A cold, damp chill and the acrid bite of dust and stale tobacco filled Lauren's senses as she struggled to open her eyelids. Reality blurred with the remnants of a nightmare.
Blurry and disoriented, she felt a pair of icy hands stroking her skin.
"Who's there?"
Lauren's eyes snapped open, bulging wide like a startled deer. As she shifted her focus, a horrifying scene unfolded before her.
Freddy sat by her bedside, his cold hands creeping along her slender waist, inching their way up, touching every inch of her skin.
"D-Don't touch me!" she rasped, the words laced with raw fear. A surge of adrenaline fueled a frantic struggle, but her limbs met only unyielding resistance. Only then did she realize that her hands and feet were bound.
Helpless and trapped, she could only watch as Freddy's hands roamed over her body, feeling the burning humiliation coursing through her veins.
"Don't touch?" Freddy smirked, his lips close to her ear as his hand continued to roam over her body. His voice dropped to a husky murmur, thick with desire. "Telling your precious fiancé to back off? Playing coy, are we? You've been with a man for so long. What haven't you done? Come, let's have some fun, as husband and wife."
"You're not my fiancé... You're not!" Tears welled in Lauren's eyes as she shook her head vigorously, desperate to escape the clutches of this vile man.
"Don't fight me when I'm being nice!" Freddy's patience wore thin, his demeanor shifting as his darker impulses took hold. His eyes widened, his arm rose, and he slapped her. "You're a lunatic despised by the Harpers. The Hodgsons graciously accepted you, yet you're ungrateful, seducing other men behind my back!
"Do you really think Cyrus Taylor would even consider you, you idiot? He just enjoys the thrill of competition! It's like how I despise Landon to the core, so I wanted to marry you-just to let him taste the bitterness of seeing the love of his life with another man."
With a rough shove, Freddy forced Lauren onto the bed. Reaching for his clothes, his eyes glinted with a dark possessiveness. "You're no innocent child anymore, Lauren. Landon's had his fill of you. You won't be losing anything if I have my turn with you too. Consider tonight our official night together, Lauren."
Lauren's body trembled uncontrollably. Tears streamed down her face as she screamed in defiance, a desperate struggle against her restraints. "Get lost! Get off of me! Don't touch me!"
But her resistance only seemed to fuel Freddy's twisted desire. A dark urge consumed him, his gaze fixated on her tearful state. He yearned to punish her, a twisted fulfillment of a depraved fantasy.
As Freddy reached for his belt, the door swung open with a bang.
Two figures a man and a woman-stood framed in the doorway, their expensive clothes marking their affluent status.