Talia's Torment

Chapter 24: Terrors of the past.

                Talia felt her whole body go ridged at the sound of Laurent’s voice.  She knew that it still haunted her nightmares but actually hearing it for real instead of what she remembered sent ice sliding down her spine and her blood to freeze in her veins.  She knew what was coming and mentally she raged against the memories that were fighting to surface knowing that it was a losing battle but refusing to be submerged without a fight.

                It was just like her dreams; the memories always started the same.  She felt herself being pulled into the past, this time though she wasn’t watching from outside herself like her dreams.  She felt terror grip her and her body begin to shake as the memory engulfed her and unlike before where she watched, this time she was there and it was happening all over again. No, no, no, she just kept thinking it over and over like a mantra as she felt herself sink into the memory, the tendrils of the past gripping her as hard as the monster they brought her to had done.

                Flashback:  Talia woke with a thudding in her head that couldn’t be explained by too much wine.  She had thought that it was hitting her fast tonight but she had shoved the thought away, why would it be any different than all the other wines she had drank with Laurent in the past.  Her neck was sore from her head having been resting lulled to the side while she was in her position.  Realization came crashing down on her as her eyes focused and she realized that she had not passed out on his sofa, but was rather in a chair in a cold damp room.  There was a small bare bulb hanging from a cord in the ceiling.  It did little to light the room but rather added to the eerie quality that was slowly driving terror home in her heart.  She looked around and couldn’t see much past herself in the circle of light, but she couldn’t find Laurent either and it only served to spike her heart as she worried about his condition and his location.  Then she tried to get up and realized that she was bound to the hard wooden chair she was in, her hands tied together in front of her and her arms tied to the chair at the elbows and forearms.  She tried kicking and only confirmed that her legs were tied as well at the ankles and just below the knees.  The ropes biting into her skin as if in retaliation for her jerked and frightened movements.

                Soon there was a sound behind her, it sounded so out of place in this horror scene she seemed to have been deposited into.  It was whistling, it seemed so innocent but as it drew closer to her the sound went from innocence to menace.  She realized that the whistling is what had woken her from the drug induced slumber in the chair and she felt her spine straighten as the realization hit her that she was not alone in the room.  There was someone behind her.

                She tried to slow her heart as it tried to jump out of her chest when she felt a presence come up behind her and grab her shoulders and leaned his face up against hers.  He then slowly came around the chair she was in to face her.  Looking up to see the face she was squinting into the glare of the bulb catching only a shadowed face.  He slowly leaned forward so that she could see his face unobstructed by the glaring light and she gasped.  He was smiling at her, giving her the breathtaking smile that he had used to seduce her.  It used to make her feel the she had won some kind of lottery, she was so lucky, but now those eyes were just cold embers.  Just that one detail changed his whole meaning from something so charming and warm to a cold blooded hunter that had its prize.  He seemed to be trying to tell her that things were just now about to begin and she felt herself shudder as her brain tried to tell her things that her heart was still refusing to see.

                Laurent spoke, breaking the silence between them, “Looks like someone is finally awake, just when I was thinking you were going to sleep through the night. I’m so glad you decided to join me tonight, you know how I hate to wait.”

                His words slid down her spine and made her so uncomfortable.  “Laurent, this isn’t funny.  Let me out of this, come on already, and untie me.”  She could hear the fear in her voice and he closed his eyes slowly as if to savor the sound and it brought a smile of pleasure to his features.  The motion caused her brain to scream at her and her heart froze in realization that this was not a game they were playing, it wasn’t role-play, it was quickly heading into too far territory and she froze.  His eyes opened and leveled on her with a malice that caused fear to bubble up in her throat and she had to swallow her scream back down, fearing what he would do if he heard it.

                Breathing became hard as he walked towards her clicking his tongue as if to scold her for her actions.  He seemed to be having trouble reigning in a cold determination that caused her face to pale.  He walked slowly, it was a torturous pace, and when he finally reached her he traced her jaw with his finger.  It made her recoil and he chuckled as her emotions cascaded across her face.  He let his mask drop as her face showed the realization that she would not be leaving this room alive.

                “Well, now that you know the deal we can finally begin and this is going to be so good Talia.  Do me a favor and try not to pass out.  I don’t want to have to stop to wake you back up again, it can really be tedious.  Laurent went to the darkness and turned on a light that seemed to illuminate a work table of sorts.  Then he grabbed a rope with a hook on the end.  He hooked it around the ropes at her wrist and fastened it there.  Certain that she was secured he began cutting the ropes that secured her to the chair, and predictably when her legs and arms were cut free she tried to run.  The hook and ropes at her wrists yanking her back into place and causing laughter to burst from his chest as if he had expected it.

                                He yanked on the cables and her arms were unceremoniously wrenched up above her head, causing her to have to stand on tiptoe to relieve the pressure on her shoulders.  He walked away from her and back to his work table, whistling that tune that she now realized was Yankee Doodle.  He caressed each item on that table with an almost loving touch before settling on one and looking to her so he could catch her reaction.  He picked up the blade fully and walked toward her turning it over so that the light glinted of the thin knife and made her heart clench.

                He trailed the blade across her rib-cage as he circled her, keeping it just under the line of her underwire.  He wasn’t allowing the blade to sink into her but rather scrape across her shirt, snagging here and there and causing small slits in the material, showing its sharp edge as he toyed with her.  When he used the knife to expose her back in one long stroke of the knife parting her shirt from collar to end she felt tears well up in her eyes.  She held her breath hoping that her worst fears were not about to happen.  He then dragged his fingertips down her spine and watched her shiver as her tears broke free and trailed down her face.  Whispering in her ear, making his breath tickle the hair that had escaped her pony tail, “Don’t worry; we are going to have so much fun before this is over, I promise.  I won’t be offended if you scream for me; it will happen eventually I can promise you.  I will make our time last though, and you may even enjoy it before we are done my love.”

                His words were crawling through her brain and causing all sorts of horrific images to emerge and then she felt the tip of the knife slide under the skin of her back right next to her bra strap.  Laurent slipped it between the muscle and thin layer of skin and Talia couldn’t hold the scream that tore from her throat and he cleaved the thinnest strip of flesh from her body.  She was still screaming as he slipped the knife in for another round and in the background of her scream she heard him sigh in satisfaction as he took it all in.

                As abruptly as it had all begun she heard him curse under his breath as he removed the fifth strip of skin from the patchwork quilt he had made of her back and she passed out from the pain and blood loss.