“HIM”

Warning- Swearing/Violence/Sexual Assault

Sleep was eluding me.

After hours of tossing and turning in my sleeping bag on cold lumpy sand, I got up to warm myself by the fire.  If I had taken Sun up on her offer, I could be sleeping in a nice comfortable bed, but the one I was offered, was Margot’s and I couldn’t sleep in the bed where she had died.  Talk about creepy.

I had spent so many nights sleeping on cold, lumpy ground even before I had arrived on the island, and never had trouble sleeping before.  No, this wasn’t the cold or the ground, it was due to one Sim.

Jin.

See, that first night Jin had sat me down to have one of those “man to man” chats.  In that moment, he established the rules of the household and clearly explained why.  Everything he told me was now bouncing around in my head, a little like interrupting thought bubbles over the real issues I was struggling with.

I wanted to stay with Jade.

Yet it was never going to happen, because those damn memory thought bubbles of Jin’s chat, were completely correct.  I was not good for Jade.

At least not right now anyway.

So I sat here poking at the embers.  Imagining I was attempting to pop every one of those thought bubbles so what Jin said didn’t have to be true.

Next to my father, Jin was the most insightful and intelligent sim I had ever met.  I respected him as much as I did my own father and because of that, when he told me that I had to stay away from Jade, I did.  Hard as it truly was.  

So I kept myself busy, which wasn’t difficult because I really love kids and those quads were always a lot of fun.  Yet even then, I was mulling Jin’s words over and over in my mind.

“Travis, you have to understand that your life and our life are completely different.  You have a goal for your life now as a young adult.  She is still figuring out who she is and with that, it would be so easy for her to love you simply because you are here, now.  Consider what has been going on for the past year.  She was so devastated by her best friends death, she reached out to a stranger and latched on to him.  I don’t want to see her go through something similar again.  That aside, people in high stress situations, will naturally cling to one another.  That’s not love Travis, that’s survival instinct.”  

Jin paused then and looked me straight in the eye in that intimidating face he has. “She needs time to grow up and become who she is supposed to be.  Don’t take that away from her.”

Seriously, how does one argue with that?  He told me I was lucky to have a father as I do.  One who helped me to live more life in eighteen years than most sims do in one whole lifetime.  I had a more mature, enlightened outlook on life for someone my age.  So he was sure I would agree with everything he was trying to tell me.  If that isn’t a conversation stopper, I don’t know what is, as they say.  He had obviously made his point and he didn’t expect I would have anything to say in my defense.

So I did what he asked of me, until Margot’s death.  Then I worried Jade would spiral downwards again, so I broke the rules.  Oh Jin made it clear how he felt about that.  It was implied every time he came over and sat with us, and in all the stares I received.  But Jade needed someone, even if it was only a friend, which was hard I’m telling you now.  I never realized I had such great will power, yet apparently, I do.  I never touched her, kept my distance and barely looked her in the eye.  We talked, about friendly things and I tried to teach her about rocks.

However, sitting here tonight knowing I’m leaving in just a few hours, I’m losing all my resolve.  All I want to do is stay.  Or take her with me.  Argue with Jin that she will never get life experience unless she actually lives life.  I want to ask to take her to uni with me.  Which is so laughable, for I can just imagine Jin’s reaction to that request.  So it’s not even an option, for I do want to see Jade again some day and well, I like the way my face looks.  If you get my drift.

All this was getting me no where.  Back and forth with my thoughts when in the end, I knew I had to go.  There was no question about it.    I put out the fire and sat there for a few moments watching the stars.  The night sky above the island always looked different to me somehow.  I’ve seen a lot of night skies over the sim world but none quite like this.  It was soothing and I found myself getting sleepy just gazing up.  

Morning would be here in a few hours and I needed to be fairly capable to pilot the boat, so I decided to find my sleeping bag again.  I was just about to enter the tent, when I heard this little yip of a noise.  Looking over to the direction of the sound, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

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“Hello baby!  Did you miss me?”

My eyes flew open at the sound of a man’s voice and I felt the weight of his hand over my mouth.  I gasped inward, which only suctioned his hand to my mouth tighter, and attempted to breathe through my partially blocked nose.  I glanced sideways, unable to move my head as he pushed me down into my pillow.  The room was so dark, all I could see was the figure of a man and my heart leapt into my throat at the site of the shadow.

“I’m here.  You knew I would come for you didn’t you.  I saw you sitting on the beach some days, just waiting for me to come and letting me know you were here.  But your family never leaves you alone do they?  I was getting super frustrated waiting for my chance to catch you alone.”

With his other hand he tore back the covers to reveal the rest of my body.  “Oh baby you are so beautiful, just like I knew you would be.  Even with your clothes on, I can see your beautiful curves.  You lost all that weight for me didn’t you?  I love that you love to please me.”

He climbed onto the bed to lay down on top of me, spreading my legs with his knees as he did.  I could feel his breath on my face.  A disgusting smell of I don’t know what that made me want to gag,  and would have, if I had any control over my body.  I was frozen, unable to move.  He began moving his lower body up and down on mine.

“Oh baby, I have dreamed of this since the moment you sent me that first picture.  Oh you feel so good, even through all these layers.  I wish I could strip off all our clothes and take you right now.  But I won’t.  I want our first time to be special.  Isn’t that what girls always want?” he said in this sappy sweet voice.

When I gave him no response, he gripped my face harder and growled in a low whisper, “Isn’t it?”  I couldn’t see his face, but I imagined the evil look that matched the sound of his voice.  He released his hold a little and I nodded my head in the slightest of movement.

“See, aren’t I a nice guy.  We are going to get along so well…..oh, ah, ah-“

His body began moving faster on mine before he took a swift breath in, then let it out growling again and collapsing on top of me.

“Oh Jade! Oh baby,” he breathed into my neck.  “I just couldn’t wait.  When we really come together, it’s going to be the best thing we have ever felt.”  Then he began kissing my neck and my ear.  Tears began rolling down the sides of my temples.

“Oh don’t cry baby.  I will take good care of you, in more ways than one,” he laughed.  “Oh gawd, I have to stop thinking about it before I need to let go again.”  I felt his weight lift from me, then he dragged me off the bed while still keeping my mouth covered.  He was quite tall I mentally noticed and super thin, yet strong enough to lift me and carry me out my bedroom patio door.

I began shivering.  My summer pj’s did nothing to keep the cold of the Fall air from freezing me instantly, but it was fear that had me shivering the most.

“Just a quick walk to the paddle boat and then out to my boat.  This is going to be so great Jade!  I can’t wait to start our life together.  I’ve already got everything all set up for us.  Just wait till you see it.  The boat is small but definitely big enough for two.  We will be spending most of our time in bed anyway so it doesn’t really matter does it?  Are you getting excited at the thought?”  he chuckled then in his own excitement. 

His words somehow broke me from my trance and I began pulling at the hand over my mouth and clawing at his arm around my waist.  His response was to stop walking and grip me tighter with both arms.  I couldn’t breathe and pain shot up from my abdomen.  I yelped in pain from under his hand covering my mouth.

“STOP IT!  No more of that or I will have to punish you Jade and you know I don’t want to have to do that.”  He released his grip slightly and the pain subsided a little.  He continued walking backwards, glancing behind him ever few steps.

At that moment, I wanted to die.

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I did a double take at the source of the sound and couldn’t believe what I was seeing.   I instantly dropped to the ground to get out of his site.

Glancing up slowly, I saw he had rounded the corner of the house and I began to follow him, keeping to the shadows, crawling low on hands and knees.

The guy was trying to figure out how to get down the stairs while carrying Jade.  He had begun struggling with her weight and had his full attention focused on the problem. I slowly raised up my head just enough, to catch Jade’s attention.

“Bite,” I mimicked to her but she didn’t seem to understand or maybe was too scared to do it.  I raised up my hand close to my mouth and once again mimicked BITE.  Next thing I knew this guy squealed, like a girl I might add, dropping Jade who then fell down the stairs.

“YOU LITTLE BITCH,” he screamed.  “YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT!“

I rushed up the stairs, jumped high and kicked the guy straight in the side of the throat.  He flew backwards and landed on his back with the loudest thud, which was odd considering how skinny he seemed to be.

I was on him in a second.  Flipped him over, knee to the back with one arm pulled up behind him.  He screamed out in pain then began yelling for Jade.

“Jade!  Help me!  Save me!”

Jade had buried her face in her hands, frozen in her spot.

“You little whore!  You led me on and betrayed me.  I will get you for this.  You will be mine no matter what.  No one else will have you.”

Jin and Sun came running around the corner with panicked looks on their faces.  Jin knelt on the deck beside me and reached around my body.  

“Let go Travis.  I’ve got him.”  But I only tightened my grip causing another scream from the man under me.

“Travis, let go,” Jin repeated again.  “Travis, Jade needs you.”

Those words snapped me out of my trance and I let go, making sure Jin really did have him.  Jumping off the deck, I wrapped Jade in my arms, turning her away from her attacker.

“Get your hands off her!  She is mine!  Jade come back here,” he screamed after us as I walked her back to the house.

“C’mon baby!  What about all our plans?”  His words faded as I closed the door.

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Author’s Note:  If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, there is a national Sexual Assault Hotline 1-800.656.HOPE (4673), where you can speak with trained staff who will assist you with all your needs.

The website: https://www.rainn.org/about-national-sexual-assault-telephone-hotline