As if on cue, the head bloodsucking bitch entered the room, whistling the same song over and over again. Whatever her mind games were, I was onto her. Angel was my last straw. She wouldn’t affect me anymore. The Vik she captured was dead and something else was in his place.
Kill or be killed,I repeated in my mind.
She walked around me seductively. “I have a friend that I have been dying for you to meet,” she cooed.
I glared at her.
She placed her gloved hands over her goggles, pretending she couldn't see me. “It's right here,” she giggled as she reached behind her back and pulled out her scalpel.
“Please, don't hurt him.” Inés pleaded on my behalf.
The bitch ignored her and continued rambling. “Those toes of yours are quite infected, little toy. They need to be lanced or we may have to amputate them.”
Despite my feet constantly throbbing, I learned to ignore it. My entire body ached, weakened from not being fed but my eyes continued to watch attentively while she made her way toward me with her scalpel.
I kept my face stoic as she crouched down, tilted her head and grabbed one of my feet toward her. I ground my teeth together as she slowly and meticulously sliced the side of my toe open one by one, squeezing the limb and letting the infection ooze out onto the concrete ground, emitting a foul odor in the air.
The more she squeezed the more the pain subsided. I was thankful but silent. My toes slowly bled out until the infection thinned and only blood dripped onto the ground.
One of the vampires in the back gagged and she hissed for him to shut up.
Who knew what kind of trick this was? Maybe she was going to stab me after pretending to help. The one thing I was sure of was that this vampire was out of her mind and got off on my pain. I refused to scream out and give her what she wanted.
Abruptly she stood up and snapped her gloved fingers. Her two assistants came forward, grabbed me and dragged me back to the middle of the room and attached my restraints to the chain looped through the pulley once again. They lifted me into the air until my toes barely reached the floor, my arms high above my head.
The familiarity of the situation dulled the impact of fear they were obviously trying to produce. They needed new torture techniques at this point.
I kept my glare on her, the leader of this pathetic group of vampires. She sashayed toward me and traced her hand around my stomach, circling my hanging form.
“Someone looks very hungry. Are you famished, my toy?” she teased, peering at my face from behind me. She ran her fingers slowly from my stomach up to my face.
I jerked my head away, dislodging her touch. She laughed at my reaction. She knew I wouldn’t beg her for food.
“Tsk. Tsk. So stubborn. But that’s what has been keeping you alive, hasn’t it?” she cooed in approval.
“Bitch, just kill me!” I roared in her face. I couldn't take it anymore. I was ready for death, ready to take her with me.
“No, no, no, it won’t be that easy for you, little toy.” She lifted her mask just enough to lick the side of my face before she and her stupid assistants made their way to the exit. Before she left, she looked over her shoulder and flipped the light off, drowning us both in complete darkness, slamming the door shut behind her.
“Vik, listen to me. I'm right here with you,” Inés comforted. “We have each other and no matter what we can do this together. Vik, stay with me…” Inés was partially sobbing, partially trying to put on a brave face as if her words were trying to convince herself.
A few moments of silence later, she began to sing to me in her soft voice but my mind was already slipping into delirium once again. Soon the room began to move and I could no longer hear anything at all.
Soon, the darkness began to play tricks on my mind. I could see objects moving and disembodied voices around me, ones I knew weren’t there. The longer my sense of sight was taken from me, the more my mind turned on me. I closed my eyes and attempted to think of happier things, more tangible things I could grasp onto to keep me grounded—to keep me from tipping over the precarious edge I was on.
Numerous images flicked through my mind, making me dizzy until one settled and refused to move. My wife appeared before me… walking slowly, the rebar bar sticking from her chest.
Hurt, anguish, regret and guilt laced at my being. “Get away from me!” I screamed out.
The dirt hole I dug myself in, the hole my mind found itself in was too slippery and there were no grips. There was no escape from this hell. I was aware and unaware at all at once as my mind slipped into the realm of insanity.
“So, this is how much I meant to you? You couldn't even save me,” she accused.
Her finger pointed to the metal bar sticking out of her chest cavity while she stared lifelessly into my eyes. Suddenly, her lifeless eyes morphed into anger as tears tracked down her cheeks.
“How could you let this happen?” Katherine yelled as she forcefully removed the rod from her chest and walked toward me. I was stunned, paralyzed by my guilt. When she was nearly toe to toe, I forced my eyes open to find nothing there but the same darkness the vampires left us in.
My heart raced as if I ran a thousand miles. My chest ached from the overexertion and the residual guilt the vision gave me. I was in hell, I had to be. Why else would Katherine say those things to me? There was no way I was still alive.
