Taken

*The night has descended to early morning by the time I work up the courage to get out of the car and wave it away, even longer spent dawdling on the driveway, hidden by the fancy topiary and wildly decorative shrubs that conceal the town house from view, everything chosen for a specific purpose, all arranged in a pattern that best demonstrates wealth and status…mahmen would change that with time, she’d always liked things to be untamed, a jungle of beauty that her hellren, my father, had disciplined with harsh trims and cuts, shaping the garden into an image of cultured beauty...like her…the house looms, never before really threatening, now seemingly a small manor, huge and foreboding…God…how do you tell your mahmen you are pregnant? Especially when she hasn’t even met the father?! Oh God…a blush infuses my cheeks with embarrassment as I remember HOW I came to be pregnant…yeah I really want to be discussing that with her…maybe she doesn’t know how it happens? Gah!! Just the thought of my parents has me almost yelling at the doggen to speed me home…shuddering in disgust, my booted foot hovering off the ground…Come on Tory…one foot, then the other, we have taken steps before you wuss…for fucks sake, it’s a conversation, not an execution!

Steeling myself, hands subconsciously cradling the budding swell of life and taking the step…my head explodes in a loud, brain-mushing crack of pain, the impact of…metal?...to my skull shooting stars of searing agony, my body flung to the ground by a solid kick to the back of my knees as I try to orient myself through the dizzy blur of my non-committing brain…no moves to execute, no fight to plan, my mind is a hum of static, fear and that petrifying terror for my young…they say you never live until you live for someone else…so why wasn’t I fighting?! Rolling the weight off my abdomen and jacking back to my feet in as co-ordinated a move as I can manage with the spiral fuck up twirling my brain around in my head with every metallic contact with that fucking…bat?...swaying a drunk weave of blinded shock, my vision made up of starry flashes, eyes blurrily struggling to focus as I spin…straight into another pulverising crack of metal…feeling a little like a tennis ball, my body careens back to a slump on the floor, blood a stream of heat down my skin, the left side of my face numb, dripping crimson to the black of the shirt, spraying in an arc as the right side of my jaw fractures, the bone splintering under another collision*

Fuck!! *the scream of angry, frustrated terror is distorted by the broken fragments of my jaw...holy shit…I can’t even catch my balance as the blows come, again and again, aimed at my face, my chest, my knees…not once does the bat touch my stomach…as I crumple to the aching bend of my knees, a voice rings out* <<That’s enough…she’s right where I want her…finally…>>* the sickly sweet scent that cloys through the blood clotting in my nose identifies my attackers, the owner of the voice a one handed silhouette standing over me, my  emerald eye glowing daggers, the lid of the other fused shut with blood and the bruised swelling, spitting a glob of blood to the lawn as my throat gasps in enough air to talk* Theodhan…wow…those testicles you grew are baseball bat large huh? And come with a handy set of ball-scratchers…*smirking, my lip pulled into a sneering curl as I indicate the four lessers silent behind him with a pained jerk of my head. My shoulder smarts at the shift in position, arm dangling uselessly at my side…aw fuck…I always hated dislocations…a wrenching pop and a muffled groan later and my arm is no longer playing noodle.

My silence indicates surrender to my uncle and his grin is shark wide and full of self-importance, his thoughts all male supremacy* <<Well well…if it isn’t the little warrior…finally I have you on your knees…>> * his hand flies out and snatches a fistful of my hair, yanking at the roots ‘til my knees are straight and I’m swaying like a doll hanging in his grasp. His next speech is interrupted.  The fear that drowned me earlier comes roaring back through my body, ice cold terror replacing the blood in my veins, tears fighting their way to my eyes and pooling as a lesser whispers into my uncle’s ear, voice a breath of sound, urging him to move me…take me to the…my hands falling fast to encircle my young in a protective clutch…eyes peeling wide, my breath icicles lining the harsh swallowing of my throat…why the fuck aren’t I fighting, why can’t I move…and shit…I’m going to die…my mind swirling with memories, beautiful memories...my hellren..our mating...he was my savior...and I failed him...I failed our young…those are the last thoughts I have…before I can move an inch, the bat swings back and forwards, crashing into my head and knocking me into a black hole of nothing*