Bad things happen to good people

**Trigger Warning - the contents of this chapter may be triggering to some readers.**

Emma’s POV
Shit. Ginger hair is walking, no stalking towards me with a leer on his face… I am guessing it is his friend I can hear circling around behind me.

I glance behind me, a flash of dark brown hair and a similarly built man, large and muscular, is creeping up behind me.

I throw my cup at the ginger one and scramble into the camper. Sliding and locking the door as fast as I can… reaching to lock the doors.

I stand in the middle looking around wildly, they are circling the van.

Shit, shit, shit, fuck. I want worse profanities, but my brain is failing to provide any. I am railing at the universe. Why me?

I take a deep breath… First things first, I reach for my laptop and unlock it. As I do this I hear the glass in the rear door smash and see an arm reaching in to unlock it.

I have seconds at most before they are in. I click a personal icon labelled ICE, wait a moment for it to activate, then slam my laptop shut, locking it.

Next, I grab a paring knife from the side. Waving it in front of me as the brown-haired one breaks into my sanctuary.

I can’t keep calling them by their hair colours, I think. The one in front of me can be ‘Burke’ and the other ‘Hare’… And I really hope that they aren’t resurrection men.

‘What you going to do with that, little lady,’ Burke sneers at me.

‘Yes not very friendly’ Hare whispers in my ear, grabbing my wrist and squeezing it until I drop the knife.

How the hell did he get behind me… fuck, the camper van is basically all doors… while Burke distracted me, Hare must have jimmied one of the others.

‘We just want to be friends’ Hare continued, as I tried valiantly to wriggle out of his grasp.

He pulled me tighter into him, I can feel his hardon through his clothes, pressing against my butt.

Oh god no, I don’t want to be raped and killed.

I throw an elbow back, as hard as I can, and try stamping on his foot. I might as well try attacking a tree.

Hare laughs.

‘Feisty one, isn’t she’ Burke grins salaciously. ‘You sure we sure we got the right bitch?’

‘Right one or not we get to have a little fun before our contact arrives’ Hare replies.

‘What the fuck are you talking about?’ I scream at them. ‘Get off me’

I go berserk in Hare’s grip. I always wondered what would happen if I was going to be raped, would I acquiesce quietly and hope they wouldn’t hurt me, or would I fight like a wild cat… Wild cat it is…

Bang… my teeth rattle and I see stars as Burke smacks me hard across the face.

‘LEAVE ME ALONE, YOU BASTARDS’

Smack… he strikes me again… I can taste blood in my mouth. I spit it at him.

He grabs my chin with one hand. Squeezing my cheeks with bruising force. His face is close to mine, his foul beer-soaked breath is hitting my face.

‘Calm down sweet-cheeks. And maybe we won’t hurt you… much.’

I am terrified. How the hell am I going to get out of this.

He moves my head to each side… inspecting my neck… then he cops a feel of my body with his free hand, staring into my eyes as he does it. I never thought that eyes the colour of chocolate could be so cold.

He grabs my breast, squeezing and pulling at it. I feel ashamed as my nipples purl under his punishing touch….

‘You like that don’t you sweet-cheeks.’ He says twisting and pulling my hardened nipples.

My eyes close, tears forming…. I won’t give him the satisfaction of crying, I tell myself.

‘No… don’t,’ I whimper.

His hand moves lower, grabbing my upper thigh through my sleep shorts… Pain explodes from the mark and instinctively I jab my knee up into his groin as hard as I can.

He roars as Hare giggles maniacally in my ear. His head goes back and before I realise what is happening it crashes into mine… Pain explodes, as blood flows from my nose, and as darkness takes me I ‘hear’ Peter yelling he is coming.
…
I come to… As consciousness returns, I think what a nightmare; but it isn’t a nightmare, and it isn’t over…

Using my senses, I try to establish what is going on. My hands are now bound and attached to part of the van… I can hear Burke and Hare whispering, so I stay still, eyes closed, pretending to still be unconscious, and praying they are not werewolves, because in that case there is no way I’ll fool them.

As I listen, I wiggle my wrists a little, then clamp down on a smile.

‘… he can’t think that much of her,’ Burke continues. ‘No mark… I checked her neck… and so did you when you tied her up.’

‘Hrmph, makes our job easier’ Hare responds. ‘And if she is the right one a bigger payday too. But me, I am looking forward to tasting that sweet flesh when she wakes… it is no fun when you can’t see the fear… when they don’t beg… why the fuck did you have to headbutt her’

‘She fucking kicked me in the nuts. If she’d done that to you, you would have skewered the bitch,’ Burke grumbles. ‘Although I have got some ideas of what to do with that potty mouth of hers.’

‘I hope she wakes soon… I am getting hard just imagining her screams as I ram my dick in that tight ass of hers… she won’t be able to sit down… probably ever again.’

I tune out their voices… Listening to what they have planned for me is the most petrifying thing I have ever heard. I feel cold inside. Even if Peter is coming you are looking at an 8-hour journey minimum to get here. The only person who is going to save me here is me.

I crack my eyes open the smallest amount, surveying my surroundings. As I thought, I am on the couch / bed and they are seated at the table. The double doors with the broken window are behind me.

I move my legs round cautiously and manage to click the door latch open with my foot. The clunk of the mechanism makes me catch my breath… but no, they haven’t heard… clearly not werewolves… I might be able to make this work.

The broken window means they don’t feel the cold air enter. I move back to my original position. Just in time…

Burke looks over at me. ‘Maybe we should check on her, I would have thought she should have come round by now.’

‘You are a beast,’ Hare responds. ‘I thought her nose was never going to stop bleeding… that was a real number you did, and she is only a little thing.’

Well, that explains why my face is a mass of pain, and why I can’t breathe through my nose.

‘Fucking psycho cunt you mean,’ an evil smile crosses his features. ‘I am going to enjoy splitting that bitch,’ he continues, as they go back to their corrupt descriptions of what they are going to do to me, each trying to outdo the other with the depths of their depravity.

If I survive this, I am going to need a lot of therapy, and I am only going to survive if I escape.

I wriggled my hands… Now while I am just a normal person, I have the ability to squeeze my hands out of pretty much anything that goes round my wrist. Great for getting festival bands off in one piece.

The rope was rubbing against my wrist, the rough fibres cutting in a bit. I can feel the beginnings of a rope burn forming as I twist against it. Sweat, and probably blood, starts to lubricate my flesh. I turn my wrists back and forth, the rope sliding painfully upwards over the base of my thumbs, past my first knuckle… Yes, I think, knowing that with a quick flick I will be able to remove the binding.

I scan the room again. The men are looking away. Hopefully the cramped interior will help delay them a little, every minor advantage could mean the difference between living and dying.

I inhale deeply through my mouth. Now or never Em. Now or never.

I kick back forcefully, throwing the door open. I pull my hands out of the bindings, leaving half my skin on the rope, or that’s what it feels like. No time to check.

I swing round and throw myself out of the van in one smooth motion. The cold night air hits my bare legs, and cuts through the fleece nightshirt I am wearing. The gravel cuts into my bare feet.

Adrenalin floods my system, blocking the pain and cold.

I can hear the men moving behind me. Shouting at me.

I am running, across the empty road and into the woodland on the other side. Blind panic fuelling me.