This chapter contains more or less description of torture. I tried to make it not very violent. However, I recommend this story being for 18+.
Chapter 21
'He will try to save both' Alex mentioned. She was sitting in her car, Ports Street, with perfect view on number 147. She talked via hands-free speaking system to Sabrina who was waiting in a car more than to house blocks away. She had the little Jessica on her arm and gave her a milk bottle.
'Of course he will. And then he'll stand there without woman and child. They must be here soon.'
'I'm on my way' Alex answered and drove the car into the side street which showed up behind the house 147. She got out and inside from the back door. She didn't need to wait more than five minutes until Lisbon's car showed up in front of the house. She got out and kicked the unlocked front door open.
She looked around in the empty and abandoned building in the suburb, where about nothing was around, isolated, no help, no exit. Lisbon didn't even notice how she fell down and lost consciousness. But she noticed when she woke up tied up on a chair. She looked around and saw Jane sitting next to her. He had a direct look toward her and tried to smile.
'Whatever happens, Teresa, I love you' he answered.
'I love you, too' she admitted and wanted to tell him so much but couldn't. She didn't know what was planned, what wicked game Red John wanted to play now and was very surprised then, when a little girl entered the room.
She was tall, taller than Sabrina had been, Jane noticed. She was not as thin, not as muscular, she had blue-green-grey-eyes, dark eyebrows but blonde hair so he guessed them being colored. She wore a jeans, a black top and a leather jacket.
'You're not one of Red John's disciples' Lisbon said in surprise and disbelief.
'Why not?' she directly asked back.
'You're too young' Lisbon said and couldn't trust her eyes.
'He told you that you're never too young to kill, right?' Jane asked.
'And never too young to die' she answered nodding. She stepped forward without a warning and took something from the table behind the two lovers which they couldn't see. Jane found out that it was kind of metallic device which she already put at his eyes. The metal device forced him to keep his eyes open.
'You can't close your eyes with this, okay? I want you to fully watch' the girl answered. To Jane she seemed to be quite normal, no aggressive behavior, she was friendly, like a usual girl.
'How old are you?' he asked when she installed the device on his left eye. It was exactly what was used in the movie A clockwork orange (in which Malcolm McDowell played the main role, the same actor who plays Bret Stiles in the Mentalist).
'I'm sixteen' she answered drily and was finished. 'It hurts' he complained. 'An unwanted side-effect' she said and shrugged and walked back to the table.
She pressed the play-button on the CD-Player and music was played, classical music, of course, Bach, Prelude and Fugue number one in C major.
'You really like this music?' he asked provoking.
'It's not the worst and not the best' she admitted although she liked listening to it when lying next to Stiles in one bed. She turned up the volume and shortly looked into the little video camera which was in the upper left corner. Sabrina could watch everything.
'I want you to watch carefully' the girl warned Jane and took a knife from the table. The counselor noticed that she wore plastic gloves, like the one which were used at a crime scene. No chance for forensic evidences like DNA or similar.
'Do you know 'Last Judgment' by Michelangelo?' she asked Lisbon. Of course she knew. She wanted to take the cross necklace into her hands, she wanted to pray, but she couldn't concentrate.
'I don't!' Jane mentioned, actually to gain time.
'Please explain, Lisbon' the girl whispered.
'It's showing St. Bartholomew with a…skin in his hand' she stammered.
'The method is called Flaying or de-skinning' Red John's disciple helped out.
Jane opened his mouth, Lisbon saw how his eyes started to tear, he couldn't blink. He had exactly the same look like when he had discovered Lisbon in the High School in the bomb belt. Also one of Red John's brilliant work and every time he had appeared, there had been made sacrifices, murders, tears.
This time it probably was her turn, Lisbon thought and closed her eyes when the girl started to cut open her trousers and blouse and threw it away. She looked at the perfect body and started with the feet. They were tied together and at the chair so that Lisbon could barely move. The small girl held her tight and put on the knife on the soft skin.
She didn't cut in deeply but started to de-skin the foot. Jane stopped breathing although his mouth was opened widely. He couldn't move, he couldn't think, he couldn't realize what just happened. Lisbon was shouting, yelling, screaming in pain, she threw her head backward, couldn't move, couldn't free herself, she wanted to get free, she looked at Jane, pure angst and fear in her face, tears were flowing out of her eyes, first slowly, then faster.
They ran down her cheeks, making her beautiful pale skin shimmering in the dimmed light. 'No!' she screamed, breathed heavily while staring at the ceiling, praying for hope and mercy and grace. Why did God do this to her? It was not what she has earned!
'Our father in heaven/ hallowed be your name' Lisbon whispered as silent as she could.
'Your god won't help you right now' the girl hissed and tried to keep the removed portion of skin intact. Her hands already were covered in red and the blood was dripping down like silent tears on the floor, gathering in a small sea which grew.
'Your kingdom come/ Your will be done' Lisbon said louder to gain strength to fight the pain and to tease the brutal girl, to show that she was not an easy target. But instead, the young woman only laughed.
'There is no such thing as God' she said. 'Not in the form he may be praised in the bible.'
'I don't care, you fucking bitch' Lisbon screamed and yelled out when the girl stabbed the knife deeper in her foot. It felt like hell on earth. She stood up and showed the tied up agent something flabby and skin-colored.
'Is that…? Uh' Jane made and looked away in disgust. Lisbon started to cry like a small child, she just couldn't hold herself back, it was too much to stand. She couldn't do it anymore.
'Stop it, please!' she screamed. She has never reacted like this before, she had faced certain death before, yes, but not such humiliation. She felt like being a little child again, as if everybody could do with her whatever one wanted.
She remembered the worst days, when her mother died, when she had to raise her three brothers, her drinking father, this all came back and the memories mixed with her pain and created a maelstrom of anger, pain and embarrassing memories from her childhood.
Lisbon felt like needing to vomit in disgust when she saw the about six square centimeters big part of her own skin and looked at her foot. It didn't look like a foot anymore but like a battle field. In disgust she watched how the girl let the piece fall down on the floor.
'So…what shall we do know?' she asked and smiled. It seemed as this only has been the warming up round.
'You're disgustingly ill, insane!' Jane shouted in anger. Tears were running on his cheeks, too, flowing down from his red-colored eyes, dripping down from his chin.
'I know' she said and shrugged. No news to her. The girl walked back to the table, put down the knife but picked up a kind of cane.
'So, let's have some fun' she said and Jane looked at the torture instrument which very reminded him on A clockwork orange (a movie, I do not own anything).
'No' he muttered silently. When the girl started to beat the soles of Lisbon's bare feet with the cane, she explained: 'Did you know that in the bible the maximum amount of hits are forty? In contrast to that, in the Iran, under fifty is a mild punishment while about thousand are meant to be cruel. You can be glad to be Christian, Lisbon.'
'You're an evil beast!' Jane shouted.
'Tell me something I don't know' she responded quietly and counted number eighteen.
When she has counted until twenty-five, suddenly her cell phone called, with the typical ring tone of 'Scotland the Brave' (the same ringtone Ducky from NCIS has or the one woman in Kill Bill).
'God in heaven' Jane said in relief for at least a few seconds of break.
'You do not believe in god or devil, Jane. You know nothing of such exists' she answered, put down the cane back on the table to answer her cell.
'I already have had a very detailed discussion about this matter with your master' he answered snappily.
'I know. I listened' she answered and pressed the green button on her cell. 'What's up?...Ya, understood. How much time? ...I'm already out' she said and put it back into her pocket.
'You can feel relieved. Your special agents Van Pelt and Cho are already on their way to rescue you. And you may encounter dear FBI-drama queen Darcy again. But unfortunately, as you have decided for Lisbon, Jane, I think Red John will have the greatest pleasure to kill your second daughter. He'll probably send you her dead body.' She stepped forward and removed the tape from Lisbon's mouth.
'No! Keep me. Kill me! But let Jessica go!' she already began to scream and to shout. Jane didn't react anymore. It was all hopeless. Red John didn't wish him to have any hope, pleasure or success anymore in his life. It has been all his fault and it would end like this. 'Jane!' Lisbon screamed. He only looked up, with a sad face and stared at her.
'Kill me' he turned to the girl.
She smiled again. 'I'm sorry, Jane. But I can't. Not yet. We're not finished yet with you.'
'But I am finished with you. Tell him he wins.'
'You told him so many times. You fooled him around so many times. And now you'll pay for it.'
'I have paid for it long enough!'
'Not yet. Not until all hope and life in your eyes is gone' she hissed and whispered and without blinking or turning back, she left the room, ran to her car and drove away as fast as she could.
FBI and CBI were about to enter the house any moment and she was right, police arrived only forty-five seconds later and found tied up Jane and Lisbon but no trace or evidence from Red John's disciple Alex.