Aby could feel her breathing getting heavier. She needed to get out. She was going to go insane if she didn’t. But there was no escape this time. Her hands were tied too tight. She had no weapons. She could barely even move. She watched in horror as Tex took a knife from his pocket and wielded it with care, still holding his victim down with his free hand.
“And now...I think we’ll peel back some layers of this lovely lady’s skin,” Tex said with a horrifying smile. He began to dig the knife into the woman’s skin and Aby watched on in horror, unable to scream anymore. The woman under the knife did, though. For hours and hours, she screamed. Aby saw Tex do things to her that she didn’t think any human was capable of doing to another person. He used every weapon in his arsenal. Tweezers to pluck skin from her body. Knives to whittle away at her fingers and toes. Hammers to smash up her teeth and then make her swallow them as he poured water on her face. Aby had never seen anything so horrific in her life. Her whole body was in shock, shaking uncontrollably even when Tex took breaks to taunt her or to disappear for a few minutes, returning with new weapons of torture.
They’d been awake for hours, but Tex didn’t seem to be getting tired. The woman he was torturing passed out a few times, but she had survived a lot. Aby was forced to keep looking at her, a bloodied mess on the floor, begging for help. She kept turning to look at Aby, pleading with her eyes for her to save her. But Aby was helpless. She was going to be made to stay there for a long time. She knew the woman in front of her was just one in a long line of victims. She tried to disassociate. She tried to tell herself it was all a dramatic performance, or that she was just watching a film. But she could smell blood in the air. She could hear the screams of the woman even after she passed out or stopped for a while. She could taste the bile in her mouth from where she’d thrown up the contents of her stomach. This was real.
And there was no escape.
Aby was watching Tex torture the woman with a knife when she began to convulse on the floor. Tex watched in confusion as the woman clutched at her chest, her eyes bulging out of her head. He stood up to watch her, cocking his head in curiosity. When she went still, he checked her pulse and sighed.
“Looks like she had a heart attack,” he murmured. “She’s dead.”
Aby was beginning to shake again. If the woman was dead, what did that mean for her? Would Tex finally sleep, giving her some hope at getting away? Would he go out to find another victim? She prayed that he’d just leave her alone…
But he turned to her with a smile. He bent down at her feet and began to remove her socks.
“Well, there’s no harm in hurting you a little...just so long as you live to see me torture my next victim...and the next...and the next,” Tex whispered cunningly. He took her sock off, revealing Aby’s toes. She suddenly knew exactly what was about to happen to her. She’d seen it happen to the other woman.
He was going to slice off her toes, one by one.
“No passing out this time,” Tex hissed with a smile. “I want you to feel this…”
Aby screamed louder than she’d ever screamed before as he picked up his knife. But before he could touch her, the door opened and someone entered the room. They aimed the gun in their hand and shot Tex straight through the chest.
He recoiled, choking as blood made its way up to his throat. He clutched at the wound and fell flat on his back, gasping in disbelief. Aby felt nothing but fear rising inside her. Just because someone had killed Tex for her, it didn’t mean she was safe. She knew enough about people now to know that good ones were rare.
“Please…” she whimpered. She had no pride left. She couldn’t just let it all end now when she’d fought so hard, seen so much, felt so much fear. She was shaking as Tex’s killer approached her, stepping into view properly.
It was a very tall, muscled woman. She had a stern expression and she stared at Aby for a long moment before she bent down to untie her ankles. Aby was crying hard, unable to tell if she was being rescued or just dragged away toward the next horror. But as the woman gently untied her hands, Aby began to feel like this wasn’t a sinister moment. Once she was freed, she got unsteadily to her feet and backed away from the woman, her back against the wall as she stared her down. The woman didn’t move, clearly trying not to spook Aby further.
“You look exhausted,” the woman commented quietly. “I think I got here just in time.”
“Who are you?” Aby whispered. The woman shrugged.
“No one. Just a survivor like you. I heard a scream...I just couldn’t walk on by.”
Aby’s legs were shaking so much that she felt like they couldn’t keep her upright for long. The woman looked her up and down, obviously taking in the mess that she was. Aby couldn’t even believe that she was free. She was far too shaken to think that it was all over.
“You need to get yourself out of here,” the woman told her. She reached in the deep pocket of her overcoat and produced a pistol. Aby flinched, instinctively thinking the woman was going to use it on her, but she simply checked the bullets and then offered it up to Aby.
“Here. I looted this along my way. Do you know how to use it?”
Aby nodded, hobbling forward
