Days of Love and Blood

backwards and fell. When my weight landed on him, his grip loosened and I jabbed him with my elbow as hard as I could. He cried out and I rolled off him.
    “Ronan!” I screamed.
    Something hard cracked against the back of my head and I fell down, but not unconscious.
    “Ronan!” I yelled. “Get out of the house!” I was on my knees, holding the back of my head when I felt the kick to my side and then another.
    “Don’t bust her up, man!” one voice said.
    “Shut up and go get the kid.”
    “No!” I screamed.
    I felt myself being rolled over and a heavy weight pressed on my stomach. My eyes were closed against the searing pain in the back of my head but I didn’t need to open them; I knew who they were. When I heard the loud pull of tape being reeled out, I panicked and opened my eyes. Willie was sitting on top of me, binding my wrists together with duct tape.
    “Ronan! Run, baby, get out of the house!”
    “No one’s up there. Window’s open.”
    For a moment I felt a joyous burst of relief.
    “ S’okay. He’s just a kid. Now look at what we have here. Look at you, pretty.” He lightly touched my chin and brushed his thumb across my bottom lip. I moved my head to the side in disgust and grunted. “Now, just what are we going to do with you?”
    “I have a couple of good ideas,” said Anand.
    “ So do I,” said Willie. “We lucked out with this one. This is going to be so much better than that ratty old bitch we found hiding in that cabin.”
    “Fuck you,” I sputtered.
    “Hey, I was paying you a compliment, bitch!” He smacked me across the face with the back of his hand and blood seeped into my mouth from the cracked lip.
    “My son is on his way to get help.”
    “Course he is,” said Anand. “But it’ll take him at least a half-hour to get there. We have plenty of time before that.”
    “ You look surprised,” Willie laughed. “We know about the houses around here. We’ve been watching.”
    “Come on man,” Anand ushered. “Time’s wasting.”
    Willie got on his feet and when he bent down to grab my binds, I shoved my foot into his crotch. Willie cupped his groin and screamed, bending over in pain. I stumbled onto my feet and Anand grabbed my hair before I could take another step.
    “You fucking bitch!” He slammed my head against the wall twice and then dragged me over to the kitchen. “You’re gonna pay for that one.”
    He threw me onto th e floor and jumped on top of me. I struggled and pushed but he landed several clean punches to my face. I choked on the blood and went limp while my head spun. Fabric being roughly torn with a knife pulled at my senses and told me what would happen next.
    “I get her first,” said Willie as he walked into the kitchen. “Fucking bitch almost made it useless.” I felt my underwear pulled down and away. “Hold her legs,” he ordered.
    Blood ran into my eyes and I could barely open them. Both of them were swelling fast. There was nothing I could do. I tried to ignore their voices. I thought about Ronan and silently prayed that he would make it to the Fielding’s farm. I prayed over and over that he would make it there safe. It didn’t matter what happened to me as long as he was okay. Yet, I wanted to live for my son. The only chance I could see was to let them have their way and maybe they would just leave.
    “I was going to be nice to you,” Willie said. “I was go ing to give it to you real nice-like. Not now. You know why I didn’t tape your mouth shut? Because I wanna hear you scream.”
    He rolled me over and I felt pressure and then searing pain as my skin tore. He pushed into me all the way and pulled my hair back. I screamed from the pain, giving him what he wanted to hear. There was no one else around to hear my cries except for Anand who broke into a fit of laughter. Willie grunted and thrust and when I arched my back, trying to shake him off, he punched me below my left shoulder blade and my face bounced off the ground. He punched me again while Anand clapped and whistled.
    “Put it in her mouth, man.”
    “No way,” said Anand. “She’ll bite it off. Come on, give me a turn.”
    I had a moment of relief until I felt the pain again.
    “Oh, God!” I screamed. “No, please stop!”
    Anand put his hand around my neck and pulled me up. I coughed blood over his hand and struggled to find breath against his grip.
    “Well, I’m going to put it in her mouth ,” said Willie. “Here, use your hands and hold