Dancing on Daddy's Shoes

by Mark McDonald

Chapter 9: Kirk's come back, unwanted but undeterred. He's come to take back what he believes is his. What's to stop him? Kim is after all, alone in the house.



Dancing On Daddy's Shoes - Chapter 9 - BROKEN

"Hi Kim," said the voice from directly behind her. "You sure look sweet today. I have to say though, I still like that cheerleaders outfit better."

Kim gasped and wheeled about 180 °, saw that her mind was not playing tricks on her, it was a man. That was about as far as her mind got before her books and papers hit the floor when her body spasmed with surprise and shock.

Kirk could see the fright in her eyes and smirked to himself at the rush of power he felt at that knowledge. There was something else in Kim's eyes however that threatened to unbalance his glee. Kirk recognized that she was angry with him. She's pissed! What the fuck could she possibly be pissed off at me about? Fucking little bitch. Kirk allowed himself to think and then stepped on that thought. It's not time yet, soon... but not yet. Instead he responded, "Whoa... Kimmy, relax. It's just me."

"What are you doing here?" Kim asked, her fear was underscored by the tremble in her tenor. Kim wanted THE answer, the true answer to that question. She couldn't keep her mind off the litany of horrible possibilities for why he might be here. She needed to hear him say, I just came by to apologize Kimmy. I promise, I won't bother you again. If that wasn't it, if there were another reason, Kim was afraid she'd have to start screaming. Just his appearance in the half-lit doorway of Robert's room was enough to nearly drive her mad. Shadows crossed his face only revealing the half-man thing Kim suspected Kirk was becoming in his mind.

"I've been waitin' for you." Kirk said stepping from the shadows. He was still wearing what he had worn yesterday, all the way down to his torn jacket. "I've been waiting to talk to you. I think we can still make this work Kimmy."

He's nuts. "My mother ¾" Kim began and then quickly rethought that strategy. "Robert is right behind me. You should leave Kirk."

"Why?" Kirk seemed genuinely perplexed at the suggestion. Kim's anger began to over shadow her fear and she beat it back. Fear keeps us alive… Stay alive Kim… she told herself. Whatever else you do, just stay alive.

The emotion was beginning to bubble up out of her. Her anger mingled with the frustration that he didn't care that he was frightening her, that he wouldn't leave, that she didn't want to have anything to do with him, was breaking free. "Because," Kim said tearing up, her fear winning out once more. "I'm not supposed to have boys up here. You weren't invited in… YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!" Kim cried her nerves finally reaching they're breaking point. "Please, go home Kirk." She wiped her fingers over her eyes, clearing the tears so she could see.

"No," Kirk said in a matter-of-fact tone, it sounded to Kim as if she'd asked if he wanted ice cream and he simply turned it down, "I won't leave, not without you." The tremors came to her limbs with those words. A black cloud, like swarming locusts, veiled her thoughts and heart. Kim thought she just might stop breathing right then and there. She tried to draw a breath and her lungs would not respond. Kirk stepped toward her, just one. She took a reflexive backward step toward her bedroom door.

Kirk matched it by stepping closer, his face crinkled in confusion, "You're trembling Kim,"

God damn him, she knew Kirk understood just how frightened she was now, never display fear around a feral dog, they can smell it...

Kim tried to shake her head in weak denial and managed to only jerk it around erratically. Her neurons were now firing out of control, escalating fight or flight. Adrenaline spilled into her system in what felt like gallons at a time. Kim decided to try to tell him she was not frightened, "You gave me a start, that's all." This came out only as a barely audible series of squeaks.

"No, you're afraid of me aren't you?" Kirk said in a tone that suggested he was happy with that observation. Kirk took one huge step forward and he was now inches from her. Kim flinched at his speed and proximity to her. "Look at you. You're nothing but a scared little mouse."

"I... I… I'm... not a mouse," she demanded, but her words and her tone convinced neither Kirk nor herself. All that she could think of was the voice of Bert Lahr, in his Cowardly Lion costume, clutching his tail and lamenting, "I am a mouse, I am a mouse, I am a mouse. I am, I am, I am a mouse."

"Then why are you shaking so?"

There's no mistaking now, Kim thought, He's smiling like a hungry man smiles at a rare steak. He's going to eat me.

"I told you, you startled me, that's all." Kim replied as she tried to control the helpless shaking that felt like it might shake her completely apart at the joints. "You're not supposed to be here Kirk."

"NO!" Kirk roared. His voice thundered as loud as that of God himself to Kim. He swung one mighty, meaty fist in a wide arch to his left and it crashed through the sheetrock wall. There was an explosion of white dust and drywall fragments and Kim screamed at the fury of the impact. "I am supposed to be here, right here with you. You ruined everything. EVERYTHING!" he bellowed so hard that the cords of his neck stood out in sharp relief.

"Kirk, you can't make people love you… " Kirk's crestfallen face told Kim just how well that news had been taken? Good work, now why don't you just go right over there and poke him in the eye?

"You keep saying that." Kirk said, defeated. His face sagged. His eyes were drawn. He looked the very portrait of a man beaten with a tree branch. Kim thought he might actually begin to cry. "But how do you know? How DO YOU KNOW IF YOU DON'T TRY?"

"Because-"

"I SAID HOW DO YOU FUCKING KNOW?" There was yet another explosion from the wall. Chunks of drywall peppered Kim in the face as she shrieked again and tried to duck out of the way of the blast. Dust from the wall settled in her hair and became camouflaged in her platinum forest.

"What do you WANT?" Kim cried, frightened, no longer able to stand the game of cat and mouse.

"I wanted you!" Kirk pleaded pathetically. He stood as if his knees might actually give out from the devastation of his feelings for her. The fact that Kirk had put that statement in the context of the past however, was not lost on Kim. To Kim it signaled that he believed he had lost and had come back only to exact vengeance on a wager that had met with misfortune. Kirk was still digging for reasons, "Was that really all that bad? Couldn't you have at least tied to love me? I loved you Kimmy." She didn't know what would drive her crazy faster, waiting through the excruciating agony of waiting to be killed, or the pain reflected back from his tortured black eyes.

Kim looked to her right for a route of escape. The second she did, Kirk's left limbs extended to the wall, boxing her in. "I want to go to my room." Kim said trying not to let it sound like a plea but a demand. She tried to stare him right in the eye, but couldn't hold her poise. She dropped her eyes and her head and hated herself for not being able to maintain her gaze.

Kirk reached in and took her chin and drew her eyes back into focus on his. "You really don't know how beautiful you are, do you?" Kim couldn't respond. All she wanted was for him to leave her alone and go away. She prayed she could stall just long enough for Bobby to get back home. She'd be safe then. She'd at least have a chance. There was no reason now to believe that Kirk wouldn't do something horrible to her.

"We... we don't have any business Kirk." Kim tried to assure him. Immediately she saw in the way he held his wounded eyes that telling him bluntly was a mistake.

"I know what the problem was…" Kim shook her head no. She knew there was no way he could possibly see what the problem was. "No, really. I was a rat bastard. I should have been making love to you. I know that's what you really wanted me to do."

"No Kirk, it really isn't." Kim said, trying to back away another step. She ran her back into the jamb of her bedroom door. "Please… don't." Kim whined.

"I know you want to get close to me." Kirk said tenderly. His agitation grew with his next sentence. "I also know that your FUCKING brother just won't back the fuck up!" Kirk calmed himself some. "The good news is that I tricked him, WE tricked him."

The direct approach wasn't working, so she tried to distract him. She tried the completely irrational approach. "Kirk, I have homework-" Kim said and tried to turn away

"Yep, and school's in baby... It's time to learn how to become a woman." Kirk agreed. Kim was taken by surprise by the lightening speed on which his lips closed on hers. Her head was painfully pressed against the wall and held still by Kirk's powerful left hand. Kim pushed on Kirk's chest but she couldn't budge.

There was nothing in her mind except pain and fear. The two most primal sensations human's can experience. Her mind was practically exploding with both. Fear however far outweighed the pain. Some where deep in her mind however, she knew that pain was rapidly gaining momentum and would over take fear any time now.

"Kirk," she mumbled desperately, "please don't do this. Please don't do this. Oh GOD! Please…" Her pleading continued while Kirk continued to work, fumbling about his body, then hers clumsily. Kim pushed and batted at him furiously, it was like hitting a tree trying to knock it down. The only thing she was accomplishing was injuring her hands.

She had to get out of the house. If she stayed here Kirk would rape her. This was no longer an unsubstantiated belief now, it was a certainty. Once he was done, well she couldn't be left around to tell mommy and big brother now could she?

As if to confirm her fear, Kirk's right hand explored the frontier of Kim's clothed body. Kim struggled in fear at this new invasion. She tried to back away from him once more but the impenetrable wall held her in place. She could feel her breasts being painfully squeezed through her shirt. "No," she argued and tried to fight. "Stop it! STOP IT!" Kim writhed and squirmed in Kirk's grasp to avoid the agonizing groping but this only further fueled the intensity of his aggression.

His hand traveled down to the waist band of her jeans and quickly and easily slipped inside. His fingers struggled to separate the band of her tight satin panties from her flesh but in the tight confines of her jeans Kirk could only get them to fumble about with no real progress. Finally, he abandoned his attempts to get inside and simply pulled his hand back and forced it lower over her jeans.

Kirk slipped his fingers between her legs easily as her legs were parted for leverage for an escape when the opportunity presented itself. Kim again felt the edges of where her mask would have been start to warm, lightly at first but it didn't take long for the warmth to become a distracting but mild burning sensation. Not nearly as bad as the night she had arrived in this life.

With that, Kim was reminded of a now distant and seemingly needless warning from the Wizard. He's sealing me in! He won't even have to rape me... I'm becoming Kim permanently RIGHT NOW!

Kim began to try to flail her head back and forth, anything to prevent what already might be too late to stop. He will not rape me! I won't let this happen to me!

Bobby... Oh please come home quick. Kim pleaded hard to send her brother a mental signal for help, Please hear me. I need you!

She tried to leverage her knee up and into Kirk's crotch, but it was blocked by the hand that was trying to grope her. It was enough to get Kirk to stop, if only for a minute. The burning ceased immediately. Kim prayed absently that it was good news.

Kirk withdrew his hand from her pants and grabbed hold of Kim's left wrist. Kim's face darkened with anger and shame and before she could stop what was building inside her, she worked up a generous amount of saliva and spit it in Kirk's face.

"Wrong answer mouse!" Kirk sneered; his cigarette tainted breath bathed her in its revolting tide. He dislodged her from the wall and began backing her toward her bedroom. Kim's pulse rate shot even higher. This was it. He was going to rape her. She wasn't about to just let that happen.

"No!" She squeaked.

"Yes. It's mine and I'm going to take it!" Kirk growled, bare centimeters from her face, his nose touching hers. She could smell the warm stink of his breath wash up her nose and was revolted by its putrid odor.

"No!" She insisted again. She tried again, eyeing her target, envisioning the motion, waiting for a clear shot. This time she brought up the toe of her pointed knee boot squarely in to Kirk's crotch. She actually managed to slice a small incision in his scrotum with a small metal toe plate on the boot, though neither of them would be aware of that for some time to come.

The look on Kirk's face changed instantly. He had what Kim liked to all, the Oh no, look. The girls joked about it in the locker room. It was a mad scramble boys did when they realized the Pain Train was about to roll through. Today, it was right on schedule.

Kirk scrambled backward his hands over his crotch, too late to protect himself, unable to keep from trying. The blood drained from every extremity and rushed to the wounded area, his bodily troops being called back to defend the castle. His face melted in slow motion and Kim couldn't help but stand and watch the phenomenon with some measure of satisfaction. God that felt good, she thought to herself. Kim knew the melt down was growing by the second, exponentially, with no sign of peaking. Kirk squeaked something, unintelligible as a tear slipped from his eye.

Just then he staggered forward and lunged awkwardly at Kim. She cursed herself for not taking the time she had to blow past him and tried to dodge his momentum. She failed. He fell upon her, once more latching onto Kim's wrist. Kim tried to struggle free but found that Kirk's reflex fed grip was just as strong has before. She could not free herself. Kirk closed his eyes and bent his head as his knees gave out. He sunk to the floor on his knees dragging Kim with him. She went down to her own knees, fighting to remain standing but unable to resist the weight of Kirk's body as he sank lower and lower.

Kim did the last thing she could thing of to do. she screamed, "SOMEONE HELP M...", Kirk clapped his hand over her mouth, but in his debilitated state, he could not maintain a grip on the contours of her face. She shook off his hand and screamed again, "RAPE! I'M BEING RA..." Kim's head hit the floor after a violent shove. Again Kirk's hand was over her mouth, now she could not shake it free. To her it felt as if it might now be part of her face.

As Kirk began to recover and motivated by the fear of discovery, he found the strength to crawl on top of her and silence her. "YOU SHUT UP!" Kirk said bearing his teeth at her. He pressed against her body and again kissed her with malice and violence twisting her face and lips about with the force of his kiss.

Kim could feel what she believed to be the rumble and pounding of her resistance and his insistence on the floor beneath them. How can we be making that much noise and without anyone hearing us?

Kim cried openly now. She was repulsed by what was happening to her. She could now feel Kirk's swollen and extended member trapped inside his jeans pressing against her belly. Close your eyes and when it's over, it's over. Bobby will kill him when he finds out.

That at least will be something.

She couldn't stop him. The horrifying reality was that she was going to be raped and there was nothing she could do about it. She didn't want this to happen. Someone had to know this was going on and would stop it! Wasn't that going to happen? In spite of desire to be far, far away from this place, she couldn't leave. Inside her heart, she didn't believe anyone was going to help her. From this day on, she would have to consider herself a rape victim, No, its survivor now, rape survivor.

What in God's name makes you think for one second you're going to survive this? Kim's mind snapped back at her politically correct brain. She continued to push and beat about Kirk's head. On a couple of occasions, she was almost able to hook her fingers into his eyes, but his hands were too fast. No sooner than she managed to get a little leverage, he somehow pinned her arms and she had to fight to try to free them again while keeping Kirk from ripping her clothes off.

Kirk had unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans and was trying to force them off her legs but the legs of the jeans wouldn't fit over Kim's high-heeled boots. The further down Kirk forced them, the more the jeans forced Kim's legs back together. Kirk finally gave a frustrated wail of anguish and rose from Kim's slight and slender body to find the cause of this problem.

Kirk sat up his hand still press powerfully over Kim's closed lips and warned, "I don't have to do this with you conscious. If you move, if you make a sound I'll simply put you to sleep and take you."

When Kirk removed his hand, Kim was still and quiet. She was even smiling a broad happy smile. The tears were still flowing freely, but she seemed genuinely happy to Kirk. Kirk's incredible hard-on faded at the sight of this calm, happy girl. He was instantly flushed with anger that she could manage to take the thrill of this moment away so quickly. She had managed to do what none of the others he had taken in the past could do to him, render him impotent.

Kirk was just about to scream in his deepest rage at her and put her back in that place of fear she should have stayed in when someone from behind him said, "Hey Buddy!"

Still pinning her legs to the floor, Kirk half turned and saw the smiling face of the winner of last year's Tennessee Quarterback of the Year Award standing just behind him and to the right. Robert gave Kirk enough time to say "Huh?" before Robert's fist descended into Kirk's face.

Kirk went sprawling in tumbleweed fashion across his sister's bedroom floor. Blood spurted from somewhere as he tumbled feet over elbows until his head crashed into the footboard of Kim's bed.

Robert's face was that of a demon. Kim had never seen any sort of look like this on her brother. It frightened her. The cords of his muscles stood out in base relief under his tight work uniform. They extended up from the neck and drew his face into a furious, fiery thing from Hell itself. Robert stared, breathing in deep heaving breaths at Kirk who lay in a lifeless heap at the foot of Kim's bed. His massive chest rising and falling dramatically from the volume of air he was taking in and letting out again. He was a wounded beast.

Robert turned his attention to Kimberly who flinched in fear at this new face she had never seen before. Then his features softened, and inexplicably, he started to cry. "Are you all right Kim?" He reached over and pulled an old knitted shawl from the back of a wicker chair in the corner and draped it over his sister's half nude body, pulling her forward to him off the floor. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gone."

Kim threw her arms around her brother's neck as she burst into wild sobs of relief. The tension flowed from her, a great black river of poison that had threatened to drown her. Robert had freed her from its suffocating, tar-like grip. The sobs racked her body while Robert held her tight to his to steady her. "Bob... Bob... Oh Bobby..." It was all she could manage.

He asked her without letting go of her, "Did he hurt you? Did he..." The emotions at the mere idea implied choked off his words.

Kim didn't know, she'd never been raped before. She had certainly been violated but, she thought, there had been no penetration... No penetration, No penetration... Oh my God... I may be a girl now forever. Oh Bobby where were you? She didn't voice any of this; she pushed it from her mind.

She made no effort to release him. Instead she spoke into his ear, holding him tightly, "No he didn't... Not if you mean he ... he wasn't inside me. He only touched me."

"Where Kim?"

"Bobby please..." she cried in a pained and frightened voice.

"All right. I'm sorry Kimmy. I'm so sorry."

Suddenly, Robert was gone from her arms, ripped away. She screamed an "Oh," of surprise at the speed with which he vanished from her grip, as the force of his leaving pulled her body forward a bit. Her eyes flew open and she saw Robert had been yanked to his feet. Robert was holding his face and Kirk was rapidly preparing to deliver another blow.

"NOOOOOO!" Kim screamed. She tried to get to her feet, but her jeans were bunched up tightly over her boots along with her underwear. The clothing acted as ankle cuffs, tossing her unceremoniously to the ground again. Kirk had enough time to deliver three more blows to Robert's face before she was able to pull her pants back up enough to move. She didn't bother to secure them. "BOBBY!" Kim screamed seeing the beating her brother was taking. "KIRK, LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

Kim charged and leapt on the back of her and now her brother's attacker. Kirk was screaming at Robert, "Why can't you just fucking leave us alone?" Kim reached around and dug into Kirk's face with sharp, medium length nails. Her nails cut his skin deeply and Kirk began to flail about to free them from his face. Two of the nails bent painfully back to the quick and Kim fell off shrieking in pain. It was enough, however, for Robert to regain the advantage.

Robert charged, his face was a bloody mess, as was Kirk's from Robert's single punch and the deep furrows Kim had dug into it. Robert hit Kirk low and drove him backward into the corner of the doorjamb of Kim's bathroom. Kirk let out a wail of pain and fury and amazingly, recovered quickly. Kirk repeated threw punch after punch into the back of Robert's head. Kim was horrified at the violent force that rocked her brother's head with each blow. Kirk would have to stop periodically wipe the blood from the wounds that Kim had inflicted to Kirk's forehead. During each break, Robert would jamb Kirk's back into that sharp corner over and over again.

Robert finally dropped Kirk and backed up out of Kirk's range. He was hurt and afraid of actually losing this fight. If that happened, Kim would be his target again. "Get out of the house Kirk, now while you can." Robert needed to get Kim out into the open where he wouldn't be able to get to Kimberly again. Her still being here, in harms way, was a huge distraction and could easily become a hostage unless he was able to put some considerable distance between his sister and Kirk.

Kirk considered this for a moment. Would it be better to flea and take this to another day? Then Kim, now as angry as she would ever become in her entire life did exactly what her brother was afraid she might do. "YOUR LIFE IS OVER FUCKER! EVERYONE IS GONNA KNOW WHAT YOU DID TO ME, EVERYONE! I'M GONNA TELL THE NEWSPAPERS, THE SCHOOLS...

"KIM!" Robert shouted.

"I'M TELLING EVERYONE. I'M TELLING VANDERBUILT, I'M TELLING USC, I'M TELLING GEORGIA TECH, I'M PERSONALLY GOING TO WRITE THE VOLS AND TELL THEM MYSELF! YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO GET WORK AS A FUCKING TRASHMAN WHEN I'M DONE TELLING MY STORY!

"KIMBERLY, SHUT UP!" Robert shouted again, but it was too late. Recognition of the consequences were hitting Kirk a cannon shot blow as Kim named each school. It was true, his life was over. They don't give scholarships to rapists and convicts.

Robert had misjudged the distance when he had backed away from Kirk. Now Kirk's left hand shot out and took Kim's wrist in its iron grip once more. "NO!" Kim screamed but he pulled her roughly to him as yet another one of Robert's satellite punches came burning into the planetary atmosphere of Kirk's head. Kirk shifted left and Robert's hand switched dangerously past Kirk's head. Kirk kicked out into Robert's midsection as Kim beat wildly with her one free hand at Kirk's face.

Robert collapsed to his knees sucking in air. Satisfied he would get out of the house with his hostage, Kirk turned and slapped Kim full-handed across her left cheek. Kim exclaimed in surprise, "Ow!" The sound of that slap triggered the beast Kim had seen earlier. There was now noting to avoid. If Kirk left with his sister, then it was certain she would be hurt, possibly killed.

Robert rose up, one arm extended and caught Kirk in the throat. Kirk released Kim involuntarily and staggered about the room unable to breathe. "KIM, Run!" Robert cried. Kim didn't need further instruction. She dashed out of the room, her pants still undone and unzipped. From behind her she heard Kirk growl in anger and begin to charge out of the room. Kim was still zipped into her boots. Running down the stairs wasn't an option. It would slow her down too much. She decided to hide in her brother's room. Kim dashed into the dark of Robert's room as the two men tumbled out into the hall tangled together.

She turned and saw them in a dangerous battle of fists and thrashing about, each one trying their best to disable or kill the other. There was no mistake about their intent. Her brother had death in his eyes. Kirk had hurt his sister. In Robert's eye, Kirk had to die. Anything short of that might mean he would have a second chance.

Once Kim cringed as Kirk almost pushed Robert over the rail and down into the stairwell. Robert regained his footing as Kirk screamed in ever increasing frustration at failure after failure to kill his attacker. Robert was wearing down doing the best he could just to defend himself. Kirk was being driven by something else. He was fighting for more than just his life. He was fighting for everything he wanted that life to be and had been taken from him. Kirk was fighting for revenge.

They reached the landing at the top of the stairs and Kirk spared a glance into Robert's darkened room. Kim could not tell if he had seen her hiding there, but she wasn't going to take any chances. As the two men struggled, Kim pulled Robert's heavy cast metal desk lamp free. She walked to the edge of the shadows and when Robert forced Kirk's back to her she raised the lamp and brained Kirk with it.

Kim could see Robert's surprised eyes as the weight of the two men's collective mass shifted toward him. Robert's back was to the stairs below and he pitched in that direction from the force of the blow alone. The weight of Kirk's limp body carried him past the point of no return. "BOBBY!" Kim screamed, but the damage was done. Robert vanished below the rise of the stairs in a tangle of legs. There was a terrible series of thumps, groans and one final scream she knew was her brother. The moment was punctuated with a crash as the half-round table at the bottom of the stairs blew apart with the weight of their bodies smashing into it.

Kim slowly approached the top of the stairs. She looked over the edge, one hand covering her mouth her eyes wide with shock. She hitched a small gasp as she looked at the pair of bodies lying motionless at the bottom of the stairs. She let the lamp with its bloody base slip from her and thump unnoticed to the carpet.

"Bobby?" she whispered. Bobby didn't move. She called again. "Bobby?" Again, Bobby didn't stir.

Kirk did.

"OH NO!" Kim screamed and she began to bolt for her brother's bedroom where she planned to lock the door and hope to buy enough time to call 911 for help. She locked the door and raced for the phone and was surprised when she heard the front door slam. Kim pressed her ear to Robert's door and heard nothing. Slowly she cracked open the door and peered cautiously out. Kim could hear someone cry out in the yard. She hurriedly rushed to her bedroom window and there saw Kirk, trying to lift himself from the ground where he had apparently fallen. Lodged in his arm was a large brown piece of wood. Kim recognized it as one of the three legs from the hallway curio table. It was stuck in so deep that it protruded five or six inches out of the opposite side his arm.

She could hear him cry out when he finally managed to stand. Someone passing by saw him and stopped. The woman driving the car got out and asked him something but Kirk managed to gain his feet and raced down the street, presumably to where his car was parked, hidden from sight.

Bobby

"Oh God!" she turned and raced down the stairs, her boots forgotten in her panic. When she reached Robert's body the heel of her boot accidentally hooked his arm and he cried out in pain. "Bobby?" She cried gratefully. "Are you Okay?" She began to roll him over and he screamed such a scream that she might have thought she'd inadvertently pulled off his arms. "I'M SORRY!" Kim cried as she eased him back. He was face down with his head turned toward the wall. She could not see his face nor could she get on the other side of him to see. His body was at a peculiar angle to his head and neck. It hurt to watch him lay there at such an awkward angle.

"Ahhhhhhhrrrggggggggg!" Kim jumped in surprise, "DON'T MOVE ME KIM!" He cried. "Just don't touch me..." He wept from the pain but seemed to be doing all he could do to remain still. "Call for help Kimmy, call now!"

"Okay Bobby, right now." Kim was crying yet again. Now however she cried for what she felt she had done to her brother. Kim dialed 911, when the operator asked "What's nature of your emergency?" she told the man that she had accidentally pushed her brother down the stairs. "Please hurry, he's in a lot of pain."

"Miss... I need you to say on the phone with me until the ambulance arrives. You need to be calm."

"I have to go to him..." Kim said disbelieving what she had just heard.

"No, I need you to stay with me." insisted the man, but Kim had already dropped the phone. She was again kneeling next to her brother's head. She periodically made as if she might try to stroke his hair, but she was afraid to touch him. She watched his breathing to make sure it didn't stop, but beyond that, she was totally helpless.

In the distance the sound of sirens were barely audible. "They're coming Bobby... Hold on."

"I swear Kim." She braced for an ugly series of accusations, as much as he could muster from this angle, "I swear I never meant to leave you alone..."

Kim's heart broke. He wasn't mad, He felt guilty. "No Bobby. Please don't be sorry. I'm a big girl. I should have seen it coming and said something."

"Bobby, you need to lie still. The ambulance is almost here."

Robert groaned. His breathing had started to become shallow and he wasn't answering any longer. The sound of the sirens died just outside and Kim ran to the door and flung it open. Her pants were still unclasped and were now hitched lower, down around her hips. She barely noticed the stares and odd looks she got from the EMTs, all that was in her head was trying to fix what she'd done to her brother.

"Please, hurry!" She called to them and vanished inside the house again.

The EMTs entered the house followed by Baker Police. They found her hunched over a seemingly lifeless body of a young man heaped at the bottom of a flight of stairs. "Miss," one of the officers asked taking her by the shoulder. "You're going to have to get up so we can work on him." Kim shook her head violently; the presence of the Police and EMTs brought the seriousness of all this crashing home to her. She has somehow hoped that Robert would get up, realize he wasn't that badly hurt after and they could just clean up the mess before their mother got home.

She had no idea how badly he was hurt, but she understood that it was bad enough that he didn't want to be moved, even in that weird and unnatural position he was in. He had not moved his body at all, not even out of pain. Kim was afraid to admit to her self the obvious conclusions that suggested.

Kim got up unwillingly, with the aid of an officer, not wanting to leave Bobby's side. "I love you Bobby!" She wanted him to explain what happened. She wanted him to protect her still and at the same time she felt compelled to protect him now. As she stood to be led away by police to the living room she felt lost and alone. Absently, she reached up and tried to remove the mask, not even aware she was doing it, faintly aware that there was something she could still do to reverse this terrible tide of misfortune. When it failed to come off, she dropped her hand limply by her side and allowed herself to be led away. Her hands and fingers were bloody from the wounds she had inflicted on Kirk's face. When she had touched her own, she transferred some of that blood to her face. It only worsened the appearance of the scene to the onlooker.

Kim watched as the EMTs took vital signs, placed a rigid blue and white collar around Robert's neck and gradually got him strapped to a back board. Robert groaned and occasionally cried out in pain as they worked to get him to a point where they could transport him for more intense evaluation and care. When they finally managed to flip him right-side-up and lay him in the foyer, Kim got her first good look at the work Kirk had done to her handsome brother's face.

She gasped in surprise. The last time she had seen is face, it was bloody from the blows delivered by Kirk, but not that bloody, not that disfigured. She had still been able to see her brother's face beneath the blood as he had pitched backward over the stairs. Now his nose was a flattened mess, his eyebrows were heavily swollen and his right cheek was bleeding profusely down the side of his face. Great pulses of blood could be seen from where she saw several feet away. She moved to stand and run to him. "Hold on a minute," One of the cops but a hand on her shoulder and eased her back down into the couch. "We have to find out what happened here. He's in the best possible hands for now."

Kim looked pleadingly with her big light blue eyes, "Please, I want to help him."

"He's being helped. I need you to sit down, try to be calm and help me." As the officer spoke, an EMT came over.

"Excuse me Officer." The man moved aside and this EMT stepped in, knelt and said, "Hi!" the woman said with a smile, "I'm Emily, what's your name?"

"Kimberly." Kim responded in a soft, sweet but frightened voice.

"Are you hurt Kimberly?" asked Emily. Kim shook her head no. She wasn't hurt, not physically anyway.

"Where did all this blood come from?" asked the EMT examining her face and hands.

"I was trying to help my brother." Kim looked to Robert who was now lying quiet for the time being.

The officer that had led her away, bent and whispered something in Emily's ear. Emily nodded as the officer walked off a short distance with his back turned.

"Okay Kimberly. Now I want to ask you what happened to your clothes?"

"Kim looked down at herself only then realizing she had not yet fastened her jeans. "Oh," she said blushing, "I ah," Kim said not really knowing how to finish, Emily nodded and Kim stood and closed her pants. Kim blushed but said nothing. Everyone understood that sometimes, zipping your pants simply isn't on the list of priorities. Her eyes were still glued to the prone figure of her brother.

"Kim," Emily asked trying to distract her, "can you tell me what happened?

Kim nodded. "My brother saved me." The words themselves seemed to cut her and Kim winced at the sound of them. "One of the kids from school was here when I got home. He attacked me. I'm pretty sure he wanted..." Kim trailed off. "Anyway, he did this. But my boots stopped my pants from coming off all the way."

"You're telling me he raped you?" Emily asked alarmed.

"No, I don't think he actually… you know… did that. He tried." Kim tried to remain calm but the living memory of having someone over power her, the recollection of the feel of his hands on her body was more than she could cope with considering the stress she was under and she again began to weep, but quietly this time. "Then Bobby came in and caught him. They got into a fight."

"Wait here for a sec Honey. I think this is something the police should hear right now. Do you feel up to that?"

Kim, still crying helplessly nodded and wiped the existing tears away with the heels of her hands. Emily went and stood by the police officer and spoke in hushed tones. The cop turned and looked sorrowfully back at Kim while she sat and watched them both with a distressed look on her features. There it is, Rape Victim, Kim thought. Even if he didn't really rape me, I'm always going to be known as a rape victim to everyone that knows me. Why is that so humiliating?

The officer spoke briefly into the radio strapped to the left breast of his shirt, got a reply, acknowledged it and then they both turned and came back to where Kim was seated.

"Hi Kim, its Kim right?"

"Yes," She said simply. "Can I go see my brother?"

"Not right now, Okay. Soon."

"Is he going to be alright?"

"Kim, I need you to concentrate on what happened to cause this. They're doing everything they possibly can to help him. Please Kim." It was the hardest thing she had ever done, trying to rip her eyes away from her battered and wounded brother.

Kim was finally encouraged to talk to Officer Jimmy Campbell about Kirk and what had happened. In the mean time, Cindy was contacted and urged to come home as quickly as possible. Kim did her best to recount the events with the carnival of emergency activity going on around her. At times it seems she might faint from the overwhelming spin of everything.

Robert was finally moved and transported to a hospital but Kimberly wasn't told where. With the critically wounded Robert on the way to better care, Emily decided to remain behind and help investigate any injuries Kim may have sustained and still be unaware of.

Kim was still explaining the events when Emily rejoined the two of them talking near the couch.

"I hit Kirk in the back of the head." Kim's face broke up at the utterance of the confession. She covered her mouth with one hand, closed her eyes and cried bitterly. From behind her hand she said, "That's what made them both fall down the stairs. It was my fault that Bobby got hurt."

"No, I don't think so. Didn't we just talk about that Kim?" Campbell asked calmly.

"Oh yes... it was my fault. See, I told you that you wouldn't understand. Oh God, I feel awful." Kim wailed. "He was trying to protect me and I practically shoved him down the stairs." This time she covered her whole face and sobbed into the palms of her hands.

Campbell looked at Emily who shook her head sympathetically.

"Kim?" Campbell waited for her to remove her hand from her face. When she didn't, Jimmy asked again. "Kim?'

A muffled and wailed, "What?" came from behind the mask of hands.

"Look at me please." Kim hitched once or twice and then slowly removed her hands from her face. "Listen to me very carefully." Kim sat still, her piercing, cyan colored eyes nearly hypnotizing the young officer. He had to shake himself mentally from becoming lost in those eyes. "Your brother was protecting you, trying to keep you safe. You were trying to do the same thing for him. It is not your fault or any fault of your brother's that this fellow decided to invade your home and try to force you to do something you didn't want to do. It took you and your brother's force combined to get him to leave. It simply didn't work out that no one got hurt. This Kirk fellow was just that determined. It sounds like he was pretty desperate at the end not to let any of this get out."

Kim moaned remembering her threat to Kirk up in her bedroom.

"KIM? ROBERT LEE?" came a frantic cry from somewhere around the front door. "KIM? Oh My GOD!" cried Cindy as she came into the house and saw the devastation.

"Mother?" Kim cried. Officers caught her as she came in ushered in to where Kim sat shaking. The two of them fell together and held on tightly to one another without a word for several minutes.

"She's Okay," Campbell finally offered. However, your son on the other hand had to be transported to the hospital. St. Anne's I believe."

"What in the Christ happened here?" Cindy asked now shaking herself. Campbell did his best at summarizing what he believed happened, looking to Kim to clarify the grey parts of the story. Cindy slowly became an emotional wreck, but managed to hold her self together for Kim.

Once she was caught up, the questioning started again. It was brief. Mostly fill-in information on what Kirk had been wearing, what he drove, if he had a weapon. Some of the officers knew him or knew of him. The officers understood that Cindy would want to get to the hospital and follow up on her son.

Their final request was that they take a change of clothes to the hospital for Kimberly.

"What for?"

"We're going to need to collect her clothing as evidence. We'll examine it for fibers, semen and other biological evidence we need when this goes to court. Since she's going to be at the hospital anyway, I'd like to have her take a rape test."

Cindy seemed heart broken. Kimberly just looked scared to death. Her mother only nodded with resignation, "I understand."

"No Mom. He didn't rape me. He couldn't."

"There still may be evidence there Kim that we'll need to collect. They'll have a place for you to shower at St. Anne's. For now however, you'll have to go there just as you are so we can collect that evidence. We can take you out there. In fact, I'd prefer that." Emiliy Ledwin said. Cindy agreed to let Kim ride with the police and she'd follow in her car. She promised Kim she'd be right there with her when they did the testing. Kim reluctantly agreed and was led away to with Emily to a waiting cruiser.

By now a small crowd had gathered outside the Glass homestead. They gawked and pointed, whispered and gasped, all the appropriate appalled gestures and expressions when something like this happens in your neighborhood. They were sad faced, their sympathy however fell on Kim like a cold, bitter, New Hampshire winter wind. Where had they been when Kirk had been breaking into her home? Where had they been when she was screaming, all alone up stairs? What had they done to help when her brother was busy giving his life so that she could get away? For the moment, she hated each and every one of those sad, sympathetic faces, every last damn one of them.

-*-

Kim and her new friend EMT, Emily Ledwin beat Cindy to the hospital by a respectable 15 minutes. She was there to oversee the physical examination Kim would undergo that would serve a two fold purpose. The first would be to determine the extent of any injuries Kim may have suffered as a result of the attack. Her injuries were qualified only to the extent of minor cuts, scrapes and external bruising. The second purpose was, of course, to collect evidence that would link her attacker to the crime. Examinations such as these often yielded information on her attacker's genetic profile.

No one felt it was important enough to mention the risk of sexually transmitted disease, blood borne or otherwise at this point. If something turned up in testing, then a plan could be put into action at that point. Everyone agreed Kim had been through enough already, there was no need to frighten her further.

Every day in her body was a study in the concept of epiphany. While the examination was necessary, she did not believe that anything, even her Kimmeries could have prepared her for just how invasive it would turn out to be. There had been no complaints from Kim however. As difficult as it might seem for half the population of which Kim was formerly a member, she bore the burden of the examination tremendously well, choosing to go through it alone so her mother could be with Robert.

Once the examination was over, a hospital orderly escorted her to the ICU where Robert was scheduled to be brought after he returned from surgery. Not knowing what to expect, the empty, glass-walled room with an extraordinary array of equipment to monitor was a devastating shock. An empty room could only mean one thing to Kim.

Cindy was seated in a small, uncomfortable chair staring into the room where her oldest child would be brought to recover. "Hi," Cindy greeted her daughter motionlessly. She tried on a weak smile but couldn't hold it in place. She enfolded Kim and the two of them stood silently for a moment, just being together, just being safe.

"What's happened?" Kim breathed dreading the answer she felt sure was coming.

"He was being taken from the Emergency room when I left him. Cindy changed the subject hoping the explanation would be enough to get Kim to stop digging until she found out how her daughter was, "Are you Okay?" Cindy asked.

Worried about her mother's state of mind, Kim decided to blow off any conversation about her self as much as possible. "I prefer the Fall Carnival but as examinations go, yeah, I guess I'm good. Are you going to tell me how Ding Dong's doing?"

"He's not good Kim." Cindy looked down at her hands. They twiddled a soaking handkerchief endlessly, working independently of any thought. "I don't know the extent of how badly he's hurt, but from what I've been able to over hear…" Cindy lifted her head and said, "I think he's paralyzed."

The effect this news had on Kim was profound. Every last word in her brain, every response she might have had to any given situation dried up. A switch in her brain flipped to the "Off" position and all speech died an instant death. Kim stared blankly at her mother. While Kim could observe that her mother appeared to be irrationally calm, she couldn't wrestle with the why's and how's of such a thing. Her mother had also been crying. The almost sodden handkerchief in her hand spoke of that particular story very well indeed. Her mother had cried herself out now.

"You said think," Cindy gave Kim a questioning look and Kim realized she had not been clear. "You said, you think, he's paralyzed. Don't they know something?"

"He's in surgery." Kim closed her eyes. He's going to die, just like Daddy. He's going to die and it'll just be me and Mom. Even if I get back, I'll never be able to shake the idea that I left her all alone.

"Is he going to die?" Cindy didn't answer. Why would she? Kim reasoned, She doesn't know any more than you do, but she's thinkin' about it! She may have been before you said anything, but it's a certainty now.

"I'm sorry Mom. I shouldn't have asked that." Kim squeezed her mother's hand trying to let her know that she was there, not that it meant much, but she was there just the same. Cindy patted her hand with her one free hand and said nothing. The two women sat and waited in silent torment as Robert pressed on in whatever direction he was silently taking.