It was time to die.
Aby wanted to plead for her life, but her pride stopped her. She was dragged through to another room where she saw Peaches huddled in the corner, covered in blood and whimpering, but still very much alive. Tex through Aby down hard on the ground and her face hit it hard.
“Peaches kindly asked me to stop...and so I obliged. I’m not some complete monster,” Tex said, moving to a table which seemed to be full of tools. “I told her that I’d give her a little break for a while and let her watch the show.”
“I didn’t mean like this!” Peaches cried out. “Please, don’t do this. Don’t hurt her.”
Aby pressed her lips together, trying not to let him see her crying. But when he turned around and she saw the handheld drill in his hand, she couldn’t hold back the wail that escaped her lips. Tex advanced on her slowly and Aby willed herself to close her eyes, but she couldn’t. She was horrifically transfixed on his weapon of torture. He smiled at her.
“It won’t last for long...oh, it’ll hurt...but it won’t last for long, I promise,” he whispered. Then he began to untie her hands and Aby felt a rush of hope. If she had her hands, she could fight back. But the second her wrists were free Tex grabbed her wrist and pinned it to the ground with his knee. Then he grabbed the drill and within moments, he was moving it toward her hand.
“No!” Aby screamed, but there was no stopping him now. The drill penetrated her skin and whirred deeper until it hit bone. It hurt so much that Aby felt herself go blind, unable to cry out in agony. She felt the drill go deeper and deeper, severing everything in its path until it drilled through to the other side. Finally, a scream escaped from her throat and as consciousness was ripped from her, she heard Tex’s laugh and the fearful sobs of Peaches in the background…
When she came to again, it was because Tex was slapping at her face, trying to wake her up. When she opened her eyes involuntarily, breathing hard against the pain, Tex let out a frustrated groan.
“You weren’t supposed to pass out!” he snapped. “You’re supposed to stay awake for every little bit….Peaches was much better at that than you.”
Aby gritted her teeth, wishing she could kill him right there and then. She’d never had a desire to see someone dead so badly. This thing was getting personal now. Her hands were free now and she desperately wanted to strangle him, but her hand was spasming with pain from the drill. She’d never be able to hold him for long enough to choke him out. Maybe she could pray that he killed her now, quick and easy, but he looked far from done. As he headed back to his table, he found a new weapon of torture to taunt her with.
“No matter...maybe we can try something else,” he murmured to himself. “Perhaps you’ll respond better to this…”
As he turned around, Aby saw that he was holding matches. She felt herself flash back to the burning car she rescued Jake from only days earlier. She had hated the suffocating heat of it. Now, she was going to have to suffer it for real. She tried to make herself move away out of instinct, but the pain was too much. Tex struck his first match.
“Let’s try again…”
Swapping to her other hand, he pinned her down and let the flame consume the skin on her pinky finger. Aby began to sob once again as she felt the fire stripping skin away layer by layer. Tex tutted as the match burned out too quickly for his liking, giving Aby a moment’s reprieve.
“This would be easier with a lighter,” he muttered to himself. Still, he lit a second match and continued his work. Aby screamed louder than she’d ever screamed before. It was a different kind of pain to the drill, more insistent, heated rather than aching. Aby hadn’t realized how many forms pain could present itself in until then.
Breathing hard as he lit another match, Aby realized what she needed to do. He wouldn’t torture her if he thought she was passed out. Then maybe she could hatch a plan. As he pressed another flame to her finger, she forced her eyes to roll into the back of her head and then she lolled her face to the side, hoping her acting was convincing enough to get him to stop. She wanted to scream in pain so badly, but she forced herself to remain silent.
“Huh? Again? Wake up!”
She didn’t respond. She wanted to flinch away from him, but she remained limp and still. She heard him stand up with a grunt and then he kicked her in the stomach. It knocked the wind from her and she was in even more pain than ever, but she stayed quiet. She couldn’t let him think she was awake.
“Damn it!” he cried out. She heard his footsteps retreating and the door slammed behind him. She didn’t know where he’d gone or for how long, but she had to act now.
She opened her eyes and looked around her. She needed a weapon, or at least something to help her. But with her legs tied up, she wasn’t going to be able to get to his tray of weapons so easily. She might only have a few moments
And then she spotted her salvation. The matches on the floor. Quick as a flash, she grabbed them and stuffed them into her pocket, just as she heard the footsteps returning.
As he reentered the room she let out a loud groan, pretending to have just come to. When she opened her eyes she saw that Tex was furious. He bound her hands up again, at her front this time, muttering to himself. Then, he grabbed her by her hair and tugged her out of the room.
“Useless,” he
