Seth’s expression darkened. “I can handle Lila.”
The strange man laughed, his head tipped back as he roared with amusement. Finally, he straightened up and said. “Good luck with that, Seth. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
The stranger disappeared back into the crowd, and Mara frowned at his back. “Who’s Lila?”
“She’s nobody. Don’t worry about what Donny said. He’s just jealous.”
“Jealous of what?” Mara asked with a teasing note in her voice.
Seth squeezed her hand. “That I’ve got the prettiest girl in the world all to myself.”
Mara couldn’t help but return his broad smile and allowed him to introduce her to all the people in the hall. The next thirty minutes passed in a blur of new faces and names until she thought her head would explode.
As she finished one beer, another took its place until her veins buzzed from the alcohol. The room began to spin, and she shook her head when Seth pressed a shot glass to her lips. “No, thanks.”
“Oh, come on. Don’t be a spoilsport,” he said, winking at her.
Unable to resist his charm, Mara tossed back the fiery liquid. He offered her another, and another. It didn’t take long for the shots to kick in, and she lost all sense of time and reality.
“Let’s dance!” Seth cried, dragging her into the throng of bodies that crowded the hall. Together, they swayed to the music, limbs intertwined as sweat poured down their skin. Their gyrating hips snaked through the air in a rhythm as old as time, and the lights above pulsed in time to the beat of their hearts. It was both scary and intoxicating.
When Seth leaned down to kiss her, Mara didn’t protest. Instead, she closed her eyes and returned the kiss with wild abandon. Around them, the crowd cheered, but she paid no attention. All that mattered was the absence of fear and loneliness, and the presence of hope. This is like a dream come true.
But, a sudden shriek tore Mara from her fugue state, and she snapped back to reality with the suddenness of a rubber band. An iron grip took hold of her hair, and she screamed with pain when her head was yanked backward with brutal force.
“Don’t move, you little slut,” a low voice growled in her ear, and Mara froze when the blade of a knife was pressed to the sensitive skin of her throat.
“Wh…who are you?” Mara whimpered, trying to make sense of the situation through a haze of alcohol. She spied a dark-haired woman from the corner of her eyes, though it was hard to make out any details through the pulsing lights above.
Her question was answered when Seth spoke. “Lila, please. Let her go.”
Lila! This is the woman Donny spoke of earlier, Mara realized, though she dared not make a move for fear of getting her throat cut.
“Who is this, Seth?” Lila asked. “A new whore for your amusement?”
“No, Lila. It’s nothing like that, I swear it. I, uh, we found her in the supermarket,” Seth said. “Her name is Mara.”
“Mara, you say. What a pretty name for such a pretty girl,” Lila mused, her hand twisting Mara’s hair into a knot until her eyes brimmed with tears.
“Please, don’t hurt me. I didn’t know,” Mara said, her voice rough with fear and horror.
“Shut up, you little slut,” Lila hissed. “Didn’t know what? That you were fucking around with my man?”
“Lila, please,” Seth began, raising his hands in a placating manner. “It’s not like that. I thought she could join us. We could use the extra hands.”
“Did you?” Lila asked, her eyes narrowing. “And I bet you also thought she could warm your bed at night, mm?”
“Of course, not,” Seth said, reaching out to her. “You know you’re the only woman for me, babe. I’d never touch another.”
“Liar!” Lila slapped his hand away. She began to walk backward, dragging the hapless Mara with her. “I saw you two kiss. Don’t take me for a fool.”
“I’m sorry,” Mara said, desperate to placate the murderous Lila.
“Oh, you’ll be sorry, all right,” Lila murmured in her ear. “Once I’m done with you, no man will ever want you again.”
“No!” Mara cried as terror spurted through her veins. She began to struggle despite the knife pressed to her throat.
Seth followed, still pleading with Lila, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. Ignoring him, Lila forced Mara to her knees.
Mara’s eyes fixed on the object that loomed in front of her face. A burning drum. Flames licked from the top, throwing weird shadows against the wall. Even from a distance of three feet, she could feel the heat emanating from the sides. Horror suffused her brain. She can’t mean to…it’s not possible. No one could be that cruel.
Before Mara could utter a single protest, Lila shoved her forward. As the delicate skin of her left cheek made contact with the molten metal, Mara’s entire nervous system exploded with pure, raw agony. Her muscles seized, and her body went rigid with shock. A sizzling noise filled her ears, quickly overlaid by the awful sound of her screams.
She struck out with her arms and legs, desperate to get away from the heat, but Lila was relentless. With both hands, she pressed Mara’s face into the drum, her cruel laughter ringing in Mara’s ears.
Unbelievably, the pain grew. It rose and rose until it crashed before rising in pitch again, over and over again. A few seconds became an eternity, and all other thoughts faded into oblivion. Nothing mattered but the sensation of her skin melting like wax.
Finally, it was over.
Lila tossed her to the floor like a rag doll where Mara lay broken, powerless to resist. Her screams didn’t stop. Nor did the agony. Instead, it grew until she thought she would go insane. The last thing she remembered before blacking out, was the smell of burnt flesh in her nostrils.
***
Mara shook her head with a wordless cry. As much as she tried to forget, that day still haunted her,
