Something New
While Lies and Deception is out for editing, proofing, and reviews, I have some time to work on a new project. I’ve had a concept rolling around inside my head for weeks and like the “Affect of Red”, I have a cause to highlight.
The working title is “Just A Touch” and I’m outlining the sequence of the story now. A few characters have been selected, and I have a venue(s) picked.
This time I wanted to come out of the blocks hard and fast. I don’t like prologues, so I wrote a preface (I guess) to Chapter 1. I’ve run through my second outline, and it’s been tightened up somewhat.
This preface was difficult to write for two reasons:
I didn’t want to mention any character names (except one). I feel it would give away too much in plot development.
It’s an assault on a woman, and I purposely wanted it to be shocking without getting into sexual descriptions.
The piece has a way to go, and I don’t know if it will make it to the final story. If it does, this one will rely on readers to fill in some of the blanks, and trust I will fill in other details to explain what was really going on.
T he cabin door opened, humid tropical air rushed into the fuselage, and the piercing whine of jet engines was suddenly louder. She couldn’t move. Her thoughts were chaotic. Her mind said flee, but she was powerless. Whatever drugs they gave her robbed her energy.
Hands were all over her, taking off her top and shorts. More hands grasped her wrists, and she was dragged along the cabin floor.
The hands were rough, inhuman, and the men were shadows, hulking, vile demons. Their heavy breaths were rapid. Their laughter mocked her and terrorized her psyche.
Her vision blurred, her body shaking, and involuntary spasms spreading deep inside forced her to roll into a ball. She fought to stay awake, aware. An object struck her face. Bare knuckles collided with the bone of her skull. The impact rang like the peal of a bell, reverberating inside her skull. There was no pain. By this time, she was numb to pain.
Her mind was a torrent, unable to focus, and she abandoned her attempts to free herself. A hand rested on her face, fingers pushing her head into the flooring, and she could feel the warm moisture of someone’s breath close. Breath that smelled of tobacco and alcohol, and a tongue licked her ear and cheek. Its texture was rough, the surface scratched her skin, and there was a muffled laugh that echoed in her head.
More hands ripped off her bikini, fingers probed her skin, and a hollow laugh haunted her as other fingers groped her genitals.
“Dis one too far. Drugs got her. Is da gone. Tros her out. Git de other.”
She heard the slurred words as more hands lifted her and swung her back, then forward, and then she was airborne, heaved like a bag of trash, her head scraping the door frame as she passed through the opening. The asphalt tarmac was not far below, and she felt the punishing impact as her head bounced off the rough surface.
Hot exhaust gasses blew over her and burnt her skin. The searing air pushed her, and she was rolling down a bank. Pressure from a wall of hot air impacted her skin. Its force penetrated her mouth and nostrils. It was scalding, and she could feel the heat in her lungs.
Her thoughts were jumbled, and her body unable to stop the rolling. She continued falling down the slope, turning, shoulder over shoulder and then stopping like a stone falling into the water. Small waves rushed over her, they pushed her from side to side, and she turned onto her back and welcomed the coolness. She tried to open her eyes. There was no vision, no energy left, only fear.
There was a shriek, a voice, she thought, a different pitch from the scream of the engines. It lasted an instant, and then it was gone.
More voices, shouting obscenities, mocking and insulting her, and then a door closed. The jet engines roared, and the hot flow turned to a gentle breeze and was quickly gone.
She laid back, water pushing her against the sand and tears flowing over her cheeks.
“Kalana.” The word barely crawled between her lips. “Papa. No Papa.”
