"No, don't… don't touch me!"

Jeff had been too quick for her. Darlene screamed, her knees buckling under her as she felt her cousin's fingers gripping her right wrist.

"Stupid bitch! Think you could get away from me?"

"Don't, Jeff… please leave me alone!" Her cries bounced off the wooden shed walls.

Outside, Darlene could hear the German shepherd barking. Her feet slipped on the dirty wooden floor as Jeff struggled to gain complete control of her.

He backhanded her, his knuckles bruising her chin. Darlene saw stars as she felt the numbing blow knocking her backward. Hands stretched to either side of her body, the young teenager reeled past her cousin. With a thud, Darlene crumped like a useless pile of rags to the floor. Jeff stood spread-legged above her, his thick muscled arms folded over his chest. Darlene pushed back her hair and stared pitifully at her cousin. A strange sensation of sheer terror began coursing through her as she waited far him to make his next move.

"If you ain't been fucked before by them city studs, you been askin' for it for a long time," he sneered, wiping his lips with the back of his hand. "Can smell it. Could smell your fuckin' pussy all the way across the dining room tonight."

"Jeff!"

"And it ow I'm gonna get me some of that hot little cunt right now… after I warm you up a little."

Darlene's rounded eyes watched in fear as he criss-crossed his arms and pulled off his sweat dampened white cotton T-shirt. She had seen her cousin bare-chested before, working around the shed with his father. Only now did he seem overwhelmingly threatening – as if with just his sheer will he could crush her into the ground.

She tried to get up, pushing her body up with both hands into a sitting position. Jeff raised one foot, pressing the tip of his boot against her forehead and knocking her back to the floor. Darlene's head struck the rotting floorboards as she flattened out.