Friday Fictioneers – The Rapist

Every week, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields (thank you, Rochelle!) hosts a flash fiction challenge, to write a complete story, based on a photoprompt, with a beginning, middle and end, in 100 words or less. Post it on your blog, and include the Photoprompt and Inlinkz (the blue frog) on your page. Link your story URL. Then the fun starts as you read other peoples’ stories and comment on them!

FF - The Rapist 180502

PHOTO PROMPT © Karen Rawson

The Rapist

Was he still pursuing her?

Jodie’s legs burned with fatigue and there was a knot of cold fire in her chest. She couldn’t run much further. She splashed through standing water and struggled up rotten wooden steps that flaked under her feet.

The climb all but finished her. She dashed the sweat from her eyes, looking around desperately for a place to hide. A fragment of wall fringed the path. She slipped behind it, willing silence on her gasping breaths, and drew her hunting knife.

There was a heavy thud of footsteps.

Alright.

She would end this the messy way.

80 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers – The Rapist”

    • Dear Susan
      Thank you for reading and commenting. I think it’s very likely that the would-be rapist will end up dead. He should have known better than to pursue her!
      With best wishes
      Penny

      Like

    • Dear anie
      Thank you for reading and commenting.
      This story drew on my own irrational fears. The prompt reminded me very strongly of a setting near where I used to live. Whenever I walked there – which was two or three times a week – I felt an unease, because I could often hear people but not see them. And sometimes it was clear that I was hearing a group of young men…
      With best wishes
      Penny

      Like

    • Dear Lisa
      Thank you for reading and commenting. Jodie will kill him, but only because it’s unavoidable; he would certainly kill her if he got the upper hand. The only reason she ran was to try and avoid the need to kill.
      With best wishes
      Penny

      Liked by 1 person

  11. I wish her well with the resolution of the situation, however messy it may turn out to be. A great sense of suspense here, yet leaving the reader confident of a satisfactory ending.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Sandra
      Thank you for reading, and for your illuminating comment. You’re very kind letting me know that you felt the suspense, but also the confidence of a satisfactory ending. That was what I intended when I used the word ‘messy’. Most people in a life-or-death situation wouldn’t describe it with the word ‘messy’; the strong inference then is that Jodie is familiar with lethal combat, and will therefore succeed in killing her assailant.
      With very best wishes
      Penny

      Like

  15. Wow! This was breathless writing Penny. Such a strong feeling of tension throughout and the title – chilling, though we don’t know if this is his potential act or if she’s already been his victim. I can’t help but admire your MC for her courage, for stopping and fighting and taking him on. I hope she wins out. So well done Penny

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Lynn
      Thank you for reading and commenting so kindly. I’m glad the story evoked a sense of tension. The MC is certainly courageous. I intended the word ‘messy’ to give a clue about her nature. It’s an odd word to use about the death of another human being. The only sort of person I could imagine using the word would be someone who had actually faced life and death situations – a soldier who’d seen active service, maybe, or possibly something darker…At all events, I don’t give much for the chances of her assailant!
      With very best wishes
      Penny

      Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Lynn
      Oops! I think I’ve given you the wrong idea with my reply – blame the wine I had with my evening meal!
      City Life was a Friday Fictioneers flash that I posted at the beginning of April. Since then I’ve posted two longer stories and in the course of writing them I’ve become enthralled by the potential. So I’m starting work on a novel that derives from City Life. But I’m afraid that Jodie will not feature in the novel; she’s a standalone character. The more I write, the more I become aware of all the fascinating stories there are! But there’s not the time to explore them all, alas!
      With very best wishes
      Penny

      Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Lynn
      Thank you for your good luck wishes – I’m currently working on the plot.
      Yes, three lifetimes would be great – or maybe I should have started earlier in the single life I have!
      With very best wishes
      Penny

      Liked by 1 person

      • Ha! I hear you on that one Penny. I’ve only be writing seriously for ten years, though considering a decade of creativity is behind me, I have precious little to show for it! I too wish I’d continued my early love of writing and not dropped it for so long, mistakenly believing girls who worked in retail did not produce novels. More self belief at an earlier age would have been amazing – I might even have a published novel to my name by now! At least we came to writing in the end, Penny. Better late than never.

        Liked by 1 person

  16. Oh, this man is definitely pursuing the wrong woman. I love the detail about the steps flaking under her feet and her final resolve. I can almost see her shrug, thinking, “Heck, I tried to give him a chance to get away.”

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Bjorn
      Thank you for reading and commenting. You’re exactly right about her motives; arguing self-defence in the UK would be difficult, I think. It’s possible she would face a murder charge, and even be convicted – because she stopped and waited with a drawn blade, with the intention of killing the man.
      With very best wishes
      Penny

      Like

  20. Brilliantly done, Penny. Ironically, I just finished watching this little Canadian Mini-series called “Cardinal” and I pictured the woman running through a woods just like this one, out of breath with both of these women as they ran, lungs burning….

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Karen
      Thank you for reading, and for your lovely comments. I’m delighted the writing stirred you emotionally.
      Your last comment looked as though it deserved a hashtag – made me smile! #rootingforjodie
      With very best wishes
      Penny

      Like

  22. Very intense and fast-paced. If he attacks her, he won’t know what he’s in for, and deservedly so. Good for her to be defiant. She’s not out to murder in cold blood, after all.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Dahlia
      Thank you for reading and commenting. I’m rooting for Jodie too!
      If you have a minute or two, I’d be grateful if you could let me know about Indian law in such a case.
      You see, in the UK if Jodie stopped and drew a knife, as she does in the story, and then kills the man, it’s quite likely that she would be tried for murder and convicted. For example, some years ago an elderly man who lived alone in a remote building was burgled in the middle of the night. He hid, with a shotgun, and when the two burglars came close, he fired in their direction, hitting one and fatally wounding him. He was convicted of manslaughter and spent three years in prison.
      If someone like Jodie killed a man who had threatened rape, would she be likely to be convicted of a serious crime?
      With very best wishes
      Penny

      Liked by 1 person

      • I really have no clue Penny but if I were to hazard a guess it would matter a lot on the extenuating circumstances not to mention the kind of legal help she would be able to afford 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  27. Very skilled, Penny, especially title and last line. Therefore your bigger story is clearly told in just a hundred words. Your protagonist is under terrible pressure but she can amply take care of herself. Her attacker is rightly doomed.

    Liked by 1 person

  32. Dear Fatima
    Thank you for reading and commenting. Being chased like that by a man would be terrifying. I’m glad Jodie is tough enough to take care of herself.
    With best wishes
    Penny

    Like

  36. Penny this was really good. You built the tension and fear. My heart was thudding along with hers and could feel the fatigue. But you turned her skilfully from the hunted into the hunter. She wasn’t going to take anything from this chap chasing her. I even started to pity him in a way. No not really but I didn’t think he was going to stand a chance.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Irene
      Thank you for reading and for your thoughtful comments. I’m so glad you noticed the transition from hunted to hunter. Jodie really didn’t want to kill the man, even in self-defence, so when he attempted to rape her, she ran. It was only when she couldn’t outrun him that she decided she had no alternative. And, you’re right – he doesn’t stand a chance.
      With very best wishes
      Penny

      Liked by 1 person

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s