I awoke to my head being shoved into a barrel of water. I tried holding my breath, but a fist made contact with the back of my head, causing me to yell, which caused me to take in water. I tried coughing it up, but every time I tried, I just sucked in more water. I kept choking until they pulled my head out of the barrel and threw me into the floor. Upon my hitting the floor, my senses came back to me, and I heard screaming. I looked up to see Booky, Jessie, and Syx tied up in chairs with men behind them. One man walked up behind me and put his heavy boot on my back, saying "you move, you die. You die, they suffer worse. It's your choice."
They brought Booky forward first. They sat her down at a table and punched her in the face before walking back to a wall of weapons. The tall, muscular one started looking at all manner of knives: kunai, bowie knives, daggers, curved knives, serrated daggers, spiked daggers, shattered daggers, carpenter knives, kitchen knives. He walked over to a curved, jagged knife with the tip broken off and took it off the wall. He walked back over to Booky, pulled her head back, and stuck the knife in the table.
"Pick a number from one to ten," he said, licking his lips, tracing his fingers over the rough hilt of the blade.
"Seven!" Booky screamed and closed her eyes.
He grabbed her right hand and slammed it on the table. He grabbed two butcher's knives off of the wall right behind him and stuck one through both her hand and the table. "Number seven it is!" he yelled, pulling his knife out of the table. Be brought it down on her right index finger and cut through it, Booky screaming like a banshee the entire time. "Pick another one!"
"Three!" she screamed.
He grabbed her other wrist and placed her other hand on the table and shoved the other knife through it. She started to scream as he cut off her left middle finger. "Pick again!" he yelled, amused.
"Nine!" she screamed.
He brought the knife down on her right ring finger. "Next!"
"Five!" she screamed as a tear ran down her cheek.
"Number five it is!" he yelled, bringing his knife down upon her left thumb. "Next?"
"ONE!" she screamed, tears starting to stream down more and more.
"Number one! My FAVORITE NUMBER!" he yelled, bringing his knife off and tearing her left pinky off. "NEXT?"
"TEN, YOU JACKWAGON!" she screamed.
"Number ten it is," he said, calming down as he pushed his knife in the knuckle of her right pinky. "Next?"
"SIX!" she screamed.
"Ah, dear number Syx. We shall save her for last. As far as your number six is concerned though…" he said as he stabbed his knife into her right thumb before shopping it off. "Next?"
"FOUR, YOU ARMHOLE!" she said, kicking under the table.
"Don't kick me, or you may have to suffer more," he said, slicing her left index finger off. "What's next?"
"TWO, YA JIMP!" she screamed.
"Two it is, you stubborn little wretch," he whispered before taking off her left ring finger. "And that just leaves-"
"EIGHT, YOU BANDERSNATCH!" she interrupted, kicking under the table. She actually kicked the leg of the table. "DANG! THAT HURT ME MORE THAN I PLANNED!"
"Eight it is!" he screamed, raising his knife high above his head. He brought it down so hard that it chipped the end of the blade and got blood all over them both. "What do you have to say now?"
"Aww, poor wittle bad guy, your mommy didn't love you, did she? But having a face like that, I can see why," Booky said, trying to find some humor in her current situation.
"You little wench!" he said, walking and getting a wine corker off the wall. He wrapped his massive arm around her tiny throat and brought up his bottle opener. "See this? This is one of the last things you will ever see, except for your friend over there get crushed!"
The man behind me started to press his boot further into my back. I pulled my head back up just in time for me to see him stick the wine opener into her eye, pull it out, and stick it onto the table. "That took too long and wasn't messy enough for me!" he said getting his knife, stabbing her in her other eye, pulling it out, and stabbing that knife into the table. He pulled the knives out of her hands and threw her into the floor next to me.
"I'm sorry I couldn't help you Booky. You know I tried," I said, starting to lose my calm.
"I know you did, Alex. I just wish I could see the look on his face when he realizes how little he did to me. Or what he's doing to everyone else," Booky said, crawling up to me and wrapping a bloody hand around my arm, seeking protection from the only other living person in this room that didn't want to have her hurt anymore, not counting our dear friends still tied up. Jessie was next.
"Don't you dare touch the Princess! I shall have you put to death! Prince, come to my rescue!" she said in a fairytale tone.
"Well, Princess, I would, I just have some guy with his boot on my back threatening to break every rib in my body if I move. Let's see what your brothers taught you," I said, trying to be of some help.
"Shut up and stand still," our unpleasant host said. He grabbed twenty knives off the wall behind him and threw one at Jessie. The first knife hit inside of her right arm, opposite of the elbow. The second hit in the middle of the left wrist. The third one hit in her right ankle.
"Hey, asshole! That's my bad ankle, thank you very much!" she screamed, pain behind every syllable.
"My bad, try this one!" he shouted, overjoyed. He threw a knife at her left ankle that tore through the bone into the Achilles tendon. "Where should I aim next, I wonder?"
He threw another, hitting her in her right knee. The next four hit in her left forearm, right wrist, left foot, and her left shin. "In enough pain yet? Well this next one should be a good one!" he yelled, throwing one that hit her in the stomach.
"YOU MOTHERFUCKER! HELP ME ALEX!" Jessie screamed, tears starting to show.
"I WISH I COULD, BUT I CAN'T! SYX! HELP HER!" I screamed. Syx sat there, bewildered at the fact that we were all getting cut up and left to bleed.
The next knife hit her dead center in the kidney, followed by one halfway up her left thigh. The next one hit her in the ribcage, on the right side, but didn't puncture her lung.
"MOTHERFUCKER! WHY ARE YOU PUTTING US THROUGH ALL THIS FUCKING PAIN? WHY NOT JUST KILL ME?" she screamed. She was begging for death at this point.
"Because killing you would take away the fun for me and the pain for you," he said, turning around to the table. He pulled three more knives out of the table and turned around.
"That's thirteen, if I counted correctly. These next seven should hurt more than the rest. I'm certain of it," he said, aiming at his next targets.
The next three hit in her bladder, and both hips. "Is that the best you've got? My grandmother could aim better than that, and she's dead with a glass eye! No offense, Booky!" Jessie said.
"None taken!" Booky yelled back, then turned to me and said "you Bandersnatch…"
"Let's get this over with!" He picked up three more knives and threw them at the same time. Two hit in the joint of each shoulder and the third hit in the middle of her pelvic bone, snapping it in half.
"YOU WHORE! I NEEDED THAT!" Jessie screamed, tears flowing now.
"One last shot. Hope you get lucky!" he said. He threw the knife straight for her heart. It spun coming off of his hand, and hit her half an inch above the heart. "You lucky bitch. Looks like you get to live… for a little while, at least," he said, walking over to Syx. "Get the glass box. Bring me the spiders!"
He picked Syx up by the hair and carried her over to the fifteen foot tall glass box. He climbed on top of the table and threw her in the box then shut the lid, waiting for his accomplices to return with the spiders.
Three men in black trench coats came into the room through a hidden door in the stone wall carrying a glass box with a giant spider and numerous mini spiders of the same kind in a box. The first man had a Black Widow and a Tarantula. The second man had a Brown Recluse and a Goliath Birdeater. The third man carried a Funnel-web and a Red back. They each walked over to our host and handed him their box, one by one, which was thrown into the big glass box with Syx, who started screaming and trying to claw her way out of the box.
"This is what you get when you fuck with us. Never forget my name. I will come after you. My name is Cantus, and we will meet again Fresh Blood. Always be afraid," Cantus, our very unconventional host, said, bending down to get in my face to frighten me. "Always be afraid," he whispered.
"Cantus, is it? Yeah, fuck you buddy. Do your worst!" I challenged, spitting in his face.
He pulled his face away from mine and kicked me in the face until my vision went out.
That's when I woke up.