Arrhythmia Read online

  That was correct, of course. After all, I wasn’t too far from the only part of town where people were still out at this time of night, and other night owls would be walking home to sleep it off.

  Still, I felt uneasy. Part of it was that no one seemed to think it was important to have working streetlamps on this particular street. It was dark and creepy. There were no lights in any of the windows. Everything felt desolate, and this only intensified my feeling of horror.

  And now the unknown steps were approaching faster, to boot. I automatically quickened my pace and even forgot to limp. Just when I was at the point of breaking into a full-on run, I heard a strange voice call, “Hey, wait up!”

  Defying all common sense, I stopped and turned around.

  I was relieved to see the guy with the snake tattoo. Then again, I couldn’t be so sure whether that was something to be relieved about.

  “Hey, what’s up?” I asked, trying to sound cool.

  Snake Tattoo quickened his pace, and in frighteningly little time, he was standing in front of me.

  “You’re not going home already, are you?” he asked.

  “Sure looks like it,” I said, exhausted. “I’m wiped. What about you? Do you live around here?” I had never seen this guy before, and I was wondering what he was doing in this neighborhood in the middle of the night.

  “No, I’m staying with a buddy.”

  I see. “Does he live here?”

  “No.”

  Huh?

  “Then what are you doing here?” I asked, perplexed.

  “Well, I ran after you because I wanted to talk to you,” he admitted.

  Good. At least he was honest. Still, he was out of luck.

  “Oh, you know what? I’m really sorry, but I’m exhausted and all I want is to go to bed,” I explained to him. “You should probably go back to the others and party some more. Have fun!”

  I waved and tried to continue on my way. Snake Tattoo thought for a moment and caught up again.

  “Come on. The night is still young,” he said, walking next to me.

  I padded on with a sigh. “No, the night is finished for me. I’m going home.”

  “You could take me with you,” he suggested.

  Without stopping, I gave him a dismissive look. “No.”

  “Why not?” He seemed irritated. “You wouldn’t regret it.”

  By then we’d reached a bigger road, and the light from the numerous streetlamps gave me a feeling of relative security.

  Annoyed, I stopped and crossed my arms. “Listen. I said no and that means no.” Were there no men left in the world who understood the meaning of this word? “So go back to the club and find another girl you can make happy!”

  All at once, his impertinent grin morphed into a sinister grimace. I noticed that he had a thin scar over his right eye, lending his angry face a downright dangerous quality.

  “First you come on to me and then you just bail? What sort of slut are you?” he growled.

  “Excuse me?” Although all of the alarm bells in my head were going off, I was getting pissed. “I admit that my dancing wasn’t exactly classy, but that doesn’t make me a slut! Now leave me alone!”

  Snake Tattoo grabbed my arm roughly. “It’s not that easy, sweetie! You can’t just turn me on and then get rid of me! You’re going to have to finish what you started.”

  What is going on? This was like a bad dream.

  “Let me go, you psycho!” I cried out and tried to free myself from him.

  He only sneered and pulled me to him.

  Holy shit, was he strong!

  Helpless, I slammed into him.

  “Come on, don’t make a fuss,” he panted into my ear as he wrapped his other arm around me. With wet lips, he began to kiss my neck.

  I felt so ill that I almost vomited on him.

  I kicked and pushed against him, but my efforts only tightened his embrace.

  I began to panic and screamed like mad.

  Right away, Snake Tattoo pressed his revolting lips on mine to silence me. He used one hand to grab my head and the other to dig his fingers into my ass.

  That allowed me to wrench one arm free. I grabbed one of my pumps by the toe and swung the heel at his temple. I caused a lovely laceration right above the left eyebrow, and blood immediately started gushing out of it.

  “You cunt!” he bellowed angrily.

  “You fucking asshole!” I spat even more angrily. I wiped his saliva off my face in disgust. Revolting. I spat at his feet. “Get lost, you pig!”

  That was, of course, a huge mistake, but at that moment I just couldn’t think straight.

  His fist came out of nowhere and hit my cheekbone, full force.

  I staggered backward with a groan. My pumps fell to the ground. Dazed, I slumped down, and everything briefly went black.

  Just before I hit the asphalt, I could feel something suffocating me. Snake Tattoo had wrapped one arm around me and was dragging me across the pavement like a wet sack. I noticed the strap of my purse being torn off before I lost consciousness again.

  When I came to, I was lying on my back and squinting into a bright light. The lettering above my head said “Obermeier Meat Market.” That meant I was in a small parking lot blocked off from the main road by a large building. I groaned and tried to grasp the situation.

  In a flash, he was on me.

  He had his full weight on top of me, preventing me from running away. Drooling, he ran one hand over my neck and from there to my breast. His eyes told me quite clearly what was in store. I took a deep breath and screamed as loudly as I could.

  He pressed his hand to my mouth and sneered. “That won’t do you any good, whore. Your best bet is to stop fighting me and just enjoy it. I’m sure you will!”

  A mortal fear overtook me. A madman was intent on raping me. In the middle of the parking lot of a meat market in an idyllic small town called Wollbach. That just wasn’t right. Things like this didn’t happen in my little hometown. Especially not to me. This couldn’t happen to me!

  I whimpered and desperately tried to pry his hand from my mouth. He did not let go in the least, despite my scratching and pinching.

  When I felt something cold on my neck, I froze in terror.

  “There’s a good girl. If you don’t hold still, I’m going to cut up your pretty face. That would be a shame.” Grinning, he held a giant knife before my eyes. “So, are you going to hold still or not?”

  He pushed his pelvis farther between my legs, and I could distinctly feel his erection through his jeans. He was breathing fitfully, and his breath stank like rotting meat.

  I was overcome by a wave of disgust and panic.

  Gathering all my strength, I desperately lunged for the knife, for his face, for anything I could reach, because I knew one thing for sure: I would rather die than give up without a fight!

  With a curse, he loosened his gag to fight off my wild punches. I immediately began to scream like crazy. A dull pain penetrated my right forearm.

  Blood was dripping onto my face. I had no idea whether it was coming from him or from me, but at that moment I couldn’t have cared less. I continued to thrash about wildly while the warm liquid flowed into my eyes, blinding me.

  All of a sudden, his immense weight disappeared with a jerk. I instantly rolled onto my knees and blindly crawled forward. I heard muffled sounds and then a male scream of pain. Shaking with fear and panic, I struggled to my feet and tried to wipe the blood from my eyes.

  It took a moment to fully grasp the scene being played out in front of me.

  Desiderio was standing before Snake Tattoo with his fists raised, while Snake Tattoo was waving his knife. The two of them circled each other, their muscles tightly flexed. Each seemed to be waiting for even the faintest signal to start tearing the other to pieces. />
  I frantically looked around. It was clear that Desiderio knew what he was doing, his posture suggesting martial arts experience. Still, Snake Tattoo had his knife, and he only had to make one targeted hit to win the fight unequivocally.

  What could I do? I had to help Desiderio!

  And what was he doing here anyway?

  That last part wasn’t terribly relevant at this particular moment, but the question did come to my mind.

  The reality was that he had pulled the rapist off me and was now confronting him, undaunted by death. Whereas I was standing around, not being especially helpful, and feeling stupid.

  I noticed the fist-sized cobblestones surrounding the meat market in a very neat sunken pattern. Without even thinking, I grabbed a couple of them.

  My PE teacher would have been proud.

  My first throw hit the asshole hard in the shoulder. He groaned in surprise, and Desiderio at once took the opportunity to attack.

  With almost superhuman speed, he kicked the knife out of the rapist’s hand. Almost simultaneously, he jumped forward and gave him a fusillade of punches in the stomach.

  I did my part by continuing to pitch stones at the staggering rapist, screaming ugly insults that just erupted out of me.

  Snake Tattoo cowered and withdrew more and more until he finally ran away.

  “Yeah! Run away, you miserable pig!” I shouted after him, spitting blood like a fountain. “You asshole! You subhuman motherfucker!”

  Desiderio had come over to me, but I didn’t notice until he placed a soothing hand on my trembling shoulders. “He’s gone,” he said softly.

  I looked at my savior as if he were a mirage, while he, in turn, looked me over with horror. His face told me that I was quite a sight.

  “Shit,” he muttered. “I’d better call an ambulance.”

  He was rummaging for his cell phone when I resolutely shook my head.

  “No,” I said.

  “No?” he repeated incredulously.

  “What I need now is a shower and bed,” I intoned flatly.

  “But you’re covered in blood! You probably have to—”

  “It’s not mine,” I interrupted him gruffly. “At least not all of it. I think. Whatever. I just want to go home, do you understand? Just go home.”

  My last words were hardly more than a whisper. Desiderio clearly did not agree with my decision, but he accepted my wish. “But only if I can take you home and make sure you’re OK.”

  I nodded weakly and limped toward the main road. On the way, I found my broken purse and my shoes. Desiderio picked up everything and carried it for me. We were silent on the short walk to my apartment.

  The whole time, I felt like I was in a strange dream. This experience was simply too horrible to be true. I saw everything as if through a dense veil and put one foot in front of the other without thinking. I just hoped that I would wake up soon.

  At my front door, I wanted to get rid of Desiderio. He silenced me with one look, and I understood that there was no way I could get him to leave me alone at this moment. Powerless, I conceded.

  “I’m going to shower,” I mumbled and left him standing in the hallway.

  “Please keep the door unlocked so I can get to you if you need help,” he demanded calmly.

  Without answering, I disappeared into the bathroom. Inside, my hand briefly lingered over the lock but did not turn it.

  I mechanically peeled off my torn dress and stuffed it in the trash. What a waste. I also threw away my underwear, even though the material seemed to be intact. Still. I neatly placed my jewelry and headband next to the sink. That’s when I looked in the mirror.

  A blood-smeared face with glassy eyes devoid of any expression looked back at me.

  I didn’t recognize myself. The girl with the crusty mask of blood and the empty eyes had to be a ghost, because no one could possibly look like that and be alive.

  Red liquid dripped into the basin. Through the cloudy veil, I could see that I had a long cut on my right forearm that was bleeding slightly. The cut was smooth and relatively superficial, so it didn’t necessarily need sutures. I rinsed the wound with water and clumsily wound a bandage around it with my left hand.

  I stepped into the shower and freed my face from the blood of my tormentor. As I lathered and scrubbed myself, my head was empty. My only objective was to get rid of the dirt. All traces of Snake Tattoo had to be removed from my body. Without regard to my aching injuries, I scrubbed myself with an exfoliating sponge to remove every last speck of him.

  When the pain of my many abrasions reached my numb brain, I turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. I stood in front of the mirror, dripping wet, and checked to see whether the ghost had disappeared.

  It had. The face staring back did, indeed, belong to me.

  I calmly removed the last traces of mascara with a makeup wipe and then just stood in front of the mirror looking at my swollen cheek.

  The numb feeling in my limbs gradually disappeared, and I became aware of the full extent of my injuries. The cut on my arm and the swelling in my face were joined by various abrasions on both legs and pain in my neck from the stranglehold. And with the pain came the memories.

  The sneering of my attacker, the putrid breath, the bulge in his pants. The feeling of complete helplessness as he lay on top of me . . .

  I was overcome by a powerful sense of revulsion, and I began to gag. I hurried over to the toilet bowl, kneeled in front of it, and began to vomit. Once my stomach calmed down, I weakly slumped to the floor and began to cry.

  Like a beaten dog, I crawled into a corner of the bathroom and leaned against the cold tiles. Sobbing, I wrapped my arms around my knees and curled up. The cold tiles felt good. They cooled my stricken body and rendered it numb once more.

  I heard the door open very quietly.

  Desiderio. In my misery, I had completely forgotten that he was there. And now I was cowering in a corner, stark naked and blubbering . . .

  “Go away,” I sobbed and buried my face in the crook of my arm. “Please go away.”

  I felt him covering me with a warm cloth. My robe. Without looking up, I wrapped myself in it as though it would help me hide.

  “Go away,” I whispered again.

  He ignored that and instead sat down on the floor next to me. I didn’t want him to see me like this.

  “Please leave,” I whimpered. “Please go now.”

  “No,” said Desiderio calmly. He gingerly put an arm around me. “I’m not going to leave you alone right now. I’m here for you.”

  Overwhelmed, I hiccuped a sob and slumped against him. He received me with a gentle embrace and just held me. An unimaginable feeling of safety surrounded me and opened the gates of my despair. All the fears and the panic of the horrible experience flooded out of me. While I bawled and my entire body was racked with cramps, Desiderio tenderly stroked my back. Although I was pretty much naked, I felt completely safe with him. At that moment, I understood with absolute certainty that he would never do me any harm. This thought made me bawl even harder and cling to him as if I were drowning.

  My tears slowly dried, and the convulsive sobs grew quieter. All the while, Desiderio was whispering soothing words into my hair and rocking me gently in his arms, as if I were a small child. I allowed him to hold me with my eyes closed and yielded to the enveloping safety and warmth.

  “I’m so sorry,” I finally said in a husky voice.

  “What are you sorry for?” he asked, perplexed.

  “Everything,” I cried, as if it should have been obvious. “That you’re having to spend a night on the floor here with me and, oh yeah, that you almost got killed.”

  He laughed softly, making his rib cage vibrate. “You are really astounding, little warrioress.”

  He looked at me lovingly. “You don’t nee
d to apologize for anything. If anything, I’m to blame for this whole mess.”

  “You?” I looked up at him in surprise.

  “If I hadn’t been such an idiot, you wouldn’t have run away.”

  I vigorously shook my head. “I would have gone home anyway.”

  “Well then, I just should have been faster,” he said, sounding bitter.

  “How come you were there anyway?” I wanted to know. “I mean, not that I’m not glad you were, but . . . You know. What were you doing there?”

  “I looked for you because I felt awful about how we left things. Vera told me where you live, and so I thought I’d come knock on your door. You screamed at the same moment I spotted your shoes, and that’s how I found you in the parking lot.” He paused and gently stroked my swollen cheek. Despite the gentle touch, I twitched. “That filthy pig. If I had just—”

  “Stop,” I interrupted him. I snuggled up to his chest again as if it were a totally normal thing. “I’m so glad you were there at all. I don’t even want to think about what would have happened to me otherwise.”

  The thought made me shudder. Desiderio felt it and pulled me closer.

  Despite his close physical proximity and my nakedness, there was nothing sexual in our embrace. The intimacy that had developed between us was based on something entirely different. On trust. And that confused me more and more.

  Although every fiber of my body fought against it, I finally moved away from him a little.

  “Let’s get up. My butt is completely numb,” I said, smiling.

  He smiled back gently. “Thank goodness. I thought I was the only one with that problem.” He stood up and stretched his back. “Oof, I’m getting old!”

  I giggled softly.

  “That’s not funny, young lady. You’ll notice it, too, in another few years.” He grinned and stretched out his hand to help me up.

  “Uh . . . Maybe give me a minute, OK?” I gestured to the pathetic state of my attire.

  “Oh yeah, sure. Sorry.” He hurried out of the bathroom.

  Could it be that the unflappable Desiderio had just blushed?

  I scrambled to my feet with a groan and put my robe on properly. My hair was half dry by now, so I dispensed with the hair dryer and made myself a turban with a towel. I rummaged in my first aid drawer for bandages and padded into the living room.