The wife though, she was pliable and that was good – There were definitely things there that could be moulded and seeds that could be sewn, if she had the time to do so. That of course was the big question. For how long would they keep them alive – this had been the major concern that had crossed her mind for much of her time here. Ideally, she would have wanted enough time to be a little more subtle than she had been, but she had also been aware that at any point, the real torture might begin as opposed to the foreplay which they had essentially been indulging in over the past twenty or so hours.
All she needed to do was get one of them to untie her and she would quite cheerfully do whatever they wanted her to do to Katie. She would slit the bitch’s throat and dance in her blood if it kept her alive. Portia had never been someone that could be regarded as warm or sentimental and if she ended up murdering (again) and then living as their bondage bunny for a few months then so be it. One day, they would slip up and then she would fuck them up so badly that even dental records might be redundant.
She heard the door open and held her breath for a few seconds before a cold, sharp blade was held at her cheek. She knew then that her time might have run out.
Katie had somehow, against all of her expectations managed to shake off the feelings of despair and had become infused with a resolve and determination that she was not going to die here. She wasn’t quite sure how she would escape and find a way to rescue Portia, but she understood that she had to. After having watched the videos as she had been molested by the woman, she had understandably been shocked into a submission that was more powerful than any the ropes that were bound had brought. Even now with her entire body and head stuck and immobile, she felt empowered – one video in particular had stuck in her mind. In the cavalcade of sadism that had surrounded her, there was only one death that remained clear of all the others and that was a woman who had been remarkably free from cuts and bruises. The man had raised the woman’s head and wrapped a roll of clear plastic film around her nose and mouth until the roll was finished. He had laid her head back on the table and the camera had filmed her as she struggled to get breath. She had bucked and thrashed and her eyes had never once left the lens of the video camera. She had died painfully and horribly but her eyes had been locked on Katie’s eyes and it was almost as though she was pleading not for help but pleading for someone to stop these people.
It had been that anonymous woman and the pitiful death that had been delivered to her that had galvanised Katie’s resolve – These people, David and Maddy, needed to be stopped because the one thing that she did not want was to go to her death knowing that others would follow. She pulled against the ropes a little but could barely move. She needed to get free from these damned ropes and then she would be able to stop them. A small sliver of her consciousness knew that this righteous sense of justice that she was feeling was the same one that had driven her dad into law enforcement. That small sliver was enough to remind her that she was loved and that she was a good person.
Katie had been so lost in thought that she hadn’t even heard the door open and it was only when she felt a hand clamp around her throat that she was aware of his presence.
David had stalked across the courtyard from the cottage to the shed. His mood was dark and the bitch that was waiting for him would bear the brunt of it. He opened the door and looked at the weapons on the hooks, deciding that he wanted to use one of the gardening scythes he had bought. The one that had never been used on anything resembling vegetation. It had a sharp, curved blade and could be used to do things to a human body that were difficult to even imagine. He took if from the hook and then decided he wanted to use the stainless steel corkscrew that he had spent hours sharpening to a point on a grinder he had in his workshop at home. He opened a drawer and found it almost immediately. It gleamed under the strip lighting and he smiled as he picked it up.
‘How many did you kill before we met?’ Maddy was standing behind him and he spun round to face her.
‘What the fuck are you talking about?’
‘How many David?’
He looked at her and then smiled. ‘Five or six,’ he shrugged. ‘In fact darling – you were going to be the next one, but I decided that I liked you enough to keep you alive.’
‘Christ.’
‘What? Oh! Are you taking a moral high ground Maddy?’
‘You had planned to kill me?’
‘For a while yes,’ he shrugged. ‘I didn’t though – I let you live and I’m glad I did.’
‘What were you going to do to me David?’
‘What do you think I was going to do to you Maddy?’ He said in a quiet, level voice. ‘I was going to tie you up and then I was going to torture you. It’s a theme that I rather thought you might have understood by now.’
‘Jesus.’ She leant against the table and looked at him. ‘Why? Why did you let me live?’
‘Because you were lovely and I saw something in you that I wanted to be with,’ he softened his voice. ‘I loved the way you let me tie you up and how you kissed me when I did it.’
‘What else David? What else let me live?’
‘Lots of things Maddy, too many to mention.’
‘One will do, all I’m looking for is one other reason, totally removed from the fact that I let you tie me up.’
He looked at her and shook his head. ‘You’re being silly and I’m not pandering to you Maddy. Listen, we should do this differently today – just to spice things up. I want the blonde.’
‘Why?’
‘She’s a cold hearted bitch and I want to teach her a lesson. Besides I know that you want the brunette. I know what you did when you had her in the video room.’
She looked at him and he cocked his head to one side and smiled. ‘You left the camera on; I saw what you did.’
She felt her heart sink and he just smiled. ‘Don’t worry about it though – I’m not bothered, I promise.’ He raised his hand and touched her gently on the side of her face and much to her surprise she felt an almost undeniable urge to cringe away from him. ‘Maddy, I love you and anything that you want to do to them is fine by me.’
‘Do you want to rape the blonde one?’
‘No, I promise you – I have no interest in raping her.’ He leaned forwards and kissed her gently on the lips. ‘I just want to show her that I am not someone that she can manipulate. So, if it’s okay with you, then I want to change things and take control of the blonde and how she dies.’
She looked at him and nodded. ‘If that’s what you want.’
‘It is,’ he smiled and looked at her. ‘We’ll have that barbecue tonight and it’ll be nice. I know that this weekend hasn’t been what we wanted so far but we can still save it.’ He paused and picked up the weapons that he had chosen and turned to face the door that led to the sound-proofed room where Portia was bound and waiting. He paused and turned to his wife, an easy smile on his bland face. ‘I am so happy that I didn’t kill you Maddy – I do love you.’
She nodded and watched as he opened the door and entered. As soon as it was closed, she rushed outside and was sick on the grass. The understanding that if she had said something wrong or acted in a certain way with her husband on their first date might have resulted in her being bound, gagged and murdered had created a clarity that she had somehow managed to shun for years as they had kidnapped and killed woman after woman; All the guilt that she had thought hadn’t existed came rushing through to her soul and she knew she was damned.
‘Oh Christ,’ she whispered. She stood up and looked back into the shed. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she wished that he had killed her. To live with what she had done now seemed like it might be impossible. She walked back into the building that had been designed purely as a torture and death chamber. She looked at the door knowing that the brunette was behind it.
‘You enjoyed it, every one of them – you enjoyed it all.’ A dark, insidious voice whispered from the depths of her soul and she nodded sligh
tly because the truth was that she had enjoyed it. She walked slowly to the door and opened it – seeing Katie wrapped in ropes and misery was exciting and horrifying. She moved forwards and grabbed the woman’s jaw.
One more, that was all and then she would stop.
YYY
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
‘I am going to take the blindfold off and then take that rope out of your mouth and you will listen to me – do you understand? I think I know a way that you will be able to survive this and I think that’s what you want isn’t it?’
The captive nodded, the movement was almost imperceptible but it was enough.
‘I have one question before I do anything; Will you do anything to survive? My solution to this situation that will let you live means that you will have to dirty your own hands and kill the other girl. It’s the only way that you can live. If you can’t do that, then you will die. I will start by hacking your ears from your head and then I’ll cut your nipples off and make you eat them. The death that you’ll suffer will be the worst that any of the people that we’ve had in here have been given. The pain and humiliation will be the worst thing that you have ever known and I’ve been at this for so long that I’ll be able to keep it going for as long as I want. You’ll bleed, you’ll scream but it won’t be over until I’m bored of you. So, knowing that, and I know you believe me, will you kill the other one?’
The bound girl remained still and silent for a long second – a blade to her throat would help her make a decision and as the sharp tip was placed against her flesh it had the desired effect and she nodded again.
‘One more condition, you agree to stay with me and let me do what I want when I want. I won’t hurt you and you’ll live. I won’t keep you indoors at all times but you’ll know that you will be on video committing murder and that’s insurance that you will stay. I will tie you up but I won’t hurt you, I promise.’
The woman nodded again.
‘Final condition, you’ll help me kill both the people in that other room. Both of them! Do you agree?’
A long moment passed and the bound girl understood what was being said and eventually, after what seemed like an eternity she nodded.
YYY
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Katie looked at her wrists. The indentations of the ropes that had been tied around them were still there and she thought that they would leave scars that she would carry with her forever. She was cold, even though she had a blanket over her shoulders; the chill of the night air surrounded her to the point where she felt she might never be warm again.
The courtyard was full of fire fighters and police. An ambulance had pulled up and the light was giving the scene a hellish quality. The flashing red and blue illuminating the scene brought an odd surreal quality to the courtyard that had, up until an hour ago, been so quiet and sedate.
‘We’ll get you into an ambulance soon,’ an older police man looked at her and smiled kindly and she looked at him and nodded. She turned and looked at the charred skeleton of the shed and then had to look away again.
She could still hear the screams and see the blood and felt that she might never be rid of them – not truly.
‘Listen, are you okay to answer a few questions now?’ The Policeman continued. ‘We need to know how many bodies we’re looking for when the fire’s under control.’
‘Three. There are three bodies,’ Katie said, her voice quiet and distant. ‘In the shed, I don’t know how many you’ll find in the garden though.’
‘What happened here?’
‘They kidnapped me. They were going to kill me…’ she paused and looked at the policeman. ‘I escaped – oh Christ they were going to kill me.’
‘Who were?’
‘The three of them, they tied me up and were going to kill me.’ She started to cry and the policeman, someone who was used to drunk and disorderly behaviour and the occasional traffic offence looked around helplessly, not quite knowing what to say or do to comfort this girl. His partner, a young woman saw what was happening and moved over to put a comforting arm around the weeping survivor.
‘It’s all right love, you’re safe now,’ she said in a sympathetic voice. She glanced at her colleague and he nodded.
The survivor, Katie Sullivan was scarred and covered in rope marks. Her dress was torn and there was blood down her face and arms. Whatever had happened here had been horrifying and the thought of people being kidnapped and tortured only three miles away from where he lived with his family made him furious. He gazed at the burning building and hoped that the three murdering bastards who were inside had suffered as the place had burnt.
David looked at Portia and smiled. He was looking forward to the future they had together and as he cut through the ropes around her mouth he felt a thrill that he hadn’t felt for years. This woman, his prisoner, was a manipulator and he knew that he couldn’t trust a thing that she said but that was fine – She was his body and soul, her mind and heart didn’t matter – not really. The ropes fell away from her mouth and he looked at her lips.
‘I’m going to kiss you now!’ He said and she nodded.
‘If you want to,’ she said in a quiet, submissive voice and he leaned forwards and kissed her on her red lips. She writhed against the ropes and as he put his hand on her breast he felt her nipple harden and this aroused him. She really was the perfect victim, beautiful, sexy and dangerous; He was making the right decision.
‘So, are you ready then?’ He whispered as he removed her blindfold and she looked at him with wide eyes and shook her head a little. ‘I thought that we had agreed.’
‘Please,’ she said but he wasn’t listening.
Katie looked at the clock, it was nearly 4 am and although she had been given sedatives and had her wounds cleaned and dressed she couldn’t sleep. When she tried to close her eyes she saw them, all of them staring at her. She had decided to lie on top of the bed and even though the nurses had tried to insist that she remain warm and covered, the blankets were too constricting. She had tried but it had almost been like being strapped down. That feeling was something that she didn’t want to feel ever again.
She had been told that there was a police woman outside, just to make sure that she felt safe and secure even though she knew that they were all dead. The three people who had decided that she was so worthless as a being that she should die were gone, but she was still afraid, scared of what had happened – what she had done to survive.
They were dead but they would never leave her life; She would never be free from them.
David looked at the knife and saw Portia reflected in the blade. He moved forwards and began to saw through the ropes that held her body to the post and she winced as the knife danced dangerously close to her ribs.
‘Don’t move,’ he had said in a flat, matter-of-fact voice. ‘I’ll cut you if you move; it’s very easy to kill someone quickly.’
She had complied and remained quiet as he cut loose the mass of rope that had been wrapped around her torso. As it came loose and fell to the floor he looked at her and smiled.
‘Nearly ready,’ he said and she closed her eyes.
‘Please David, please…’
The door to the room opened and he turned around to see Maddy and Katie standing in the doorway.
‘What the fuck are you doing?’ He said, totally baffled by what he was seeing.
‘This is finishing David,’ Maddy had said. ‘This is the last weekend.’
Katie lay in the bed. The television was playing and it was some show about antiques. She had finally drifted off to a horrible, disturbed sleep and to be honest it had been a relief to wake up in the morning. There had been a succession of police officers, mostly plain clothed, that had drifted in and out of her room all day. They had asked her question after question and then a female had asked to take photographs of the wounds and marks that she had received through the course of her ordeal. The rope and chain marks had left bruises all over her body but they would fa
de, in time. One thing that worried her, and seemed to give the doctor’s some worry was the fact that her left hand was still numb, tingling occasionally and she was afraid that perhaps she had suffered permanent damage.
There had been two phone calls from her family but she had refused to take them; She wanted her family to think of her as being strong and she had known that any contact with them at the moment would have sent her on a spiral that she would maybe never escape from. The nurses had understood and told her family that she was sleeping but that she was fine.
Katie had appreciated this but understood that she might never be well or fine again.
Katie looked at Portia and smiled a little; She was going to make sure that this girl was fine. The wife had made a proposal that Katie had absolutely no intention of honouring, there was no way in Hell that she would kill Portia or live as a sex slave for this bitch. However Maddy had seemingly lost any and all reason and had believed that she would. This was fine because it had somehow managed to get her untied. She held the knife that Maddy had given her in her left hand, her right one was numb and felt like a lump of cold meat.
‘Why were you untying her David?’ Maddy looked at Portia and then at her husband.
‘I was getting rope away from her stomach so I could work without it getting in the fucking way you stupid bitch!’ David shook his head as if the question was one of the strangest things he had heard. After all, his wife was standing next to a woman that should have been tied up in the room across from them. ‘What the fuck have you done Maddy?’
The Scarlet Anniversary Page 12
