Harrowing Read Free

wanted was out.
    I stumbled to my feet. My knees were shaking so hard I could barely stand.
    “Um, Mr. Jarvas. Perhaps I could start working? I don’t suppose I’m going to be working in here, right? Perhaps you have a computer for me... In another office...”
    Anything, I thought. Anything to get me out of this room, which suddenly felt so stuffy I could scarcely breathe, and closer to the office door.
    Bruno took a step towards me. He was standing between me and the conference room door, blocking my way out. I tried to edge towards the door surreptitiously. Bruno’s hand shot out without warning, seizing me by the arm. He snaked his other hand around my neck, grasping me around the scruff of my neck as if I were a puppy. Pressing the fingers of his broad hand dangerously close to my windpipe.
    “No,” he hissed in an oily voice. “This room’s just fine, for the job I need to have done.”
    A mound of jello jiggled in my stomach. I took another trembling step towards the door. Suddenly, Bruno hurled himself against me and slammed me against the wall. I gaped at him, stunned. His forceful hand found its way against my windpipe again.
    “You’re not a martial artist, are you?” he screeched into my face.
    Terrified, I could only shake my head.
    With one hand wedged firmly against my throat, his other hand travelled down my sides, groping at me first with aplomb, then growing clumsier as emotion overcame him. I tried to jerk myself away from him. That only inspired him to press even harder against my throat. I gulped, trying to force air down.
    He reached for my skirt, bent over and started running his hand up my thighs. I would have whimpered or cried out if it hadn’t been for his firm grip against my trachea.
    “So soft. So soft. So sweet and gentle.”
    His grip on my throat loosened for an instant. I tried to make a beeline for it, but he hooked his foot around my ankles and sent me crashing towards the floor before I knew what was happening. I grasped for the back of a chair. He yanked it away from me, and I tumbled helplessly to the ground.
    Before I could do anything his rough hands were all over me, snatching my skirt upwards, dragging at my pantyhose, like a savage mongrel on the street. I ogled at his face. The stiff executive demeanour had metamorphosed into the hideous concavities of a beast.
    I battled against him, trying to pound my fists against any part of him I could reach. He pressed my arms down easily, with his superior strength. I tried to raise my legs to kick him with my two-inch stilettos and he smashed something hard and heavy down against my head.
    I didn’t conk out completely. In a daze, as if watching a movie while drifting off to sleep, I saw him loosen his cargo pants and lower himself down over me. His steely hands clawed at my fragile pantyhose, ripping it until it disintegrated into bits and pieces on the floor around me. His scaly arms snaked up my thighs, snagging my skimpy pinstriped skirt upwards, sliding my lace panties down.
    The pain that followed was so immense, so unbearable and indescribable, that I came to in an instant. An unending howl wrenched itself irrepressibly from my throat and I began to scream and shriek at the top of my lungs without stopping. I flayed and battled with my legs, helplessly, but Bruno avoided them with dexterity. When my legs got too close to him, he simply slapped out with his palms and pressed my knees down harshly towards the ground beside me, forcing my legs into impossible splits. Pain shot up my hips.
    Bruno only sighed with pleasure.
    “Scream all you want, my lovely. We’re all alone on this top floor. No one can hear you.”
    He thrust himself into me a few more times, then lay back on the ground beside me, utterly spent.
    I wanted to grab this instant to escape, but I felt like a rag doll. I had no strength left. Red hot fire continued to slash through me in agonizing waves. Mustering all my forces, I pushed myself up onto my