Disclaimer: Any Characters you recognize belong to
Laurell K Hamilton. This is not an authorized treatment of any of her
characters. I am not making any money off of this. It is done purely for
entertainment. This fiction does contain some original characters so if you
have a problem with that, move on to the next post now and thanks for stopping
by.
Rated: R for some violence and nudity too, LOL.
Well I guess I kept you all in suspense as to what
happened after we were picked up in the alley at the end of chapter one long
enough so I’ll just shut up and get to the story. I hope you enjoy it.
Hugs,
The metal door clanged shut as bright overhead lights flooded the room. An older man entered, carrying a cup of peppermint tea. Taking a sip, he set it down on the long chrome countertop that ran the length of the large rectangular room. The room seemed innocuous enough from this view. White washed walls, bright light reflecting off the chrome counter….well not just the counter. The gentleman’s tools provided their own reflected luminescence as beams of light hit them from above. An assortment of knives of varying lengths and widths lay in a prep tray on the counter; most of them were steel, but the ones lying on black velvet, at the end furthest from the door were silver. Those were for later. The man had been hired to do a job; that didn’t mean he couldn’t have a little fun first.
Turning to face his guests, the view was not so sterile. There were still white walls, and shiny metal, this time in the form of three long metal tables similar to those used by medical examiners. Each table held one naked person, legs and arms secured to the four corners of the table with reinforced silver handcuffs. Each of them had a white sheet draped over them though the two boys’ sheets were now splattered with blood. There was a dark pool of blood that had dripped down to the industrial white tile floor beneath the long hair boy’s table the last time he visited. He had been gone long enough that it had coagulated. No, this wasn’t the first time the man had come into the room to play. He only hoped the girl would wake this time around. It would seriously dampen his mood if he had to kill her without enjoying her screams first.
Pulling a rag out of a bucket of water laying nearby, he walked from table to table, dripping water, first on the young woman’s face to the right, then the purple hair man in the middle, then the long hair man on the left. He continued moving from one to the other, wondering which one would wake up first. Seeing a fluttering of eyelids from the central table the man smiled. It wasn’t as good as waking the girl would be, but the purple hair boy was definitely the more fun of the two males. He could endure more punishment. The other, prettier boy was nice to cut but as a victim, he seemed to enjoy it too much. Where was the fun in that? The other one would do just fine for now. The older man headed over to the counter to grab a large carving knife that had been left by the sink to dry after being cleaned on his last visit. Dried blood was a bitch to clean off his instruments.
Zane’s eyelids had fluttered open as water dripped down his
face. It took a moment for his pupils to adjust to the bright overhead lights.
He could hear someone moving around nearby. The burning pain he had woken to
every time since they left the alley was still present in his wrists and
ankles. Having already figured out the bonds were indeed silver and reinforced,
he didn’t bother struggling. He could smell the strong scent of mint in the
room. Underlying that was metallic scent of drying blood, the scent of his and
Nate’s sweat from their previous struggles and a scent he could only describe
as reminding him of a hospital, industrial cleaners, combined with the chemical
scents of rubbing alcohol and drug treatments, with a whiff of stale sick room
air thrown in.
The sound of rubber soled shoes shuffling on tile told him someone was moving closer. Turning his head from side to side, he could see that Nate was still out from the last round and Maggie hadn’t woken up yet. It looked like they hadn’t touched her. God help them if they did. Noah would rip them to shreds. Lifting his head, he watched a man dressed in a black short sleeved shirt with a rubber smock over it move closer. The man was wearing a domino mask that obscured half of his face. It was rather disconcerting. The cat started to gaze down to take in the man’s pants but got no further than the knife in the man’s hand.
Zane’s primitive instincts kicked in at that point, defying all logic. He began to struggle as he cried for mercy, watching the knife move closer with every breath. He had to find a way to get out. He watched the older man pull off the sheet covering his body. The blood from previous sessions had dried, gluing the sheet to his body in several places. A few of the deeper cuts had even started to heal around the fabric, enclosing it under his skin. He could feel the painful tug on the wounds as the sheet was moved down his body, inch by inch.
His tormentor enjoyed watching his struggles and seemed loath to end them so he deliberately moved slower, prolonging the anticipation, increasing the fear. He could see the purple hair boy’s eyes begin to change color as he struggled with his bonds. The sweat began to run down the boy’s body again and the man played with the salty water, gliding the dull side of his knife through it, watching the blade become wet with the moisture of fear personified. The older man smiled at his favorite knife, thinking it glistened even more brightly now but could use a little color. Seconds later, he plunged the knife into the younger man’s abdomen, twisting as he went.
The cat’s screams echoed off the tiled floors of the room and the older man began to chuckle. Then he decided to get a little more creative. He lost track of time as he worked. After making several deep cuts to the boy’s midsection, the Carver, as the man liked to call himself had gone to work on the boy’s extremities. He had traced several intersecting triangles on the bound cat’s arms and legs, starting shallow near the torso, but going deeper as he moved further away until the last triangles near the boy’s wrists and ankles touched bone in several places. The older man turned to start on the boy’s face only to realize he had passed out some time before. Pity that. Well there was always the next round unless the kill order came through first.
The Carver sensed movement near him seconds before he heard the screams of the long hair boy. Turning to the other male cat, he could see those bizarre lilac eyes go wide with horror and something else. His friend’s mangled bleeding form was certainly a horror filled sight but what was the other look for? Tracking the young man’s gaze the Carver eventually turned around and realized the something else was a mute warning to the girl. Smiling with unfettered glee, the older man turned to fully face the young woman and watched the emotions play across her face, confusion, horror, and finally the much-desired fear he had been waiting for.
Maggie had woken to a scream. It was someone she knew and they sounded so desperate but she couldn’t place the voice. Why was it so cold in here? Where had she fallen asleep? Opening her eyes too quickly, she was blinded by the bright light and shut them. Opening them slower the second time to give them time to adjust, she turned her head to the left first. All she could see were white walls, cabinets and tiled floor. Was she at the lab? The next round of screams had her turning the other way and she couldn’t quite believe the sight before her. Zane, who appeared to be resting, was covered in some brownish red liquid that the young doctor’s mind refused to name.
Looking past him she saw the horror on the face of the still screaming Nate. He gave her a look that she couldn’t quite discern. Was it some sort of warning? Was it pity? She had no time to find out as her attention was drawn to the last person in the room. It was a man in some sort of dark apron and clothes. He was holding the biggest knife she had ever seen and was watching her with a smile that sent chills down her spine. The knife was completely covered and dripping with the same reddish liquid she had seen on Zane. Realizing it was blood, the young woman began to scream for help and struggle with her bonds.
The man casually walked over to where she lay and caressed her cheek with a bloody hand before throwing the sheet that had been covering her to the floor. It was then she realized she was naked and her cries for help became one unintelligible high pitch scream. The man’s bloody hand ran down her body from her cheek over her breast to rest on her abdomen. He appeared to be feeling for the best place to start. But start what, she didn’t want to know. She looked from his half masked face to the other hand holding the knife and was afraid she now knew all too well what was coming next. Flashing her a too wide grin, all teeth and no warmth, he plunged the blood-covered knife into her abdomen.
There was a deep piercing pain that seemed to burn as it moved. Then she felt nothing for a moment. The clinician in the back of her brain told her that the lack of pain was a bad sign. It meant the wound was probably deep and the nerve endings had been temporarily short circuited as it were. The lack of pain didn’t last long though and she felt like her insides were being rearranged as the man continued to work on her. The burning pain had become intense again. The man was working but slowly.
Looking down at the girl, the Carver studied her face. Her screams had been as sweeter than even he had anticipated but they ended too soon. She was still conscious but seemed to have been scared silent. Perhaps if he slowed down his work, she would relax enough to think a call for help might be answered. Leaving the knife buried to the hilt in her torso, he ran his other hand along her body, smearing a mixture of hers and the boy’s blood from her abdomen back over to breasts to her shoulders before his hand came to rest on her arm, petting her lightly.
The young woman tried to move, to avoid his touch but she couldn’t. She could feel tears pooling in her eyes and was powerless to stop them. Blinking, the image of the domino mask became a bit fuzzy for a moment. She could hear a quiet drip coming from somewhere nearby but couldn’t identify the source. Nate was sobbing for the man to stop. She gasped for air as the knife moved under her skin and was assailed by the scents of the room. It smelled like a hospital lab, a place she usual found comforting and safe. It certainly wasn’t safe now. She could also detect the metallic scent of her own blood. The young scientist had processed enough specimens in her private lab to know that smell instantly. Oddly there was mint in the air too. Where did that come from? She blinked again trying to get a good look at her apparent kidnapper and hoping she would live long enough to give a description to the police but her vision did not improve. Indeed it seemed to be getting worse. On some level she realized that it was probably blood loss and not the tears that was altering her ability to focus. She was beginning to get light headed and it was hard to remember where she was.
A metal door suddenly clanged open, then shut, jerking her closer to full consciousness. Heavy footsteps came closer as she heard a horrible sucking sound. The knife had been pulled out of her abdomen. As the air hit the open wound, she whimpered at the burning pain that tore through her. Two low male voices spoke in a whisper near her. She barely made out something about needing to move and finishing the job. Rolling her head to the side, she saw a second man, dressed in a white lab coat inject something into Nate’s arm. She tried to struggle with her bonds but was too weak to do more than make the chains rattle. As the second man came closer, there was something familiar about his lower face under the identical domino mask he wore but she couldn’t quite make it out. He grabbed her arm, needle in hand but then looked shocked. She followed his gaze to her wrist where the metal bonds had slide down a bit. As she drifted towards unconsciousness she heard the men arguing over the fact she didn’t seem affected by the silver in the bonds like the two males were. She went down into the darkness wondering if she would ever see the light again.