27th Trial of Saun, 720
The two continued to engage in some rather awkward small talk for several more minutes before the waitress returned with their meals. Sal gobbled up the dish like he hadn’t consumed anything substantial in trials. Isodol wondered if the food was the gap he was trying to fill that stood between them. She on the other hand merely picked at the meat on her plate and ate little of her vegetables. When asked if something was wrong, she faked a smile and told him everything was great.
More lies. If anything was to become of this, she was surly starting it off on the right foot!
Because it wasn’t great. Something felt off aside from the lack of shared interests and she couldn’t quite place her finger on what it was. It wasn’t until Sal suggested going some place more quiet that Isodol began to feel a little uneasy.
“C’mon, it’ll let us get to know each other more,” he said with a charming smile.
“I don’t know…”
But he wasn’t taking no for an answer though. And that became apparent by the way he grabbed her hand and led her away from their table. He had reverted back to his authoritative if not slightly controlling self.
She passed the tables, still occupied by the same people she had seen as she came in, past the bar-stools that held the butts of the same denizens she had walked by earlier, and past the band that thankfully wasn’t playing the same song as they had upon her arrival.
The night felt a little colder than normal for it being the middle of the summer season. Isodol noticeably shivered as a gentle breeze caressed her slender frame. This was odd considering the half of her bloodline that contained Aukari ancestry. They were known for their hotheadedness and quick temper. Thankfully, that side of her had been diluted due to her human half. Though, the human portion was not well acquainted with patience.
“Cold, huh?”
“Yea.” She was practically chattering. She wondered if he would give her his coat. It seemed like a chivalrous thing to do. But after mulling it over some, she doubted such an act from him. He had seemed very selfish as far as she knew of her mother telling her how first dates should go. Wasn’t her mother also a woman with her head in the clouds? She had always been draping herself over the knees of men, begging for attention, only to receive turns of the head or side long glances of pity.
“It’s probably because you’ve got no meat on your bones!” His words brought her back to reality. She knew he was just being funny and had probably meant no harm by the statement, but Isodol was already in a rather sour mood. His words only added to her disappointment.
“My place is right up here,” he said after what felt like an hour. They approached a rather quaint looking home with only two windows, and a small, unfinished fencing near the front door. The walls were stained a deep burgundy. The colour reminded her of blood.
“Do you live alone or…”
Sal smirked and assured her that they would have utmost privacy. She couldn’t help but swallow the lump that had been forming in her throat over the course of the last hour.
He made no time for acquainting her with his house. There was no tour, no pointing in the direction of the bathroom regardless of how badly she needed to urinate. He didn’t even ask if she wanted anything to drink. She most certainly wouldn’t have said no to a glass of rum right about then. But no, his mind was filled with ulterior motives, motives Isodol hadn’t been aware of until that moment.
His lips were on hers in an instant. He went in to kiss her so quickly that Isodol didn’t know what had happened until she felt his tongue tapping at her teeth for entry.
She pushed him away aggressively just as he was slinking his hand up her shirt. She cursed herself for not having worn a binding after she could have sworn she felt his finger tips brush the underside of her left breast.
“Aren’t we going a bit too fast?” She asked, uncomfortable in how to broach the subject. She could hear her heart hammering in her ears. Perhaps it was pounding on the gates of her mind, screaming at her in an attempt to get her to see just how wrong this whole situation was.
Sal’s mind was elsewhere though, his thoughts having left the realm of reason. He was thinking no longer with his brain but with his…
He had already begun to shimmy out of his pants by the time she had finished her inquiry, and had started to lean down to unbutton hers. Isodol shot her knee out and slammed it into Sal’s nose just as his fingers fondled with the top button.
He wailed in pain and grabbed for his nose with his hands.
“What the fuck was that for?” He cried, still reeling from the blow.
“I said no.” She in fact had not said no, but had clearly expressed her lack of consent. He just wasn’t listening to her. Did she have to come out and blatantly tell him he was being extremely inappropriate? Couldn’t he just take the hint that she didn’t want to have sex with a man she had just met the previous day?
He moved his hands away from his nose and reached for her. He was grinning like some deranged animal with rabies. Oh, how she wished she had caused him to bleed the colour of his stupid house.
“Aggressive little bitch aren’t you?” He growled as he grasped the collar of her shirt in his fist.
Isodol tried to move away, but his other hand had tangled themselves in her hair before she could.
“Let me go!” She yelled, beginning to panic. She thrashed and tried to pull his hand away from her tresses.
He pushed her to the ground and swiftly knelt on top of her. He slapped her with a might so fierce that Isodol didn’t doubt she had started to bleed. Out of pure instinct (fight or flight, right?), she cupped one of her hands and struck him on the ear in retaliation.
A loud pop that was followed by a hollow ringing sound erupted in Sal’s ear forcing him to stumble to her side. Isodol used this opportunity to quickly regain her ground. She bolted to the front door but had only managed to take a few steps outside before something hard slammed into her back, sending her flying into the mud.
It was raining. A crescendo of white noise swept through her ears as she tried to gain back the breath that had been stolen from her. Her back began to ache, and now her wrist stung from having tried to protect herself from the fall.
She made a hesitant glance towards the front door. A tall man filled the entirety of the doorway with his shadow. The image provoked an ensemble of shivers to traipse up and down her spine. Her mind was on fire.
It was hilarious, in a dark, cosmic sort of way how she had been fantasizing over such a lovely evening with the newfound man of her dreams. Oh how she had been so naive, so uncharacteristically desperate for attention. The tale had made a drastic turn to the calamitous, for her potential prince in silver had been none other than the wicked villain.
As the villain stepped closer, the pale moonlight brought out the hate that filled his deep brown eyes. Only they weren’t brown anymore. Isodol could only see red. He kicked at her as she attempted to desperately crawl away. He had reciprocated the pain she had dealt him. It scorched her stomach as his leg recoiled.
Isodol held her breath and focused on any other part of her body. She did not want to have to deal with this pain right now, as it was not the time to succumb to exhaustion. With her good hand, she heaved herself up just in time to dodge another kick to the gut.
Realizing his failure, he reached for her, his hands seemingly twice their original size. Isodol took a hesitant step back, wondering if anyone was out here who could help her. But she was no damsel in distress. The adrenaline in her could withstand the fear, could ignore the pain for only a moment more as she threw all her remaining energy into her one leg and sent it flying for his crotch.
He crumpled to the ground and lay there with a not so charming grimace etched onto his face. His hands reached down to his intimate extremities. She guessed he wasn’t going to be having sex with anyone for quite a while.
She locked eyes with him. His eyes were a malevolent storm of fire and rage; it penetrated deep into her soul. But it wasn’t she who was at fault here. It was him. He had been the problem.
With blurry eyes, she turned the other way and began to run. She knew not where she was headed per se, just that she had to get away from a monster.
So run she did.
