Constant Fear

CHAPTER 45

The man’s eyes gazed upon Ellie like two black moons. His long hair framed a thin, angular face. Under the weight of his boot, Ellie writhed to get free, but the man’s foot held her in place. Her strength weakened with each spurt of blood that shot out from the holes in her legs. The pain was all-consuming, and her thoughts were gummed with terror.

The man bared his teeth like a set of fangs and tucked his gun into the waistband of his pants. Evidently, he had something other in mind for Ellie than a final bullet. With a wicked grin, he extracted a knife from a holster latched to his belt. The massive blade looked to Ellie like a sword.

He lowered himself down onto her. Soon he had the blade pressed against Ellie’s throat. She could feel him getting hard. Ellie had no weapon with which to fend him off, and little strength left to fight. Her last bit of resolve pumped out her leg and colored the green grass red. The man put his face close to Ellie’s, close enough so she could smell onions and peppers on his breath.

He pressed into her, hips grinding, and she felt his excitement build. With his free hand, the attacker reached behind Ellie’s head and seized a clump of her hair. He gave it a hard yank, as if pulling a rope.

Ellie cried out in pain. “Help,” she whimpered. “Help me.” Her voice grew in volume until Ellie finally found the scream she’d been looking for. “Help me!”

Her voice sailed into the night, catching the breeze, going nowhere and to no one. She listened for sirens. Perhaps someone had heard the gunshots and called the police. But all Ellie heard was the man’s heavy breathing, Kibo’s desperate barks, and the blood that thundered inside her head. The man cupped her mouth with his calloused hand. He pushed the blade harder against her throat. Hatred consumed him. Blind to the possibility that help might be on the way, he was determined to make her suffer to the greatest extent possible. It seemed that was all that mattered to him.

“Voy a hacer que dure,” he said.

Ellie knew “voy a hacer” was Spanish for “I am going to.” Going to what? Kill me? Cut my throat? Rape me? All of the above, she believed. Every single one of those things. Even if that wasn’t exactly what the words meant, it was what he was going to do.

The man pulled Ellie’s hair and breathed into her ear. “Te va a encantar mi verga.”

Ellie knew for certain what was to come when he undid her belt. She clawed at his face. Clawed. The blood loss had left her completely drained. Her attack couldn’t repel a fly. Ellie writhed beneath him. She kicked haplessly. Fatigue beat out resolve and Ellie began to give in. Her mind went blank and the pain went away. The brush of steel against her throat became nothing.

She felt her body rising up off the ground. Suddenly there she was, ten, maybe fifteen feet in the air, maybe higher, just floating. She looked down upon herself and the man on top of her… but then, it wasn’t her. It was someone, somebody else thrashing beneath this stranger. How horrible it was, she thought, to see this poor woman being savaged in such a vicious manner.

Where Ellie was now, nothing hurt. She felt no pain, only peace, profound peace. But the woman, that poor woman. Something had to be done to help this woman. It was her duty, though she couldn’t exactly say why. She felt nameless. She had no past. No future. She was just a presence watching over this woman in such duress.

She called out, “Somebody help!”

Her voice was a hiss of air, a whisper in the wind.

Poor woman… poor woman… I’m so sorry…

With a sudden stab of horror, Ellie understood she was the woman. In the very next instant, Ellie returned to her body, and the pain came back sharper than ever. It flooded her eyes, her mouth. It was shards of glass against her skin. The pain sank deep into her joints and the fibers of her muscles. She wished herself back to the place where she was floating, where she was nothing and everything all at once. The blade sank into her throat and a tug on her pants pulled them to her hips.

Ellie’s screams grew softer. She was thinking about that place. The place without any pain. A noise in the distance registered in her ears. What was it? Strange but familiar. She wasn’t scared of this sound at all. It grew louder until it made sense to her. Until she knew what was coming. It was the sound of growls, and snarls, and snapping jaws. It was the sound of paws slapping the soft earth. It was the sharp bark of Kibo streaking at the man like a missile on target.

He had heard her. In her cruiser, he had probably barked, spun around in the front seat, pawed at the door handle, and nuzzled it with his snout until he got it open.

And then he ran.

Ellie saw little of the attack. But it was enough.

Kibo flew in the air over her head and struck the man in the chest with the full force of his eighty-five pounds. He snarled and snapped his jaws into the man’s shoulder. His paws ripped long streaks down the man’s face. Then Kibo sank his teeth into the fleshy part of the man’s leg and shook his head from side to side. Ellie heard a ripping sound as the flesh came free. Then Kibo bit again.

Free of the man, Ellie reached for her Glock and managed with a stretch of the fingers to take hold of the weapon. From the ground, she aimed through the gauze of her vision and fired a single shot, which found the center of her attacker’s head. The man fell backward. Kibo pounced on his chest and snarled in his face. When the man didn’t move, and his scent changed, Kibo got off and came over to Ellie. He curled up next to her, licked her face, and whimpered.

At some point, a new voice came from the dark. “Hello? Hello? Are you hurt?”

The voice was a boy’s. Kibo growled.

Ellie managed to wheeze out, “Easy, easy, Kibo. It’s fine, sweetie. It’s fine.”

The boy held his ground. “My name is Gus. We’re being held hostage, but I think you might have killed them all. I called the police. They’re on the way.”

Kibo growled low and menacing. The boy would not approach. He was smart to be cautious. Ellie gripped Kibo’s fur to keep him close, though she knew for certain her guardian angel would never willingly leave her side.