by J. E. Taylor
Tom nodded again.
“Thanks, man,” Ty said.
Tom nodded slightly.
“Game on,” Ty said and hung his head for a moment.
Tom watched the transformation and as Ty lifted his head back up, Tom was glad chains secured the man. Even so, the dark soulless eyes looking out from the bloody bearded face were enough to set him quaking again.
The Angel of Death was already in the room with them and his name was Ty.
* * * *
Moments later Frank waltzed in with Jessica on his shoulder. He dumped her into the chair, threading her legs through the arms and securing her like he did before.
He glanced over his shoulder at Ty and shoved his fingers between her legs.
“Get your filthy hands off her,” Tom growled, already struggling against the bonds that held him in place, searching for a weakness, for an escape, but he might as well been sealed in a tin can and dumped in the Atlantic. It was now just a matter of time... and pain.
“Wouldn’t you just die to be inside this sweet cunt?” He moved his fingers in and out a few times, relishing Tom’s struggles. “Oh wait, you are going to die!” he cackled, removing his hand and replaced it with the metal vibrator. He placed the sensors in the same strategic locations they had seen in the video and then he stood, glancing between Tom and Ty.
With dramatic flair, he turned the machine on, displaying the mechanics like he was one of the girls from The Price is Right displaying a showcase item.
Ty wanted to scream, he wanted to struggle in the chains the same way Tom was in the chair, he wanted to wipe the sick grin off Frank’s face but that would only prolong his torture, so he remained silent.
“Time to wake up sleeping beauty.” He waved the smelling salts under her nose.
* * * *
Jessica came to much quicker than either Ty or Tom had, the electrical pulses between her legs aiding in her sudden alertness.
The feel of the slick cool metal enhanced by the slight electrical current overtook her and she tilted her head back, the shakes starting as well as the tears. “No, please, no,” she whimpered.
“What’s the matter, baby? You don’t like to cum?” Frank ran his finger between her breasts, sliding his hand under the lace and squeezing the cut breast.
He stepped out of the way so she could see both Ty and Tom. “Today you get to kill them both.”
Jessica’s chin quivered, the heat already building between her legs and she was as helpless to stop that as she was to stop the chains from tearing Ty apart. She glanced at Tom in the electric chair, his sad eyes met hers. So many unspoken feelings, so much love in that gaze mixed with the hopelessness that she felt. “I’m sorry.”
Before he could speak, she swiveled her gaze to Ty and inhaled. A jagged cut slashed through the skin of his cheek, dripping blood through his light beard. His blue eyes stone cold, revealing nothing. Nothing at all, but she knew better. She felt the inferno of emotions raging inside him in time with the hellfire. None of these things was the reason her gaze locked with his and stayed there. No, it was his silent plea, his repetitive mantra that filled her head with a voice so racked with agony, she wanted to cry.
‘Please, please don’t let him kill her, God please. Don’t take her, you can have me, do anything you want to me but don’t take her, please God, I love her.
He prayed over and over again, pleading, making promises he couldn’t possibly keep all for her and not one iota of emotion reached his eyes. The only indicator of the depth of his feelings was his riveted stare mixed with the death-like silence.
Only an act of God or that of a small child could tear his gaze from hers.
Jessica tilted her head, silently trembling from the force of the orgasm the machine enacted, but she never broke the connection to Ty, not even when Tom cried out in pain. A tear slid slowly down the unmarked side of her face.
That tear broke through the iron wall surrounding Ty and his face transformed. The agony broke through, visible in the sudden softening of his eyes, his trembling lips pressing tightly together so the rumbling of despair building in his chest would not be freed. Agony, not born of physical pain, but of the anguish that accompanied losing her. Losing her to Tom was one thing, he could fight that, but losing her to death, that reality bowled him over, sucking the air from his lungs even as the chains lifted him off the ground.
Tom screamed again and a hint of singed hair permeated the room.
“I told you he loved you,” Frank whispered in her ear, sliding the sharp edge of the knife between her breasts. With a flick, the front of her bra broke open. He flipped the blade over in his hand so the serrated side faced her skin and with a slow deliberate stroke, he sliced, shredding her skin and performing an impromptu partial mastectomy. “That’s for tearing the tip of my cock to shreds.”
A high thin whine escaped between her lips, but she didn’t break eye contact with Ty. The pain gripping her chest didn’t discourage her lower body from hurdling over the next peak. She concentrated on the blue set of his eyes, going deeper into them, deeper into a meditative trance concentrating on each breath, losing herself, losing the connection to this godforsaken room.
The familiar hallway filled her vision and she jumped as a warm hand slid into hers. She looked down at her son, his once brown eyes now swirling with colors, swirling like a storm.
* * * *
Ty’s breath hitched, the chains creaking, now pulling him in different directions. He blinked, still concentrating on her. The colors in her eyes started slowly swirling, sparking hope. He broke her gaze, swiveling his eyes to the mirror at the back of the room.
The reflection of the room was there, but superimposed over it was a hallway that Jessica and Eric were walking through and at the end was a door with blinding white light spilling around the edges. Raw power. Awe-inspiring miracles resided behind that door.
And the key was clasped in her image’s hand.
Come on, come on, come on. Ty repeated over and over in his mind, no longer caring about the pain racking his joints, all he cared about was that she got to that door before Frank got bored carving her body, especially with the lack of reaction. Even the sudden snap in his shoulder didn’t dissuade his intense attention. The only one in the room that voiced pain was Tom and his cries were getting weak.
The key slid into the lock and she turned, glancing down at Eric as a new bloody welt ripped open her abdomen. Her hand dropped to the doorknob but before she could turn it all the way, Eric spun, his eyes widening. Ty’s vision cleared and shot to Frank.
In unison, three voices screamed “NO!” Two men and a boy, shattering the near silence of the room and Ty squinted at the flood of light. She had opened the door and Eric threw himself in front of his mother, blocking the ark of Frank’s knife.
Ty’s eyebrows rose. The knife stopped, lodged in nothing but air over Jessica’s chest and yet blood covered it, dripping from the tip. More blood than just the cuts on her body would warrant. His eyes snapped back to the mirror and he understood the wail that escaped her lips.
* * * *
The transition between the halls of her mind, Eric’s bedroom and the hellish prison her physical self was suffering took just the blink of an eye. The sight of her son lying across her chest with the butcher knife buried in his chest pushed her over the edge. The power escaped full force and the room went white. She grasped the hilt of the knife, cutting her fingers on the sharp blade below the smooth black handle, desperate to pull the blade from the image of her son that only she could see. Only one purpose overtook her mind. Save my son!
* * * *
The shackles binding his wrist and ankles blew off in a blinding spray of metal and Ty fell. The same acute pain he felt when Jessica healed his arm flashed over his body and in the time it took to fall six feet, the tingling set in and he landed on his hands and knees. The same overwhelming purpose overtook him. Save Eric. Like a stealth rocket, he charged.
He h
it Frank like a linebacker, his shoulder hitting him square in the ribs, launching both of them a few feet in the air. The impact dislodged the knife from Eric’s chest and sent it clattering across the concrete.
* * * *
“Mommy, it hurts,” Eric whispered and she leaned over, planting her lips on his forehead, closing her eyes and channeling all the healing power she had into her son. Light flared brighter and as it dimmed, Eric faded, his stormy eyes at peace and his shoulder fully mended.
Jessica blinked and the room came into clear focus, the chains hanging with no captive locked in the shackles. Tom slumped in the chair, his chest still rising and falling, but his face displaying the slackness of the unconscious.
Behind her, she heard the unmistakable sound of fists hitting flesh. “Ty?”
The sound paused and the ruffle of jeans approached. Ty knelt next to her, taking her hand and scanning her unmarked torso. The machine still hummed, bringing her closer to the next climax. Without speaking, he glanced back toward Frank and after kissing her hand, he lowered it, locking it in the shackle before she could protest.
Chapter 60
The scream shattered the silence of the house and Daniel shot to his feet, disoriented in the darkness of their bedroom. Then he pinpointed the sound at the far end of the hall. Gasping and sobbing, the usual nightmare noises. He shuffled to Eric’s room rubbing his eyes and muttering under his breath.
He flipped on the light and any remnant of sleep vanished. Eric lay arched on his bed, his breath coming in forced gurgles with blood everywhere. It covered the boy’s bare chest, dripping down his sides and staining the sheets. A gash the width of a standard butcher knife marred his skin just below and to the right of his heart.
“Mommy, it hurts.”
His pain-filled words broke Daniel’s paralysis, but before he could complete the few steps to his bedside, white light encompassed Eric, blanketing his skin, and tendrils drifted like smoke, seeping into his nose, ears and mouth, filling his small form until his skin glowed with it.
Daniel blinked and it was only Eric. Eric, covered with blood but no sign of the ugly gash he had seen when he first entered the room. Eric staring up at him with wide strange calico eyes, the colors swirling like clouds caught in a vortex. Daniel blinked again and scanned the filthy bed, still unable to understand. This had all the characteristics of a dream but the unmistakable metallic stench of blood did not fit neatly into that theory. “Wha – What just happened?”
A gasp in the doorway caught both their attention and Daniel turned in time to see LeAnn scurry past and what she said made perfect sense, although there wasn’t a trace of blood on Eric’s face.
“Oh God, a bloody nose! Eric you need to lean forward and pinch the bridge of your nose to stop the bleeding!” She tried to manhandle Eric, to sit him up and push him forward.
“I’m okay,” Eric said, pushing her away.
“Let me see!”
Daniel cleared his throat and LeAnn turned. “I think the bleeding already stopped.”
She looked at Eric and tilted his head a little to make sure no geyser waited in his nostrils and then she nodded. “He seems to be okay now.” She scanned the bed. “But I can’t say the same for his bed. You want to get him cleaned up and I’ll change the sheets?”
Daniel nodded and helped Eric to his feet, leading him in the bathroom and turning on the shower. He still couldn’t find words to voice the questions flurrying through his head. He waited until Eric turned the water off and opened the shower curtain, wet and clear of any trace of blood.
“Is LeAnn going to find a knife in your bedroom?” The question flowed out in nothing more than a whisper.
Eric raised his eyebrow and shook his head slowly.
“Then would you care to explain what the hell just happened?”
“I saved Mom and then she saved me.” He took the towel that Daniel handed him and wrapped it around his shoulders. “She should be home in a few days.”
It was Daniel’s turn to raise his eyebrows. “Eric, your mother died in January. It’s almost September. She isn’t coming home.”
“You’ll see.” Eric ran the towel over his body and dropped it on the floor, before heading back to his room to find clean underwear.
Daniel followed, tongue-tied and he traded a glance with LeAnn as she tucked in the new sheet, holding it up so Eric could climb underneath. She tucked him in and gave Daniel a peck on the cheek as she headed back to their bedroom, leaving him alone with his son.
“You’ll see,” Eric said again and his eyes closed, leaving Daniel alone with no real answers.
Chapter 61
Tom woke screaming, the electricity buzzed in his ear again, his body arching with the current one-second, and the next, the flow cut and Ty stood holding the cord, the frayed edges skating across the floor spraying small sparks in a small arc.
Tom stared at him and swiveled his gaze to the chains. The last thing he remembered was Frank raising the knife above Jessica and then a flash of white light. He assumed that was the end of everything but here he was, relatively unharmed and Ty was free.
His heart hammered and he turned his gaze to Jessica expecting the worst. His jaw dropped. Jessica stared back at him without a scratch, the ugly cut on her face gone. Her breasts intact and not a slice on her perfect skin. Ty wasn’t kidding when he said she could perform miracles.
When the wire stopped sparking, Ty crossed, pulling the other end out of the monitor, cutting the charge completely. Then he cranked the chains down and crossed the room, ripping the clothes off Frank’s unconscious form. He dragged him across the floor and clasped the shackles tightly around his wrists and ankles.
* * * *
Ty ignored both Tom and Jessica, concentrating on the task-at-hand. He manually cranked the chains until Frank was hanging listlessly in the air.
“Get me out of this, Ty,” Jessica gasped, the tremor of the last release rippling through her body.
“Not yet.” The images of everything Frank did to her flashed like a slide show and he crossed to the table, studying the array of items meant for producing pain. He homed in on one item, picking it up and turning it over in his hand. He looked at his reflection. He had never been the one to execute torture. Sure, he had watched it a thousand times through a camera lens or a monitor, but he had never entertained the notion of doing the things Frank did.
Until now.
He grabbed the smelling salts and trudged back to his stepbrother, cracking them open and waving the foul salts under his nose. Frank’s eyes blinked open and his head moved away from the stench but Ty followed his jerking path, making sure he was wide-awake before he tossed the salts on the floor.
“You seem to have forgotten what I told you I’d do if you ever touched her,” Ty said, his voice a low growl and he gripped the tool in his hand, not revealing it to Frank. He wanted the bastard to remember first.
Frank stared at him, blinking again before his gaze shot around the room, landing on Jessica. His eyes widened and snapped to the machine. The rattle of the links shortening again filled the silence. Panic spread over his features and he swallowed, glancing back at Ty.
Ty waited patiently, but Frank was too paralyzed by fear to speak. He tilted his head and brought the utensil within his line of sight.
Frank started blubbering and jerking in the chains.
“I told you that if you touched her, I’d castrate you,” Ty said. He placed the item between Frank’s legs and squeezed.
Frank screamed as his penis and his scrotum fell to the floor.
Ty reached up, plucking Frank’s eye out of the socket. “I’ll need this for later,” he said and walked back to the table. The chains shortened again, making Frank scream louder. Ty picked up a cigar cutter and walked back to Frank twirling the cutter between his fingers. He grabbed Frank’s index finger, sliding it through the cutter beyond the second knuckle and squeezed, catching the digit as it fell. “I’ll need this too.” He held i
t in front of Frank’s good eye.
Frank’s screaming continued and Ty ignored him, crossing back to the table, setting the severed finger next to the eye. He wiped his hands on the towel.
“Please, Ty, please let me out of here!” Jessica gasped.
Ty closed his eyes and took a deep breath, the chains retracting again followed by Frank’s high-pitched scream. He turned and crossed to Jessica, kneeling next to her and ran the back of his fingers across her cheek. “Not yet.”
“Don’t make me do this,” she pleaded. “Don’t make me kill.”
“You aren’t, you’re just my vehicle for justice,” Ty replied and she climaxed again.
Frank screamed and he heard something break.
“Ty.” She met his gaze, her eyes crazed with the build-up of the next orgasm.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry about everything back in the room. I didn’t expect to live and I thought…” Ty hung his head. “I thought it would be easier if you hated me.”
The next wave overtook her, she tilted her head back, gripping the arms of the chair, and she closed her eyes, tears squeezing out of the corners sliding in slow motion down her flushed cheeks.
Frank scream turned to a gurgling choke and the wet ripping of flesh pulled Ty’s gaze away from Jessica’s face. His single eye rolled into his head as blood gushed from both his torn shoulder and torn hip. The choking ceased with the slowing flow of blood. The flesh ripped, and his leg fell to the floor, his arm dangled and the left half of his body sagged, the sudden release of tension, swinging it in a slow arc.
Ty reached over and flipped the machine off. He unlatched the shackles and pulled her trembling body from the chair, wrapping his arms around her in a tight bear hug. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered in her ear.
Tom yelled out and Ty dropped Jessica to the floor, both spinning toward him. The buzz of electricity filled the room and Tom’s body went rigid, his teeth and eyes clamped shut.
