'I'm sorry. I'll try not to hurt you too badly. Nothing that I'm about to do to you is your fault. You didn't do anything wrong and you probably don't deserve for this to be happening to you. It was by chance that I caught you. It could have been any woman, but I caught you first.'
His words were no comfort to her. She was terrified, horrified and humiliated. He had caught her, literally, as she was jogging in the park. He ran her down like a wolf chasing a deer. Once he had caught her, he had put his gloved hand over her mouth and whispered into her ear that he would cut her throat if she struggled against him.
He dragged her through the brush, out onto the street and up to his car. She tried her best to memorize the licence plate on the dark blue sedan. Now he had a dark cloth bag over her head and her hands tied together with zip-ties. Laying in the back seat of her kidnapper's car, Kyrie prayed that he might crash as he was driving and she would be found by the police or EMS and be saved from this uncertain nightmare. No such luck. Her kidnapper slowed and made a right-hand turn, he drove slowly for a little distance, then stopped the car. He shut the engine off- must be a standard- Kyrie noted, he didn't click the shifter into park.
She could hear him unbuckle his seat belt and sit still for a second. She could hear him take a deep breath and the creak of the leather seat as he turned to look at her, his prey, helpless in the backseat. She could hear him open the door and the crunch of his boots on the gravel outside as he stepped out of the car. Once the door was closed again, she could not hear anything distinct. Maybe his footsteps fading away, maybe not.
It seemed like an eternity for Kyrie as she prayed and wished with all of her heart that he had just left her there. Soon enough, too soon in fact, her kidnapper opened the car door at her feet. Deftly, he seized her ankles and pulled her across the soft leather, out into the cool, damp night. Kyrie stood up instinctively and it wasn't until she had been led into what she thought might be a warehouse that she even considered that she should have resisted while she was outside and there might have been a chance of someone saving her from this beast.
With the man's strong hand on her wrists behind her back, she was directed through a large, hollow-sounding room. Then down a hallway, yes, she could hear the change in the acoustics, she was trained to know these things as a theatre director. Now, a door swings open and a light is flicked on. Kyrie was led across the room and he told her to sit down. His was a voice that she would not forget, deep and rough, but beautiful, rugged, sounded like a smoker but didn't smell like one. She sat down on what she assumed to be a bed and was left alone in the room with the hum of the florescent lights. She hadn't heard the door close, so she didn't dare struggle to get free, just in case.
She felt him returning to the room, he must have taken his boots off, he was very quiet. He clicked on a smaller light and flicked off the long, bright bulbs that Kyrie could see in her mind's eye. She could feel the bed dip beside her and her kidnapper ran his fingers through her soft auburn hair that was hanging below the hood over her face.
'I'm sorry. I'll try not to hurt you too badly. Nothing that I'm about to do to you is your fault. You didn't do anything wrong and you probably don't deserve for this to be happening to you. It was by chance that I caught you. It could have been any woman, but I caught you first.'
Kyrie's mind was racing with questions. What is he going to do to me? Will he kill me? Will he let me go? The fear of the uncertain was almost driving her to panic. Her swirling questions were stilled with his next statement. Again, in that beautiful, unforgettable voice, he spoke:
'I need you. I need you to be honest. I'm sick of frauds and liars. I want an honest response from a woman. I need it. I need to know...' he trailed off. He cleared his throat and cut the ties from Kyrie's hands. She did not fight him. She did not dare to. She knew how strong he was by how he handled her. Besides, she was stunned by his words.
Gently, and without removing the bag from her head, he lifted off her hooded sweater over her head. She complied with his unspoken directions. She sat on the edge of the bed as he slipped off her running shoes without untying them. She laid back on the bed as he untied her jogging pants and pulled them down over her hips and off of her feet.
Still and silent, Kyrie remained laying on the bed, in only her sports bra and white cotton panties and, of course, the black bag hiding his identity and hers as well. Kyrie had been jogging, yes, but she never considered herself to be 'fit'. She had wide hips, an ample bottom, breasts that she was satisfied with, and an eternally soft belly- not flabby, but she could never get the tone that she wished she could. She was humiliated. She had never let any of her boyfriends see her completely naked, not even while having sex. She had always insisted that the lights be off and the sheets be pulled up; self- consciousness at its best.