Sarah was never anything special. She was just a normal girl. Everything about her was simple and plain. She had loving parents and a handsome boyfriend and she, herself, was beautiful and talented and intelligent. She was currently studying at one of France's better performing arts schools because it was a dream of hers to one day become an actress.
"I've got this!" she insisted when her friends asked if she was nervous about their upcoming exam. Everyone knew that these particular exams were really hard. They were when the wheat was separated from the chaff and only the truly good performers were likely to stay in. Although nobody was ever expelled over this, those who failed the exam were less likely to succeeded in their higher-level courses.
"Of course you do!" her boyfriend laughed, coming up behind her and the others. "Sarah, my sweet, you will be the greatest actress this world has ever seen!" he said as he scooped her up and spun her around. She laughed merrily and all her friends rolled their eyes fondly.
That evening, Sarah had passed the test, just like everyone knew she would.
"How about we spend a night out on the town?" Sarah asked her boyfriend after class.
"Of course!" he replied. "We simply must celebrate your stunning performance!" he offered his arm and she giggled, taking it with a playful grin. They spent the evening at a nice little diner, eating and laughing. Then, once the meal was over, the pair decided to explore the city for a little while before heading back to the dorms. It was a lovely night…
BANG! Sarah watched her boyfriend's head explode, bone, muscle and tissue shooting out in all directions, some of his brain matter splattering across her face and chest. She screamed bloody murder as his limp body fell to the ground, twitching as tides of red gushed out from the gaping hole in his face. It tore straight through his eyes and nose, making all of them one unified hole with his mouth. Sarah looked up, still screaming and covered in blood, in time to see two massive men in black uniforms running at her with their guns raised.
"PUT YOUR HANDS UP!" one of them demanded and Sarah, in a panic, obeyed. She didn't move a muscle except to sob as the two men barreled down on her, one of the turning the gun around and slamming the butt of it into her skull. She, and the rest of the world, went silent at once.
When Sarah came around again, she was shackled down to a chair in a tiny cell. The walls and floor were entirely made out of steel and only one bulb, fixed right above her head, illuminated that tiny room.
"HELLO?! ANYBODY?! HELP ME!" she hollered. She continued screaming like this and as the memory of last night returned, her screams became frantic sobs and she cried out until her throat and wrists, the shackles unbearably tight, were rubbed raw.
An hour after, it was over. Sarah had exhausted herself and had no strength left in her when the two masked men from last night appeared once again. They opened her cell door and she began to scream and cry at once, despite her exhaustion.
"Who are you?! What do you want from me?!" she bawled, but when they did not answer, she began frantically making deals.
"Just let me go! Please! I don't have anything that you could want! And I promise I'll never tell anyone, just, please! Please! Please! PLEASE! Don't hurt me, don't kill me! I have a family! Don't- DON'T!"
But just as before, Sarah remained ignored by the two masked men and neither her groveling nor her offering received any reaction from either. Tears and snot were running down her face as she thrashed around in her metal chair, the chains around her wrist banging loudly as she tried, and failed, to escape her captors. They just kept closing in on her with that same, slow, intimidating pace. Once they were towering over her, she suddenly realized that one of them was holding a tazer while the other was holding a nightstick.
A few months later, Sarah had forgotten everything. She couldn't remember her name or her age or her family or where she had come from or where she was. All she knew was pain. Pain and fear.
"Uuhh, huhuhhh, uhnggg, uhh, huhhh," she stuttered and whimpered, twitching as she crawled around her cell on all fours. She had some strange metal device clamped into her skull so that every movement made the nails and screws twist deeper into her flesh. In addition, the device covered her eyes so that she was totally blind, though there wasn't much to look at anyway.
Around her waist was a second metal device shaped just like the round one on her head and eyes. This time, though, it acted as a kind of diaper, covering up her genitals. It made defecation impossible and any time she had to defecate, the waste would not go far before it simply stopped, blocking up her rectum. It was only when her tormentors came down to unlock the device that she was able to relieve herself freely and then it was always a disgusting, degrading process and some of the waste had to be scraped out by her tormentors from her inner linings which had since begun to tear and fester because of the infection.
Urination was slightly easier, the liquid just seeping out in the tiny gaps between her bony legs and the metal belt, but the urine burned as it slid down her legs because of all the injuries she had suffered there and everywhere else. The salt from the urine stung the deep and scarlet cuts that marked her bony legs. Similar slashes lined the rest of her body, some of the cuts having come from whips while others from knives and others still from yards of barbed wire tied tightly around her midsection until the razor tips pierced her skin and was tugged along to slice her open in multiple places all at once.
A few strands of the wire were wrapped around her waist right now, cutting into what remained of her skin as she twitched and crawled around. She was beyond reason by this point, however, and could only continue to make these animalistic grunts as she tried to claw at the invisible bugs from underneath her skin. She could feel them twitch and writhe inside of her and she was trying to use her fingernails to rip them out. It did not work, however, and she could only continue to garble in frustration and agony as she paced her cell mindlessly and ceaselessly.
Some time later, however, a change entered Sarah's world. She heard her cell door screech open and she began to cry out, the noises being a mix of sobs and groans. Her whole body's twitching grew faster and more intense as the footsteps entered the cell. She could not see her attacker at all but she knew that some new horrible torment awaited her. She could not escape, however, shackles around her wrists preventing her from doing little more than pacing her cell, and she was far too bony and malnourished to even attempt an attack of self-defense. At this point, however, her sense of reason was so far gone that even if she had been armed with a gun, it would never cross her mind to use it. Instead, she could only wheeze and convulse in fright until-
Gentleness? Gentleness. Something that Sarah had long since forgotten returned to her and, just for a moment, the barest of her humanity returned to her. This person who had come into her cell touched her arm, gentle and pleading. Even though Sarah could not see a face, she knew this stranger was not one of the old tormentors. She felt trembling hands unlock her chains before grabbing her own. She grabbed back, unused to feeling warm and gentle hands touching her. She felt this stranger stand her up. She swayed. There was nothing left to her legs except bone and a very thin layer of skin. The stranger supported her, helping her limp out of her cell. In the back of her mind, she wondered where they were going. She hadn't left that cell since the night of her arrival… how long ago was it? The stranger led Sarah's hand to a pole-shaped object and, instinctively, Sarah grabbed onto it. There was a similar pole-shaped object just above that one, and then there was another one and then another one and then another. She did not know it, but it was a ladder. Anna was taking her back to the surface world.
The stranger continued to lead her along even after they were on flat ground once again, taking her up higher and higher until Sarah felt herself finally being lowered again. This time, it was into something wet. She began to scream and panic. The last time she had felt this substance, water, was when her head was held under it repeatedly despite her wild attempts at escape.
"Hey, hey, hey!" the stranger whispered as Sarah thrashed. "Shhh, shhh, it's ok, it's ok. It's going to be ok… Shhhhh…" Sarah felt two hands cup her face but no blows followed the gesture and Sarah surrendered once more, allowing herself to sink into the water. She was terrified, but this stranger was so gentle that Sarah felt safe, even if she didn't quite understand how or why. She felt this stranger rub her body and face with the water before leaving for a moment and then coming back.
"I'm so sorry about this…" the stranger said, then Sarah felt a sharp agony tearing at her skull. The nails and screws were slowly, painfully, being removed from her head, but as some skin had managed to start growing around the nails, the removal really hurt. That, and the mask itself had to be peeled away from her eyes and it ended up tearing several layers of skin and hair off of her body. As it slowly pulled away, peeling off skin and blood, Sarah screamed. She screamed and screamed and screamed. The water was a dark red by the time the removal was over.
Then Sarah felt something else being wrapped around her head. This time, though, it was soft. And she could feel the stranger holding her again. By instinct, Sarah wrapped her own hands around the stranger and clung to her tightly even though her scalp was still burning from the strip of skin that had been slowly torn away from it. Holes lined her scalp where screws and bits of flesh had been torn away.
Several minutes later, Sarah felt the stranger lead her away again. The soft thing was wiped across the rest of her body until all the water and blood was gone. Even though she could see again, her eyes were so poorly-adjusted and her mind was so far gone that nothing she saw registered. She saw doors and pictures on walls but none of it meant anything to her. The stranger, a pretty girl with short brown hair, led her down to the end of the hall, pushing open a white door and setting Sarah down upon a big, fluffy mass. A bed.
"Stay calm. Rest now. Please," the stranger kissed what remained of Sarah's hair. "Please, rest now. You're safe. I promise," she insisted and Sarah, though she was still beyond all sanity, somehow understood the stranger's soothing words and she curled into her protector's arms.
The very next day, Sarah was killed. The bugs had returned and Sarah could feel them eating right through what remained of her hand. Panicking and angry, Sarah grabbed a knife, it was the one household object she could still identify, and she began to saw away. She dragged the smooth blade back and forth swiftly across her wrist, blind to the pain. She kept sliding the knife back and forth, deeper and deeper, until it struck the bone. She snarled in frustration and pushed the stranger away when she tried to wrestle the knife from her.
"NOOO!" she garbled as she began to nick the bone. Soon, those bugs would stop crawling under her skin and eating away at her muscles! Sarah began to smash her head into the wall when she felt the swarm crawl up from her arm and into her face, squirming all around her head and face and neck. She growled and clawed at her face and neck.
BANG! Anna collapsed in horror as a bullet flew over her head and struck Sarah right in the forehead.
AN: Obviously, this was written from the POV of the girl Anna finds in the torture cell after Lucie dies. I wanted to tell her story and write out her thoughts when Anna came to save her because clearly, even though she was crazy, she understood some sense of humanity because she allowed Anna to lead her around the house and up to the bathroom before finally snapping again and getting shot.