Chester had a bad feeling about these women as soon as they walked over to him, but the moment the blonde took hold of his hand with the death-grip of a starved anaconda, his fears were confirmed. It seemed the woman shared more than just her grip and predatory nature with that deadly snake. Ches was a fairly fit man and was larger than both the women, but the blonde's strength, coupled with his own shock and bewilderment, made him a hapless victim as she dragged him across the ballroom. His eyes fixated on the ferocious tigers that adorned her clawed fingers, and he felt as if they had leapt from her skin and assisted her grip on his hand. Her tight grip was beginning to hurt now.
Without really focusing on what he was doing, he heard the words "I'm Chester..." tumble from his lips. He instantly regretted telling her his name. What was he even doing?
There was a moment of relief when the woman took her attention off of Chester to search along the wall for something, but her grip still remained strong. Chester took this opportunity to shoot a glance back toward Gerald. While the man wasn't being abducted as he was, Gerald wore the deer-in-headlights expression of a man so utterly overwhelmed by the sudden happenings that he could barely process what was going on. Of course, Chester thought, No help from him... He shot a glance at the nearby bartender, who simply replied with a wink. No, I am not enjoying this! Help me! he wanted to scream, but fear claimed the words before he spoke them.
He felt himself pushed hard against the wall, then the wooden paneling that was being driven into his spine seemed to disappear and he was pulled backward into a dark passage. As the blackness fell over his vision when the secret door shut, Chester felt his body freeze and the cold, clammy hand of fear grasp his forehead. He never thought he'd end up genuinely terrified at a fancy dinner party, but honest-to-goodness horror washed over him and sent his mind spinning into hysteria. His heart pounded in his ears and the only other thing he could hear was himself repeating Oh God, oh God, oh God... in his thoughts. He was usually capable with dealing with flirts, much more so that Gerald, but this was taken lightyears too far. Here he was, locked in the darkness in a secret passage that quite possibly nobody else even knew about. The music in the ballroom was loud enough to drown out one's own thoughts, let alone any attempts at screaming. Gerald was probably busy having a panic attack by now, so there was no hope of help from him either. It was all up to him now.
Sweat now trickled down his forehead and his spine. He felt positively soaking wet. His breath was shallow and ragged, and became more so as the woman pressed herself nearer. While it was too dark to see his own hand in front of his face, he could tell the woman had her face less than an inch from his own. The scent of her perfume burned in his nostrils. She could not get any nearer if she tried.
He felt the woman's hand creeping up his chest and, momentarily propelling his body from its frozen-with-fear state, shoved her away with all the strength his adrenaline-filled body gave him. He did not care if he hurt her at this point. Animalistic terror possessed him.
He could not see her in the darkness, but feared she would grab hold of him again. He half expected her to be able to see in the dark, watching her prey scrabble around helplessly, like the nocturnal predator that she was. He began running blindly down the passage, groping the walls in search of some way out. He knew if he ever made it out of this alive, he'd probably end up just like Gerald with every little innuendo, flirtatious gesture, or double entendre sending him spiraling into a repulsed frenzy.
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Gerald watched helplessly as his friend was dragged away. Sparkling purple dots began invading his vision, and he felt lightheaded. Soon the pitch-black curtain would follow, along with his legs turning to jelly. Not here, he thought, willing himself to overcome his panic, Not now.. These were the panic attacks that he would sometimes get when placed in a situation with people would be too explicit around him. It was always something that surprised everyone he knew; the cynical and smart-alecky auto mechanic was incredibly sex-repulsed, so much so that he felt physically ill whenever someone talked about their sexual relations or made some vulgar joke. His repulsion and anxiety almost always got the better of him and manifested in this way. And now here was his friend, being dragged off somewhere no doubt to be molested by one of these predatory females and he could barely do anything to help. To make it worse, now he was stuck alone with the other one. This was not how he expected this trip to be.
In an attempt to fight the purple-spangled black velvet from invading his vision, he propped himself up by the wall and bent over with his head down. He braced himself with his hands on his slightly bent knees and took a deep breath. He did not realize that the bloodthirsty lioness next to him had spoken to him. He was so befuddled that he did not even catch that the women claimed to have different names than when they first introduced themselves. He did not even care that he left the redhead waiting impatiently with her arm out to be taken. The last thing he could possibly notice was where the blonde had taken Chester. For all he knew, they had just disappeared into thin air.