Dark Road

The vacant highway slid steadily beneath the car with a low, menacing grumble. Kira glared out over the dusty fields, brooding so far from anywhere, her hands gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles. A surging shudder shook her tense shoulders, eyes averting from the dashboard warning light as it flickered on.

Low on gasoline.

Kira glanced at the curtesy sign as she passed it; Hillsdale was the last stop for fuel for the next two-hundred and fifty miles. She fought to ignore the clenching tightness in her stomach, and the realization she was as low on money as the car was with gas. She was meeting the end of her journey in a town left to rot in obscurity.

It was as good of a place as any, she decided, and possibly better than most.

She startled at the sudden slicing clamor. It was his ringtone again. She regretted not keying his truck before leaving. Maybe he'd have gotten the hint if she had.

The cellphone shattered as it struck the embankment along the lonely highway, pieces scattering, left to indulge itself in the solitary silence.

Kira guided the car off the highway and followed along a narrow, meandering paved road, watching the forgotten farming community fade into view from a hazy distance. She pulled into the corner store, the one stop in town for fuel, grimacing at the notice posted that payment was to be in advance.

As she parked in front of the deteriorating shop she glanced around at the short main street of town, noting there were no substantial chances to steal and escape. For now she was stranded, content to at least have her car. Searching through her wallet for any residual cash, she paused. The photo of her parents and little sister, waiting in Korea, was beginning to fade. A quiet tear touched her cheek. A sharp tinge of regret seared her for embarking on a noble quest for 'the dream', and then letting Michael persuade her to drop her classes to 'be' with him.

She smeared the tear with the back of her hand, grumbling at herself.

The bell above the door alerted the store clerk and sparse spattering of customers as she stepped in, her black high boots clunking across the hard floor for extra measure. Everyone stared. Kira tried to act as though she didn't notice, swallowing back at the lump in her throat.

Maybe a small town wasn't a good place to disappear.

She stepped undaunted along the aisles, all eyes on her, as she hunted for a meal she could get for less than five dollars. She picked up a protein bar and strolled as confidently as she could manage to the refrigerated section, scanning the icy wire shelves for bottles of cold water.

Absently she heard his truck pull up to the store a minute before the bell announced him. She watched his reflection in the refrigerator's glass door as he trounced inside, broad shoulders barely clearing the door frame. Kira furrowed her brow as he surged in, his muscular body towering proudly, his shirt unbuttoned deep enough to show the rich, masculine hair between the cut of his tight pecks.

He reminded her of Michael. The two men looked nothing alike, this rugged unshaven stranger with gallant facial stubble, dark eyes and a shapely, beautiful mouth, and Mike with... well, none of that. But this was a man, cunning and cruel, his natural predator inclinations...

Rage stirred inside, rumbling like quiet thunder, when she saw the dark stranger slow down and notice her, his eyes scanning her loose short sleeved shirt, her tight shorts, and the smooth, tan Asian skin along her slender legs. She glared at his reflection, pretending she was looking at the drinks, all the while watching him ogle her like she were a new party favor, leering blatantly at her bared legs. She hadn't dressed this way for him to gawk at.

She choked at remorse with the recollection... she had dressed this way for Mike to gawk at. But, apparently, some other girl had dressed even better... or just less.

The anger grew hotter.

Kira waited for the garish stranger to wander to the back of the store before she grabbed a bottle of water and hastily paid at the check stand.

She sat alone in the car to eat, the awareness of her plight pressing down hard on her. Glancing along the main town road she could see where the shops ended. She was looking at the entirety of the town from where she sat. Little more than a handful of specialty shops, a post office, a bank, and a small grocer lined the rough street. A few stores were boarded up.

A solemnity dredged up inside of her, tugging at vague, fleeting images of the country man from her memory. Kira tried brushing it off, but rubbed at herself through her shorts with a gnawing need, her fingers toying with the fastener.

"I really need to relieve some tension," she mumbled. She glanced around for a park, or anywhere she'd have a moment of relative privacy.

He walked out, broad shoulders swaying as he moved. She watched in her car mirrors as he crossed the parking lot and heaved himself up behind the wheel of his farm truck, his demeanor powerful and commanding. He pulled out onto the street, turned the corner, and vanished. Kira stared after him, a sudden sense of emptiness looming in her gut.

Tossing the half-eaten protein bar into the passenger seat she revved the car engine and followed where she'd seen him turn. The road narrowed as it rolled out from the town center, weaving through a residential area, and past a vacant town park. He could have turned off anywhere, and Kira peered down along the streets searching for the truck. The homes soon fell behind her and the road came to a T intersection at a gravel road only a mile or two further down.

She sighed heavily, grumbling under her breath. "And just what were you going to do if you'd caught up with him?" she muttered to herself. The anger still roiled within her, the tension building. "Were you going to curse at him? Are you an idiot?" she chided. "I need to find a place to park and get some sleep." Peering back at the car's small back seat she cringed. "I imagine it gets pitch black at night out here."

She started to turn the car around, and stopped cold. She noted a tuft of dust rising far down along the road to her left. It was about as far away as he would have gotten.

The car shuddered as it raced over the gravel, the rage reverberating through the both of them. Kira slowed as she approached a lone, looming barn. It was old, and appeared about ready to topple over. But a familiar truck huddled in front of it.

Pulling to the side of the road, Kira slipped quietly from the car, making her way cautiously. Halfway to the barn she stopped, her mind reeling. She turned and paced back to the car. Crouching behind the wheel she nibbled nervously at her lower lip. Taking in a deep breath she leaned over, pulled her stun gun and spare cartridge from the glove compartment, and grabbed her bag. Kira got out, shut the car door, and glowered at the barn with a dark and deeply piercing glare.

She could see he was startled a moment later when he noticed her standing just inside the large barn door, scowling at him. The stifling scent of old barn wood warming in the midsummer sun filled her senses, blending with the smells of hard clay, straw, and a hint of motor oil. The air was thick and stuffy.

He turned to face her and stood in stunned silence for a long and uncomfortable moment.

"Can I help you?" he offered politely.

She didn't respond, didn't move, her shaking hand clenching the stun gun behind her back and out of his view, holding it in reserve in case she needed it for protection.

He shifted his weight uneasily. She watched as his lecherous eyes roamed down her body, dwelling too long on her dark, slender legs, then back up to meet her own stare.

"Are you lost?" he asked. "Do you need directions?"

She didn't answer, only glowered angrily, utterly uncertain of what to do next.

He took a step towards her. His powerful body was suddenly menacing.

"I saw you," Kira bit.

He stopped and stood in silence. His eyes watched her warily.

She liked that.

"What?" he choked uneasily.

"At the store, a few minutes ago. You were eyeing me like I was candy." Her words were harsh and scolding. She felt suddenly empowered, and stood her ground.

He took a step back. "I apologize if I offended you somehow," he offered. "We don't get a lot of visitors here, so of course I..."

"You were ogling my legs."

His face grew red, and he looked away from her briefly. As he glanced at the ground... at her feet... she felt a new and oddly exciting titillation brewing low in her stomach.

"Again, I'm very sorry," he stammered.

"How do you know I'm not just a kid? I'm short, and I've been told I look very young." She continued to dig, suddenly more driven than before. "Do you also leer at twelve years olds like that?"

"Hey, I'm sorry," he repeated. She took several steps closer to him, her entire body shaking, terrified now and yet perplexingly intrigued at her own reactions.

"I really didn't mean anything by it. And you definitely don't look twelve. It's just..." he was searching for the right words, "you looked cute and I couldn't..."

"Cute?" Kira interrupted him, "do I look 'cute' to you now?"

He shook his head sheepishly and looked away. "I'm sorry."

"Were you watching me as I left the store?" She stepped even closer and he moved away, backing awkwardly into a towering, thick barn post.

"Be honest with me," Kira demanded.

He nodded, silent, swallowing hard.

"Did my short little body turn you on?" She realized in astonishment how much she was relishing his sudden submissive behavior. She started craving it. "Does it make your perverted penis hard and long?" She stared down at the ample bulge in his jeans, holding the gaze until she was certain he'd noticed. "Does it even get very long?"

A shiver jabbed through her as she heard herself. What the fuck am I doing? She gasped inconspicuously, and shook it off.

He straightened his stance and took a step towards her, but was still unable to look her directly in the eye. "Look," he spoke sternly, raising his hands in the air "I said I was..."

In one shockingly swift motion Kira swept the stun gun from behind her back, aimed and his chest, and pulled the trigger. The prongs struck him in the upper stomach and he groaned loudly as she held the button down for several long seconds. He was forced to drop carefully to his knees. He grabbed the wires and yanked the prongs from his skin.

"What the hell?!" he yelled at her as he stumbled weakly back to his feet.

Kira stood frozen, holding an expressionless stare as best she could. Her entire body was trembling with shocked terror as she realized what she'd just done, the line she'd just crossed. She contemplated running, hoping he wouldn't try to chase her. Maybe if she apologized...

The boyish submission she was longing for was gone from his warm ember eyes... now glowering hotly at her. Her world felt suddenly very thin and fragile, even more so than it had before.

Smoothly, face showing no emotion, she dropped the dispatched cartridge to the ground, pulled a fresh one from her bag, and reloaded as he watched.

"Hey," he objected, raising his hands back in the air, "that's unnecessary and completely uncalled for." His eyes were quickly and unabashedly enticing once again, filled with fear.

There was a sudden swelling of overwhelming intoxicating need rushing through her body. Kira felt her insides vibrating as she aimed low and again pulled the trigger.

The prongs struck just above his hip level, and she held the button down for excruciatingly long seconds. As he toppled helpless to the ground she stepped over him, staring with amazed interest as he squirmed and hollered in agony, his large muscles shivering in useless incapacitation. Kira's eyes widened with a sickening mix of curiosity, horror, amazement, and... depraved sexual hunger... at what she was doing to him. A rising, dark urge drove her to hold the button down until his yells became weakening groans.

She released the button and expelled the spent cartridge to the ground. He was lying limp at her feet, her boots stepping brazenly up beside him. She dropped the stun gun into her bag, and then tugged the prongs free of his torso, tossing them aside. She braced the sole of her foot against his arm and pushed him over and onto his back. He lay unmoving, eyes closed.

She missed seeing the eyes.

She glanced quickly around the barn. A spool of thin hemp rope was hanging from a nail just across the main walkway from them. Kira made certain that one of her boot heels lightly kicked at the man as she stepped over him to grab the rope. Her arms were shaking as she pulled his hands over his head and around the thick wood post. He began to struggle as he realized what she was doing, but fell submissively limp when she pulled the stun gun from her bag and pressed the probes against his bulging triceps. She hesitated as he submitted, then shocked him anyway and listened as he yelled out for her to stop. His desperate wriggling made her feel strangely warm between her legs.

When he was submissive enough she stuffed the stun gun back in her bag and let the bag slip from her shoulder to the ground.

She tried to remember the sailing knots her father had taught her when she was younger. She wasn't certain she had it right, but as she wrapped the rope around his wrists and tied them off they seemed secure enough. She roamed the barn until she found a box cutter knife sitting out on a table, and used it to cut the spool of rope free.

She laid the knife and rope beside the moaning stranger. Stepping one foot over him and straddling his toned torso she watched him intently.

She stared at his face until he opened his eyes to look pensively up at her. The thrill in her stomach churned as she saw the fear was still there, swelling in his smoky eyes.

"You have really nice eyelashes for a man," she remarked, surprising herself with how calm and even her voice was.

"What?!" he sputtered.

"You're eyelashes," she repeated. "They're dark and long." He looked up at her in bewilderment. "They're beautiful," Kira mused wistfully.

He began to pull frantically at his arms. The ropes held.

"What do you want from me?" he demanded. "What are you going to do to me?"

Kira's mind reeled. She crouched down and sat on him, low on his stomach, her feet still straddling him. Her heart was racing as she felt his body beneath her -- helpless to escape.

She paused to run a taunting finger through the chest hair peeking out through his shirt. It was soft.

"What's your name?" She asked.

"I'm not telling you anything," he grumbled. "What is it you want?"

Without a word Kira pulled the stun gun from her bag and jabbed it into his ribs. He started to object, but she pressed the button and swooned as his entire body wretched and stiffened beneath her.

She released the button but held the gun steadily against him. "What's your name?" she repeated, her voice still low and calm.

"Clyde," he spat. "My name is Clyde."

"Well, Clyde," she sighed, shaking as the realization just then spilled over her, "I'm going to fuck you."

His horrified gasp sent chilling thrills down along her spine.

"I'm going to hurt you," she continued, "then I'm going to fuck you. And then I'm probably going to hurt you again."

"Why?" he asked, voice cracking.

Ignoring him, she set the stun gun on the ground, turned her body around, and sat firmly on his knees. She untied his work boots and, with some effort, yanked them from his feet. Reaching back she grabbed the rope and crudely tied the end to one of his ankles. She stood ceremoniously and walked over to a post across the main walkway, pulling firmly on the rope.

He tried desperately to kick his leg free, but Kira had him helpless as she wrapped the cord around the post several times. By yanking hard on the rope she managed to pull his leg tight and tug the slack around the post. With three or four turns of the twine around the beam, it was easy to hold his leg in place. She tied it off, cut the rope, and came back to him.

She indulged briefly in his eyes as she straddled him between her feet again, before crouching down and sitting gruffly on his pelvis. She tugged impatiently at his shirt hem and buttons flew across the ground. Tossing his shirt open wide Kira caught herself swallowing back at a lump in her throat as she admired his large chest and taut stomach. His tanned skin and hard, toned muscle were lightly covered with rich, cocoa-hued hair. The sight left her breathless.

She eyed a jagged, three-inch scar just below the right side of his ribcage. She traced the old wound curiously with her gaze. Then she leaned down to casually tease one of his peaked russet nipples with her fingers.

He writhed angrily, but couldn't deter her. He flopped to the ground wearily and glared as she toyed with him, irritating his nipple with brass stimulation.

"You bitch!" he snapped.

Kira stopped abruptly, her expression starkly pouty, and her fingers still resting in his soft chest hair.

"That was rude," she mewled gently. Her brow furrowed as she sniffed in feigned, troubled bewilderment. "That hurt."

The brazen anger in his eyes softened a bit as she glanced to the stun gun resting beside him. "You're right," he agreed hastily, "that may have been a bit harsh. But you're being very cruel."

He groaned as she picked up the stun gun. Then she slid down to sit on his knees. He flew into a desperate panic as she unbuttoned his blue jeans, his body suddenly thrashing madly at the ropes. Kira was concerned that he might topple her with his kicking and hold her at bay with his free leg, but the feel of his fearful frenzy beneath her fed a dizzying, dark longing deep inside... very deep.

"I'm sorry, please don't!" he begged.

Calmly she unzipped his pants and tugged them down along his thighs, her heart fluttering as wildly as Clyde was, her expression held calm but sarcastically pained. Clyde cried out in terror, and Kira desperately hoped they were in a remote enough area that he wouldn't be heard. Still, she couldn't subdue the ticklish elations his terrified pleas incited in her.

As she tugged his jeans down toward his knees, his penis peeked up past the elastic waistband of his boxer shorts like a curious gerbil, the head now exposed down to where the sensitive skin of his circumcised shaft began. She touched it whimsically with her finger, and it twitched with her playful caress. Eagerly she yanked his shorts down, stifling a betraying gasp as the entirety of Clyde's bulky manhood came into view. His full, round testicles sat high and tight in a dark, lightly hairy and wrinkled scrotum, squirming nervously beneath her molesting gaze. His glans was fully exposed in dark blushing glory, the cute V-shape curve of it peaking near his urethra. Her eyes widened as she stared at it. Brazenly she cradled his thick, hefty shaft in her hand as his cries grew into helpless, despairing moans. She gripped the stun gun and pressed the probes against the bared penis shaft.

"Please don't," he pleaded pitifully. She relished the sound of his brooding voice, her parts growing hotter, a peculiar sense of queasy giddiness clutching urgently at her clitoris. "Please, I'm begging you," he cried out.

"But 'please' isn't 'sorry,'" Kira taunted.

"I'm sorry," Clyde sputtered. "I'm really sorry. It won't happen again, I promise." A small glimmer of hope for a merciful reprieve sparked in his eyes as she hesitated.

Kira pressed the button. Clyde's restrained body jolted, stiffened, and thrashed against the ropes. His screaming was low, guttural, oddly erotic.

"Convince me," Kira growled as she let up on the button.

"I said I was sorry," Clyde squabbled, "what more can..."