Chapter Six
Maria Matthews looked back at the imposing structure of the Statue of Liberty as it receded into the distance. The sun was setting over the horizon. It was the time of day she loved the most and she was heading back to Manhattan on the Staten Island ferry to join some of her friends for drinks. They were all meeting up in Madison Square Park at one of their favorite bars. Maria hoped that the boy she liked would also be there that evening.
She was wearing a thigh-length black denim skirt and a white crop top underneath a long, warm coat because the ferry journey was always cold. Even so, she enjoyed sitting outside looking at the bay and the Manhattan skyline as the ferry approached the docking bay. It was so calm and tranquil and the city lights glittered like low-lying stars. It was magical.
I’m such a city girl, she thought.
She smiled as she remembered her awful cousins who lived out in the sticks. Their lack of sophistication and awe as they came to visit one year had been a source of embarrassment and Maria had refused to take the two boys and one girl out to meet her friends. Her parents had been angry, but they had given in when she explained her reasons carefully. “Mom, they just don’t fit in here. You want to make me a laughingstock at school?”
Her parents had let it slide. They trusted her fortunately. She was generally a good-natured and reliable girl. It was rare that she would refuse them anything. And Susie, her sister, hadn’t minded taking care of the relatives that weekend because she didn’t have any particular plans.
Maria turned her head and watched the statue vanish into the distance as the ferry drew closer to the dock. She had thought she was alone outside and so she jumped slightly when she saw someone move at the end of the row of seats. Once aware of the presence, she narrowed her eyes to try to see more. There was a dark shadow near the door and the lights weren’t working in that part of the deck.
Vandals, she thought. Her mother’s snobbery reared inside her as though she were far older than her twenty-one years. Goddam street kids have nothing better to do …
The darkness shimmered and Maria looked harder but couldn’t make out the figure. She stood up and went to the rail, looking out over the sea as the sun finally went down. It appeared to be swallowed up, snuffed by the black ocean. Through the corner of her eye she thought she saw the figure mimic her movements at the other end of the deck, but when she looked directly there, all she could see was a dark void. She shrugged. It was probably just her imagination.
She had seen all sorts of things on this ferry over the years and nothing really scared her. Manhattan was her home. She knew all of its dark secrets, and she knew how to protect herself. Even when the city had gone crazy a few years back, with people marauding and violence escalating, she had kept herself safe. As she thought of this, her hand went into her pocket and felt for the pepper spray canister there. It was something her mother had insisted she carried and Maria did so out of habit.
The ferry was approaching the dock and so Maria went back inside and headed towards the exit gate because it would open as soon as the boat was docked. The ferry rocked as the buffers touched the sides of the dock, but the rocking wasn’t much to worry about, she was used to it.
The door to the seating decks opened behind her and she glanced back to see a group of teenage girls coming through. They were giggling and loud and as they approached, Maria could smell beer on them. She observed that none of the girls could be older than sixteen, but it made her smile. She had been just like them, not that many years ago.
The bridge clunked into place and the door opened in front of her, but the five girls pushed their way forward and out before Maria could react.
“Rude!” she said before following.
She glanced over at the station. The big glass partition door that held back the next influx of passengers was lit up from inside like a huge window. Anonymous faces stared through the glass, eager to board the ferry and be on their way out of the City. Maria barely noticed them as she followed the teenagers out towards the exit and onto the main road.
Sometimes she would get a taxi from here to Madison Square Park, but she had spent too much of her salary that month already on buying a watch. It was a special piece, with a large oval mosaic face. The tiny mosaic made up a picture. Susie had said it was based a bust of Picasso. Her sister was studying fine art at NYU and she had been the one to point out the watch in the window of Tiffany’s. Maria was really taken with it. She saved up for months and she had been so close to reaching her goal. Then she noticed the watch had been reduced, and even though she knew it would be a tight month, she was afraid that it would be sold. She had bought it on impulse—it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. But it meant that her cash flow was even tighter than usual. So, she had cut down significantly on her social spending to make up the short-fall. That night she really couldn’t waste anything on a taxi. Subway it would have to be.
Maria glanced at her watch now. It was seven-thirty. She had plenty of time to get uptown and meet her friends.
She set off, heading towards the subway station and 23rd Street. The park area was quiet but Maria could see that there were still a few tourists around. There always were. This was New York!
She gripped her bag to her as she walked. Too many times she’d seen people on the streets have their belongings snatched by a passing thief.
“Sensible …” said a voice behind her.
Maria looked over her shoulder. She saw a dark silhouette standing on the grass, but the street lamp’s light didn’t reach the face. The voice was low and she wasn’t sure if the speaker was male or female.
She swallowed and picked up her pace. Then, an icy hand fell on the back of her neck.
Maria’s stomach lurched with dread. She tried to pull away but the fingers caught hold of her and tightened. She was lifted, feet dangling above the ground: one of her shoes slipped off back down to the grass. A gurgling gasp of terror bubbled from her lips but fear paralyzed her throat: she was incapable of screaming.
The person or thing, because surely no human had such strength, turned her around. A thumb dug into the front of Maria’s throat, cutting off her oxygen as it seemed to reposition its hand. She found herself facing a black void. She blinked. There was no one in front of her, yet she couldn’t see the park either. Her bulging eyes darted over where the face should have been.
As light shadowed the darkness, she saw the shape of the thing. A tall, dark figure that had no real substance. It was there but unseen. It was as though light repelled the form. Like an old negative in the days when photographs had to be developed. Or maybe she was suddenly struck blind. Maria didn’t know. She just knew she was more afraid right then than any moment in her life.
Her body twitched and jerked. Her bladder vented, spoiling the denim mini-skirt as urine dripped down her legs, over her feet, one shod, the other bare. She smelt her own stink, and her already choking throat began to dry heave, while waves of shame washed over her.
The thing began to move, taking her with it, at impossible speed. Branches whipped Maria’s face as she was pulled into the nearby brush. She tried to make a sound but the creature tightened its grasp on her throat and her larynx closed. She barely knew she was crying until the tears dampened her cheeks and all she could think about was the indignity of wetting herself.
Maria felt herself slipping away, terror and lack of oxygen making her slither into a blessed unconsciousness. As the stranglehold tightened, and her breath was cut off, it occurred to her that she was dying. Panic shook the dark threads of unconscious away, she struggled properly for the first time, kicking and thrashing in a desperate attempt to live. Her feet connected with something, but it didn’t feel solid, or human.
Her whole life did not flash before her eyes, but as she fell into the darkness, she worried about the boy she had been planning to meet. Would he even miss her?
Maria woke.
Cold and damp seeped in her limbs as she realized her back was on wet grass. It took a moment for her thoughts to coalesce. She could see again, albeit through bleary, tear-filled eyes. She tried to move but her body was frozen. It was as if someone had given her a drug that had cut off the parts of her brain that controlled her central nervous system. For a moment, she couldn’t remember where she was or how she got there. What had happened? Her throat hurt and she took in a deep rasping breath. She blinked away the tears. She tried to raise her arm, but the strength hadn’t returned yet. She turned her head as she glimpsed light peeking through the bushes and then she remembered. She was in Battery Park. Someone, no something, had grabbed her, pulled her into the dark.
The dark specter was gone.
Jesus! I’ve been raped!
And the thought of telling her parents, the look of horror on their faces, consumed the fear that raged inside her. I’m okay. I’m alive. She had survived whatever her assailant had done and she had been unconscious. She didn’t know, hadn’t really experienced it. All was fine. She was alive after all. Wasn’t that all that mattered?
Her left arm twitched. Life was returning to her limbs and she found herself able to turn her head to look down the length of it, see her fingers moving. She wriggled them, then slowly raised her hand to her face. She was fine. This was an ordeal, but maybe she wouldn’t tell anyone about it. Maybe she didn’t have to put her folks through that. A rush of guilt colored her cheeks. All her mother’s warnings; never leave your drink unattended; never let a stranger give you a lift; stay in lit areas; always get taxis even if it means you have less money for the evening. And the mace … she hadn’t even had time to put her hand into her pocket. Hadn’t thought to. It had all been so sudden, so horribly quick.
Her mind was in turmoil. She knew this was her fault, but how could anyone imagine this would happen in so public a place as Battery Park? She never walked through Central Park at night. It was obvious that this would not be a good idea, but Battery was usually populated.
Yet, no one had come to her rescue. No one had heard her scream. But then, she hadn’t screamed, had she?
She closed her eyes, then opened them immediately when the darkness reminded her too much of the thing that had taken her from the bench.
I have to get up, straighten myself up and go home. I can say I fell, that’s why my clothes are messy, that’s why I came home early.
She didn’t know the time, or how long she had been lying here. Then she remembered her watch, on her right arm. She lifted it. It felt heavier than the other one, but also strangely light, which didn’t make any sense at all.
She rolled onto her side, and pushed herself up with her left arm. She put her weight on her right arm, but fell back to the ground again. Something was wrong here.
She raised her right arm and found herself staring at a void where the lower part of her arm should be. It took a moment for her to make sense of the fact that her arm, from the elbow down, was missing. There was no blood. It just wasn’t there.
Panic rushed into her ears. Her face flushed. Then she pushed herself up into a sitting position with her left arm and stared at the empty space where her right arm should have been.
I’m losing my mind. This isn’t real.
Her arm was gone. Definitely gone. She glanced down at her torso. She expected to see her clothing torn, her panties ripped away. But all was intact. Her coat was the only thing that had been removed and it had been bunched up under her head like a cushion, as though her attacker really didn’t want her to be uncomfortable.
Maria shook her head. She was shivering violently and not just from the cold. I’m in shock! She needed help. Someone else to look at her arm and tell her it was still there, that she was just in shock after the attack.
“Help!” she croaked. Her throat hurt so much she could barely talk. She was bruised, inside and out. Every part of her body ached from the strain of the assault, or maybe from her resistance to it. And her throat felt like she had tried to swallow something whole and it was stuck there. Panic overwhelmed her again. She imagined she couldn’t breathe, and her mouth opened as she gasped in air until she fell back dizzy and nauseated.
Stop it, she told herself. You’re fine. You can breathe. She lay for a moment forcing her chest to slow its desperate gasping, then she forced herself up on her knees, using her left arm to support herself.
She glanced around. Her other shoe had somehow been lost and her handbag was nowhere to be seen. She had to get out of the bushes, find help and tell someone what had happened.
She stumbled to her feet feeling imbalanced as she cradled the stump of her right arm. All she could think about was that her expensive watch was gone. Stolen. Along with her lower arm. The assistant who had sold it to her had said it was a one-of-a-kind. It was irreplaceable.
The tears came again as she focused on the loss of the watch. Anything but think about the arm. The most terrible loss of all!
She pushed her way through the bushes towards the light. Battery Park looked little different from the moments before her assailant had pulled her into the darkness. There was a bench just ahead. It was hard to believe she had been so near to the path. By the bench she found her heeled shoes, one tipped over, the other still upright and her purse underneath.
How long had she been out?
She heard voices as a couple approached, walking arm in arm along the path.
“Help,” she gasped.
The woman drew a breath as her eyes fell on Maria’s arm. Maria blinked when she saw her reaction. It was true then. She was maimed!
“Help, me,” she said. “Someone did this … I …”
“Were you attacked?” asked the woman. “What happened?”
“I … my arm …”
“Oh my God, Jarrod. Call the police,” said the woman. “Sit down on the bench. We’ll get someone. We’ll get you an ambulance.”
The woman’s husband or boyfriend, Jarrod, already had his cell phone to his ear.
Maria moved her left hand through the space where her right arm had been, and the reality sank in at last.
As Jarrod finished his call, Maria began to scream.
She didn’t stop until the first police car arrived.