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THE URBAN LEGEND
From Sullivan's Short Stories
By George T Philbin
"You scream and I'll cut your throat!" the rapist said as he tied her arms and legs.
Her mouth was dry, and the room seemed to grow warmer as the masked intruder tore off most of her clothes. He turned around with a look of triumph, an evil grin on his face, as he stepped back and stared. Only her bra and panties remained on.
As he walked around the bed he seemed to savor every moment, every detail, and every deep-breath that she took, and she knew he was enjoying this interlude, but afterwards the real purpose of his invasion to her apartment would begin.
"The ropes are not too tight, are they?," the rapist asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I don't want you to think that I'm uncaring. If they are, just tell me and I'll loosen them some. See, I'm not a bad guy at all! No, I'm a nice person."
She couldn't take her eyes off of his face. It was round and puffy with wide-set eyes that bugged out, like a frog, she thought. But that puffy face rested on a huge, muscular body
She could not have screamed if she wanted to. Fear had frozen her solid and she tried to make herself smaller and smaller as he continued to prance around her bed stopping to examine a knot or length of rope on her stomach which really held his interest!
She closed her eyes and thought: For years a a rapist and a burglar had roamed freely about town. It was once thought that they were two separate criminals, but now it was generally accepted that the burglar and the rapist were one and the same, although that was never proven.
The name "Rubber Band Bandit" became his moniker because during his first robbery he used a rubber band to hold up an alarm pin on a window in which he cut through and entered. Another time, he used a rubber band to keep a latch from falling down as he burglarized an automotive store! The news-media quickly gave him that name. He was almost like an urban legend
Yes, this man, "The Rubber Band Bandit" was surely the rapist, she reasoned, for he entered her apartment so silently, and he grabbed her and put a knife to her throat. If only Shawn, her boyfriend, were here now! She thought. But he isn't, and I must not break-down for that would give the rapist more pleasure.
"If you let me go, I'll not call the police," she said in a professional voice, hoping to stall the inevitable, or by some good fortune make him leave.
Something in her said to show no fear or cry out for help because that would excite him. Maybe if he felt that she wasn't a good one he would leave. She remembered reading in the paper, before joining the army after graduation from high school, that this rapist had never killed any of his victims---yet. A psychiatrist speculated that it was only a matter of time until he decided to enhance his sexual pleasure by killing his victim.
He continued to walk around her. Her thoughts centered on her army basic training in which she shot expert with an M-16, but had never thought of an M-16 as a gun! No, a gun to her was what her dad had. Colt 357 Magnums or other handguns which her father collected over the years. She hated guns, yet she had never considered her M-16 as a gun. Strange thoughts to dance in her mind when a rapist was threatening her!
Her life started flashing before her, and the room was getting hotter, it seemed. The sounds outside her apartment became distinct, and she could tell which ones were close and which ones were distant, and she could even pick out some conversations and a dog barking!
"Are you sure the ropes are not too tight? I can loosen them up some. Will that make you more comfy? Will it?" the rapist said repeatedly.
He paced around almost continuously and leered at her with every step.
She took a chance on saying something, hoping to delay his vile intentions as much a possible. The more she stalled him, the more her chance of somebody coming.
He didn't gag her. She reasoned that he didn't because he felt that he had complete power over her. Some sick power-trip deep in his psyche that had to be satisfied -- or something like that. To gag her would betray a weakness in himself that he didn't have complete control, she reasoned.
Yet, she didn't want to scream out for fear that he might kill her, and she didn't want to tell him that her boyfriend was on his way over. No, he would see through that and interpret it as an action brought on by fear! Fear was the very thing he wanted from her now, she felt.
"I was captured in Iraq and spent time in one of their prisons before we captured Baghdad. They beat me with a stick---but I wouldn't tell them anything," She said to him in the best military voice that she could muster!
He stopped walking and looked at her. The silence between them became so thick that dynamite would not have been able to penetrate it! And the silence lasted for about five seconds!
"I wasn't afraid of them." she said, "I spit on them and told them that their leader would be put in the same cell with Charles Masnon. And Manson eats people! Boy, you should have seen the look on their faces after I said that! Ha!" She added. "Look in my closet---I have my uniform hanging up with all the ribbons and campaign citations and medals on it yet! Go ahead---just look at them."
He walked over to the closet, opened the door and took out her uniform. He seemed annoyed at something and after he finished looking at it he hung the uniform back up.
Ha, she thought. I'm not the sweet innocent young college girl that he must have thought I was. No, I'm not his type now. No, I don't have the fear he needs!
"After I got out of the prison I killed a--" She started to say, but he yelled at her, "Shut up! Just shut up---you shut up right now! ---I'll kill you if you open your mouth one more time!"
A shadow of real fear came over her. Did I make a mistake? Did I say something that touched a nerve? Whatever I said took all the fun out of this rape for him.
She never thought that her army training would be put to a test like this, but remembered everything that she had been taught on how to act when captured. And she was building on that training now!
The rapist pointed his finger at her and said again, "Don't say another word." He had a wild look in his eyes and he didn't seem confident anymore.
She'd never never been a prisoner of war, never served in Iraq, and never left the states during her enlistment. But the rapist didn't know that!
A siren in the distance grew louder and louder, and she hoped it would stop at her apartment building. It didn't. It passed by and the tone lowered in pitch as the police car sped away in pursuit.
He moved from the side of her bed and brushed his hair back over his head. He thought about something then came back over to the bed and said, "You're lying to me! You were never in Iraq---were you?"
She know that she had to convince him. Yet, she didn't want to appear as if she were acting. She thought of things she had heard combat vets talk about, and said in her military voice, "Camels will spit on you. Did you know that? I bet you didn't? You want to know another thing about Iraq? I'll tell you. Suddam Hussein liked to dress up in women's clothes! That's how he escaped from Baghdad after we entered. He just walked out! Laughing at us! But we caught him off guard in that hole he lived in! And another thing..." She started to continue when the rapist looked at her and said, "You must have been there. Nobody could make up things like that!"
Fear boiled in her stomach again as the situation twisted itself around, but she had accomplished her main goal and that was to stall him for as long as possible. Surely somebody must come to my door!
The rapist walked out of her bedroom and into the kitchen, then opened the fridge-door. She heard some bottles clang together. Then she heard him drink something for he gulped it down, and after the last gulp, silence.
Now a real fear found her. She was scared and knew that she couldn't keep up this "tough army girl" image any longer, and a tear found its way down her cheek.
But through the tears in her eyes, she was startled as she saw a shadow, a shadow in the living room -- and it moved! Somebody else must be in her apartment too!
Maybe the rapist has an accomplice! Oh my God no! She screamed to herself. She had never thought about another one being with him.
The rapist came back into the bedroom, and she noticed the shadow move quickly but very silently. Maybe it was Shawn -- no, Shawn was too clumsy to move like the shadow in the living-room.
The rapist stood over her again, and she knew he saw the tears in her eyes because his manner once again became sarcastic.
"Now, don't cry like that---no. I'm not going to hurt you one bit. No," the rapist said as he glared into her eyes! A moment later, he backhanded her across the face and she felt something warm on the side of her mouth start. The blood must have excited him for he got his face within a foot of hers, but all that she could remember was his terrible breath, for it reeked of bile mixed with decaying food and cigarette smoke!
He wiped a tear from her eye then stroked her cheek, then her forehead, and then her breasts! She frantically looked into the living-room, wondering why Shawn or whoever was in there didn't come to her aid.
The rapist stood up, and un-buckled his pants.
She couldn't close her eyes. She had to watch every move he made and remember him. Remember every detail, the sound of his voice, the way he moved, his legs and clothes, any marks he had, anything. Her military training came back to her in a flash!
The rapist had his pants halfway off, and then things happened so fast that all she saw was shadows!
As swift as a shadow can dance across a wall when car lights find their way into a window at night-time, the shadow in the living room darted into the bedroom and struck the rapist over his head with the Hoover vacuum cleaner. The rapist fell to the floor unconscious. Her hero had rescued her!
"Please don't scream! You're safe now!" her hero said.
But this guy also hid his face with a mask! What!
"I'm going to tie this bum up! Do you have any duck-tape?" her hero asked.
"No," I answered.
Her hero looked around then cut off some electrical cords from the lamps in the room, and he also cut the one off from the vacuum cleaner. And he used the rapist's belt to tie the rapist's legs together. Then he bent the rapist's legs back and tied a cord around the rapist's neck and connected it to the rapist's ankles. A strangle hold! If the rapist squirmed the cord around his neck would tighten up!
He bound the rapist up in seconds then stood and took out the rapist's wallet! He started to look in it but she screamed, "Don't tamper with it! It's evidence."
"I don't care about evidence--you're Ok and I'm going to cut you free. You can call the police after I leave.
After he leaves, she thought. Why would he say that?
Her hero took out a wad of money from the rapist's wallet, took some credit cards, took off the rapist's gold watch and a gold chain and gold ring.
"This guy had a lot of money on him. I wonder why?" her hero said.
"Could you please untie me now?"
"Sure."
He cut her right hand loose and then placed the knife in her right palm.
"You can free yourself now because I have to go. This guy has been giving me a bad name for years, and I want to set the record straight.
"You see, I'm the Rubber Band Bandit and I don't rape! I steal, but in your case I'm not going to take anything outa your apartment. You've been through enough with this sicko here.
"I was working this building tonight and it was just plain lucky that I broke into your apartment."
"You! The Rubber Band Bandit?" She cut loose her other arm.
"Yes, me. Small world isn't it kiddo. Well I'm outa here. Call the police!"
She had her legs free in a second or two. A long second or two later the rapist groaned
*****.
The rapist was awake and screaming as the police came into her apartment within minutes after she called them.
It must have been a sight for the police to see because the rapist was screaming obscenities at her as she screamed back at him with her hand on the handle of my Hoover Vacuum Cleaner that was sitting upright and next to him. And I only had my panties and bra on yet!
"Someboy hit me over my head and it hurts! I need medical attention right now!" the rapists screamed as the police handcuffed him, and I thought how this sicko wasn't worried about hurting someone else, yet when he was hurt he acted as if the police should arrest me and everyone else in the world!
Shawn came, thank God, and by that time she had her robe on.
She told the detectives everything over and over again until they were satisfied, if ever they were satisfied, it seemed.
"Your story is interesting. You see we just got a call from another tenant in this building reporting a burglary earlier. And we figure that it must have been around the time the rapist entered your apartment.
That's just too coincidental. I'll have to agree with the Rubber Band Bandit," the detective said.
"What's that," I asked.
"You are lucky!"
The End
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