It was the hot burning pain that made me force my eyes open. I groaned as I managed to open my eyes only a little. It was enough to see Terry over me, he had a knife in his hand and the pain was intensifying.

I gasped.

“Finally, you’re awake.”

He smiled, it was cold. There was nothing in his soul, he was true evil.

I tried to move and realized I couldn’t. It was then I realized I was laying on a bed, my hands and feet tied to the bed posts with rope. The rough rope dug into my skin and as I tried to move it rubbed against my skin so the more I struggled the more it hurt.

I couldn’t even lift my head, trying to escape was not even a thought. I still felt the after effects of the sedative in my muddled thoughts and weakness.

My focus moved to Terry. He was fully clothed in black and he was wearing gloves. It took a few moments to take realize why he was wearing the gloves. Blood covered.

My blood.

The pain. It was throbbing. I gasped when I realized he was cutting me. Small cuts, not deep enough to do any damage but to cause pain.

“Please Terry,” I begged softly.

“I love it when you beg,” he murmured, taking a moment to move his attention to me.

“Please…” I whispered desperate.

I had to take the chance that it might work and it would get through to him. Not Terry the monster but the Terry I had grown up around.

But then I remembered Alice. He had given her no mercy, why would he give me any?

It was futile.

“Beg Hadley.” The instruction was hard as his eyes stayed on me. “Beg and I might just kill you quickly.”

“Don’t do this,” I begged, it was my survival instinct that had kicked in. I would have done anything to appease him.

“You don’t sound sincere Hadley,” he admonished.

“Please Terry,” I said, hoping to please him enough to stop, even if it was momentary.

“Mmm.” He pressed his mouth in a tight line.

“I’ll do whatever you want,” I offered.

He threw his head back and laughed, and then his eyes met mine and his entire face transformed into the scariest thing I had ever seen. “That’s the thing Had. You will do whatever I want, not because you fear me. You will do what I want because you can’t stop me.”

It was a reminder of who was in control.

He seemed annoyed when his focus moved back to the knife and he lowered the knife again.

I braced for the pain. I felt something cool against my skin before it broke skin. Slicing into me, across my rib.

Somehow I found the strength to lift my head and I took in the bloodied cuts. There were half a dozen and I was completely naked.

Weak I dropped my head and closed my eyes. Pain mixed with fear made me start to quiet cry.

“Just like Alice,” he murmured as his bloodied glove covered finger touched my cheek. “Your blood is beautiful.” He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes like he was euphoric. “It smells so good.”

His eyes opened. “It’s a beautiful red. You know red is such a difficult color to get right. Some reds are too orange. Some are too pink. But the color of your blood is the perfect shade.”

He was crazy and a killer.

“You don’t have to do this,” I whispered, trying to think of anything to say to stop him.

I didn’t want to die.

“That’s where you’re wrong Had. I have to do this, I have this need to do this. It’s always there, in the background and if I don’t feed it, it aches like pain. I can’t explain it but if I don’t it’s on my mind and in every thought in every second of the day. Can you imagine spending all day just thinking about this and nothing else. It’s the only thing I want to do. There are a lot of things I have to do, you know. Like pretend to be a normal guy who doesn’t look at every girl and wonder what she would look like split open with a knife. Would she beg and scream until she took her last breath?”

He sighed. “I got a bit to carried away with Alice and when I left she died. I wanted to hear her last breath and know it was because of me. But you live and learn.” He was so blasé it was shocking.

The knife glinted in light as he held it up. Blood dripped.

I wanted to close my eyes and block everything out.

“This is going to hurt,” he murmured and I closed my eyes tighter wanting to be unconscious again so I wouldn’t have to experience this.

This time the pain was worse. He pushed the knife deeper. It wasn’t a cut, he had pushed the blade into me.

It was like a fire that burned the length of the weapon in me. “Ugh…” I began to sob.

I struggled to take a breath.

“Does it hurt Had?” he asked softly watching me closely.

He was enjoying every moment of my pain.

I wanted to be brave and tell him to fuck off but I didn’t have the courage. He would undoubtably inflict more pain. He had the power, and I had none.

“I can’t…breathe,” I said feeling the pain in my chest spread.

I took a shallow breath, but it wasn’t enough. The fear and panic required more.

There was no concern in his eyes, there was only triumph. This was getting him off in a way I could not understand.

He put his free hand around my neck and squeezed. I couldn’t pull his fingers away to take a breath. I struggled as I held my breath. Dots appeared in my vision.

But there was nothing I could do. I was dying.

His eyes widened and gleamed. There was a frenzy in him, like the monster that hid in him was coming out into the open for all to see.

I opened and my mouth trying to get air but I could not take it in.

There was another sharp pain, burning through my skin and into my side.

My mind register the stab but I was weakening. My mouth open and closed.

His grip closing harder around my throat, the pain intense.

I was dying. He was taking my life.

For a second I thought about Alice and then I thought about Jack.

There was a sudden noise that broke across the silence and blood spattered across my face. I drew in a breath, the hold on my neck slackened.

That’s when I saw Terry standing there, eyes unseeing. Blood dripped from his forehead and then he dropped to the floor.

My mind couldn’t make sense of what had happened. All I knew was that I breath. My chest hurt so bad and tears escaped down the sides of my face.

There were hurried footsteps.

Jack’s concerned face appeared. I thought it myself I must have be dead because there was no way to explain his presence.

“Hadley,” he said, touching my face. He was taking out his phone.

“I need an ambulance.” He rattled off a foreign address as he assessed my injuries. He tucked the phone between his ear and shoulder.

I gave a shallow breath, unable to respond. He moved to press his hand against the wound in my chest.

There was so much pain. I winced.

I coughed. There was blood.

“Stay with me Had,” Jack instructed me. His eyes alarmed.

“She’s been stabbed, multiple times.” He was answering the dispatch as he pressed his hand harder to stop the flow of blood.

“I don’t know.” He was frantic.

I stared at him, feeling weaker.

“I need you stay with me Had,” he said, when he noticed I was drifting.

“You have to hurry,” he instructed over the phone.

I coughed, struggling to breath. My neck ached.

I could not focus, all I could feel was the pain. Jack spoke over the phone frantically trying to keep me from losing consciousness.

Suddenly I was so tired, I just wanted to close my eyes but Jack’s words kept me from giving in.

The door opened and suddenly the room was filled with paramedics. They asked questions as they began to set up and then took over from Jack.

My vision began to blur.

“Stay with me Had.” I heard Jack in the background.

The pain was consistent and suffocating while the paramedics worked on me. And then I blinked and I was in an ambulance. The siren was loud and insistent.

I had an oxygen mask over my face. I couldn’t think, all I could do was lay there staring at the ceiling in the ambulance the paramedic beside me talking as the ambulance sped to the hospital.