Page 17 of Make Her Scream

10

OPHELIA

These men have had their hands and mouths on me and in me.

The thought turns my stomach, but it also makes me mad as hell. The anger is cleansing, and it focuses my mind. My screaming seems to have thrown them off, though, and the man’s hand slips from my breast. I lift my foot and slam it down on the ankle of the man who’s holding me from behind as hard as I can.

“Ah, fucking bitch!”

He releases me, and I duck down, making use of my slight frame, and dart backward, under his arm. The doorway is still open, and freedom is tantalizingly close. He realizes what I’m doing and lunges for me, but I somehow manage to evade his grasp. I spin on my toes and run.

I don’t think I’m going to make it at first, but the men are all big and slow, and I am not. I burst out into the tunnel. It’s not for fun this time. I’m running for my life. My dress is open, my breasts bared, my panties wet between my thighs. Masked men are chasing me, but they’re not my masked men.

My face is tight and wet with tears, but I don’t have the luxury of time to cry right now. I’ll do that later, when I’m safe. I try to remember the route I took when I came down here, so I can find my way back to the hatch. It occurs to me that when I find it, I’ll be right back in the main part of the funhouse, with the mirrors and vibrating walkways and moving walls, but that no longer scares me. What scares me the most is not being able to find my way out again, and those men catching up to me.

Where are my Preachers?

As though the thought has conjured them, they suddenly appear at the end of the corridor.

I run straight into Malachi’s arms, and immediately Cain and Roman step forward, putting themselves between us and the strange men.

“Go,” Cain yells. “Get her out of here.”

He’s speaking to Mal, who immediately hauls me in the direction they’ve just come from.

A new terror suddenly grips me. “No! We go together.”

We can’t leave Cain and Roman here. They’re outnumbered, and they’ll get hurt or worse.

“Please, Rome, Cain,” I cry. “Let’s go!”

It’s clear they want to stay and fight, but they must realize I’m not moving unless they do. They turn with us, and the four of us race back down the darkened corridors, strange men at our heels.

We reach some steps, and the flashing lights of the funhouse show through the gap above. Malachi pushes me up first, then he follows, Cain and Roman right behind him. I catch sight of the strange men, the fury in their eyes behind their masks, right as Cain slams the trapdoor shut in their faces.

A thud comes from the other side, and the door bows.

“Where is the padlock?” Roman asks.

Cain shakes his head. “I don’t know. I tossed it over there. Fuck. I didn’t think that we’d need it again.”

It’s dark, other than the flashing lights, and we don’t have time to search for a lock.

“We need something heavy,” Cain yells, his huge size holding the door shut, for now.

Roman looks around. There’s a large, heavy Halloween prop of an old-fashioned fortune teller, waiting for someone to cross their palm with silver. Roman shoves his shoulder against the side and topples it over the trapdoor.

“Let’s move,” he says. “It won’t hold them for long.”

“There’s another exit,” I sob. “A hatch that I went through. If they can’t use this one, they’ll know to go to that.”

“Shit,” Malachi curses. “We need to move fast.”

Needing to move fast isn’t so easy when you’re inside a literal funhouse. The screams and yells, and music and sirens are louder up here, and the lights flash in a strobe. It’s all so disorienting.

I catch Roman staring at me, the fury in his gaze something I’ve seen before, and I glance down to discover the front of my dress is still open. Shit. I quickly zip the front right up, all the way this time. Guilt washes over me. I don’t want him to think I cheated on them. I would never have allowed those men to touch me if I’d believed for one second they were strangers.

Except I had thought it, hadn’t I? The kinky idea of strange men touching me had gone through my head and made me wet. Except that kink really did come true. Does that make me a cheat? My eyes fill with fresh tears. I don’t have time to cry right now, so I keep going, following my men back through the funhouse.