“Here,” Damien said, handing me a glass. “I don’t know if you’re thirsty or not, but I got you some punch.” I sat there simply staring at the pinkish-red liquid in the glass. It looked just like the punch in my other glass. I glanced back at the punch table where Isaac now stood talking with some friends. Seeing him ignited the fury he had kindled within me. Whether he liked me or not, I couldn’t help feeling like he was trying to sabotage everything I had with Damien. My eyes narrowed. Isaac needed to mind his own business and stop telling me what to do.

“Thank you,” I said, and gulped down the entire glass. “Ready to dance?”

I grabbed Damien’s hand a whisked him back onto the dance floor. Still angry with Isaac and feeling on edge, I decided to give dirty dancing a try. Back at my old school, the dances were so small that a chaperone could catch you before you could even say “Patrick Swayze.” Plus, the dances were held in the school gymnasium so they weren’t worth going to in the first place. This ski lodge venue beat anything my old school could have come up with. Since this was my senior year and I had the hottest date in the whole school, I was not intending to let it go to waste. I managed to push and elbow us into the center of the floor. The music was fast and I was surprised at how easily I could move to the music. Damien’s hands had a heyday caressing my shoulders, lower back, and hips. This time, I didn’t bother to push them away.

After a few songs, I had begun to break a sweat. The constant motion, combined with the body heat of the surrounding couples, made the dance floor extremely hot. I could feel my curls stick to my face with the moisture. My legs grew tired and my feet were throbbing. I tried to keep dancing, but my head started to feel light. I looked up and the room felt like it was spinning.

“I need to get out.” The dance floor had become a mosh pit which Damien had to elbow us back out of. We finally made it out of the sea of writhing bodies.

“Let’s get you some fresh air,” Damien said, wrapping my arm around his shoulders in order to support me. We walked out into the lobby, where I expected to sit down on one of the big leather couches. We walked past them. “Let’s go outside.”

I was breathing fine now that I was off the dance floor, I didn’t see why we needed to go outside. I tried to protest but my words sounded hollow and distant. I couldn’t even make out a word I was saying. “Shh, you’re okay,” Damien cooed. Was I, though? It certainly didn’t feel like it.

The outside air was bitterly cold. My skin, damp with sweat, was covered in goosebumps and falling snowflakes. Damien brought me over to the nearest tree and had me lean against it. “Just breathe,” he said.


My head was throbbing just as much as my high-heeled feet. “What is going on?” I tried to ask, but my words failed me and Damien placed a finger to my lips.

“Shhh, let’s get you in the car. I’ll take you back to school.”

Amongst my pounding head and aching legs I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. Something was not right. I shook my head in protest, but it only made the world spin faster. I slumped down the trunk of the tree, Damien hoisted me back up.

“It’s okay,” he murmured. He pressed his lips hard against mine and I shuddered from the shock and the cold. Grasping my arms tightly, he pressed his body close to mine, keeping me pinned between himself and the tree trunk. I tossed my head from side to side to avoid his lips, though my neck felt like a piece of wet spaghetti. He shook me hard and my head slammed against the tree.

“Stop!” he spat, clutching my jaw in his hand. Desperate to be free, I thrashed around as much as I could.

“Fine, have it your way.” His silver eyes were now stone cold. I didn’t recognize them at all. He threw me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and carried me away. My body felt too weak to continue moving, but I didn’t want to give up. I opened my mouth and tried to let out an audible scream. Surely someone would hear me. The same second the sound left my mouth, Damien threw me on the ground like a rag doll.

“I said shut up!” he hissed. I whimpered and tears escaped from my eyes. Everything was fuzzy and was continuing to get blurrier. I tried to get up but my ankle could no longer carry my weight. I could hardly move apart from the involuntary jerks my body made from the freezing temperature. I laid there in the snow, tears freezing halfway down my cheeks. “That’s a good girl,” my attacker sneered. “Just stay still.”

He pinned me into the snow. Unable to move, barely able to speak, I laid there. The world went from blurry to black, as I went in and out of consciousness.

What was fear had then turned into subservience. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t think, I couldn’t defend myself from what was surely to come. I laid there waiting for it to happen. Waiting hopelessly for my attacker to take everything from me. But it never did.

Through my ringing ears I could hear another voice, but I couldn’t tell whose. There were a few brief moments of arguing before a hard thud. My mind was slipping, darkness closing in.



Then everything fell silent.