Author's note: WARNING! Reader discretion advised. Not for the faint hearted! Any important plot points will be repeated/referred to in subsequent chapters. Please do not read if you are likely to be offended.
The shock of the ice-cold water woke her. "wakey, wakey, sleeping beauty!" She exhaled loudly, this had become her new normal, drenched with a bucket of ice-cold water as she slept on the floor, like she was an animal at the zoo. She slowly opened her eyes the smell of the room hitting her first, then the pain radiating through her body, the constant reminder of her situation. Jackie tried to move to sit up but every way she turned she was met with a sharp pain. There had been moments where she wished she would just die, that the pain would stop. Her tormentor took a sick pleasure from her pain, from any sign that she may be breaking.
"Are you going to eat something today?" her tormentor asked as he crouched down, his usual black mask on his face. She had never heard his name; they were always very careful about that. it felt like a game of cat and mouse, that she was destined to lose. He threw some bread on the floor for her, but she refused. She didn't want to give them the satisfaction of seeing her eating off the floor. She would rather waste away, than give into them. "ok, your choice!" he stood up walking away from her. "string her up!" She winced, she knew what that meant, but she didn't say a word or protest in any way, like she would when Chris was alive, his death had only strengthened her resolve. He motioned to his two henchmen, who grabbed her roughly pulling her up off the floor to her feet, then dragging her across the room and attaching her wrist bindings to the purpose-built hook dangling from the roof, her hands above her head. She had watched them install the winch when they arrived, after Chris died. Her tormentor liked her seeing the setup of their sessions, he liked the theatre of it all.
Her tormentor scoffed, she hadn't said a word, her expression hadn't changed. "you know, Jacqueline, I..am...impressed!" He yanked the chain hard, winching her up, so high that her toes were barely touching the ground, she could not help the squeal of pain that escaped her mouth. He smiled. She shuddered, feeling his breath on the back of her neck, as he walked around her, inspecting her. The soaking wet clothes now weighing heavy on her. "I have tortured hundreds of men, in various different ways, throughout my career!" He ran his hand along the wounds in her abdomen that they had filled it with superglue to stop the bleeding. "you are my first woman!...I must admit I was not keen on it, call me old fashioned, I didn't think I would have the stomach for it." He stood in front of her, trying to gauge her face "However, the pay incentive to break you was too much to resist, and as you and your two friends have found out, these are not people you want to cross either, so here we are" He reached forward tipping her chin up to look into her eyes, "I don't know of any man that would not be crying like a baby, spilling their guts, begging for death right now! but not you!" He smiled feeling her body shudder involuntarily at his touch, as he ran his finger down her chin and neck. He pushed his finger into the open wound on her shoulder, but she did not flinch, knowing that was what he wanted. She gritted her teeth trying to absorb the pain. "you…are.. a challenge, Ms Reid!" she didn't respond. One of the henchmen had returned with an iron poker and a blow torch, she took a deep breath preparing herself, for his next instalment. The other henchman stood behind her as her tormentor remained in front of her. "this would all stop now, if you just told them what they want to know!"
"it will only stop with my death!" she muttered.
"aaah….she speaks!" He laughed. She watched the henchman as he started the blowtorch, grabbing the poker heating the end. "is that why you are holding out on me?" Her tormentor started to put on safety gloves, slowly in front of her. "I would have thought death would be welcome at this point!" She started to struggle as the second henchmen that was stood behind her grabbed her hips. "What is it that is fuelling this strength? You don't have kids, you are not married, your friends are dead!" he walked around the room musing to himself "is it a sense of justice, stubbornness that is keeping you going?" Jackie didn't answer, the fear inside her was starting to overwhelm, her breathing became rapid as she could see the poker becoming hotter. "where are the files, Jackie?" she bit her lip, the thought of this all ending was becoming more appealing. She took a deep breath, remembering what brought her here.
"I don't have any files, I know nothing!" Her stock answer, the one she repeated to him since the torture began. She squirmed as he grabbed the poker.
"Oh dear, this is going to hurt!"
ANOTHER WARNING
They had left her hanging in the basement for hours, her hands were numb, her calves and ankles strained. Jackie looked around the room, trying to look for an escape, but the poker burns were searing through every thought process, every time she imagined herself anywhere else, when she dreamed of her friends, the pain brought her back. Jackie heard the sound of someone coming down the stairs, heavier steps, it was someone new. He walked differently to the others, she knew by now how they held themselves, the rhythm of their footsteps, "how are you doing?" she looked up to see a man with a mask across his face, she didn't respond. "you know they will stop hurting you if you give us what we want!" He walked over to her, lowering the chain her hands dropping down, the pain rushing to them. He unhooked her hands and she dropped to the floor. "so strong and tough and now look at you!" she curled up into a ball on the floor. "you have always been so stuck up, thinking you're so much better than everyone else!" he kneeled on the floor next to her, placing his hand on her side. "maybe now you know your place!" He grabbed her wrist twisting it, pulling her flat onto her stomach, pushing her down. She started to struggle, this was different, the henchmen and the tormentor never handled her like this, never spoke to her like this. She knew, he sounded familiar but with the pain, hunger, grief and exhaustion, she couldn't think straight. He pinned her down and she was struggling to breathe. She heard the zipper before she felt the knee pushed between her legs, she desperately looked around the room, the weight of him on top of her.
"Stop it!" she pleaded.
"Stop Jackie, no,…. I'm just getting started!" He pushed her legs further apart, moving what was left of her clothes away before forcing himself into her. He grunted, she felt her body go limp, she lay her head on the ground when she saw the light reflecting something metallic on the floor. When her eyes focused, she saw it was a hammer. Jackie struggled to reach it, after a few minutes, she managed to grab it, it was a hammer they used to customise the room for her torture.
"STAY STILL!" he yelled, and she complied, knowing she would only have one chance. Jackie hid the hammer under her. She tried to get her hands to grip the hammer tightly, her fingers were numb from hanging for so long. She felt his weight shift, his hot breath now on the back of her neck, he had pushed his mask up "Mike really doesn't know what he is missing!" he whispered in her ear followed by his laughter and him licking the side of her face, she felt sick. He continued to move, the pain she felt, was intolerable she kept gripping the hammer, and when he let out the most horrible grunt, and flopped down on top of her. She gripped the hammer tightly with both hands and as he moved to get off of her, she quickly turned and with all her strength she struck him across the face with the hammer, hitting him once and staggering to get up on her feet.
"you bitch!" he leaned forward, and she smacked him again, he fell to the ground on his side, his mask covering only half his face, the blood dripping down from where she hit him. She stood, her breathing laboured, the hammer still in her hand, her rapist lay motionless on the floor. She knew she should run, but she slowly stepped towards him to take the rest of his mask off. She staggered back, falling to her knees, the shock that someone she knew had just attacked her. For the first time since Chris died, she felt tears fall from her eyes.
Jackie crawled over to the tormentor's toolbox, pulling herself up, her feet regaining some strength, she opened the box finding the Stanley knife they had used to slice her stomach and thighs. She cut the bindings on her wrists, rubbing them trying to regain feeling. She looked at him lying there, his manhood poking out of his trousers, now spent, she threw up on the floor. She limped back to her rapist, he was still breathing, she rolled him over into the recovery position, and then searched his pockets. "damn!" there were no car keys. Jackie found his suit jacket laying on the stairs grabbing it, slipping it on, feeling the warmth of new dry clean fabric covering her. She checked the pockets and found chewing gum, which she opened and started chewing, thankful for something sweet and fresh in her mouth. There were no keys in his pocket just his warrant card, which she threw on top of him. She picked up the stanley knife putting it in her pocket, when she heard a noise upstairs, she picked up the hammer again her breathing rapid.