Disclaimer: In first chapter.

Chapter 21

“B…Brad.  W…what are you…doing here?” Debbie asked haltingly, trying to remain the picture of calm under Brad’s demanding gaze.

Brad took a step closer, holding his arms out in the air.  “Well, as you can see, this is my room.”  Dropping his arms to the side, he took another step towards Debbie.  “Tell me, Deb…” he spat out sarcastically, “…what are you doing here?  As I recall, I didn’t invite you in here.  It seems to me that you’re trespassing.”

Debbie had to admit, she was scared.  She tried to speak, but her voice was nowhere to be found.   She watched helplessly as Brad advanced towards her, fists clinched tightly at his side, face scrunched up in anger.  Debbie hadn’t realized she moved until she felt herself bump against the wall behind her.  With the bed on her right, and the nightstand on her left, there was nowhere for her to run.  She was trapped.

A smug smile graced Brad’s lips as he stood in front of Debbie, knowing there was nowhere for her to run.  Raising his left arm, he rested his palm against the wall, only inches away from Debbie’s face.  Leaning in closely he whispered menacingly, “Thought you should know we have a strict rule here about trespassers…”  Pausing for effect, his grin only got broader before he added, “They must be punished…by any means necessary.” 

With his free hand, he let his index finger trace along Debbie’s jawbone, enjoying the fearful shiver it created.  She wanted to scream and punch him in the face, but she was paralyzed by the fear that coursed through her veins.  She had to do something, but what?  When Brad let his wondering hand travel down her neck, her mind finally snapped.  Just when he was playing with the first button on her shirt, she reached up, slapping him fully in the face.  “Don’t touch me, you sick freak!” she shouted at him.

Brad’s face swung awkwardly to the side as he clutched his throbbing face.  Seizing the opportunity, Debbie moved past him, trying to get to the bedroom door.  However, she wasn’t fast enough as she felt someone grab her wrist, roughly twisting it behind her back.

“You stupid bitch!” Brad roared furiously as he pulled her wrist up further.  “You know, I would love nothing more than to break your arm right now.”

Tears slid down Debbie’s cheeks as her arm throbbed in pain.  When Brad twisted it again, she cried out in agony, falling to her knees.  She could feel the muscles and tendons in her shoulder being stretched beyond their limits.  Debbie felt it was only a matter of time before her arm would be completely snapped off.  Behind her, she could hear Brad laughing with delight. “I hate you, you son of a bitch!” she screamed out.

Still chuckling, Brad brought her back up to her feet, issuing another curse from Debbie.   “Ah Debbie, Debbie, Debbie, where’s all this hostility coming from?” he teased as he pushed her to the ground.

Debbie fell to the ground, trying her best to cushion the fall.  However, with only one good arm, she was only partially successful.  Wincing as the right side of her body fell on her right arm, she quickly flipped over, preparing to defend herself against Brad.  However, when she did, she was surprised to see him standing by the window, looking out into the dark filled night.  Using the desk to help pull herself up, she leaned against the wall, rubbing the soreness from her right arm. 

Taking a quick glance towards the bed, she could still see Sarah passed out, oblivious to what surrounded her.  Turning back towards Brad, she quickly looked down at her watch seeing that only ten minutes had passed since she made the call to Josh.  She just prayed that he would get here as soon as possible. 

As Debbie made her way along the wall, she felt something jab her in the side.  Looking down, she found the doorknob to the bedroom door.  A small smile graced her lips as she wrapped her hand around it.  She was just about to turn the knob when she stopped herself.  Wait, she couldn’t leave Sarah here all by herself, Debbie thought to herself.  If Debbie did leave her, there was no telling what that monster of a boyfriend would do to her.  The morbid thought alone sent a shiver down Debbie’s spine.  As tempting as it was to escape she just couldn’t leave her friend behind, defenseless.

Letting go of the knob, Debbie reluctantly turned back around.  Brad still had his back to her, remaining eerily quiet.  With his back still towards her, Debbie looked around frantically, hoping to find some type of weapon to use against Brad in case he attacked her again.  When her eyes fell upon the desk, she found a golden, shiny handle sticking out of the pencil holder sitting on his desk.  Trying to remain ever so quiet, she scooted over to the desk, pulling out the object.  Holding it up in the moonlight, she found it to be a letter opener, the type that looked like a knife.  Seeing this was her best and only option, she quickly slid the opener up her shirt sleeve, hiding it from Brad.

Glancing back up, Debbie straightened her stance when she saw him turning around.  From her vantage point, she watched him like a hawk as he walked over to a beanbag chair in the corner.  Once he was settled comfortably in the chair, Brad looked up, smiling at Debbie.  She couldn’t help it, but the smile on his face reminded her of the Grinch from the Dr. Seuss book.  Shaking the thought from her head, she took a deep breath, before walking to the bed, perching herself on the edge, creating a small barrier between Sarah and Brad.

“Debbie, why do you hate me?” Brad asked with a smile.

He’s kidding, right?  She thought to herself warily.  Trying to remain calm, she answered evenly, “You know why, Brad.  Don’t sit there and play dumb with me.”

“Then tell me.  Why do you hate me?” 

Letting out a nervous chuckle she replied, “Well, for starters, you attacked me tonight, threatened to use bodily harm against me.  Plus, I know you slipped something into Sarah’s drink tonight, hoping to keep her incapacitated so you could rape her.”

Brad listened to her words, his smile never leaving his face as he leaned forward in his chair.  “Wow Deb, you have me all figured out, don’t you?” he said with mock surprise.  “But tell me this, do you have proof that I slipped Sarah any drugs?” he challenged.

Debbie folded her arms across her chest, raising her chin up defiantly.  She could feel the cool metal of the letter opener brush against her arm as she moved about.  In some way, it gave her a bit more confidence when dealing with Brad.  “I heard your little buddies in the kitchen talking about it.  Don’t sit there and deny it when you know I’m telling the truth.”

Debbie smiled inwardly as she watched Brad’s smile falter just a tad before he quickly recovered.  Leaning back in his chair he said, “Debbie, the problem with your theory is that you don’t have any physical evidence that I’ve done these horrible things.  Who isn’t to say that maybe Sarah wanted to come up to my room and relieve a little tension that’s been plaguing her life…and who better than her ever loving boyfriend.”

“Ha!  That’s a load of crap and you know it,” Debbie replied back caustically.

Brad shook his head.  “Well, I can see I’m not going to change your mind about me.”  He paused, glancing at the sleeping figure behind Debbie.   When he locked gazes with Debbie, his face became hard looking as he narrowed his eyes.  “Do you want the truth?”

Debbie flashed him a perplexed look.  “Truth, you wouldn’t know the meaning of the word if it came up and bit you on the ass,” she spat out.

Before Debbie could react fast enough, Brad quickly jumped to his feet, and stalked over to her.  Grasping her by the shoulders, he hoisted her to her feet.  Debbie quickly slipped the letter opener from her sleeve; unfortunately she wasn’t quick enough to grab it.  She watched helplessly as the item fell to the floor, dashing her hopes of getting her and Sarah out of this situation unscathed.

Brad looked down at the floor, then back up to her.  Shaking his head he commented, “Debbie, didn’t you know I could see your reflection in the window when you took the opener, but I must say, kudos for the idea, however I’m afraid you won’t be able to test it out.”  Kicking the opener under the bed, Brad dragged her to his closet.

“W…what are you doing?” Debbie stammered fearfully.

“Well Debbie, I’m going to tell you the truth.  First off, yes I did drug Sarah, but it was for her own benefit.  I was growing tired of her tease act, so I slipped her some GHB.  Tell me Deb, do you know what GHB is?” Brad asked nonchalantly.

“N…no,” she whimpered out, watching as Brad dug through a toolbox, looking for something that only he knew.

“Well, GHB is categorized as a date rape drug, but back in eighties it was used for people who suffered from insomnia.  Of course, as the early nineties approached, emergency rooms were seeing a rise in the drug among teenagers.  Hearing the outcries from the medical field about the drug, the FDA banned the item in the great US of A.”  Brad shook his head sadly.  “It’s a shame, because the drug has such great benefits…”

“Like knocking people out, or more particularly, women out,” Debbie interrupted.

Brad paused through his rummaging, and looked down at Debbie.  Smiling, he replied cheerfully, “Oh, very much so.  And what makes this drug so great, is that it’s also called the ‘women’s Viagra’.  The drug actually heightens a person’s sexual libido.  So, when a woman is raped, it’s very hard for her to press charges against her assailant.  For one, it messes with the memory, two, it doesn’t stay in the system very long, so traces of the drug is very hard to find and three, which is my personal favorite, is the heightened sexual libido.  Hell, it’s a drug that every warm-blooded guy should have in stock.”

Debbie couldn’t believe what she was hearing.  He talked about drugging and raping women as if it was a normal, everyday activity.  “You’re sick,” she said with disgust.

“No Debbie, not sick, just misunderstood.”

From behind her, Debbie could hear Sarah moaning in pain as she slowly began to stir in bed.  When she turned back around, she gaped at what she saw.  Brad pulled out a syringe and a vial of some kind of clear liquid.  “What are you going to do with that?” she asked, horrified at what he intended to use it for.

Smiling wickedly at her he said, “Oh, just a little something to calm you down.  You seem too agitated to me.”

“The hell I am,” she yelled out, trying to break free from his firm grasp.  “Sarah! Sarah, wake up!  Wake up!” she cried out, as she moved about frantically.

“Oh, don’t worry, Deb.  This will only take a few seconds, and then poof…” snapping his fingers he continued, “…lights out.”

“You won’t get away with this.  Sarah’s father’s a lawyer, he’ll make sure that you rot in prison for the rest of your life,” she replied hysterically, as she tried kicking him, however, Brad had her at such an awkward angle, her kicks became useless.

She watched helplessly as Brad sat the vial of clear liquid on his desk.  Taking the syringe cap off with his teeth, he spat it out across the room.   “The thing you forget Debbie, is that I come from a family of wealth.  Who do you think pays law enforcement to look the other way, hmm?  That’s right, the wealthy.  Who do you think supports candidates when they run for political elections?  Once again, the wealthy.  Face it Deb, it’s the rich that run this country, not the measly, middle-class America.”

“You’re crazy,” she whimpered out through her tears.

“Oh, I’m crazy alright.  Crazy about the American dream.  And, if you need proof about what I’m talking about, all you have to do is look at who currently resides in the white house.  I mean, c’mon, do you really think someone like that got elected president of the United States by his smarts alone…please.” 

Taking the syringe, Brad plunged the needle into the vial.  Drawing the plunger up, he quickly filled the syringe to the desired dosage he wanted.  “Well, would you look at that, there seems to be some air bubbles at the top.”  Pausing, he reached around Debbie, holding the syringe out in front of her.  “Deb, would you be a doll and tap the bubbles out.  I would do it, but as you can see I’m kind of tied up right now,” he chuckled out.

Panicking, Debbie began to thrash about.  Brad brought his arm around her neck, exposing a small, fleshy area of her neck.  “Well, have it your way, but at least I tried.”

Debbie flailed about, scratching her fingernails along his hands and arms.  Behind her, she heard Brad curse to himself as she drew blood, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t break free of his grasp. 

“Well Deb, to tell you the truth, I have no idea what drug is in this syringe.  The vial appears to have no label, so I don’t know if this is just a mild sedative, GHB, or poison that will be injected into your system, but it’ll be fun to find out.”  Debbie watched through tear filled eyes as Brad brought the syringe closer and closer to her neck.  Bringing his mouth down to her ear, he whispered menacingly, “Bottom’s up.”

“Nooooooo!” Debbie screamed out as she felt the needle against her skin.

XXXXXXX

To Be Continued….