I hurried out of the room and looked out of the window.
Luckily, the garden path was quite long, the house was big, with the dining room being right at the back, and Vienna seemed occupied by something on his phone. But if Macbethcarried on screaming like this, it wouldn’t take long until we were noticed.
I locked the door, just in case, before I went back in the room to see Macbeth panting as his entire body started to shake.
I grabbed another knife off the chair and looked down at him.
“Are the Riders planning another attack?”
He shook his head.
“Are you lying to me?”
He shook his head frantically, his eyes pleading with me to believe him.
“Good,” I said, bringing the knife to his chest and stabbed it through the club patch he had on the front of his right shoulder. I carved my knife around it, cutting off the inked skin, and threw that on the floor with the others. His screams were louder, but I focused on my task, ignoring the piercing sound. I brought the salt up, and he tried to speak through his gag, attempting to pull his body away from me.
“Where is it you think you’re able to go?” I laughed, bringing the tub of salt high into the air and pouring it down onto him.
“Stop!” I hissed, pinching his nose to cut off his breathing and to try to put an end to the pitiful noises he was making. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, his body slamming up and down on the table as it jerked in shock.
“Stop fucking screaming, and I’ll let go. Understood?” I hissed, letting go ever so slightly, but ready to tighten my grip again if he hadn’t listened.
The screaming stopped, but the small sobs didn’t.
The sobs I could handle. The sobs wouldn’t alert Vienna.
“Last question.”
His pathetic eyes looked up at me.
“Have you heard of death by a thousand cuts?” I grinned wickedly and then set about creating my work of art.
Inch by inch, I sliced off his skin. A small cut to his upper arm, a long slice down his belly. More cuts along his chest, slices to his groin, biceps, thighs, calves.
The pile of skin on the floor grew larger, as the skin covering Macbeth’s body got smaller.
His screams were deafening at this point, and I knew without checking that Vienna would be well aware that something was going on.
I grabbed Macbeth’s wrist and placed his hand flat on the table and used the knife to slice straight through his fingers. I grabbed a lighter and cauterised the wounds, the smell of burning flesh making me gip.
Vomit spilled from the side of Macbeth’s gag, so I pulled the underwear from his mouth and tipped his head to the side, using the blade of the knife to scoop the vomit from his mouth, not caring how much I sliced him open as I did so.
His lips were a colourful mix of blood, vomit and spit as I made my way around to his other hand. Just as I was about to slam it on the table, I heard the pounding at the front door.
“Rachel!” Vienna barked, trying the handle and slamming his fists on the glass.
“Shit!” I hissed, flattening Macbeth’s hand on the table and sliced off those fingers too.
I could hear Vienna slamming his body against the door, sending it crashing open on the third attempt. His heavy boots could be heard even over the wailing screams of Macbeth.
“Looks like the fun's over,brother,” I almost spat the last word at him. At that moment, the door to the dining room was booted open, and Vienna stumbled back for a second. I used his shock to my advantage, positioning the knife over Macbeth’s heart, and rammed it into him as hard as I possibly could.
Vienna recovered from his shock just as I pulled the knife out. He came rushing over, pushing the chairs out of the way. I quickly slammed the knife back into Macbeth’s chest. Blood splashed out of the wound, landing on me, the table, the floor. I twisted the knife left, and then right, pushing down even further as I did so.
Vienna reached me, grabbing me by the waist as he tried to pull me away.
“Get the fuck off me!” I screamed, clinging to the knife as though my life depended on it. Macbeth’s body convulsed on the table, his eyes going wide with shock, his mouth falling open in a silent scream.
