NERTHUS
The first thing I feel as I wake up is the cold surface I’m lying on.
Turning my head to the side, I wait for my sight to focus while I notice that I can’t move.
I seem to be constricted by ropes that are tying me to the table and I suddenly feel like I can’t breathe. My clothes are missing, my body shaking as I’m only dressed in my lingerie and I dread the moment when we will find out why we are in this shitty situation.
My panic is crushing my throat, my breathing getting heavy as I try to pull at the ropes constricting me on the shiny surface.
Checking the room, I see Danny lying next to me. He is bound to a table as well but seems to be still knocked out, and for a moment, I’m glad as I couldn’t take his desperation which would be adding to my panic.
The gas must have been inducted into the room on purpose to knock us out and I fight hard not to faint at the thought.
I groan, turning my head to the other side as I hope it will reduce the pulsating pain in my skull.
Taking a deep breath, I let my sight focus on the door and my breath hitches.
“Oh, you are finally awake,” her melodic voice reaches my ears before my brain can actually process the image my eyes are capturing.
I flinch, trying to get away from her instinctively but fail for obvious reasons. “You? What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Oh, I was waiting in your apartment, but you didn’t come back home.” Lizzy tilts her head at me as she smiles. “I missed you.”
Gulping, I feel like my throat is on fire, the flames burning down to my stomach.
“What?” A raspy whisper is all I can utter as I stare up at her.
Her face is wearing her usual kind smile but it still seems like a grotesque mask, making my skin crawl. “What… You?”
“Yeah, I finally got the chance to get you without your boyfriend, and then this little rascal ruins everything,” she says, her voice getting higher and higher. “Since you had invited me to the cabin in the woods, I tried to get you without your boyfriend. But he is so obsessed with you, isn’t he?”
“Wha What?” I barely manage to push out as I stare at her incredulously.
She looks at me as if I should feel the same about what she is talking about, making my heart beat into my throat. “I mean, he was always between us.”
“No, no… He is my… The cabin?” My mind starts spinning, my thoughts racing from one side to the other to find a sense of what the hell is happening.
“But…” I start, gulping as I have to start anew as my voice fails me. “You are K?”
“Yeah, Kimberly!” She smiles as if she just told me the most obvious thing ever. “But you know that! You saw my necklace, right?”
Oh my God! This woman is insane!
Remembering the psychological advice I got in one of my classes about dealing with difficult or dangerous clients, I force up a smile in the hopes of de-escalating the situation. I know exactly that I saw the pendant with the K, but I also know that she has told me that it was the initial of her girlfriend’s name. But I can’t risk enraging her, especially as I’m not alone.
“Ah, yeah. Sorry, it slipped my mind for a second. But listen, why are we tied up? You know that isn’t necessary, right?” I ask in the hopes of getting her to untie us.
But it’s in vain.
Her smile falls, seemingly disappointed because I don’t see the reason for what she did. “But I have to remove the chip!”
My heart drops to my stomach, my fear gripping my throat into a tight hold.
The what?
“He is monitoring you, right? We have to make sure that he doesn’t get between us anymore. You surely don’t want to disturb us now that we finally have a bit of time to ourselves either, right?” She answers my silent question but manages to just make it worse as she shows once again that she is completely out of her mind.
I open and close my mouth repeatedly, my brain failing to help me find the right words to counter her. A confused moan resounds from next to me and my head snaps towards Danny in shock as he stirs, waking up.
“Oh,” Lizzy says, regaining her creepy smile. “And I still have to get rid of him.”
My panic grows, making me shiver as I pull at my ropes in fear, but fail to loosen them. “No! What?”
She walks around the table, my heartbeat skyrocketing with every step she takes.
Danny has barely opened his eyes as he looks up at her all groggily, “What the fuck is this?”
“Let him be!” I scream, struggling against the robes constricting me.
Lizzy leans over him, caressing his face. “You are such a beautiful boy. You will be one of the prettiest I ever created.”
Oh, my God!
My desperation takes over my body, making my stomach turn. I already taste the bile on my tongue as I watch Danny’s eyes widen when Lizzy reaches out to take a sharpened instrument.
“No!” I continue to fight against the ropes, my heart squeezing as the room fills with Danny’s screams.
Lizzy is bent over his chest, concentrating on carving something into his skin, looking as unbothered as if she was creating a simple sketch.
His screams of pain echo from the walls, piercing into my bones, making me feel like wanting to rip my skin off my body.
Taking a deep breath, I decide to do something, hoping the many years I haven’t done it any more didn’t take that special ability from me that I had trained with sweat, tears and immense pain to get out of the many constrictions my cousin put me in.
Hitting my shoulder against the table repeatedly, I manage to dislocate my shoulder with a sickening pop.
My scream of pain adds to those of Danny but I bite my tongue, forcing myself to not pass out as I move to free my arms from the ropes. With my functioning hand, but my legs still affixed to the table, I reach out to the small table between the tables and by miracle get hold of some sort of scalpel.
I grit my teeth, praying to myself that it will work out. As I snatch the instrument, the tray where it was lying shatters onto the ground.
Lizzy turns around with a jumpscare and looks at me in confusion. Groaning, I cut the ropes from me while she pushes out a high-pitched scream.
Taking a step towards me, she tries to hold me down, but I turn around the scalpel, digging it into her arm.
As she screams, I sit up, grab her hair and pull her towards the table, making her head hit the shiny surface with a bang.
Blood splatters everywhere and I jump from my table to get to Danny.
“Oh, my God! Baby! Are you okay?” I ask breathlessly as I hold my hand up, not knowing where to touch him without hurting him.
His chest is covered in blood, and he is breathing heavily as he clenches his jaw.
“I got you,” I say, fighting against my tears, as I search the floor for another knife-like instrument and cut his ties. “Here, come. Sit up.”
He puts his arms on my shoulders, my legs nearly giving out under me as he puts all his weight on me to pull himself up.
“I’m fine,” he lies, as he lets his arms slump. “But what’s with your arm?”
I shake my head, forcing a smile. “Nothing. Don’t worry. We have to get out of here. Let’s go!”
He gets down the table slowly and we just turn around as we halt in our tracks, our breath hitching in our throat.
The click that resounds as Lizzy holds the gun towards us is barely audible and still, it booms through the room like a deafening detonation.
“Why did you do that?” she ask in a crazy tone, blood dripping along her hair, bringing yet another color into it. “We would finally have been free.”
Danny pushes me behind him, and I gulp because I don’t want him to shield me.
“Put that thing down,” he says, his voice shaking as he lifts his hand towards her.
I claw down on his shoulder, my heartbeat thundering in my ear as time seems to stop. “Lizzy! Please!”
“Why can’t you even remember the simplest of things,” she screeches, pointing the gun again.
My heart drops to my stomach as Danny moves in front of me completely, and I am totally powerless without any chance to react or stop him from doing it.
A shot resounds, filling the air with the dreadful sound of death, sucking all sounds out of the room and replacing it with a constant beep.