Chapter 56

Chapter 56

“Jimmy?” Lauren asked, her face scrunching up in confusion. “What are you doing here? How did you get in here?”

Vero was standing very close to Lauren, and both women were very uncomfortable with this uninvited presence in the room. Jimmy always gave Lauren such an uneasy feeling, and now she was thinking those feelings were not irrational.

“Hello, Lauren. It’s good to see you again. And your beautiful friend, too. Vero, right?”

“Jimmy, what are you doing here? How did you get into my room?” Lauren said, starting to leaf through her bag, desperately trying to locate her cell phone. Jimmy stood up and walked towards them. Lauren thought about leaving, but her feet betrayed her, and she seemed frozen in place. Vero seemed to be stuck too.

Jimmy got so close to Lauren she could feel his hot breath on her neck. She could smell the alcohol on his breath, and she scrunched up her nose. She took a step back, almost stumbling into Vero.

“Where are you going, beautiful?” Jimmy asked, taking another step towards her. Lauren turned to run towards the door, but he grabbed her wrist and punched her hard in the face with his other hand. As Lauren fell back into the wall, grabbing her eye, Jimmy grabbed Vero and swiftly tied her to a chair, covering her mouth with tape to stop the sounds of her screaming.

He threw Lauren onto the bed and she hit her head on the solid mahogany headboard. She cried out in pain again. Lauren looked at him in horror when he showed her a knife. He laid it on the nightstand where it wouldn’t be out of reach. Lauren’s blood ran cold when she saw Jimmy undoing the buckle on his belt. She screamed at the top of her lungs, but he silenced her by slapping her hard across the face. She curled up into a ball and kicked him when he approached her.

“Now, Lauren, Sidney wouldn’t like you being so mean to his old buddy.” Jimmy said in a sugary tone.

“Get the hell away from me!” Lauren said as he forced her to straighten her legs and reached to unbutton her jeans. He held her hips down with one hand, and when she started hitting him, he slapped her again, and tied her hands to the headboard.

He kissed her roughly on the mouth, and she bit his tongue when he tried to push it into her mouth. He pulled back and spat at her. “You bitch. That wasn’t nice.” She started screaming again and he punched her eye again to silence her. He grabbed the knife and held it in front of her. She kicked him again. It threw him slightly off balance and the knife grazed her arm, drawing blood. She screamed again and he cut her skin near her ribs, the knife puncturing a little deeper this time. By now, Lauren was starting to feel dizzy, and not only was her vision blurred from the pain and tears, but her eye was starting to swell shut. She could also see blood running out of her abdomen.

She knew she couldn’t escape, and she knew what he was planning to when she felt him rip her t-shirt off her and slide her jeans down over her long legs. He roughly covered her mouth with tape to keep her from screaming anymore. Her whole body shook in protest and pain as he hastily entered her. As he raped her, Lauren tried to imagine she was somewhere else, anywhere else. He grabbed her breasts roughly in his hands and she could feel his fingers digging into her flesh, certainly leaving bruises. She knew there would be bruises everywhere. But at this point, she didn’t think she was going to survive. She thought for sure that Jimmy would kill her, and Vero too.

She could hear Vero crying through the tape that was still covering her mouth, and she opened her eyes to look over at her. When Lauren’s eyes met Vero’s she started shaking uncontrollably. She couldn’t stop sobbing as Jimmy continued to force himself on her. She could hear him moaning as he grinded his hips into hers. When he finally climaxed, he pulled out and allowed his juices to pour all over her. He pulled out and collapsed on the bed next to her, draping an arm over her waist. The skin under his arm felt like it was burning, but Lauren couldn’t move herself enough to pull away from him.

When he felt her struggling against him, he tightened his grip. “Where are you going, my beautiful one?” He laughed to himself when he saw the anger sparking in her swollen eyes. He ran his fingers over the tape on her mouth. “I’m sorry it had to be this way. But we couldn’t be disturbing the neighbors, could we?” he chuckled to himself. “If they heard you screaming, they might think something was wrong. And there’s nothing wrong. This is the way it is supposed to be. Your exquisite body was meant to be here, quaking under my touch.” He slowly ran his fingertips down her stomach, and she was shaking, but not for the pleasure-filled reasons he was implying. “Sidney took something from me long ago, and now I have taken you from him. You will always belong to me now, Lauren.” He said, standing up. Lauren shook her head feverishly and Jimmy just laughed to himself. He put his clothes on and smiled at her before leaving the room.

Lauren and Vero sat in shock for a few minutes, continuing to sob and shiver. Vero had been working on the poorly tied knots that were restraining her hands, and without Jimmy there to stop her, she managed to get her hands free. The rope that tied her body and legs down, however, was tied much tighter and she couldn’t get them free. She looked over at Lauren and saw that she had stopped moving and it looked like her eyes were closed. Vero let out a gasp at the sight of Lauren’s lifeless form. She knocked herself over in the chair, and managed to scoot herself towards the floor where Jimmy had thrown Lauren’s purse. She found Lauren’s phone saw that she had about 15 missed calls and a few text messages. She ignored them and found Trina’s cell phone number and quickly dialed. After a few rings, Trina answered.

“Lauren? Where are you? The game has already started. Are you okay? Troy said Sidney was worried that you and Vero hadn’t come down before the game.”

“Trina, please come help us!” Vero managed to get out between sobs.

“Vero?” Trina said, the voice registering in her mind. “Where are you? What happened?”

“We’re at the hotel. Please, hurry, Lauren is…well, I don’t know if she’s…oh God …please! You must come quickly!” Vero cried.

“We’re on our way.” Trina said, and Lauren could hear her talking to Troy as she hung up the phone.

“Lauren! Please hold on! They’re coming to help us!” Vero screamed in agony. Vero tried to crawl across the floor, still stuck to the chair, but couldn’t get close enough to reach her. She laid there for what seemed like hours, unable to stop sobbing. Finally, she heard someone knocking on the door. Vero immediately started pulling herself toward the door. She could hear voices yelling outside the door and she yelled back. “I’m trying to get to the door to open it.” She choked out, still crying.

It took Vero close to ten minutes to make her away across the floor to the door. She used all her strength to pull herself up and pulled the door handle down. Exhausted, she fell onto the floor and Trina and Troy nearly tripped over her as they entered the room. Trina immediately crouched down to her, tears spilling out of her eyes. Troy went past them to look for Lauren. When he turned the corner and saw her laying on the bed, her bruised, naked body lying perfectly still. He cried out and tears came to his eyes as he ran to her side.