Pressure Point (extended excerpt)
By Laura Kleinschmidt
Other Stepping Out Excerpts
- With These Hands by Michelle Catenacci
- Mud Pies and Glitter Glue by Desiree J. Fischer
- Alone No More by Miranda Baxter
- A Whirlwind of Snowflakes by Sarah Sheppard
- Full Count by Emily Cook
- First of May by Kelsey Knoedler
- Pressure Point by Laura Kleinschmidt
- A Masked Man by Megan Sotak
- Testimony by Marilynn Anater
- Exploding Grapes by Jamie Peterson
After taking a quick gulp, there was a knock at the door. She called out, “hello?” No one answered. She left her room, walked over to the door and looked through the peephole. There wasn’t anyone there. She walked back into her room. Something was out of place. Something had been moved. Her chair. She didn’t usually leave it sticking out like that, she always tucked it underneath her desk. Always. She tucked her chair in and looked around. Her closet? The door seemed to be standing ajar. She never left her door like that. Someone was behind her. “Hi Sam,” a voice whispered into her ear. Sam whipped around and saw a face staring right back at her. Before she knew what was going on, her entire body went numb and everything went black. She fell to the ground and felt herself get kicked over and over again. She couldn’t move. She squirmed but the kicking only grew stronger. Sam heard her own voice screaming inside her head, but sounds couldn’t escape her lips. She thought over and over that she should cry out for help. She should scream, do something. Every thought she had was crushed by another blow to her back. Sam knew this was it. She could feel that the end was near. The only sounds she heard were her own screams, drowning in her own thoughts. No one was coming, no one could help her. Her roommates wouldn’t be home for hours. She was all alone in her apartment and someone was taking advantage of her. Sam was nice to everyone, she didn’t have any enemies and didn’t understand why this was happening. Was this some random person who wanted to break into their apartment and Sam just happened to be home? She wasn’t sure, but the kicking grew harder with every thought. She wrapped her arms tighter around her body, making sure to protect her head. Tears wouldn’t even come. Her body was in shock from what was happening. How could this happen? This was a safe campus. This was why her mother had forced her to live on campus, because things like this happened off campus in apartments with weak locks on the doors. Sam brushed her thoughts aside as the kicking grew harder and harder. She didn’t know how much she could take. Just when she thought she was going to die, right there, in her apartment, all alone, she squeezed her arms around her body as tightly as she could. And Sam passed out, right there, on the rough carpet in her on-campus apartment.