Fall From Grace(42)

Lea and I slammed down two more shots.  We spun our stools around and scanned the dance floor.  Shane was still dry humping the porn star, but his eyes were on me.

Another shot.  I didn’t want to feel this.  I had no right to feel this way.  I didn’t want to think of myself as slighted, I didn’t want to wish to be someone else every second of every day.  Right now, most of all, I didn’t want to have such a strong desire to be that blonde dancing with Shane.  Not just for the fact of getting to spend a night with him, but also wanting to run away from my past.  Just to spend even a small amount of time pretending I was normal.

I strolled past them, smiling and shaking my head.  I needed to run some icy water over the back of my neck, the bar was spinning and I needed to try to ground myself.  Then, I’m getting some fresh air.  I walked into the back hallway, alone.

“Don’t f*cking move and don’t f*cking yell,” a man’s voice hissed into my ear, “Or I swear to God I will slit your f*cking throat.”

I froze as I watched Shane and his new friend get lost in the dance crowd behind me from the corner of my eye.  Did he see what was happening to me?  “Okay,” I replied, feeling the sharpness of the knife at the nape of my neck.  The fingers of his other hand dug into my arm.  That’s going to leave a bruise.

“Move back, let’s go, just turn around.”  He waved the knife in the air and pointed to a door near the bathroom.

He shoved me hard against the door; the hallway was spinning around me.  I definitely should not have drunk so much.  And, really why does stuff like this have to happen to nice girls when they hardly ever drink?  Not fair.

He came up behind me, eased the door open and pushed me through.

Once he shut the door, he flicked on the light switch and turned the lock on the knob.  I glared straight into his eyes.  He stood tall and broad with short-cropped hair, his eyes so blue and bloodshot they looked almost purple.  I vaguely remembered seeing him at the bar, somewhere in the background.  He had a gold ring on his left hand finger, a tattoo of the name Sarah across his inner wrist.  I could have belted out detail after detail, and illustrated every single inch of the man who was going to attempt to hurt me.  A sliver of a thought flashed through my mind.  Should I let this be the end?  Isn’t this what I’ve wanted since the day I woke up in that hospital bed after the accident?  An easy out of this life?

No.  I wanted to see him again.  Gabriel said to live this life of mine.  If this were the end of it, it would mean that I’d have already found him and not known it.  No.  I decided to live this life.

“I like the way you dance, now I’m going to dance with you, I want to see what’s so hot about you,” he said.  He bared his teeth back and tried to slam into me with all his weight.  “I’m gonna break you in half, bitch.”

I chambered my open palm and thrust it straight up into his nose as he flew towards me.  I heard a sickening crunch and smiled at myself.  After hundreds upon hundreds of years, I definitely knew how to protect myself.

Blood poured out of his nose.  “Oh yeah, bitch.  You know I like it rough.”

His bloody hands tried to grab me, but they were too slippery.  He threw himself at me instead, trying to wrestle me to the ground.  I laughed at him.

I slammed my knee into his groin and clipped him in the nose again with my elbow.

“Grace!”  I could hear Lea’s muffled screams in the hallway as she banged on the door.  I could hear other screams along with hers and the sounds of someone slamming themselves up against the outside of the door.  I kept my focus on my attacker, though.  I didn’t want him to catch me off my guard.  He was big; a lot bigger than me.  If I hadn’t had so many centuries on this earth of learning how to protect myself, I would have definitely suffered the fate of so many young women today.  As I sidestepped his attacks, I thanked God that I was the one who this brutal man had chosen to victimize.  Any other girl at this bar would have probably gotten killed, but tonight this man would be surprised; there are girls who can fight back.  Especially ones that have lived since the dawn of time.