Take Me, Break Me (PadanFian)

[Menarae]

She was tired, and because of that, maybe a little more careless than she usually was. Not with the money; that was carefully locked up in the safe. No, tonight, she didn't put her keys at the top of her purse before leaving the store. She tossed the store key into her purse, where it fell to the bottom, between her book and her makeup case. She didn't notice traffic on the street was unusually quiet, maybe a car every few minutes. She didn't notice the streetlight ahead, which usually lit up a patch of trees just at the edge of the parking lot, was burnt out. All the other stores on the street were closed, the managers and staff long gone. She'd been stuck doing paperwork and swearing at the printer as it continued to jam.

Now Bree just wanted to go home, read a little, maybe watch the comedy channel for a while before passing out on the couch. Her usually perky ponytail hung limp, and she walked slowly, head down as she shuffled through the options on her MP3 player. This was something else she wouldn't have done this late, distract herself with music. But she'd had a really bad day.

 

[Rudolph Quin]

Neil Ackley was having a bad day as well. But unlike the ways normal people tried to cope with "bad days," he dealt with his problems a little differently. Ever since he was 19 years old, whenever he was angry or upset, he'd abduct and rape women. It had started when he'd gone off to college and had to deal with the pressure and stress of maintaining good grades for a scholarship. Every time his college friends needed to unwind or relax after doing poorly on a test or assignment, they'd go to a local bar and knock back a few. But Neil wasn't used to getting bad grades, and what he found himself doing when such occurred, was attacking and raping hookers in town. After a few months and returning to college for another semester, he gradually got more confident in his ability to evade detection, and started raping the girls on campus.

After graduating and getting a high-paying job, he'd already grown accustomed to this habit of release. So when there was a deadline at work, he'd go out at night and rape a woman to blow off steam. Soon though, it wasn't enough to just rape them and he found himself wanting more. The blitz attack and the fear in their eyes and voices was a rush, but he wanted more time with them, to feed off of that fear and pain for a longer time. So, that's when he started abducting them as well. He never worried about them identifying him, because kept a close watch over the women he held and a tight control. None of them would dare ever admit what he'd done to them, even months after he let them go. There would always be that fear he'd come back to finish them off. Now, at 28 years old, he'd had more than enough experience to know what he was doing.

Walking down the sidewalk, with his hands in his pockets, Neil fumed inside. A fellow at work had gotten the promotion he'd been working years to achieve, and the boss at work had side-stepped him and all his efforts as if they were nothing. The fellow, Craig, wouldn't have gotten where he was now if it hadn't been for Neil, and it was like they were giving credit to him for what Neil had done. It pissed him off to no end, to not get the recognition he deserved, to be treated as small and insignificant. It was time to find another woman, to feed his pathological need.

Then, just up ahead, he saw her. The perfect one to fill the void inside tonight and from the look of it, opportunity was on his side as well. She wasn't even paying attention. Glancing to his left and right and behind himself, he made sure of the street's emptiness before following her.

 

[Menarae]

Bree settled on a loud rock album, specifically on a song about a demon-posessed lake. It was suitably angry, yet fun. She figured she was alone, so she started to sing along, softly at first but growing louder with every step. She had a pretty voice. She could have been a singer if only she'd learned to read music. Instead she was stuck working a dead-end retail job for pricks who couldn't even offer her a decent wage with her half-assed promotion a few months back. Now she was closing the fucking store by herself, kowtowing to bitching customers, struggling to make her sales, all for an extra fifty cents an hour? Bullshit.

She should have learned to read music.

She was coming quite close to the darkened trees now, but she wasn't really looking at her surroundings. She was too busy fantasizing about the day she'd quit...make it when the HO guys came down, throw a fit, point fingers, lay out all the accusations, and storm of with a "Fuck you all!" She smiled a little at the thought.

 

[Rudolph Quin]

As he tailed her, Neil smirked to himself as she started to sing. Up to that point, he hadn't even realized she'd been listening to music, the few street lights casting shadows when he'd first seen her making it difficult to see clearly. As she neared the trees, he got ready, pulling a chloroform soaked rag from his pocket. He ran behind the trees, parallel to her and ahead, the shadows hiding him from view. He only had to wait a few seconds before she came level with his hiding place and he waited for her to walk past just a bit before jumping from his cover and wrapping his arms around her. She struggled and screamed into the cloth held to her mouth, but soon the fumes from the chemicals had her slumping in his arms. Chuckling to himself, he lifted her over his shoulder and took her "home."

 

[Menarae]

Bree woke some time later, achy and confused. She didn't open her eyes yet. She couldn't quite remember what happened before she blacked out. She'd left work, was walking, listening to music...oh God, someone had attacked her. She remembered the cloth soaked in some foul-smelling liquid pressed to her face. Did they think she had the deposit? Because she didn't. She didn't have a key to the deposit drop at the bank, so she had to leave it in the safe...and she really didn't have much money of her own. She worked fucking retail, for God's sake.

Shaking a little now, Bree opened her eyes.