A/N: Sorry it's taken soooo long to get this story updated, I had to pull a lot of OT hours last month and it really ate into my writing time. Hopefully that is done and over with for awhile and I can focus a little more on getting this updated a little more regularly. I was hoping for a little more gore factor on this one but it didn't feel right. Let me know your thoughts on the way out :)
Chapter 5
I was rudely awakened at some ungodly hour; it was pitch black outside and the only sound that reached my ears was the door slamming shut on the truck bed. A dim light flickered in the hallway as the front door wrenched open and slammed shut again, heavy boots stomped along the creaking floors until they finally stopped short of the bedroom. Turning my head I found a large shadow standing in the doorway, the cherry glow from a cigarette illuminating the darkness just a little.
"Get'cha ass up, got work to do."
Groaning, I rolled my bruised and battered body off the mattress to find the remnants of my clothes. My jeans were strewed about the dresser and my shirt was tossed to the other side of the room. My bra and underwear were nowhere to be found but I had a vague idea of where they may have ended up. Once I was dressed, I emerged from the bedroom to find Mac bounding up the stairs with something tucked under his arm; before I had a chance to question what it was I was being pushed towards the door with instructions to get in the truck and don't say a fucking word.
I did as I was told and kept my mouth shut, every now and then a muffled cry could be heard from the back of the truck. The first time I heard it, I hazarded a glance and found James hogtied, his eyes held a mix of anger and something I couldn't quite put my finger on; almost a pleading look but Mac quickly drew my attention back to the road.
"Fucker's gonna get in your head you look back there again."
"Where we going?"
"Don't worry about it, we get there you do what I say if you wanna walk outta there alive, understand?"
I mumbled a quick yes then turned my attention to the road, watching as the faded lines painted on the side whizzed by. The paint came to an abrupt end as we pulled off the asphalt and on to a dirt trail. An almost evil laugh escaped from Mac as he elated in the fact that James was in the back bouncing around much like my head did the night before. We slowed to a crawl before stopping, the headlights pointing into the belly of a blacked out cave.
"Wait in the truck, keep the doors locked," he paused momentarily reaching across the seat to get into the glovebox, "shoot anyone that's not me, got it?" Mac dropped a gun in my lap and quickly got out of the truck, locking his side before slamming the door shut.
I did as instructed, locking the door on my side and watched the back window as he dropped the tailgate and hauled James out. There was a sudden outburst from Mac that had me jumping in my seat but the disturbance only grew from there. Mac appeared seemingly out of nowhere with James in front of him, his bruised face pressed against the glass of the passenger door for me to see.
"Stay in the fucking truck!"
I watched as the two of them disappeared into the caves wondering silently who was the more evil of the pair. James was always the type that enjoyed showing his dominance through physicality; Mac on the other didn't need to show brute force to show he was in charge. His voice alone was enough to elicit fear regardless of who you are. James had the body of a god whereas Mac…not so much but that romp in the sheets earlier today proved that he didn't need to have rippling muscles to be intimidating.
I wasn't sure how much time had passed before Mac finally came back outside but I'm guessing it couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes; motioning for me to step out I caught a small glimpse of fresh blood on his knuckles.
"Don't ask."
Confusion plagued my mind at his words but I kept quiet, following him into the darkness. A small light radiated out the further into the caves we walked; when we finally reached our intended destination I found James strung up by his wrists to a wall on my left, a myriad of tubing, burners, and other things I haven't seen outside of a chemistry lab in front of me, and a workbench with a gas mask thrown on the top to my right.
"Sit."
I was pushed towards a stool that I failed to notice peeking out from under the workbench; it was seated directly in front of James, almost like Mac wanted me to face my demon head on. Setting the gun next to the gas mask I took a seat as instructed and waited.
The light that illuminated James' face showed a thin stream of blood working its way down the side of his face, his eyes were blackened, and a small sense of satisfaction was taking over to see him in very much the same state I have found myself in on more than one occasion. A painful groan escaped from James as Mac's fists met his face, when he finally took a moment to pause he strode across the room to where I was seated. Grabbing my face in both of his large hands, Mac shoved his tongue down my throat. It was over just as quickly as it began.
"Think it's time you finally got some answers, don't ya think?" Looking past my shoulder Mac spotted the gun and pressed it back into my hands, "you're gonna need it later."
Stalking back towards James I was made to watch the scene unfold before me; between beating the son of a bitch with his fists and stealing a few minutes every now and then smothering me in what could be perceived as affection (if having part of your face gnawed on can be called affection). As the minutes and hours of questioning and beatings dragged on James started to look less like a person and more like a blob of flesh covered in blood.
"Only gonna ask one more time, what's her fucking name?!" this time the fist wasn't bare. Mac was growing tired of the charade and finally started to resort to more violent means of getting answers. A large knife slipped from the holster on his waist, finding its mark in James' leg.
His screams echoed off the walls and a sick satisfaction began to bubble from deep within. His cries became music to my ears, his shrieks were a melody that were playing a long forgotten song, the walls of the cave were the perfect shape for them to reverberate off of as the tune carried on into the night.
Yet in spite of receiving the beating of a life time and a single stab wound to the leg James still refused to give up the one piece of information Mac wanted most of all. In the hours that I had spent sitting stock still on the stool I was learning from Mac methods of a madman on torture. And in all the years I had spent with James I knew which buttons to press if I wanted him to talk.
"Mac," I tentatively called out but was met with a murderous glare when his head whipped around, "could I try?"
He carefully stalked his way back to the workbench where I had remained the last few hours. He never blinked, never said a word, he only grabbed the back of my neck and planted another biting, bruising kiss on my lips as he slipped the handle of the knife into my hand. When we had parted the added pressure of Mac's hand on my neck increased, pushing me from my stool towards where James was still plastered to the wall.
As I made my approach I glanced behind my shoulder to find Mac leaning against the surface of the workbench giving me an encouraging nod. Turning my attention back to James he began to whimper, even plead, the closer I got. Only a few inches separated us, Mac's glare burned through me keeping a careful eye on James even though there wasn't anything he could do unless I decided to unchain him from the wall.
It wasn't gonna happen.
"What happened to me? What did you do to me all those years ago? Why all the secrets, the hiding? Who am I, James?"
His whimpers, cries, and pleas suddenly stopped, his eyes turning to steel, and the tell-tale sound of hocking filled the room. It was over before Mac's stool hit the ground. The son of a bitch spitting in my face again, just like he did this morning.
"You ain't gotta do nothing, gimme the knife." Mac's voice quietly filled my ear as I wiped the saliva from my eye.
"James, what happened to me?" this time I rammed the knife into his arm until it hit rock on the other side.
Once more his screams filled the caves and I thought I heard Mac singing praises in my ear over the echoes.
"I was paid a hundred grand to kidnap you and bring out into the desert where no one would ever think to find you. The guy you were before, his dad thought you were a piece of common trash, not good enough for his little rich kid and paid me off to get rid of ya. Had me suffocate and beat ya to within in an inch of your life. The fact you lived and ended up with amnesia was nothing short of dumb luck."
Removing the knife from his arm I watched in strange fascination as the blood trickled down like a river, mulling over what I was being told in the hopes that something would ring a bell but I couldn't recall a single thing.
"What did you do to me all those years ago?"
"Fuck you bitch, you already got your answers."
Raising the knife again I let it plunge into the leg that Mac left unmarked, feeling the tip hit the bone underneath the layers of muscle, tissue, and fat. A dark chuckle escaped Mac as James began screaming wildly into the night once more. When his laughter subsided I could his lips moving across my neck and his hands on my hips, pressing himself into me.
"At first it was supposed to be just a kidnapping, rough ya up a bit then send ya on your merry way. Daddy Warbucks said he paid the cops off so they'd stop snooping around, told your parents they found your body burned beyond recognition and closed the case. With the cops and your family no longer looking for ya I was free to do anything I wanted. Every time we moved around I had floating on cloud 9 with so many drugs you never knew that you were being gang raped by anyone who could get it up. We kept you out of it for days at a time. They'd tell me how tight that pussy was and I finally had to taste it for myself. Gave ya a bit too much the first time I had ya and had to call an ambulance. They got your heart going again and after that, when you got released, we moved again."
A low growl escaped from Mac as he slowly came to realize that James was far worse than he was. Mac made it clear to me earlier that he had no problem whatsoever admitting that he was a demonized asshole and he had the decency to kill his victims when he was done with them. But James continued to play with his toys, letting their misery drag on and on. The drugs he pushed into me were more than enough that they did kill me more than once and each time I died someone at some unknown hospital was able to bring me back just so I could live long enough for it to happen again.
"Why all the secrets, the hiding?"
I was quick to learn that if I wanted answers James needed something more than a fist to the face before he started talking. Wriggling the knife free from his leg I let it plunge forward into his other arm but this time the blood flowed more freely.
"Hit an artery, try to avoid those next time." Mac's voice whispered in my ear but I picked up on the trace amount of pride that laced his gruff tones.
"Didn't want you finding your way back home, didn't wanna risk you being spotted by your family or anyone that may have known you. Couldn't risk you all of the sudden getting your memory back. Your parents didn't buy into the bullshit they were being fed; they went to the state and filed a missing person report, they put your face on the news…it went national. There were a lot of close calls. FBI actually came knocking on the door once."
My anger was starting to come to a boil the longer James spoke. All of this because one guy's father didn't think I was good enough for his kid? Regardless of how the rest of tonight plays out I'm going back to find my family to at least let them know I'm okay and give them a way to stay in contact with me, even if I decide to stay out here.
Wrenching the knife from his other arm I prepared myself for the final question, the one that I've been asking myself for years, the one Mac was wanting answered all night.
"Who am I? What's my name?"
He shook his head defiantly but from behind I heard the hammer click back on the gun and saw the barrel appear from over my shoulder. It was being pointed straight at James' chest, right at his heart. Mac was ready to end this game before I had my answer but I wasn't ready for this to end just yet.
"You do that and you'll never get your answers."
"Fuck you, I run this shithole town, I get my answers one way or another."
Having made up my mind I plunged the knife forward, not caring in the least where it landed. A strangled cry erupted in the room followed by a single gunshot that left my ears ringing. When I was finally able to focus again James remained chained to the wall but this time he was gasping for air, blood propelling from a hole in his throat and more still pooled down the front of his shirt from where the knife made its mark. The full gravity of the situation hit me when I saw the knife moving side to side…it was moving as his heart continued to beat inside of his chest.
"Her fucking name." the hammer drew back again, the barrel pressed to the center of James' skull.
"A…A…Abbie."
It was all he managed to croak out before the second shot rang out, finding its mark and exiting through the back of his head. Blood and brain matter were sprayed across the wall of the cave; Mac appeared in my peripheral, droplets were smeared across his face causing the blue of his eyes to stand out even more.
"Told ya you were like me."
