“Aby, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry…” Peaches wailed in the dark. Aby shushed her.
“Peaches, enough. You need to be quiet.”
“Why? We’re going to die anyway…”
“Stop saying that,” Aby growled, still feeling around for the matches. She was beginning to lose her patience. If they ever got out of there, she knew she’d never trust Peaches instincts again. She was becoming a lot more trouble than she was worth. But that didn’t mean Aby wouldn’t do everything in her power to save her.
Her hands finally found the familiar matchbox and she breathed a sigh of relief. It was a beacon of hope in the darkness. She heard a creak of a floorboard above her head and another scream. There was no time to waste. She had to get them the hell out of there.
With difficulty, she struck the first match. Her hands weren’t very mobile, but she managed with a shaking hand to hold the flame next to the rope around her wrists, burning it away slowly. She couldn’t see much of her progress since her hands were behind her back and the flame was singeing her skin a little too, but she gritted her teeth and got on with it. She’d been to hell and back that day. A little heat was easily handled.
But the flame died out before she could release herself from her cords. She had to try again. Her heart was racing as she realized that it was much quieter upstairs now. Peaches was whimpering to herself again and sobbing.
“Shut up, Peaches,” Aby hissed. “You’ll attract his attention.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
Aby shook her head to herself. She was dealing with a madwoman at this point. The torture had made her come undone. Not Aby, though. The fact that she was still going was a testament to her strength. As she struck another match, she thought about Jake. He’d be so proud of her. He would encourage her if he was there with her. He’d say she was smart for stealing the matches. As Aby continued the slow process of burning through the cords, she clung to the thought of him. A reason to keep going. A reason to live.
Aby cursed to herself as she dropped her match from her shaking hands and the flame went out. She was close to half way through the rope and she wondered if she could rub the ties together instead to wear them down. She gave it a go, her aching muscles protesting as she awkwardly rubbed her wrists together. At first, she couldn’t tell if she was making any progress, but then she felt the ties loosen a little. The relief was so overwhelming that a sob escaped Aby, but she didn’t allow herself another second to feel sorry for herself. She continued rubbing away at the ties, her heart in her throat. The silence upstairs was becoming disturbing. She wondered if Tex had left to find another victim, or if he was taking a break. He must’ve been awake for hours, just torturing people. She felt so angry that she wanted to kill him, but all in good time. She had to overcome one hurdle at a time.
“What are you doing?” Peaches sniffed, finally catching on to Aby’s struggles. Aby continued to create friction with her ties.
“Getting out of these ties. I’ll help you with yours the second I’m done with mine.”
“You should just leave me,” Peaches moaned. “I’ll never make it out of here alive.”
Aby knew that getting Peaches out of there was going to be a challenge. Between her difficult personality and her new injuries, she knew it was going to make their escape more difficult. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try.
“I’m not leaving without you,” Aby told her through gritted teeth. “This is going to work. I know it is.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I said so,” Aby growled. She felt the ties on her hands give a little more and she realized that she could now move her wrists further apart without straining. A few sharp tugs and she’d be free of her binds…
She readied herself to pull. She knew this was the quickest way of escaping her binds, but it was going to hurt. The motion wouldn’t agree with her sore body and her throbbing hand. But it had to be done. The silence was almost too much to handle for her now, knowing that Tex could come and find them at any moment. She gritted her teeth and yanked her wrists apart.
The pain was blinding. Her whole body seemed to be burning with pain, but she didn’t stop there. She wasn’t free yet. As she was still processing the pain from her first manoeuvre, she tugged hard on the binds again. This time, she heard the final threads of rope rip and she was free. She breathed hard, sweating profusely and blinking through the pain. She wanted to curl up in a ball and go to sleep. She wanted someone to take care of her and tell her it was all going to be okay. But she was alone. Peaches wasn’t going to help her or herself. It was up to Aby to get them both out alive.
Even though her hand hurt like hell, Aby immediately reached for the binds on her ankle and began to untie them. Peaches gasped when she saw through the dark what she was doing.
“You did it? You got out?”
“Shh!” Aby hissed. “Are you insane? Keep quiet. I’m coming to help you. Just be patient.”
Peaches did as she was told for once. Her bad hand was almost impossible to use properly so she used one hand to struggle with the ties. They were bound tight and in a complicated knot so the process took a lot longer than Aby would’ve liked. But eventually, she
