Or Lack Thereof
The day was calm as a blanket of starlight tainted it’s dainty blues, like a drop of black ink squirming in water, until the only light in the night sky came from the crescent moon and it’s twinkling children. Today had been boring, barely any clientele on a Wednesday and for the most part nearly all stores had closed by now, except one whose golden lights illuminated the sidewalk through a filter of misty blue panes.
Coco sighed wearily as her hands gently brushed over the hangers, carefully setting them for the following day. She smiled to herself as she finished the last rack and, with a tired skip in her step, she walked to the counter. For a moment her gaze became fixated on the beautiful centerpiece placed right next to the cash register. An elegant crystal sculpture in the shape of a blue jay. She admired the way it’s smooth, flawless surface reflected the light around it, she blinked. Her gaze leveled with the clothing store’s interior, Her clothing store.
After years of working under Suri and saving up she had finally managed to make enough for her own store and she loved it. The smooth marble walls, the elegant white tiling that always shone, the comfortable organization of each and every piece of clothing. It filled her heart with pride to know that her twenty two years spent building up to this moment wasn't wasted. She huffed in contentment as fatigue nudged her ever so slightly. A smile graced her lips, pride or no pride she was exhausted. Running an entire clothing store and moderately successful fashion line by oneself was taxing and right now Coco wanted nothing more than to go home to a hot meal, a warm bath and a cozy bed. Unfortunately fate was not on her side as the doorbell chimed, followed by unmistakable shuffling of cheap shoes on the tiled floor.
Now, there was one glaring issue with that entire occurence, if her memory served her correctly, she locked everything about an hour ago. She glanced at her wristwatch. Yes, she locked the door at nine o’clock, it was ten now and the shuffling of shoes stopped. A sudden shiver, cold as ice, traveled down her spine and Coco’s head snapped upwards.
Approximately five meters from the cash register stood a young man clad in a ruffled, black, sleeveless hoodie, rumpled, white t-shirt and creased, black dress-pants. He stood just a bit taller than her and his body, though slender, was wrapped in ropes of taut, toned muscle that appeared to pulse with every rhythmic rise and fall of his chest. She couldn't make out his face under the hoodie, save for a crooked, toothed smirk. He had placed himself between two shelf-racks of clothes and for the most part simply stood there with his hands in his pockets, eyes she could not see boring into her with each passing second.
“Um, Sir? We’re closed for the day, is there anything I can…hel-”
She choked on her words as she watched him walk back to the entrance. And lock the door. Then begin taking strides in her general direction, halving the divide in seconds. She took a deep breath and stepped back, her hand slipping under the counter as she reached for her Taser, a desperate attempt to combat the sketchy individual’s intentions. She couldn’t run to the exit, she’d run right into him and calling the cops would take too long, in fact he was just five steps away from her at this point. His wicked smirk was still there.
Coco had her doubts about this individual’s motives, she really did, but at this moment all she could feel was instinctual fear coupled with resistance. The boy continued to advance towards her and just when he was in reach she jabbed the taser's fangs into the side of his neck, her hand brushing against his hoodie and pulling it off in the process.
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!
The continuous crackling sound was deafening in the silence of the night and for a second Coco was relieved. That relief turned to horror when she saw his face. He was very awake, and he was smiling. Somewhere beneath that sociopathic grin she could almost hear a chuckle, right before she felt a strong pressure on her other hand and soon found her head resting on the counter, stomach pressed firmly against the cold wooden material as the intruder wrenched the Taser from her grasp.
He had black hair, a tanned complexion and seemed to undress her with his eyes as those reddish-brown pools of malice studied her. She could see the way they traced her body, greedily devouring her every detail. Curves, flesh, her very soul, she felt as if under his grasp they were all laid bare before him and it felt so wrong. He felt so wrong, but she didn’t have any time to think about that, no, her mind was still reeling from being slammed headfirst into a tabletop but the next thing she heard only added to her fears.
"Perfect"
CRUNCH
She heard something clatter against the floor as he purred into her ear. She tried to struggle, however every time she shifted the movement just sent a wave of acute pain through the arm wrestled behind her back. Coco felt a firm hand on her head as she was pulled into a standing position, her right arm twisted behind her, his hand grasping her wrist while the other slowly ran down her forehead and nestled itself under her jaw, she didn’t have time to speak as his rough fingers pressed against her jawline. His hands were rough against her own delicate skin and she shivered as she was forced to endure it.
“Beautiful,”
She heard a coarse, deep voice whisper as the hand slipped lower down, now wrapped around her neck and gently squeezing her trachea. She gulped, her breaths sharp as she attempted to comprehend the situation she found herself in. She felt a soft breeze against her ear and let out a strangled cry as the pressure increased tenfold. His fingers sunk into her delicate flesh like blunt needles as she gasped and thrashed in his grip, not caring for her twisted arm as her breath hitched and sputtered. Tears stung her eyes as she struggled and in a desperate attempt, she screamed with whatever air she had left in her constricted lungs.
His hand relaxed its pressure on her neck and stuffed two fingers down her throat, the offending appendages strangling any sound escaping from her mouth to mindless garble as sour drool pooled in her cheeks and soundlessly rolled down her lips onto her neck.
“GlargH!”
She choked as he retracted his fingers from her open mouth and pressed the wet appendages against her neck, ever so slowly tracing a wet line down her reddened flesh to her moderately generous chest. In an instant she knew what he was going to do. He was young, much younger than her and could pass as a senior, but here he was, his hands gently caressing her soft chest as his own fierce eyes stared into her own, forcing her to his whim. She was paralyzed. Her body was shivering at this point and her breaths sharp with an occasional cough as she felt his hand travel even lower, just grazing her abdomen as it continued its route and in a quick movement the apendage slid under her skirt.
Her body spasmed as the hand brushed against her inner thighs. Her breath hitched and she tried to tense her legs together but it was no use. His hand was already there and despite its lack of motion she knew that if she didn’t try something it soon would be.
“Please, don’t do this!”
She pleaded, her soft voice a bit raspy from the rough treatment he had inflicted upon her throat, his expression was blank now, yet he didn’t stop, regardless his eyes were focused on her.
Tears freely ran down her face, what little mascara she used painting nearly unnoticeable cream strokes down her eyes as she screwed them shut, her labored breathing only intensified as his index finger trailed along the moist slit of her panties.
“Please stop! I promise I won’t tell anyone! Like nothing ever happened I won’t call the police I won’t say anything Plea-GAH!”
She felt a constricting force on her throat, strangling her words before they came and she let out a choked sob. Salty, rippling rivers as his accursed finger rubbed her budding flower. Up and down and up and down.
Ever so gently. She could feel her lower half heating up just a bit. She hated it.
He was going to do whatever he wanted to her and there was nothing she could do about it. That truth broke something in her. She exploded in full on bawling as the individual continued to toy with her body as he pleased. Sometime during her despair-fueled crying his tongue darted from his mouth, forcefully licking away a stream of her tears and dragging the wet organ to her ear, flicking the ridge with the tongue tip as it retreated inside his mouth. She shivered and her sobs only increased in frequency, her breath hitched with every stroke and muffled bawling died down to soft whimpers as his fingers toyed with her lower lips.
She could feel his index pressing into her panties, now beginning to take his exploration inside of her when suddenly,
RING
Her sobbing paused for a brief moment and the individual assaulting her seemed to freeze in place. That certainly wasn’t her ringtone. She heard the flicking sound of a phone and he spoke, the woman in his grasp trying to withdraw into her mind, or at least brace herself for what would come next.
"The hell do you want 'sura?”
“I’m busy, what happened?”
“Let me get this straight, you called me because the fucking plumbing broke!?”
“…..”
“Fuck it,”
He slowly removed his hand from her frame, allowing Coco’s body to collapse onto the countertop. Her chest rising and falling rapidly as she attempted to comprehend what just happened.
Slap!
She felt a sting on her backside and a piercing pain on her neck but she didn’t cry out. She thoughtlessly worried about the lack of marks from this encounter. Her throat had long since become dry from all her bawling and she felt partially numb, even if she wanted to, she no longer had the will nor ability to squeak.
“Sorry, something came up. We’ll continue later,”
A short while later she could hear the entrance’s doorbell chime, signaling his departure.
Coco simply laid there, drenched in her own sweat and tears for a while. Eventually she regained enough composure to stand on her two feet. Wordlessly, she took her bag, turned off the lights in the store and walked up the stairs to her apartment. She found a box of heart-shaped chocolates in front of her bedroom door. She ate, took a bath and collapsed onto her bed. She then proceeded to cry herself to sleep.