“Shut your mouth. Or I will do it”.

His voice was calm. There wasn’t a tremor of emotion: just cold hard fact. She whimpered and pulled herself back against the wall of the barn. He knelt down next to her. She could smell the stale nicotine on his breath and clothes, mixed with the musty animal odour of the barn. A part of her wanted to attack him there and then. To bite into his face and to keep biting and ripping until her blood-lust had been satiated and he stopped moving. The other part, the frightened part wanted to push back into the wall, to become a part of it, and for the pain and fear to stop.

“I asked you to do one simple thing. One … simple … thing.”

Again, that cold emotionless tone.

“Why? Why does it have to be like this? You know it doesn’t have to be. It is entirely up to you. All you need to do is do what you are told.”

He turned away from her, gulping down a mouthful of coffee.

She wanted him to shout, to get angry, something. She couldn’t read someone like this and the lack of emotions actually frightened her more than if a raging madman stood over her. She didn’t know what to say to him. She knew she had to stall for time. But she didn’t know how. The panic started to overcome her again, and from that, the tears started to well. She got angry. She couldn’t show him her tears. She refused to show any more weakness. He fed on it. It was what fuelled his feeling of power over her. People like him always got their kicks that way.

“You know what. I’m in no hurry.” He said. “And no-one will be coming by out here for a good few hours. So you take your time and think about it how we are gonna fix this.”

It was the same shit every time. She had been putting up with this for the last six years. Enough was enough. Sliding herself up the wall into a standing position, she wiped her eyes with the arm ends of her turquoise cardigan, and fixed her hair, tidying it back into a ponytail. He hated when she looked weak. She knew this. It irritated him. Rubbing her clothes down, she said seductively,

“Marty?”

 Marty turned and eyed her suspiciously, looking her up and down. He shifted his feet.