How many have you seen?


Rex rushed over and growled. He barked a couple of times.

Reverend Tommy looked at the older man. The older man said "He's telling us it's the left arm."

"What's the left arm?" I asked. They ignored me. Rex continued wuffing and howing and his hackles were raised as he looked me.

"Easy, boy. We'll take care of it," the older man said, and stepped forward. He stood right at the edge of the table, and reached out a hand.

I was naked. I tried to flinch back. I'd never been raped; I'd never even been touched in any kind of sexual way by anyone but Bridget...

... oh, and Ivanka, but that doesn't count, right, because that was in Hell and having sex with a Valkyrie in Hell while I'm asleep in my real life can't possibly count as "real" sex, no matter how hot it is...

... but I couldn't really flinch at all because I was strapped down pretty tightly. The old man didn't pay any attention to that at all, either, and his meaty hand with all these callouses and incongruously neatly manicured nails touched me at my left shoulder. Rex howled as he did that.

"REX!" the older man snapped. "Quiet, now. I know what I'm doing."

"Do you?" asked Reverend Tommy. "How many have you seen?"

"As many as you, I'll bet."

Something moved off to the left and distracted me from watching the older man for a second, and I tried to make out what it was but I was pulled back by the calloused fingers touching my shoulder right where it met my body, just near my left breast. I looked at his hand and then squeezed my eyes shut and waited for what I assumed would be next. It had only been about a week that I'd known who he was from attending his church with Brigitte, but I couldn't believe that Reverend Tommy would take part in a rape.

The hand ran along the joint of my shoulder and then down on my side, to my rib cage.

"Right here," the older man said. "That's where it's joined. So it is just the left arm. You were right, Rex."

"There's other parts," Reverend Tommy said. "Look." I kept my eyes tightly shut, so I didn't see where he moved to, but his voice was closer when he spoke again. "The right hand. The right leg."

On my left, the older man said "I know that. But I'm not so concerned about those." I felt hands on my face then, and my left eye was pried open. He was peering into it, closely. He motioned for the cop to come over. "Tilt that light this way," he said. The cop came up behind him, reached up for it, put his hand on it. I kept my right eye shut but he had my left eye pinned open. I couldn't see Reverend Tommy at all; he must have been on my right.

The light tilted up and just before it hit my eye and blinded me temporarily, I saw a hand on the cop's left shoulder, wearing a big gaudy mood ring. At the same moment, the cop gasped and Reverend Tommy said sharply "How did you get in here?"

Then a revenant pulled the cop back, the lamp swung crazily, Rex went nuts barking, and blood spurted out of the chest of the older man, causing him to let go of my eye and slump over onto my naked body. I wasn't worried about being raped anymore; I was worried that he was dead.

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