August 16th
Maryanne Bollinger was 35 years old and hated being called Maryanne. All of her friends and colleagues knew this, and always called her Mary. The reason behind this was that the only one that called her Maryanne was her father, and he had died while on the frontlines in the second great war. Her mother had died while giving birth to Mary, and her father had never remarried, so when he died she was left alone with no family.
Something good had, however, come out of the war. Since there was a shortage of men left at home it fell to the women to take on occupations that were considered “a man’s work”. This had led to Mary becoming one of few female paramedics in Maraheim. When the war ended her boss couldn’t find any reason to fire her, so she was kept on and was considered one of the best paramedics on staff. She always kept her head cool, never got overwhelmed and was often entrusted with teaching paramedics in training.
Her work didn’t leave much room for much of a social life, but she was happy with that. She remained unmarried, defying the social standards for women of the 1950´s. Some of the older women that worked at the hospital found her very odd because of this but Mary was content and didn’t care about the looks and the whispers. In a way she was a pioneer for female independence.
This, in combination with her beauty, made it hard for Mary to make and keep any female friends. Other women her age seem to find her raven black hair, sapphire blue eyes and athletic body a threat to their own sense of self esteem. This made Mary very reserved and untrusting towards others.
Her cold and distant attitude towards others did not however stop some men from asking her out and becoming infuriated when she told them no. But it didn’t take them long to find someone else to court. Well, most of them anyway. There was one man that unbeknownst to Mary had fallen so deeply in love with her that it had crossed the line into obsession. His name was Robert Brooks and he was her partner in work. Mary often thought of Robert as her only friend, completely oblivious about his growing obsession with her. He was a good looking man with sandy brown hair, hazel eyes and well trained body, and he was convinced that she would one day fall head over heels for him and they would live happily ever after.
But as time went by and she didn’t show any signs of reciprocating his feelings he became increasingly frustrated with having to wait for her.
Eventually he convinced himself that there had to be someone else in her life and began following her after work to see who she interacted with when she wasn’t with him. When he couldn’t find any obvious lover when she was outside of her home he figured that he must live in the same apartment building as her, so he started to stand outside her building for hours on end trying to see if she had company. He even went inside a few times to listen at her door, but all he ever saw and heard was her radio and the silhouette of her as she moved around her home.
This made him both perplexed and frustrated, as there was no obvious reason for her not to show interest in him. After all, he was a catch! Anyone could see that! Maybe he needed to show her that? But he had to be careful so he wouldn’t scare her off. After all, she seemed very shy and it was obvious that she hadn’t had any man to show her the way a real woman should be. He needed to court her without her knowing it was him, as that would perhaps scare her off. He started leaving notes in her mailbox with romantic content. It started with relatively innocent things like “Hi, beautiful, I hope you get to have a day as wonderful as you”, but in his eagerness to win her over it quickly escalated. Very soon she would receive notes with “I see you every day, you are my sunshine” and “I really like that blue shirt you had on yesterday, it made your eyes shine”.
Mary was, of course, not flattered by this. She found it to be very creepy that someone was watching her and taking note of what she was wearing and doing on an everyday basis. Because by this time the notes appeared every day, and had escalated to confessions of eternal love. One day she found a note that said “I will love you forever. Everything about you drives me mad with desire for you. From the scar on your right hand to your raven black hair. I will have you. I will make you mine”.
She took this note to the police, but they said that it was probably a prank or someone that was too shy to ask her out, and in either case the person would probably get tired of doing this, and the notes would stop coming. The best thing she could do was just to ignore them.
She did her best not to show her worry to anyone, because in her mind, it was her burden to carry, and who would she confide in anyway? Not even the police would believe her or take her seriously, so why should anyone else?
In any case, she had her work to keep her mind occupied and off the creepy notes. Maybe she could confide in Robert? He was the closest thing she had to a friend, and he might just understand. But just as quickly as the thought appeared she shook it off. No need to tell him. What could he do about it anyway?
Robert was becoming frustrated. Why didn’t she say anything about the notes? She should be flattered that someone showed interest in her, and he was convinced that she would be ecstatic and fall into his arms when he finally revealed that he was the one sending the notes. After all, why wouldn’t she? She wasn’t getting any younger, and he was everything she needed to make her life complete, he was sure of it.
He decided to get her alone so that he could finally confess. He made sure to get in to work before their shift started so that he could tell her that there had been a call for an urgent transport when she came in. She wouldn’t question this, it happened every now and then, and she would never risk a patient’s life by asking questions about details. It went as he had planned, and she jumped in the passenger seat while still putting on her gear. He started the siren and drove out from the garage with break-neck speed. He had explored the forest surrounding Maraheim a few days prior and found a perfect place to confess his love for her. There was an abandoned quarry just outside town, it was secluded and would provide the perfect amount of privacy needed for such an emotional moment. He was convinced that if he could just get her alone her armor would fall off and she would become the perfect submissive woman he always knew he could be with.
When they arrived she bolted out of the ambulance to find the patient without realizing that Robert didn’t follow her. Once she stopped she looked around, confused, as there was nobody to be seen. No patient, no one looking for them. She turned to Robert to ask for details to find him leaning on the ambulance with a nonchalant smile on his picture perfect lips.
“Robert, what…”she started to say, but he walked up to her, placing a finger on her lips.
“Schh, my pretty girl, '' he said. “I have a confession, and I really need you to listen now. I know that you have been receiving notes from someone unknown to you in your mailbox over some time now. The time has come now for me to tell you that it’s me. I am your secret admirer, and I know we will be good together. You still have a few child bearing years, and you will not have to work. I will provide for the both of us, and you can become a housewife and take care of the house and kids. I love you, Mary, and I will have you. Be my wife and you will never have to worry about anything ever again”
Mary felt her stomach drop. At first she thought that it was some sort of joke, even though she failed to see the funny part, but there was a glimmer in Robert’s eyes that told a different story. A story of obsession bordering on insanity. Her self preservation instincts kicked in, and she knew she had to find a way to get back to town without making this clearly irrational man angry with her. Scared out of her mind, she managed to speak with a shivering voice.
“Robert…this is all so sudden…I don’t know what to say, I…”
“You don’t need to say anything, I already know the answer. You belong to me now, and there’s no reason for us to wait any longer. We can get a marriage certificate and get married within a week. I need you now, all of you.”
While he was talking he had put his arms around her and pushed her up against the ambulance. She could feel his breath against her face, and she closed her eyes as if to shield herself from seeing the raw animalistic insanity that had taken over her partner. She felt his lips against hers, but she couldn’t bring herself to kiss him back. Robert, convinced of her shyness as he was, took this as an incentive to further encourage her to give in to him. She just needed a bit more persuasion. He used his considerable height and bodyweight to push her even harder against the ambulance and started to force his tongue into her mouth.
Mary let out a whimper as she realized that he would not give up. She clenched her fists and began hammering on his back to get him to understand that she didn’t want this. Everything about this triggered a primal fight or flight response in her. This only seemed to make him more frantic in his attempt to get her to give in to him. He took half a step back and took her flailing fists in one of his hands, while wrapping the other around her throat. He forced her hands towards his groin, and she could feel something throbbing against the fabric of his pants, struggling to get out.
“See what you are doing to me, you little tease? You pretend that you don’t want it, but I know you do” he hissed.
Before she even knew how, she found herself on the ground with Robert on top of her. Her hands were locked against the ground above her head by one of his hands. His other hand had let go of her throat and was now ripping frantically at her shirt. She tried to kick him and managed to bring a knee towards his groin, but she didn’t manage to get enough strength to make it hurt for him. He did notice this, and proceeded to sit on her, making it impossible for her to kick him.
“You bitch! You know you will like this, you just need to stop fighting it! I will be the best thing that ever happened to you!”. He spat the words out, while ripping her shirt open. He paused for a minute, looking at her generous chest and let out a sigh.
“I knew you were beautiful, but I never knew you had these hiding underneath your clothes. They are all mine now”
He scooted down a bit so that he was now sitting on her thighs. Still holding her hands locked, he ripped her pants open and with one move she found herself exposed from the waist down. He was panting from both the struggle and excitement now, and he looked like a predator that had taken down a prey. His eyes were wild, sweat was running down his face. She couldn’t even recognize the man she had worked with for five years, and at some point considered a friend. She was crying silent tears as he opened his own pants, revealing his erect penis. She had never seen one before, and thought it was the most horrendous thing she had ever laid her eyes on. If she had actually wanted this, she may have thought differently, but now it looked like something from a horror story.
She realized that the world had gone quiet. No, not quiet. This was beyond silence. This was the absence of sound. Maybe it was her senses shutting down to protect her. She had given up fighting, she knew it was pointless.
The only thing she was aware of was the excruciating burning pain that occurred when he penetrated her with that monster. She had never known pain like this. He started to move up and down, clearly enjoying the sense of power he had over her. His bodyweight pinned her against the ground, she had no way of escaping or defending herself. All she could do was endure and hope that this pain would end. She had no sense of time, but she suddenly felt his body tense and his movements getting more intense. Something exploded in her and he relaxed. She saw her chance when his grip on her loosened and mustered the last of her strength to roll him off her. Quickly she grabbed her clothes and ran towards the woods. Later on she would question why she just didn’t get into the ambulance and ran him over, but she chalked it up to having to run from him, and getting into the ambulance would have meant staying close to him.
She could hear him struggling to get up behind her.
“NOOO! YOU’RE MINE NOW!” he screamed as he realized that she had gotten away. She knew it was only a matter of time before he would start to chase her down. She needed to find somewhere to hide and catch her breath. The forest was old and dense, so she found a boulder with a hollow underneath. It was big enough for her to hide in, but Robert was far too big to get in there if he even found it. She slid into the hollow before she could consider any option. He was not far behind her, and from her hiding spot she could hear him come running, yelling her name. He called her every ugly name he could think of. His primal nature had taken over completely and he was not about to let her get away. She needed to think of something. He looked around the boulder for a while, but failed to see the hollow and moved on. She could hear him move further away, and when she couldn’t hear him anymore she started to assess the damage done to her. Her throat was sore, and at some point he had apparently hit her in the face, she could feel her left eye swelling up. She wiped her lips with the back of her hand and saw that she was bleeding. She wasn’t sure if it was from biting herself or from the hit he gave her. None of this was any cause for concern though. The bleeding from her vagina, however, was cause for concern. It was bleeding a lot making trails down the inside of her thighs. In his effort to get her pants off he had also made deep scratches on her pubic area. Her ambulance uniform came with a small first aid pack, but it was very basic. Some gauze, compresses, cooling packs and antiseptic. She used one of the compresses to wipe up the blood, then she used the antiseptic to clean up as well as she could before using the cooling packs to try and stem the bleeding. She used the gauze to tie the remaining compresses into place against the deepest gashes. All of this was very painful, and she wasn’t sure if it would work, but it was better than nothing.
A sudden noise from the outside made her flinch. She mustered the courage to peek outside and saw Robert coming back through the woods. He had a scratch across his forehead, he was limping and his hair was covered in needles and leaves from the trees.
“WHERE ARE YOU, YOU WHORE? DON’T YOU KNOW BY NOW THAT YOU ARE MINE? SHOW YOURSELF BEFORE THIS GETS WORSE FOR YOU!” he screamed while frantically looking around.
“THAT’S IT! I’M DONE LOOKING FOR YOU! WHEN YOU HAVE COME TO YOUR SENSES I WILL BE WAITING BY THE AMBULANCE!”
As he started to limp away she swore under her breath. She didn’t know this forest well enough to find her way back to town without going through the quarry, and who knew how long he would be waiting for her? No, she knew deep down what she needed to do. She needed to fight back. But how? She started to think through her options. She needed to gain the upper hand, and that meant having to use something to incapacitate him for long enough so that she could get into the ambulance and get away. A memory of a news article suddenly popped into her head. Something about the scaffolding surrounding the quarry being unstable and scheduled for demolition as soon as it could be done without risking the quarry collapsing in on itself. The scaffolding…how unstable was it? Could she maybe use it to trap Robert under some debris? She decided it was the best option, and started forming her plan. She snuck around the edge of the quarry, very carefully so that Robert wouldn’t spot her. She thought that he would notice her when she accidentally kicked something that made a metallic clang at one point, but he didn’t seem to hear it. She picked up the object and it was a shovel that one of the workers must have left behind when the quarry was shut down. Maybe she could use it to hit Robert on the head with? She stopped and looked around at the platform she had stopped at. Unstable to say the least. There was no way she would be able to climb down, or for him to climb up without the thing falling apart. But maybe she could lure him around to the top, where she was now and make him believe that she was climbing down?
She started to sneak back to where she had first entered the woods. It was time for her to do this. She knew she was still bleeding and she was starting to feel a bit dizzy and weak.
“Hey Robert! Here I am! Come and get me!” she yelled as she got as closed as she dared to. He flinched in her direction, spotting her immediately.
“There you are, you bitch. I meant what I said, come here now, and it wont get any worse for you” he growled and started to walk towards her.
“I will not make it easy for you. You will have to catch me!” she said and started to slowly run away from him. She needed him to be able to see her until he was in the right place.
She lured him closer to the platform, but before he could get there she hid behind a tree, giving her a free line of sight to the platform. She took out a few pebbles she had in her pocket and waited. He stopped at exactly the right place and looked around for her. Quickly she flicked one of the pebbles towards the platform. It missed. She took a deep breath and picked up another pebble. It hit the spot, making a rattling noise as it bounced down the scaffolding.
“FOUND YOU, YOU BITCH!” he screamed. In his adrenaline fueled rage he didn’t consider the danger of climbing down the scaffolding. A smile started to form in the corners of her mouth as she watched him going out on the platform. It was clearly wobbling, but he was determined to catch her. When he had gotten about halfway down and the scaffolding still hadn’t collapsed she realized that it needed a push or something in order for her plan to work. She didn’t want to take the chance to run to the ambulance if he was still able to come after her.
She walked up to the platform and looked at it. All it would take was some sort of leverage to push it out a bit from the wall. She took the shovel and started to try and make it collapse. Suddenly there was a loud crack and it started to fall. Robert looked up and the last thing he saw before his line of sight being obscured by debris was her smiling face. He felt a sudden pain across the lower part of his back as a beam struck him. It broke his spine in two and pulled him down with it towards the ground. When he landed his body was essentially split in two. The force of the fall had crushed his midsection and folded him around the beam. He was dead before he hit the ground.
Mary watched all of this happen with a big grin on her face. Once she was sure he was dead and buried under debris, she started to walk back towards the ambulance. Luckily enough, Robert had left the keys in the ignition. She looked up one last time towards the pile of the debris hiding his body. She suddenly felt the urge to make sure that he was really dead. But she would drive as close as she could just to make sure she wouldn’t have to run to the ambulance in case he somehow was still alive.
Slowly she started to drive forward. Some small pieces of debris were still falling from the collapse, and she could hear small pings when pebbles struck the ambulance. When she got close enough to the pile she stretched her neck to try and see any signs of life. Just some dust settling, no signs of life. She let out a sigh of relief and leaned back in her seat.
All of the sudden she heard a rumble. At first she thought it was a thunderstorm or an earthquake, but when she looked out the windshield she saw a large boulder come falling from the edge where she had previously stood. Instinctively she leaned back, away from the danger.
The last thing Mary saw before the boulder came down, crushing the cab of the ambulance with her in it was her own face in the rearview mirror. Her last thought went towards Robert.
“I will never let anyone ever find his remains so that he will be forced to walk this earth forever”
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