Chapter Ninety: Hell Bound
It feels just like a dagger buried deep in your back
You run for cover but you can't escape the second attack
The Killers - Miss Atomic Bomb
The pain was excruciating. It engulfed Maggie's entire torso stretching down from her bloody manacled wrists to just above her knee. She could barely breathe against the agonizing pressure that stifled her lungs and compressed her chest. She couldn't catch her breath, the sound of her own labored breathing came in short rapid pants, resounding through her ears over the sound of Antonio's anguished grunts. His dark eyes were on her, she didn't have to raise her head to know it. She couldn't stand to see the torment in his gaze, he blamed himself for the horrors that they were enduring right now and she didn't have the mental or physical strength to tell him otherwise.
The dress had been the first thing to go. Jack had used the sharpened blade to trace along the line of the hemmed edges, the point digging into her vulnerable flesh before he hooked the strap with the tip and pulling slowly so it cut through the fabric thread by thread. He repeated the motion, his head cocked to one side as he studied her expression almost analytically. His rough hands had cupped her sides, drawing the remaining material down and along her lithe body until it came to rest in a pool around her feet, leaving her clad in her simple black underwear. There was no desire in his calculating gaze as he reviewed her, her skin had goose bumped from the glacial air that swept through the room as he traced a thin line across her stomach, just above her belly button with his fingertip. She had flinched at the intrusion of his touch, his thin lips had peaked up in the beginning of a smile. The knife had glinted in the light from the bulb overhead as he pressed it to her vulnerable flesh and drew the linear pattern he had charted with the curve of the blade. The agony had been red hot, it seared through her abdomen like a brand. She cried out, her fingers had wrapped around the chain of the manacles impulsively as she tried to flex away from the onslaught. Jack had laughed then, she could still see that cruel sneer of his as he leaned in and whispered the words.
"Welcome to hell."
She had spent what felt like a lifetime at the hands of their captor as he broke her down, taking a perverse thrill in her suffering as he carved meaningless patterns across her stomach, upper thighs and ribcage. Just when she thought he couldn't inflict anything worse upon her, he started on Antonio. Her lover had fought for her, while Jack had taken his time lacerating her Antonio had tried every God damned thing he could to force Jack to relent. He had threatened, cajoled, bargained and eventually he had begged. Seeing him like that had torn Maggie apart inside, it ripped at her heart in a way that Jack could never manage and in the end it had destroyed her. She had given into the crushing darkness and allowed it to swallow her up whole.
That had been the first time she had passed out but it hadn't been the last.
She had spent the past few hours wavering between the realm of unconsciousness and her current reality. There was no mercy from either, every time she came around she was subject to that crippling agony in her chest, the strain from the stress position rendered her lungs unable to operate at their full capacity. After all that was it's purpose, it restricted her breathing, making her shoulders feel like they were about to be wretched right out of the sockets as she sucked in quick bursts of oxygen. Soon she wouldn't be able to do even that. It was a race to see which finished her off first, her inability to breath or the blood loss she was suffering from the open wounds that covered her vulnerable form.
The exhaustion was coursing through her once more, she shivered against the cold air that swept through the room as she struggled to open her heavy eyelids against the brightness of the light. She had no strength to lift her head, instead it hung low, her blood streaked hair falling over her features as she peered though the parting.
The blood pool around Antonio's chair was still growing, she could hear the steady drop of blood into the puddle as she watched each droplet fall from his bound wrists.
The grey hoodie he had worn was forced back down his biceps, cinching at his elbows like an extra restraint. The wife beater he had been wearing underneath had been sheared away, leaving his bare chest exposed to the world. The lacerations were shallow and long, transecting Antonio's muscular structure like some sick anatomical drawing. He had taken his time just like he had with her, carving, digging and slicing his way through her lover's tanned flesh. There were tears in her eyes, stinging as she fought for her breath once more against the ache in her throat. She didn't know how much more of this he could take, his entire body was quivering with the strain as Jack took the knife to him once again.
Hey guys! I have a busy day today so I thought I would upload this chapter before I get started!
Nat: Thanks so much! Trudy is one of my fav chars in the series, I love her steel and strength and I thought she had to be feeling like hell about what was happening. Her and Phil have such a great friendship, I thought the two of them would need each other to lean on and it was important to show it.
Anime: Thank you for your kind words. I am so glad that my story has you feeling that way, I think it's the greatest compliment a writer can receive. I think there needs to be a calm before the storm sometimes hence why I thread in chapters like that. Platt is one of my fav chars and she is a tough cookie to write.
Lauren: I love Trudy too, she is one of the best chars on the show. I think with the environment she has worked in she has to be tough especially since she was there in the beginning when women weren't really welcome on the force. You'll have to wait and see with Kay.