Another group poured out of the Rabbit in Red doors, and Jaime told herself it was time to wise up. She reached for the front door handle and pulled.
Sid laughed.
“Stupid girl. You’re not getting out of this vehicle.”
Her hands raced over the side of the door looking for the lock, but she couldn’t find anything.
“Had them removed.” He laughed again. “Just enjoy the show. It’s about to get even better.”
Jaime sat quietly for a moment, trying to think, but her heart beat about burst through her ears. If I can’t run, I’m going to have to fight. Really fight. That’s all there is to it.
As the flames grew taller around Rabbit in Red, he looked at her again and said, “Get in the back.”
“I thought you wanted me to watch.”
“There’s more to the show.”
She looked in the back of the mini-van. Maybe she’d have more room to fight back there. Her eyes scanned every corner looking for any kind of weapon.
When she turned her gaze back at Sid, he hit her in the face. This time it was his fist, and a burst of pain went through her jaw all the way to the back of her skull. Then he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her into the back. He moved quickly, much more quickly than she had expected.
He pinned on her the floor of the van. He got on top, his head facing the front of the van. His upper body strength overpowered her as he pinned her arms on the floor.
“This is the moment I’ve been waiting for,” he whispered in her ear. “JB is dead. Many of your friends will be dead. Your fucking Rabbit in Red is crumbling to the ground while we watch. And now . . . now, I get my reward.” He kissed her neck hard, and she groaned in disgust.
“You freak! Get off me!”
“Scream all you want. They won’t hear you.”
She did. With all of her power, she screamed, but Sid just giggled. Not laugh, but giggle. All of his weight crushed her, and it was unbearable. He kissed his way lower from her neck to her chest. He let go of one of her arms long enough to rip off her shirt. With one fierce swoop, he tore her shirt. He grabbed her breasts with his free hand.
But she had a free hand, too.
“Sid!”
He titled his head up, and she plunged her finger as hard as she could into his eye.
She heard a pop.
Sid screamed, and Jaime clawed at his face. She sunk her fingernail into his cheek, hard and deep. She felt bone, slimy and hard. Then she pulled and tore at his face, and the blood shot out like the super soaker squirt guns she and Tara used to play with. It covered her, and she didn’t care.
Sid sat up, releasing the great pressure of his weight on top of her. Jaime kneed him in the groin.
He cried out and his head hit the ceiling of the van.
She had nothing but her fingernails, but she dug back into Sid. Now that she had both hands free, she attacked the other side of his face. She clawed and clawed, and blood continued to spray in all directions.
Sid fell back, and Jaime jumped on top of him. She grabbed what her mom always said was the “oh shit” handle near the back window. She held on to it with both hands for leverage, and then she jumped on Sid’s neck with her right knee. She pounded him repeatedly. Knee to neck, knee to neck.
When he stopped moving, she put all of her weight and strength into her knee on his neck and just crouched there. She stayed on top of him until she could no longer hear any breathing or movement.
In the distance, she heard sirens. Down the street, she saw her friends.
She grabbed her ripped shirt and put it back on, then crawled to the front of the van and exited on the driver’s side. Looking down, she saw all of the blood that had soaked her body, and then she looked up and stepped slowly toward her friends
*****
In a Los Angeles hospital room days later, Jaime opened her eyes after reliving this nightmare once again.
They had given her drugs to help her sleep, but she still dreamed of Sid’s body on top of hers. She tried to shake the memory, and she let the bright, white hospital light slowly bring her back to today.
But there was someone standing over her bed, someone who must have been watching the entire time her body twitched as the nightmare plagued her body.
Could it be? No, it couldn’t be him. Could it?
Jaime screamed.
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