Everyone is guilty of something.
No matter how much one wishes it wasn't true, everyone is guilty.
The room around was dark. Nothing could be seen. The only thing that human senses could pick up on was the labored breathing of a young girl.
She began to stir slightly. Her head was pounding and she found it was rather hard to breath. Not being able to see she began to panic.
"H-hello?"
She called into the darkness, blinking in hopes that maybe her eyes would adjust.
Shifting slightly, she let out a cry as a sharp pain dug into her rib cage.
"Hello? Please! Someone help me!"
She yelled louder, starting to panic. Tears burned her eyes as she cried out again and again. She was growing desperate.
Suddenly, a TV flickered on in the corner of the dark confines of the space the girl was trapped in.
A masked figure appeared on the television set, sending ice through her veins.
"Hello Victoria. Throughout your pathetic existence, you have become a parasite. You spend your days living in the fortunes made from other people's suffering. Living off your father's fortune and only going to him when you want something materialistic. You take life for granted."
Two floodlights flashed on, momentarily blinding Victoria. After blinking furiously, she was finally able to see where she was. But more importantly, she realized what was causing the pain in her ribs.
She was standing, strapped into a harness that wrapped around her shoulders and thighs. She had no idea she had been standing…in fact; she really couldn't feel her lower body. Because the straps were too tight, she guessed.
Tied to the harness straps, that crossed over her ribs were a series of fishhooks.
These fishhooks were hooked into her skin.
Victoria let out a violent scream as she struggled against her restraints, causing the flesh around the hooks to start to tear and bleed.
"All your life, you've taken but never giving anything back. Today, we will see what you will be willing to give in order to stay alive. You have 3 minutes to fill the beaker below you with your blood. Once the beaker is full, its weight will release your restraints and you will be free. But, if you do not succeed; when the timer reaches zero, the hooks will be ripped from your body simultaneously. Live or die Victoria, make your choice."
The Television set went dark, and a timer lit up on the wall, counting down from 3 minutes.
Victoria was silent, tears spilling over her eyes.
"Help me!" She cried furiously, feeling the edges of insanity licking at the back of her mind. "Someone help!"
She thought hard. How did this psycho know who she was?
She looked down to the beaker. Her urge to vomit became more pronounced as she realized the size of the beaker. There was no way that she could give up that much blood and still live to stop the bleeding.
There was 2 minutes and 30 seconds left on the timer.
She was doomed.
Containing herself no longer, she began to cry. It was a pitiful sound. It wasn't a loud obnoxious sound, but the sound of absolute sadness. A quiet whimpering.
Looking down the fishhooks in her skin, she let out a silent cry as sobs racked through her body.
Standing there frozen with fear, she dreadfully looked at the timer, felt her stomach drop even further. There was only a minute and 39 seconds left.
With a mix of terror and adrenaline fueling her actions, she reached up and took hold of one of the hooks. Holding her breath, she clenched her teeth as she tried to jerk one of the hooks out of her skin. She let out a pain scream.
The hook didn't come out. It was hooked onto one of the ribs. She realized that to get the hooks out, she was gonna have to push them back into her body.
Another thing…
If the hooks were pulled out all at once, then her ribs would be too.
Blood poured from the tear in her skin. She felt unconsciousness tugging on her body. She let out a cry as she watched her blood dribble into the breaker.
Interrupting her panic, a dead bolt opened up somewhere in the dark space beyond the floodlights, nearly stopping Victoria's heart. Sequentially, the timer on the far wall stopped counting down, red lights blinking 45 seconds left.
Holding her breath, she stood frozen, waiting for something to happen.
"Amanda!"
An angry, raspy voice growled as more lights flickered on overhead.
With not much sense left after being terrified, Victoria called out in a small broken voice.
"Please…help me…"
Hearing some shuffling coming from her left, she turned to see a fragile looking man, stalking towards her.
"Amanda, what the hell do you think you are doing?"
He spat at on of the walls as he approached Victoria, the rage apparent on his face. She started to panic all over again.
The man looked older, his face worn with lines of worry and sickness. He stumbled a bit as he stepped up on the platform to Victoria's level. He easily towered over her easily by at least a foot and a half.
Reaching out, he took hold of the restraints on her thighs and unbuckled them. She felt her weight drop as she dropped, her feet hitting the platform. She let out a cry as the hooks pulled on her ribs.
Glancing up at her face, he frowned.
"Listen to me, I'm going to have to cut the hooks to get these out of your body without them ripping anymore of your skin."
Victoria paled more, if that was even possible.
"O-okay…-" She stuttered quietly as another tear spilled from her eye. "Thank you so much." She sighed shakily.
Before he could continue, they both heard another door slam against the wall as angry footsteps bounced off the walls, followed by a frustrated voice.
"John! Stop it!"
The man turned sharply to meet the woman's gaze. "Amanda, what was your purpose for this?"
He asked in almost a whisper and it chilled Victoria to the bone.
The woman crossed her arms and cocked her hip to one side.
"She takes life for granted! She's a spoiled, 'I have a higher education than you', rich kid!"
This angered Victoria. She did not take life for granted! Sure, she came from a wealthy family, but her father raised her to be an honest person and she helped people every chance she got.
"There was no way for her to escape this trap alive. Have I taught you nothing? Everyone deserves a chance. You are guilty of almost stealing hers!"
"But John I-" But he cut her off. "Get me some bandages and some pain killers."
The girl looked like she was about to cry, but John didn't flinch. He turned his gaze back to Victoria, his ice blue eyes boring into her.
He reached into his pocket; he fished for a moment and pulled out a rather malicious pair of metal scissors. Her eyes widened as he moved them closer to her torso.
Something dawned on her as the man cut the first hook at the curve and without much effort or pain, removed it from her ribs.
She wasn't wearing a shirt. Just her black bra, nothing special or sexy. It still unnerved her as he continued with removing the foreign objects from her body. As if sensing her discomfort, he once again locked eyes with her.
She felt her stomach twist with something unknown as he smirked a bit.
"Are you okay? Do you feel light headed yet?"
"Yet..? Is he kidding me?" Victoria thought as she nodded, a couple tears sliding down to her chin.
John kept working around her torso; tilting his head to the side, as if watching a science experiment. Victoria was starting to see dots in her vision and her head was clouding over.
She registered someone coming up behind John and handing him a couple objects. She felt pressure on her chest, and then she felt fingers on her face.
"Listen to me, I'm gonna take off the shoulder restraints now." He spoke, still keeping eye contact with her as he unbuckled the straps. All at once she felt her full weight being released to her feet.
As soon as her feet attempted to hold her weight, she stumbled forwards. She couldn't feel her legs and the impact was so sudden that she fell into John's alert and ready arms. She let out a soft whimper as he maneuvered her into a position so he could pick her up.
She felt herself being lifted and carried bridal-style.
"I'm scared…" Victoria choked out as she tightened her grip on the mans hands.
She heard a faint snort of discontent. Probably came from that Amanda girl…This was all her fault anyway!
Before Victoria really understood what had happened, she was being lowered onto a softer surface with god awful bright lights. She squinted, and tried to look around. John's piercing blue eyes met hers as she saw that he held a syringe in his right hand.
Immediately, Victoria began to panic once again.
"W-w-what are you gonna do t-that?" She slurred. John raised an eyebrow.
"You've lost a lot of blood, your body might go into shock if I don't get you stitched up…and I doubt you'd like to be awake during that..?"
He answered, flicking the needle to kill any stray air bubbles.
"I-I…-" John brought the needle closer to her body. "-Wait! P-please, just w-wait a second-"
Before Victoria could make anymore startled pleas, He injected her with the serum and she found herself losing consciousness.
Holding onto the last bits of reality with all of her might, she reached out and grabbed John's forearm, crying.
"…No…"
Then the girl fell silent, her grip on John's arm was non-existent as her hand fell to the table.
John stared at the wonder before him.
Her raven hair strewn behind her; Messy as it may be, it was wild, but beautiful. Letting his mind wander as well as his eyes. She had a supple figure. Curvy, more meat on her bones than most, but it wasn't so much that she was chubby…and she was still only in her bra and skirt.
A strange feeling came over John. One that he had failed to feel in such a long while that it took him buy surprise.
As he worked on putting this girl back together, he realized the feeling that was bubbling out of his thought to be dead heart.
Lust.