The doorknob turned again. This time they brought in a stretcher. Kate shifted up onto her knees. Castle grabbed her hand as she silently watched their plan. They wheeled it over to the box and left, like before. Except, this time, one man came back in. He slowly walked over to the partners sitting in the corner opposite from him. Kate watched with terror in her eyes as he approached. She positioned herself so she could jump to protect Castle at any moment. Castle looked at her and she glanced towards him, but ultimately landed her eyes on the approaching man. The man came close, but not close enough to make out who he really was. He wasn't wearing a mask anymore, but with the sun having just gone down, Kate couldn't see anything. She could make out his silhouette and his actions, but that was it. She saw him bend down to be eye level with the pair. Kate leaned up a little more, as to protect Castle with whatever she had. The man looked at her, and with just the lower half of his face visible by the light, released a nefarious smile. One that gave Kate shivers down her back. The man sat there and looked at her face for a second, as if he already knew her. Examining her. When their moment was done, he stood back up. He waited for a second, straightened his leg, and nudged Castle's broken foot. Just to tease them.
"No!" Kate protested.
Castle winced in pain as the man gave a tiny laugh and walked off. The door slammed behind him. Kate couldn't see Castle anymore. It was completely dark in the room.
"Are you okay?" she begged frantically. She felt down his leg to get to his foot.
Castle didn't answer. He just sat with his head pushed back against the wall and his hands on the floor.
"Castle," Kate said with a lump in her throat. She didn't know what exactly was making her cry. The fact that the man she had dreamed of meeting so long ago was now suffering before her eyes or the fact that those men were still out there. Kate repositioned the shoe holding Castle's foot together the best that she could without hurting him even more. When she was finished, she found her way back to her seat, and sat down next to Castle.
Kate woke up the next morning with her shoulder on Castle's and his head on the radiator. She wanted to stand, to stretch, but the chain was underneath him and she didn't want to wake him. The morning sun lit up the entire room. It was smaller that she expected, but it was rather wide. The door was further away than she thought. She looked down at Castle's foot. It was worse. It was completely swollen and the skin was broken around his big toe. Dried blood was draped over the side. It looked like someone hit it, hard. She remembered seeing something about compartment syndrome and knew it was fatal. She prayed with the little faith she had left that this wouldn't happen to Rick.
Kate looked up at his face. He had dried blood going down to his neck from a cut at the top of his head, right where his hairline was. She wanted, badly, to remove the shirt he was wearing and see where that blood was coming from; but, at the same time, she didn't.
About an hour later Castle woke up. He tried to move, forgetting where he was, but Kate held him down.
"Don't, you will hurt yourself." Kate said while putting a hand on his chest to sit him back down. "Can you do me a favor?"
"Yeah."
"Can you sit up a bit?"
Castle moved forward, as much as he could without hurting his chest even more. Kate stood up, moved the chain that tied her to the wall and walked around. She knew Castle couldn't do this much, but she couldn't sit any longer. Her tailbone was digging into the floor and her legs were stiff from how she was laying. When she was done she knelt beside Castle once more. She was in a better mood now. She had passed the depressing state and turned to a more determined one. She was ready to leave this place.
"What is under your shirt?"
"Kate, I'm fine."
"Castle," Kate firmly responded, "That was a rhetorical question."
Castle was losing energy quickly. Kate began to notice because of his lethargic attitude. He was no longer cracking jokes and the look in his eyes was gone.
She moved closer to him and put her hands at the top of his shirt. Slowly, she began to unbutton one by one. Ironic, she thought, how she would have given anything to have had worked up the courage to do this before, but in wildly different circumstances. She worked her way down, revealing his chest. There were little cuts, everywhere, as if someone had grazed him with a knife or razor. Kate put her hand on his chest and looked up. Castle's head was turned to the side and looked straight ahead. She continued until his shirt was completely unbuttoned. The cuts were everywhere. Kate moved to the side and sat against the wall. She had it together, but now, she was losing it.
"Why are they doing this!" Kate shouted with tears in her eyes. She thought she could be determined, be strong, but it was getting harder. She looked over to Castle who was trying to figure out how to handle this. She saw his cuts and some were beginning to heal, but some were becoming infected. They must have used a dirty tool to do this to him. Castle reached up his arm and put it around Kate.
"Kate,"
She looked up at him to see sweat starting to gather at the top of his head. Fever, she thought. "Rick, you're going to be fine. I will get us out of here."
"You don't have to pretend, it's okay. We're in this together."
She leaned on his shoulder as he put his hand to her head and stroked her hair. Anything to calm her, at least a little. Right as she looked up to meet his eyes, the door swung open. There were more men now. They were walking faster than before.
Thanks for the reviews. I wrote this a while ago and didn't know what to do with it. My favorite genre is horror/suspense so, again, if you do get grossed out by these things don't read on. It's not terribly gross, but this is a story about torture.
