It's like she's there, again. TW: VIOLENCE/TORTURE

[callmeemily]

Trigger Warning: This thread contains violence, and torture. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to tweet @thestarsplay for clarification. Thanks!

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When he'd closed the bathroom door, when he'd turned the light out, the room was plunged into darkness.

Raleigh had screamed until her throat was raw; she sobbed until she had no tears. She was in that basement again; that basement where she'd been so sure that she would die; her leg was numb but she tried to crawl, tried to crawl and reopened her foot, blood smearing the floor. She'd finally stopped, her cheek flat on the ground as she stared at the minuscule crack of light that was coming from under the door. She may have slept; she didn't eat the meal they brought, although after they brought it she tried to pull her hands from the manacles, streaking her wrists with blood.

Finally, she waited. She lay on the floor and waited for them to come. Help wasn't coming. Maybe... maybe someone had noticed; it'd been a day. Maybe Jason had wandered to the bakery. Maybe Spencer wondered why she didn't bring him soup like she'd promised.

Maybe nobody had noticed. Maybe they'd noticed, but nobody cared. Maybe... maybe they'd just assumed she'd moved on.

She was going to die here. She was going to die here. She thought, still. She thought about things she could do, that there'd be anything she could do... besides die. She heard the door open, and she squinted at the light, shrinking back from the light and all that would come with it.

Comments

[tarnishedbadge]

It had been a very busy, very frustrating week. It hadn't gone as he had hoped, but that was not entirely a problem. Not entirely, but still a problem. The first two that he had kidnapped, one of them had died. He had tried to escape and in the ensuing struggle he had died, too weak from years of neglect to his health. He had been forced to throw the body out to sea.

His third victim, the girl, his Funny Valentine as he thought of her, he had decided not to kill her. At least not immediately. She was proving to be interesting conversation and there was just something about her that he cherished. Yes, he cherished her.

The fourth victim, the baker girl, she was more what he was used to. She had panicked and screamed some, given up hope most likely. He had thought things were going quite well after he took her until today's debacle.

And it was a debacle, worse than he had ever had in all the years he had been doing this. He had tried to kidnap someone, not really needing to but figuring he would hedge his bets, and they had gotten away. It was early at the beach again and he had tried his doddering old man routine again. It was a success, as it always was, only something had gone wrong. The middle aged woman that had stopped to help him, once his partner had grabbed her, she had done... something. Joseph had only seen something like it once before, her body becoming scales and claws, ripping into his partner before disappearing back into the ocean. Joseph had only seen his partner do that.

A witness meant he had to act fast but the ritual could only be completed at night. He didn't dare risk moving them all and while he would have preferred more victims, he had enough. Joseph only had to hope that the police wouldn't be able to track him down in the meantime. He had no reason to believe that they would though, he had stayed out of sight and kept his head down. Even in a town as small as this one it was possible to disappear, especially for a frail old man.

So now it was time. His partner had retrieved the homeless man and secured him to a chair. He was weak, kept just strong enough so that he wouldn't die before his time in the ceremony, but he wouldn't be able to give any fight. The baker girl was a mystery though. Would she fight or accept her fate.

His partner opened the door, his large frame almost as wide and tall as the door itself. His wild hair was no more tamed than before, long and wavy with a beard to make any mountain man jealous. Joseph found it disgusting but more trouble than it was worth to get his partner to groom himself.

"The time has come," he announced to her as his partner reached down to unchain her. Once that was done he would drag her to one of the beds. "In a short while it will all be over."

[callmeemily]

She didn't move from where she lay on the floor, her breath short and her hands still chained even if her wrists were streaked red. Blood was on the floor, the wall - but she seemed broken, and she just waited.

Her hands were unchained, and finally she saw her only chance. Her only chance, because she had to do something, before they did whatever they were going to do that she already knew would end up with her dead. Either way she was dead, right? What ele did she have to lose? Hell - if they killed her now, maybe the old man would just fucking die already and it would have been worth something.

All of her, her life, her death, it would have been worth something. All she can think is when he'd said that. Perhaps you should have valued your own life more. Perhaps she should have. Perhaps- perhaps she should have kept herself safe. Not told anyone.

Raleigh had a lot of regrets.

But right now? Right now she moved abruptly, her nails raking across the huge man's cheek as she tried to twist her other wrist out of the grip he had on it. She had to try to get away, because if she didn't try then she would be giving in.

[tarnishedbadge]

Joseph didn't realize that the girl had made a break for it until she was almost to him, being between her and the door. There were angry red marks on the face of his partner but since he didn't cry out Joseph didn't even realize that he had been attacked. Once Joseph knew though, he quickly rectified the situation.

His partner lunged after the girl, swatting her aside before she could get past Joseph. He didn't think it would cause any permanent damage, not that it mattered really, but the sacrifices couldn't be too damaged or the spell wouldn't be effective enough. But she had to learn the consequences of fighting.

"Strap her to the bed," Joseph said, lips curling into a sneer. Everything was too important now to have things fall through anymore than they already had.

His partner bound her wrists first, ignoring any blows she rained down on him with her knees or feet. If he felt that at all he gave no sign because Joseph didn't allow him to give any sign of it. Once she was strapped to the bed, Joseph moved over to her side.

"It seems you may have a stronger will to live than I thought."

[callmeemily]

Raleigh hit the wall, but she barely felt it. Her foot was a dull pain to her now because everything was a wash of exhaustion and shock. There was blood under her nails now - skin too, maybe, but she found herself laughing as he grabbed her, dragging her into the main part of the motel room, and all she could do is stare up at the silent man, the one who'd dragged her here, who'd shoved her in a goddamned bag and then chained her to a toilet while an old man cut her foot open. "I hope you rot in hell."

She didn't see anyone else around them, but he said strap her to the bed and Raleigh shrugged. She pulled and kicked and fought, even if it broke open whatever scabbing had happened in her foot, even though it hurt like hell. She stared up at the old man as he stood over her, and she pulled herself up as much as she could with her hands tied (which wasn't much) - and she spat at him.

"You're a monster." She was going to die. It didn't work, she was going to die, and she knew it, she knew it, and somehow this was worse than the bathroom because now? Now she'd tried... and failed. She'd tried and failed to escape, and now that's all she was. Whatever happened now - she'd done all she could, and that was the end of it.

[tarnishedbadge]

Joseph knew that the spit was coming. They always spin on him, if they could. He calmly took the handkerchief from his pocket to dab away the spit while his partner backhanded the girl across the face. Perhaps that would teach her that defiance at this point only brought about more pain.

"I do have some delightful news for you though. You may not be able to see him over there, but tied to a chair is a man named Wulfric. A homeless man, actually. Like you, he's here for a reason. But, I've realized that I only need one of you."

This caused some stirring from the semi-dazed Wulfric who was just starting to come around. There was very little fight left in the man although Joseph seemed to have his interest now.

"I'm going to let you two discuss it alone, but when I come back I need to hear who you've agreed on to live and who to die. If neither of you agree then I shall kill you both just for rejecting my gift. I am allowing you to fight for your life, something I consider fair since that is precisely what I am doing here. It only seemed far. Are you clear on the rules?"

[callmeemily]

The backhand made her ears ring, and it took her longer than she'd realised for the noise to stop, for her eyes to focus, and her brows furrowed together. He was talking. "...lowing you to fight for your life,..." She blinked up at him, nodding even though she'd missed... some? All? Most?

It didn't matter anymore - but when he left, when he left Raleigh finally turned her head to look at the man sitting, tied to the chair, and finally she was able to focus. Wulfric, he reminded her.

He was a drifter, he said, and it made her think of Jason, and she wondered- If she had tears left, she would have cried. It'd seemed like everything was going so well. So well. She had friends, she actually had gone on a date - and now...

Maybe he'd just think she left. That something happened, and she'd have to leave in the middle of the night, the way she had the first time. They talked, her and Wulfric; he told her what they had to choose, and he told her the only option.

She protested; of course she did, but in the end. In the end, with her sobbing her thanks, with her hating herself for it.... Wulfric insisted. He was old; he'd lived his life.

The decision was made.