EXTRACT FOR
Dark Reality
(Dan Bruce)

     Serena awoke again with a jolt. She was breathing fast, her body was sweating. She remembered now. She had been reading a magazine and listening to music then she had heard a noise behind her. Suddenly a handkerchief was smothering her face. The smell had made her retch. 

     Then nothing...

     Nothing...

     Until this dream! 

     Or this hideous reality!

     'Please,' Serena prayed to any god that might hear her. 'Please let it be a dream.'

     Serena floated away. Her brain was too groggy to make any sense. The music, the smell, the laughter of her girlfriends, all merged together along with the look on the man's face and his confidently spoken words.

     "I'm going to fuck you tonight, little girl ??" and I'm going to make you come so hard it'll blow your brains out."

     The words again tormented her mind. Then Serena tensed... The man hadn't said all of that. Not when they were standing together at the washbasins. And the voice seemed so real, even though this had to be a dream.

     "Can you hear me?"

     The question smacked her brain and made it jolt. Yes! Yes, Serena could hear him; but she didn't want to. She wanted to reach out and turn the voice off; she wanted to wake up and find herself alone in her bedroom. She had wanted to get an A for that bloody essay, but she had only got a B. What the hell is reality anyway? She thought she knew and had done a good job, but there was obviously something she was missing.

     Serena opened her eyes again. She thought her head was clearing, but everything was strange. Her eyes were definitely open but she couldn't see a thing. She tried to get up so she could find a light, but her body seemed too heavy to move. Perhaps she'd had an accident and severed her spine! Perhaps she had gone blind! Perhaps she had suffered brain damage which rendered her a vegetable who could do nothing other than hear voices in her head. Panic set in. She tried out her vocal cords and a groan escaped her dry parched lips.

     "You're awake then!"

     Yes! She might not have got an A, but she still knew what was real... That was the same voice, and this was no dream.

     "HELP! SOMEBODY! HELP MEEEEE!"

     "There's no point in screaming. Nobody's going to hear you."

     She felt a rough hand so gentle on her cheek then it move to her brow to wipe away the sweat. She was shivering but she wasn't cold. She was incredibly thirsty. Her mind was racing with so many questions. Was she still in her flat? Had she been taken somewhere else? Why was it so dark? Why couldn't she move? Was she actually paralysed? 

     She tested that one out... No! Her muscles were reacting. She could feel restraints on her arms and her legs. She was lying on her back and her limbs were widely spread. She was certain she was naked! Oh fuck oh bloody fuck!

     "OH GOD! PLEEEEESE! SOMEBODY PLEASE! HELP!!!!"

     "I told you that nobody can hear you. Take a few deep breaths and calm down."

     In normal circumstances Serena would have followed the advice. She was a rational young woman, attractively sporty, not girly and prone to hysterical screaming over the slightest thing. But this was a nightmare dragged from the very pits of hell, and calm rationality would not come easy to a B grade student who studied the philosophy of reason.

     "Where am I? What's happening?" she asked in panic.

     "You're with me. We're alone. That's all you need to know," the man replied; his voice strangely soothing in the dark. "Are you thirsty?"

     "Yes," Serena replied without questioning why she was so parched.

     "Here. Drink this. It'll bring your body fluids back into balance."

     Contact was made with her lips ??" a glass she surmised. It felt cool and inviting, but still she flinched and twisted her head away.

     "Don't worry. It's safe enough. I don't want to poison you."

     The glass found her lips again and was tilted upwards. Liquid made contact. Serena hesitated, but then opened her mouth to allow for a taste. There was no warning smell that might suggest danger; and annoyingly it made sense what the man had said ??" why would he want to poison her. Serena was here for another reason which required her to be alive ??" at least for the time being. The liquid wasn't unpleasant, so Serena swallowed some down. No immediate reaction, so she took some more.

     "Drink it all. It'll do you good," the man encouraged.

     Serena was so thirsty, she complied. The glass was tilted further back and she swallowed it all down.

     The man wandered off. Serena could hear him nearby busying himself ??" she could hear him very clearly even though not much noise was made. Her mind was clearing very rapidly - the drink obviously having a positive effect.

     A couple of minutes later the man came back to her. Serena sensed him approach, acutely aware of the sound he made and the odour of his body which she had not registered before. It wasn't unpleasant ??" musky... manly. It was that last part which disturbed, because she found it oddly exciting.

     Then she felt the touch of the man's fingers on her hips. With little apparent purpose the fingers spread and brushed over the softness of Serena's fluttering stomach. Serena tensed, unaccustomed to be touched so intimately. Yet she was surprised how responsive her skin was to the touch of the fingertips, the tactile sense heightened in the dark, making the contact strangely erotic. 

     Along the flank of her youthful body the fingers trailed, edging along the swell of her breast before lightly tormenting the sensitive skin under her arm. Tremors of fear and anger ran through her, Serena felt so helpless and annoyingly aroused. Why was that when she should be revolted by his touch?

     Then the hand was removed and Serena shuddered. In the darkness the touch had been somehow comforting; reassuring her that she wasn't alone. Then she shuddered again as she felt the warmth of the man's breath on her neck. He was crouching beside her, soothing her. His tongue made contact so gentle on Serena's skin. Serena jerked, her body tingling at the effect that was caused.

     "You really are a fine young woman. And still a virgin ??" a rarity indeed in this day and age. I'm so going to enjoy fucking you and busting that cherry. I'm going to fuck you so hard and make you scream like a whore. But I'm only going to do it when you ask me to."