Lawless

by Jai Williams

  Ted put on a leather apron like the ones doctors use. Just like a doctor, he also put on a surgical cap, glasses, mask and gloves. As much as he loved cutting into his victims, he wanted to make sure he didn’t get blood all over his face, chest and hands. Ted was standing there looking like he was about to perform surgery. He pulled over a big tray with his torturing tools on it and placed it right next to Satan’s throne. Ted picked up a scalpel and flicked his thumb across it to see how sharp it was and he placed it back down with a smile. Now this long tray had quite a bit of tools on it. There was the scalpel, followed by tweezers, pliers, a small sharp knife, a bigger sharp knife, a machete, samurai sword, meat cleaver, an axe, a hammer, a battery with cords, a chainsaw, two knuckle dusters, a whip, a drill, a saw, a baseball bat with barbwire wrapped around it and a handgun. It seemed a like a lot of tools, but Ted had fun and enjoyment from torturing.

  Ted saw that John was waking up so he stood near the tray in silence. John fully woke up. At first he was fine because he just opened his eyes but when he tried to move he started to panic. John noticed the bright light which was all that he could see. “W-where am I?” he asked in a panicky tone. John continued trying to break free from the straps but he couldn’t; they were wrapped around him tightly. “HELP!” he yelled in fear but there was no answer. Ted walked up close to John and all that John could hear was footsteps. “Who’s there?” asked John in fear.

  Ted put his face in front of the light so that John could have a clear view of who was with him.

  “It’s you. What are you doing? Let me go,” said John, struggling to break free.

  Ted started walking in circles around the chair that John was in. “Johnny, do you remember movies and TV shows?” he asked.

  “What?” replied John.

  “Well, some of the horror films had scenes like this and the victims would always say the same thing. ‘Let me go,’ and you know they never let them go but some of them had a rescue team on the way. But for you, Johnny, your rescue squad won’t even have the chance to say ‘we’re here to rescue you.’ See, my men are roaming the halls right now and you’ve seen how many there are, so you work it out. Your rescue squad isn’t even going to have any chance to find you,” said Ted happily.

  “Oh, they will rescue me and when they do, you are going to be the one on this chair,” replied John calmly.

  Ted laughed as he scratched his head. “Ha-ha, you really think so? You really think my blood will be running down Satan’s throne,” he said cheerfully.

  “Satan’s throne?” John replied with curiosity.

  “Yes, Satan’s throne – that’s what you’re sitting in and I call this room Hell’s cage. See it’s got a theme to it,” replied Ted. Ted walked over to the tray that had all the tools and weapons on it and he picked up the scalpel. He dragged the blunt side of it from John’s leg all the way up to his face without cutting John’s skin and he revealed to John the scalpel he had in his hand. “Now this is one of the many tools that I have, that I’m going to use on you, and trust me, when I say this one is the harmless one,” he said, smiling. Ted cut across John’s cheek so that only a small cut appeared. Although the cut wasn’t that deep, John still felt a fair bit of pain but that was only a small dose of what was to come.

  Ted lowered himself to John’s ear so that he was out of John’s sight. “Now you know why they call me the torturer?” he whispered in John’s ear. John shook his head as best as he could.

  “It’s because I torture people, of course,” replied Ted. Ted stood up from John’s ear and he did the same cut to John’s other cheek. Ted walked back to the tray, put the scalpel down and picked up a hammer. “Do you want to hear a funny story? Well, to me it’s funny, but to you it’s what the fuck. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago my men brought in a young man, probably around his early twenties, and this guy tried to escape, like you. After going all berserk and saying that I’m a twisted, sick man, which was uncalled for, he then got tranquilized just like you and brought down here. Now this guy – let’s call him Frank; I don’t remember his name – it was like a one night stand. You bang them, never call them and forget their name except in this case instead of banging, you torture them. Okay, so Frank woke up all shitting his pants like ‘let me go, I’m sorry’ and I’m like ‘but I totally want to torture you’ and he starts screaming and I’m just carving into his stomach with a knife, ‘pussy’ all in caps and afterwards I say, ‘do you want to see your new tattoo’ and he says ‘yes’. So, I removed the straps from his neck and wrist and grabbed a mirror from this tray I have over here and at that moment the guy with all of his strength punched me right in the face, then as fast as he could he untied the rest of the straps he had on and ran straight into the darkness and what happened next was the best part. He ran straight into the wall and splat,” said Ted, cheerfully. Ted inclined the chair John was on and clapped his hands so one of his men outside of the room flicked a switch to brighten up the whole room. John looked at the wall in front of him. The wall had spikes coming from it. “And splat, the poor guy ran straight into the spikes and died. The end, now that was a great story and what did we learn from that story?” said Ted as he looked at John with a serious look. Ted stared into John’s eyes, hoping he knew the answer but John didn’t reply so Ted answered for him. “We learnt that you should never try to escape and to take your torture like a man or woman or whatever you are,” said Ted. Ted clapped his hands and the lights turned off apart from the one shining over the chair.

  Ted lowered the chair back down so John could only see the light again. Ted put his hand on John’s left arm and with his other hand Ted raised the hammer he was holding. “Hammer time,” he said as he swung the hammer at John’s fingers. John could hear some bones crack just from one swing. John screamed out in agony and tried to bear through the pain. Ted swung the hammer again, breaking more of John’s bones. Ted walked back to the tray and put the hammer back. Ted walked back over to John. “Having fun yet? I know I am,” he said with a smile. John responded in moans from all the pain he was feeling. Ted put his hand near his ear. “I’m sorry, I didn’t get that. Can you speak up?” he said, smiling. John’s face was all red, bits of spit were flying out as he was breathing heavily.

  “You are going to pay for this,” he said in anger and pain.

  “Yeah, I’m totally going to pay for this, like how much? Ten, twenty, one hundred bucks?” replied Ted sarcastically.

  Ted went back to the tray full of tools. “Which one will I pick next. Hmm…I got it. One, two, three, four, I will use this tool to fuck up this whore; five, six, seven, eight, this tool will decide his fate,” he said while pointing his finger at the tools on the tray. Ted ended up pointing to the meat cleaver so he picked it up, turned back to John and went up to his face so that John could see Ted. Ted could see the pain John was going through by just looking at John’s face. “Now I’m going to go to your lower body. I might cut your cock off, I might not. Who knows?” said Ted with a grin. Ted walked down to John’s legs and John at this moment was panicking because he could not see what Ted was going to do to him, which made it even more terrifying.

  Ted pulled John’s left shoe off, followed by his sock, and Ted looked at John’s toes. “Let’s do this,” he said, smiling. John started wiggling around; he knew he couldn’t escape but he was panicking. “If you keep moving then I can’t give you the pain and suffering that you deserve and also if you don’t stop I’ll just cut your throat instead. So, we clear?” said Ted in a clear and serious tone. John stopped moving and his heart rate increased; it was beating so fast that it seemed like it was going to fly out of his chest. Ted, with his thumb and pointing finger, grabbed John’s big toe. “This little piggy went to the market,” he said. He grabbed the next toe. “This little piggy stayed at home.” He grabbed the next toe. “This little piggy had roast beef.” John was breathing from both his mouth and nose at a fast rate. Ted grabbed the next toe. “And this little piggy had none.” Ted grabbed t
he tip of the pinkie toe, moving it away from the other toes. “And this little piggy…” he said with his big white teeth shining. Ted swung the meat cleaver to cut John’s pinkie toe straight off. John screamed out in pain. John was in even more pain; even though it was only a toe it still hurt like a motherfucker. “…went wee, wee, wee, all the way home,” said Ted as he walked up to John’s face. Ted shoved John’s pinkie toe in John’s mouth, forcing him to eat it. Ted put his hand over John’s mouth. “Make sure you eat it all, apart from the bone; I don’t want you to choke and die right know. That would suck because we’re just getting to the fun part,” he said with a horrifying smile. John started chewing away his pinkie toe bit by bit, about to vomit, but he finished it.

  “You finished?” asked Ted, John responded with a nod, so Ted removed his hand from John’s mouth and John spat out the bone and started coughing and started grazing his tongue against his teeth to try and get rid of the taste of his own toe.

  Ted put the meat cleaver back, picked up a small knife from the tray and pulled out a lighter from his pocket and put the flame against the blade to heat it up.

  “What are you doing? I can hear a weird noise,” said John.

  Ted put his lighter back into his pocket and walked down to John’s feet. He grabbed the foot he cut the pinkie off. “This is going to burn like a motherfucker,” he said. Ted pushed the heated part of the knife around where he cut the pinkie toe from, so he could stop the bleeding. John screamed out in pain, begging Ted to stop torturing him. “Please stop. Please, I will do whatever you want me to do; just stop, pleaseeee,” he said in tears. Ted pulled the knife away from John’s toe and placed it back on the tray and he walked up to John’s face so that John could see him.

  “Whatever you say,” said Ted with a smile. Ted rubbed his chin and started thinking; meanwhile John was still in a shitload of pain, hoping that Ted would say ok and untie him. Ted started walking around John, circling him. “You know, it’s been a while since I’ve done this.” he said.

  “So, you will stop? You will untie me?” asked John with relief.

  Ted stopped walking. “Stop, no. Let you go, no. Nah, I have a better idea in mind. It’s been a while since I’ve used it–actually, let me rephrase that: it’s been a while since I’ve used him,” said Ted with a joyful look on his face.

  John switched back into panic mode. “What do you mean him?” asked John.

  “The very mean, lean, fighting machine, the one and only true ruler of hell, Lucifer,” replied Ted. John thought at that moment, Oh shit there’s someone even more terrifying than Ted. “Don’t you go anywhere; I’ll be right back,” said Ted as he walked away with a chuckle.

  Ted opened the door and left the room and headed to a closet a few feet away from the room he just came from. Ted opened the door and turned a light on and all he could see was a neon sign, lit up brightly with the word ‘Lucifer’ and underneath it there was a weapon, Lucifer, as Ted called it. The weapon was a wooden baseball bat with two separate lines of barbed wire wrapped around the top. There was a pitchfork that was tied around the baseball bat and it was pointing in the other direction, so that you would have to turn it around to use the pitchfork side, and there was a heat system so that when a button was pressed on the baseball bat handle, it heated up all three pointy ends of the pitchfork, allowing anyone who touched the pointy ends to feel a burn–a perfect weapon for a psychopath. Ted stared at his prized possession with wide unblinking eyes, just soaking in all the good memories he had with this bad boy. The thrill he gets when he uses it, in his own words, is just as good as sex. “Oh boy, it’s been a long time. You ready to rock my world – I mean someone else’s world?” said Ted as his eyes lit up with joy. Ted picked it up with one hand on the baseball bat handle and the other at the top of the pitchfork. He breathed in through his nose and back out of it. “Let’s go fuck some shit up,” he said with a scary smile. He slammed the door behind him and headed back to the room he left John in.

  John heard a door slam in the distance. “Is that you? Please let it not be you,” said John in fear.

  Ted emerged from the dark with Lucifer. “First you asked if it was me, then you asked if it wasn’t me. For God’s sake, make up your mind,” he said. “Oh wait, God’s not here but you know who is?” said Ted with an evil look on his face. It was all silent for a second and Ted swung the bat side of Lucifer and stopped it just a centimetre or so away from John’s face “LUCIFER!” he yelled. When John saw the bat swing at him he thought that this was it, this was going to hurt like a motherfucker but it didn’t hurt because it didn’t hit him. John felt so relieved for a second. John thought this psychopathic, fuckin’ twisted maniac wasn’t going to just show this weapon he called Lucifer for show and tell; no, he was going to use it on him. “Now I’m going to tell you why I call this masterpiece Lucifer, then I’m going to tell you why I theme most everything I do about hell, and then I’m going to beat your skull in with Lucifer, then end you by stabbing you in the stomach with Lucifer and burning your insides. Got it?” said Ted as he was admiring Lucifer.

  “But I thought you were just going to torture me?” asked John in a panicky state.

  “Ha-ha…ha…ha. This whole time you really thought that I wasn’t going to kill you?” said Ted with a sarcastic laugh.

  “Well, uh, yes,” replied John.

  “Ha…ha…ha. So, you really thought that what you said a couple minutes ago in the gym was just going to be let go and you were going to be forgiven,” said Ted with a serious look.

  “WELL, I MEANT EVERY SINGLE WORD SO FUCK YOU AND IF THESE ARE MY LAST WORDS THEN EAT A DICK!” shouted John.

  “John, John, oh Johnny. You don’t know how royally fucked you are; in fact, if we lived in medieval times your name would be sir fucked-up-a-lot,” replied Ted with a disappointed look on his face. Ted put his face so that it was an inch away from John’s face. “NO ONE DISRESPECTS ME IN MY OWN FUCKIN’ HOUSE!” he yelled viciously.

  Ted pulled his face away from John’s. “Okay now, story time,” he said calmly. Ted started circling around John. “Okay, let’s start with why I use the theme hell. It all started when me and my men found this town – back then I had fewer men but now I have hell’s army. Anyway, me and my men were searching this town, trying to find a place to settle down so we thought hey, why not here? So, we searched to make sure no one else was here; however, rogues showed up. Now there are few things I hate in this world: one of them is rogues, another is assholes like yourself and the other thing I hate in this world are pussies – not woman’s vaginas, but grown men being pussies, you know what I mean? Okay, so where were we? Oh yes, rogues showed up. Now I don’t think you know what rogues are because you are a pussy and have probably been hiding this whole time and never saw them, so allow me to fill you in on what rogues are. Rogues are like the wild bunch of all of us criminals: they don’t follow a leader like me; they don’t obey the new rules of this world; they just work as a team with no leader or work alone and they kill whoever they see. It doesn’t matter if you’re a child or a fuckin’ leprechaun, they will end you. So, me and my men opened fire and shot the motherfuckers, which was easy because these douche bags were only carrying melee weapons, so they weren’t very smart. So, we ended up killing every single one and grabbed whatever they had.”

  “We then kept searching the town and there it was, this very school, so we entered and searched the whole building and saw no one and that’s when I saw it all over the walls in pretty much every room. It said something different every time, written in blood. The first wall I saw said hell and then another said this is the work of the devil and another said God won’t help us. It was a theme and the theme was hell, so I thought it looked like I owned my own personal hell, and that’s when I created this room and named it Hell’s cage and named what you’re lying on Satan’s throne, and that’s the reason why I name stuff based on hell,” said Ted as he was telling the story with passion.

  Ted raised L
ucifer high in the air behind his head and was about to smash it through John’s skull when he realized he hadn’t told John about his weapon Lucifer, so he lowered Lucifer. “I was about to crack your skull open when I realized that I haven’t told you about Lucifer,” he said.

  “Go ahead and tell it; it’s not like I’ve got anything else to do right now,” replied John.

  “There is a reason why I call this weapon I’m holding Lucifer and it’s simple, really: it’s the way it is designed. Imagine it: it started off with a normal wooden baseball bat and then I wrapped a single line of barbed wire around the top, then I did the same thing again underneath it – that is the part that you saw before that was close to your head. I then grabbed a normal pitchfork that had three sharp, pointy ends, giving it that devil’s pitchfork look. I shortened the handle of the pitchfork so that it wasn’t too long and then I wrapped it around the bat as tightly as I could, so that the pitchfork ends were in the opposite direction of the front of the bat, and then I attached a heating system to the pitchfork end, giving it a burning effect, and that is it. So, I present to you Lucifer,” said Ted with pride. Ted held Lucifer up so that John could see the whole thing.

  John panicked but this time it was different because this time he was only seconds away from staring death in the face.

  “I love you, Alice. Please, wherever you are, make sure you take care of yourself and please don’t give up in this world. You can make it; you’re strong,” he said to himself.

  “Old man, are you talking to yourself? Because I don’t think Alice could’ve heard that. In fact, I’ll do you a favour when I see Alice – I’ll tell her that John tried his hardest not to piss himself before he died,” said Ted as he smiled.

  “You son of a bitch, you’re not going to lay a hand on my granddaughter,” replied John in anger.

  “Who said anything about laying a hand on her?” replied Ted with a smile. Ted got close to John’s ear. “You know what? Because you asked so nicely, I won’t lay a hand on her; I may, however, lay a hand in here, if you get my drift,” whispered Ted.