by Isaiah Paul

Created on: September 01, 2008

"Hitting the Door"

Breathing helps to steady the nerves. Inhale1001, 1002, 1003hold1001, 1002, 1003exhale1001, 1002, 1003. It works wonders. Try it sometime.

Before you hit the door, you feel as if your heart will explode. No matter how many times you do it, it's always the same: pounding heart, dripping sweat, and squeaky voice. Give us a mic and a crowd at that moment, and we would sound like a troop of panting drag-queens about to break forth in a rendition of "Hello Dolly" at Stubby's on karaoke night.

Hitting the doorit's not something you get "used to."

We are standing at the door of 1314 Patton Road. There are twelve of us. One team of six for the basement, and one team of six for the main floor. The house is a split-level with a double front door. We are dressed in black and armed as well as a squad of Marines.

Inhale1001, 1002, 1003

The events leading up to our unannounced visit began over ten years ago, when Timothy William Wilkins tried to kill his girlfriend, Cathy Jones. Wilkins was an outlaw biker, and Jones had been attracted to his "bad-boy" image. The image's allure, however, soon faded. She came to realize that "bad-boy" carried connotations other than hard drinking and smoking the occasional blunt: Wilkins was a career criminal with a penchant for brutality. Jones' attraction soon turned to fear, so she ended the relationship.

What she failed to realize, though, was that a woman did not break-up with Wilkins. That was his decision to make. Jones had crossed a line, and for that, she would have to die. Not in a typical fashion, mind you, say a bullet to the head or a slit throat. No, sir. Jones would have to suffer for her affront.

Over the course of two days, Wilkins held Jones hostage in her own apartment. He beat her savagely and raped her repeatedly. During breaks from the carnage, as Jones was lying unconscious in her own vomit and feces, Wilkins had food delivered to the apartment. Once his hunger was satiated, he held a stun-gun to Jones' vagina and shocked her back to consciousness. The sadism was then repeated: beat, rape, relax. Stun-gun shot to the vagina, beat, rape, relax. For forty-eight hours! Try wrapping your mind around that type of mentality.

Somehow, Jones survived her nightmare. When she arrived at the hospital, though, she had several broken bones, second degree burns around her vagina, bruising over ninety percent of her body, a three cubic-inch portion of her skull was missing, and her brain was protruding from the

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