Chapter 96: 96-Take It Out, It Hurts
Verity:
"Can you please just fucking take it off my back?" I suddenly screamed. I couldn’t understand what had come over me.
I guessed my sharp persona had slipped through the cracks every time the bat bit me.
He finally started walking toward me.
The moment he crouched behind me, my whole body tensed.
I quickly clutched the front of my shirt, making sure it did not slip, even though that was exactly what I was supposed to let happen to distract him.
I don’t know. That was the weirdest thing about him. I was so scared of him that I feared anything happening between us.
At the same time, that was exactly why I was here.
I then felt his grip on my back. He grabbed the bat and pulled it off me.
"Ah!" I screamed before collapsing to my knees.
It seemed he had only pulled the bat away because I could still feel something embedded in my skin.
It was the most uncomfortable sensation I had ever experienced.
"Wait, don’t move," Ragnar said.
I glanced over my shoulder and noticed his shadow growing larger as he crouched behind me again.
"I have to pull them out one by one," he stated, making my heart skip a beat.
"What do you mean by one by one? How many bats are there?" I complained, biting my bottom lip as my eyes filled with tears.
"Teeth. I was talking about the teeth," he replied through gritted teeth, correcting me.
"Ughhh! It burns so much," I cried, still kneeling on the ground.
"Give me your phone. It is too dark in here." He stretched his hand out, and I quickly handed him my phone after unlocking it.
While he was turning on the flashlight, I couldn’t take it anymore and did what felt right.
I reached behind me and unclasped my bra.
The bite marks were in such an awkward spot that every little movement made the bra strap rub against it or even cover it.
Unclasping it seemed like the sensible thing to do.
But I noticed Ragnar had stopped moving for a brief moment.
His body did not radiate any heat. It was simply the awkwardness of the situation that had suddenly frozen him.
Before long, I felt the flashlight shine against my back, and I immediately wrapped my arms around myself.
When I looked up, I could see Ragnar’s shadow as he hunched behind me. I knew what he was doing.
He raised his hand toward my back, and then I felt his fingertips touch my skin.
I closed my eyes at the initial contact. Then I felt him trying to dig into my skin.
His touch was extremely rough, to be honest. I didn’t think he was trying to be careful or avoid hurting me.
He just wanted to get the job done.
"Ah," I winced, watching him pull his hand away.
Then I noticed his shadow shift as he reached into his pocket.
I turned my head to see what he was doing and watched him pull out a pocketknife.
"Okay, no," I said, instantly turning around.
As I did, while I held my dress against my chest with one arm, it slowly slipped off my shoulders.
"Stay seated," Ragnar hissed, almost angrily. "If you don’t want this thing buried deeper into you, then fucking stay still."
He raised the knife, pointing it at my face.
"Because you better believe the teeth are sinking even farther."
The moment he said that, I immediately stopped moving and straightened my back.
Then I felt it.
The tip of the knife touched my skin.
I held my breath.
For a moment, neither of us moved.
Then I felt the slightest pressure as he slid the tip of the knife beneath something lodged in the wound.
"Don’t move," he ordered.
His voice was flat, carefully controlled, as though he were giving an order on a battlefield instead of kneeling behind a half-dressed woman in the middle of the woods.
I clenched my jaw, bracing myself as a sharp sting shot through my back.
"Oh!!" A strange moan escaped my lips instead of a cry, and I was immediately embarrassed.
My fingers curled tighter around the front of my dress as my shoulders jerked beyond my control.
"Stay still," he repeated.
"I’m trying," I muttered through gritted teeth.
His hand settled against my shoulder blade for a second.
The touch came completely out of nowhere. His cold fingers against my hot skin made me gulp.
I felt his fingers shift slightly, as though he were trying to steady his grip. But my shoulders kept twitching beneath his touch.
His touch was far from gentle. It wasn’t comforting either. It was simply firm enough to keep me from flinching.
Then I felt another tug.
Something tiny came free.
"There," he murmured.
A second later, I heard the faint metallic ping of something landing against the blade before he flicked it away.
"One more."
My heart dropped.
There were still more.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
"You’ve got to be kidding me," I muttered to myself, although I was certain he heard me.
He didn’t respond.
Only the quiet rustling of leaves filled the silence.
A sudden sound made both of us look up.
Something had moved behind one of the large trees.
I reacted so quickly that my dress slipped another inch down my shoulder.
His hand immediately shifted from my shoulder blade to my arm, holding me in place.
I caught the fabric before it slipped any farther, pulling it tightly against my chest.
His hand froze.
This time, I noticed his fingers curl around my arm.
The first touch between us, and it happened under circumstances where I couldn’t think about anything except getting those teeth out of my back.
They were driving me insane.
But then his cold fingers, his palm, came into contact with my skin, and I realized my body was reacting to his touch in the weirdest way possible.
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