insisted
on walking. She said she needed air and space.”

He
looked at his watch. The face read 10:37 pm. “It’s been a while. Maybe I should
go check on her. Just to make sure she made it home okay.”

“Do
you want me to come with you?” she asked.

“No,
it’s alright. I got this. You stay and have fun with Chris. Don’t worry, I’ll
take care of her.”

“Now
if I could just find him,” she wondered aloud. He wasn’t out back or in the
house as far as she could tell. “Where could he be?”

*~*~*~*~*~*

"Eight,
nine, ten." Melanie was counting her steps to try to keep her mind off the
general creepiness of the darkened street. "I should have just gone the
long way,” she grumbled. Her words echoed off the houses and heightened her
tension. "Nineteen, twenty, twenty one."

Her
steps slowed to a stop as she approached a long hedge. It was about four feet
tall and ran the length of the yard next to the sidewalk. Her eyes scanned the
darkness, looking for any hint of movement. She couldn't see much.

After
a few more seconds, she took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, and
stepped forward. Walking at her regular pace, Melanie tried desperately to
control her agitation and not leap into a sprint. She was being ridiculous. It
was just a hedge. Just a yard on a dark street.

As
she neared the middle of the hedge, a rustling sound stopped her dead in her
tracks. The blood drained from her face and then flooded right back again as
her heart started pounding erratically. Melanie was frozen, her only movement
the rapid rise and fall of her chest from her ragged breathing. She waited
motionlessly for what seemed like an eternity but no other sound emerged from
the plants.

"Maybe
it was the wind," she whispered.

Melanie
took a tentative step forward. Nothing. Another step. Still nothing. She took a
deep breath and started walking forward, very slowly, scanning the hedge and
listening for any hint of sound.

As
she neared the end, Melanie started to relax. Suddenly the bush rattled and
before she could even react, a black cat burst from the hedge and ran over her
toes. Melanie somehow managed to stifle the scream that threatened to erupt
from her throat, letting out a groan instead. After a few deep breaths, her
racing heart slowed a little.

"Oh
my God," she gasped between breaths. "Holy shit. Stupid cat."

When
she finally calmed down a fraction and her legs felt a little less like Jell-O,
she took a couple of steps forward, then stopped again. Melanie had a strange
feeling, like she was being watched. She peered into the hedge, across the
street, and behind her, but saw nothing. Deciding she was being paranoid, she
started slowly walking forward again. Silent curses roared through her mind at
the cat for scaring the wits out of her.

"Stupid
cat," she whispered again. “A few more feet and I can get off this stupid,
dark, stupid street.”

Finally,
she neared the end of the hedge. She started to move past it, but instead froze
in her tracks once again. Someone
was
there. She
was
being watched.
And not by a cat. Melanie slowly lowered her left foot, which had been dangling
in the air mid-step. Her face was a mask of pure terror.

He
was hiding at the end, waiting for her. He slowly stood up from his crouched
position and squared his shoulders toward her. She could only assume it was a
man, from his muscular build and height, for only his hands were visible.

He
was dressed entirely in black- black boots, black jeans, black hoodie, and,
most terrorizing, a black ski mask. She almost laughed at the cliché… almost.
All she could see of his eyes was a slight glint behind the eye holes. There
wasn't enough light to see their color.

She
couldn't run. She felt paralyzed. Maybe it was true, what they say about fear
freezing your body and your mind, so you can't move, or speak, or even think.
She was, quite literally, frozen in fear.

It
was like facing down a wild animal. She was too scared to move lest he attack.
Her heart was pounding erratically and her palms started to sweat.

"
WHY
DIDN'T I LET TARA DRIVE ME HOME
?" her mind screamed frantically.

After
what seemed like an hour, but was in actuality only a few seconds, the man
surged forward, grabbed her arm and dragged her into the yard behind the hedge.
Melanie couldn't be seen at all from the street, and the house that the hedge
belonged to was completely dark, with no car in the driveway. In shock, she
didn't fight or scream, just let him drag her forward, farther into the
darkened yard.

He
pushed her hard, causing her to fall down. The impact shattered her frozen,
comatose state. A yelp escaped her as her knees and shoulders hit the ground.
Immediately, she rolled over and attempted to sit up. Melanie sucked in a deep
breath to scream, but it lodged in her throat.

The
clouds shifted and the moon shed its meager light into the yard. She caught
sight of her assailant and realized he had a huge, serrated hunting knife. It
looked like the one her Uncle Larry used to gut that buck last fall. The man
twisted and shifted the knife in the moon's glow, nearly hypnotizing her.

"If
you scream, I'll kill you." The voice was raspy and harsh. "Do you
understand me, little girl?"

She
didn't dare speak, or even move. Her body was limp on the ground, half propped
up with her arms behind her, her lungs bursting with the deep, rapid breaths.
Her eyes started to blur from unshed tears.

When
she said nothing, he dropped to his knees beside her. In one fluid motion, he
pushed her backwards hard so that her head whacked the ground and shoved the
knife against her throat.

"Answer
me, bitch," he whispered. "You do understand, right?"

All
Melanie could do was nod very slightly. The blade was pressed hard against her
throat and even that slight movement gripped her with fear of being sliced
open.

"Good
girl."

His
voice took on a more normal, conversational tone with that. He sounded more
human and frighteningly familiar. She
knew
that voice from somewhere. As
soon as the thought entered her head, it flew back out because at that moment,
he pounced.

He
was lying on top of her now, pinning her to the ground with the bulk of his
weight. Her breath whooshed out with the impact and it was a struggle to regain
it. He nudged one knee between her tightly clenched thighs and pried them apart
so he could get his hips into the gap.

She
started to panic and pushed at his shoulders with all of her strength. He just
chuckled as he grabbed her wrists and pulled them above her head, pinning them
there with one hand. Bucking wildly, her hope was to dislodge him, or least
break his grasp on her wrists.

He
didn't budge. A loud groan erupted from his lips. She thought she had hurt him
and redoubled her efforts. He groaned again and there was no mistaking his
pleasure.

He’s enjoying this!
Melanie froze with the thought.

A
few seconds later, he lifted his body weight off her slightly and she thought
he was losing interest in her, now that the fight had gone out of her.
Melanie’s hopes were dashed, however, when he slid his free hand between their
bodies, grabbed the neck of her shirt and yanked. The flimsy material ripped
clear down to her navel. She felt the cool night air brush against her belly.
The warmth of his hand caressing her stomach was an unpleasant shock, worsened
when he roughly pinched the fat there. He groaned again and this time the
sexuality of it was blatantly obvious.

"You
are so damn sexy. I love this pudginess about you. It’s like you were made just
for me, a perfect match. It makes me so hard." That last bit was
punctuated by him rotating his hips and pressing hard against her.

With
that, the dam on her control broke. She lost all common sense, started working
on instinct and fought with all she had. She bucked, twisted, and turned, but
was very careful not to scream. It would occur to her later that she could have
screamed without fear of the knife. One of his hands was holding her wrists and
the other had been on her belly. The moment was just too terrifying for her to
put it together.

Her
struggles finally paid off, as her right hand suddenly popped free. She
immediately began raining blows on his face and shoulders. He dropped his
weight down on her in surprise, and the breath left her body in a big
woof.

Melanie
recognized in a brief moment of clarity that his hand that had been fondling
her belly was trapped between them and his other hand still clutched her left
hand above her head. Realizing that her pummeling was doing very little damage,
she reached for a fistful of hair to yank (standard girl maneuver) and instead
caught the woolly ski mask. She pulled hard and it slid from his head.

She
stilled and stared blankly at the mask dangling from her fingers. Suddenly her
left hand was free, too, as her assailant let go to grab the knife that was on
the ground beside her. As he brought it high into the air over her chest, her
eyes left the ski mask and zoned right onto the knife. He was not twirling it
lazily this time, no. It was stock still, sharp end aimed at her heart, ready
to kill.

Time
slowed down and everything became clear. Melanie realized she'd been holding
her breath, and let it out slowly. She was eerily calm in that moment,
realizing that death was here and there was nothing she could do about it. In
her serene state, she decided to make her murderer look her in the eyes as he
did it. Her eyes closed briefly as she made that decision.

Before
she could open them again and focus on the man's face, a commotion interrupted
the silence. Her eyes opened and flew to the side as what she assumed was a
large dog burst into the yard in a flurry of motion.

There
was no barking, no warning, just a vicious snarl as a blur of fur and teeth
flew over her body and pounded against her assailant, knocking him off of her
in the process. Melanie rolled onto her side and saw the shape of the man flat
on his back with his arms flung over his face. The dog was looming over him,
viciously growling and snapping his jaws together.

Melanie
sat up, a wild look in her eyes as the shock set in. She couldn't see any
details, just the shapes of man and dog several feet away. Suddenly the impact
of it all hit her, and hit her hard. All control was lost as wild screams tore
their way up her throat and exploded from her mouth.

The
dog lost his focus in that instant, and using it to his advantage, the man
shoved the dog away. He scrambled to his feet and sprinted around the hedge,
into the darkness and out of sight. The dog started to follow, then stopped. It
turned and trotted over to Melanie, who was still screaming with her eyes
squeezed shut. The dog licked her face. She immediately stopped, opened her
eyes and stared into its face. From this close, she could see he had dark fur
and dark eyes that blinked at her solemnly.