By Force

She was a young woman, only 17 years of age. She was average height for her age with a more muscular build. She had long, curly red hair and deep brown eyes. This young woman's name was Grace.

Grace was walking home from school like she did every day. Same routine as always, wake up, walk the short distance to school, walk home. This walk home felt different she thought. Something felt off.

To her left was the barren road and to her right was the woods. She put her headphones in to try to forget about the strange feeling she had. "It's just me being paranoid" she thought. So she kept walking until she heard someone walking behind her.

She knew that no one else from her school lived down this road so without turning around she slowly pulled one headphone out of her ear and started walking faster. She could hear whoever was behind her begin to walk faster as well. The person sounded very close so she went to look over her shoulder and everything went black.

Grace began to wake up but couldn't see where she was. It was completely dark. She tried to stand to her feet but was unable to do so. She was tied to something. This is when her head began to throb and she could feel some form of liquid running down her forehead. She began to panic.

Grace had no idea where she was or why she was tied up. The only light she could see was coming from under a door that was about six feet in front of her. She began to scream and call out for help.

She heard footsteps coming closer. Then someone opened the door. The only thing Grace could see was a silhouette. This person looked extremely muscular and very tall. Grace remained quite as the figure began to walk closer to her.

The person kneeled down beside Grace. She tried to struggle and in a frightened voice asked, "Who are you, what do you want?" This person did not respond, only grabbed her face hard with one hand and began to wipe the liquid from her forehead.

Grace jerked her face away and screamed for this person to tell her who they were. This person in a very deep, masculine voice said, "You may call me Jack." Grace remained frozen but only for a moment.

She demanded that he untie her and let her leave. All he did was laugh in her face and told her that she was not allowed to leave. Grace began to struggle again trying to free herself. Jack ordered her to stop struggling, but she would not, so with an open hand he slapped her face as hard as he could.

Grace let out a small cry of pain as a small bit of blood dripped from her lip. Jack stood up over her and said, "You will learn to behave. I'll be leaving the lights off as punishment." He began to walk back to the open door. He grabbed the door and without looking back said, "I had better hear an apology from you when I come back."

Jack slammed the door behind him and locked it as he left. Grace began to cry uncontrollably. She had no idea who this man was or why he was holding her captive. The only thing she knew was that she needed to get out of here.

She began to struggle again as she felt the ropes start to tear slowly into her flesh. Grace realized she had to stop for now this was only making the situation worse. She thought to herself, "I'm going to have to apologize to him, I really need the lights on so I can at least see the room I'm in."

Grace is left alone in this room for hours. She drifted off a couple of times but not for long. She had no idea what time it was or how long, but it felt like an eternity.

Grace could hear footsteps coming closer again. She knew Jack was on his way back. Jack opens the door, looks at Grace and asks, "Is there something you would like to say to me?"

Grace looks in Jack's direction and says, "I'm sorry I struggled earlier." Jack snickers and flicks on the lights in the room.

Grace quickly closes her eyes for a second then begins to open them slowly to adjust to the light. She looks over at Jack and realizes he is much larger than she had originally thought he was. He was abnormally tall, well over six foot five inches and extremely muscular.

Grace could now see that Jack was wearing a mask to hide his face, but she could see that he had short, very dark brown hair. She could also see that he had a damp rag in his hand. Grace pulled both of her legs in closer to her as Jack started to walk over.

He kneeled down in front of her this time. He reached out with the rag in his right hand and began to wipe her forehead and the side of her mouth. As Jack pulled back his hand, Grace realized that it was blood he was wiping off of her.

She realized that he must have struck her over the head with something when he took her. Grace glared up at Jack. He noticed and snickered at her again as he began to run his right hand up her outer left thigh.

Grace's eyes opened wide with fear. She was afraid of what he was about to do and out of instinct she kicks Jack in the face as hard as she possibly could.

Jack fell back and let out screams filled with pain as well as rage. He continued to scream and curse at Grace as she again tried to struggle to get loose.

Jack stands up and reaches down to grab the back of Grace's left ankle and extend her leg out fully, while also lifting it off of the ground. Grace began to scream and struggle against him. Jack continues screaming and cursing at her as he lifts one of his legs up and slams it down as hard as he can on top of Grace's knee.

All Grace could hear was a loud snap as her leg was filled with unbearable pain. Jack had broken her knee. Grace screamed and cried out in agony as Jack kneels down once more. Jack grabs a hold of her face again as hard as he possibly could and screams at her, "You will learn to behave, and you will not leave me!"

Jack stands back up and storms out of the room locking the door behind him. Grace continues to cry and scream from the intense pain in her leg for a while. Then she begins to try to calm herself down and control her breathing so she can stay alert.

The lights are on now so she begins to look around the room. It is a rather large barren room with solid white walls. It seems that the walls are made of cement blocks. The floor is cement as well. There are a few randomly places metal poles that reach from floor to ceiling. Grace is tied to the one closest to the door.

She looks over at the farthest pole, all the way on the other side of the room and sees another girl is tied to it. She can see the girl's face and realizes that this girl is already dead. Grace gasps and starts to cry.

The girl is completely unclothed covered in bruises and stab wounds. Grace figured this poor girl couldn't have been dead long since there were no signs of decomposition and there was no smell.

Grace began to panic, fearing that she would soon meet the same fate so she began to struggle to free her arms again. She could feel her wrists begin to bleed as her leg began to throb with pain. Grace stopped struggling and screamed out in frustration.

She began to cry from fear and pain but forced herself to think. She realized that she wasn't going to be able to get her arms free. She realized that she was going to have to play along with whatever this guy wanted until she had an opportunity to escape.

Tears continued to stream down her face as she slowly fell sleep. Grace woke up suddenly to a sharp pain in her left leg. She sees that Jack is there and had plunged a needle into her leg. She looks up at him and cries out, "What are you doing?"

"I'm numbing your leg," Jack replies. Jack looks at her and says, "I'm going to have to put it back into place before I splint it."

Tears begin to run down Grace's face as she looks over at the dead girl in the room. Jack looks over his shoulder to see what she was looking at. He turns back around and says, "She didn't want to behave. All she wanted to do was leave me. She kept hurting me, so I had to hurt her."

Jack looks at Grace and asked her if she could feel her leg. She shook her head no. Jack grabbed her leg behind the knee so Grace quickly shut her eyes. She heard another large snap as he put her knee back in place.

Grace opened her eyes to see that he placed a large metal bar next to her leg. He placed the bottom of the bar at her ankle and began using random pieces of cloth to tie the bar to her leg to splint it.

Grace looks up at him and thanks him. Jack nods his head and begins to get up and leave. Grace looks up and him and quickly asks him to wait. He looks down at her and asks, "What do you want?"

Grace asks if he could untie her arms. She says, "It's not like I can really go anywhere with a broken leg, right." Jack doesn't say a word and just walks to the other side of the pole to untie her then leaves the room again locking the door behind him.

Her arms were finally free. She slid herself away from the bar and laid down on the floor looking up at the ceiling. Then suddenly hears footsteps again. Jack opens the door and places a tray with a lid on it next to Grace a long with a bottle of water.

Without saying a word, he walks over to the other side of the room and unites the dead girl's arms. He grabs hold of one if her arms and drags her across the floor and out of the room.

Grace sits herself up back against the pole and starts to drink the water. She slowly lifts the lid off of the tray to find a sandwich and some chips. She notices that it is her favorite sandwich and chips from a deli she and her parents go to quite often.

Grace begins to think that maybe Jack knows her somehow. She tries to think back but can't remember meeting anybody that tall or large. She starts to worry that maybe he has been following her.

A few days go by where there seems to be a routine. Jack would bring her food and water and carry her upstairs with a bag over her head if she needed to use the restroom. Other than that, he would not touch or speak to her and Grace would not speak to him.

This day went on the same until Grace fell asleep that night. She woke up to Jack laying next to her on the ground. She started shaking with fear until she realized that he was fast asleep. She realized she had a chance to escape.

She slowly started crawling on her hands and right leg toward the door. Grace placed her hands on the wall to help herself stand up on her right leg. She still couldn't put any body weight on her left leg. She slowly turned the handle on the door and turned around to make sure Jack didn't wake up.

He was still sound asleep so Grace opened the door just enough for her to crawl through when she got back down on her hands and right knee. She crawled through and used the wall once more to stand up and gently close the door. She looked at the door extremely frustrated because she was unable to lock it. It needed and key and Jack still had it.

So Grace got back down on her hands and knee and began to climb the stairs. Most of the lights were on in the house so she was able to see. The kitchen was to her left and the front door and only exit was to her right. So she quickly and quietly started crawling to the front door. Just trying to get out and as far away from Jack as possible.

Suddenly she heard the door downstairs where she had just come from open and slam. She cursed under her breath and crawled faster toward the door. Unfortunately Jack was right behind her once more.

Jack grabbed a hand full of hair on the back of her head and started dragging her into the kitchen. Grace screamed and cried for him to let her go. Jack quickly grabbed a knife from the block on the counter, then lifted Grace up to her feet by her hair.

He let go of her hair only to grab Grace by the throat and slam her onto the table. Grace screamed and tried to fight against him. Jack shoved the knife deep into her left thigh and started to scream, "I just wanted you to be mine, I just wanted you to behave, I only wanted to keep you with me!" Grace cried and screamed in pain as Jack began to twist the knife while it was still in her thigh.

Jack ripped the knife out of her leg and lifted her up by her throat only to throw her across the room. Jack dropped the knife and started screaming while grabbing both sides of his head.

Grace quickly took this time to get to her feet and grab a knife on the counter to defend herself. She used the counter to put her weight on so she could hop on her right leg over to Jack. He quickly turned around and grabbed her by the throat once more so Grace used the knife to cut his wrist.

Jack immediately released his grip and screamed in pain as blood began to pour out of his wrist. He quickly grabbed his wrist with his oppsite hand to try to stop the bleeding. In this time Grace quickly thrusted the knife deep into Jack's throat.

She pulled the knife out and held it in her hand as Jack grabbed his throat. Blood was pouring out of the wound out from in between his fingers as he began to gargle and choke on his own blood. He fell to his knees as blood started to spew from his mouth.

Lastly he fell forward onto the floor as the blood began to pool around his now dead body. Grace dropped the knife onto the floor as she started to cry.

She quickly forced herself to snap out of it. She ripped a section of her shirt to tie around the stab wound on her thigh. Grace quickly looked around and found a land line phone in the living room. She got back down on her hands and knee and crawled over to it.

She grabbed it from the table and called the police while sitting on the ground. They were able to track her location and get her into an ambulance to head to the hospital where they would call her parents who had been searching for her along with the police for several weeks. One officer told her she was lucky she got out of there when she did. Apparently Jack had about thirty dead female bodies hidden upstairs in his house. Thankfully Grace was the one that got out alive and can now live a happy life back home with her parents.