I was blindfolded, able to see nothing but red. The woman's icy hand coiled around my bicep as she led me to wherever we were going. Suddenly she was bending me into a cage and locking the door behind me. I sat on my haunches with my arms behind my back and my head bowed, hair drenched in sweat sweeping over my face. My guts churned. The rage surging through me had me twitching with the inability to move. I could feel that the woman was still there. In my mind's eye I could see her hands clutching the bars.
"You will like him, Maxine Hazelwood."
I took in a deep breath that tasted of stale air and mildew. I eased myself into my happy place, my dog laying atop my lap as we watched a storm together.
"I will?"
"You will."
I didn't let disappointment color my expression. I heard her leave. In her absence I forced my blindfold over my head with my knees. Once it fell to the floor I scanned the room. I was in a small cage in a cramped, windowless shack. The walls were black with mold and the floor had been eaten away by the water that trickled in through the holes in the roof. The only light came from the holes above my head, like ribbons of gold illuminating filth.
Digging the handcuff into my wrist I reached around to my front pocket. I bit my lip painfully. Eventually I felt my keys and I pulled them free. I moved as close to the wall I could get while still working and I eased one of the keys off of the ring before slipping it into my back pocket. I then eased off the ring from the cluster. I put the keys in my back pocket. I then uncoiled the ring and twisted it into a U shape. With my eyes on the door I slid the wire into the key hole.
I hadn't picked a lock since I was a teenager. I was better at controlling my mind and forcing myself to be calm but something as delicate as picking a lock was far from riding a bike. I maneuvered the wire through the grooves but the second I expected the telltale click of the lock I got nothing. I repeated the action again, slower and more purposeful. All I did was twist the metal. I kept my eyes on the door. I took in a deep, slow breath. I straightened the wire out and eased it back into the lock. My chest was tight. I felt sweat cold against my brow. I felt frustration brew within me. Still, eventually, I heard the click of a lock disengaging and my shoulders fell. I stretched my wrists. I made fists and rotated them in circles, easing the tension from my joints. I then slid the wire into the lock of the cage and that same second I heard the door open and my hands shot behind my back.
The man bent to enter the shack. Shutting the door behind him he leaned against the workbench. His hands held the wood, displaying a ring on his pointer finger. I could see a ruby entrapped by a set of jagged teeth.
His eyes locked with mine. I held his poker face. The longer we stared each other down, unblinking, unbreathing, the more that sickening grin grew until it was that gaping gash across his face again.
By the time he moved my body was burning. He bent, his elbows resting against his knees, and stretched his head out to stare deeper into my eyes. I gritted my teeth. I refused to look away, to blink, to move. As his gaze burned through me like a filthy arm reaching inside my soul and frantically feeling around for what it wanted I saw him hold back his rage. I watched as hatred battled it's way to the foreground. His weakness was revitalizing.
Suddenly he punched the door to the cage and whipped around to punch a hole in the wall, sending the wood flying and light pouring inside. He knelt before the cage and reached inside to grasp my throat. He pulled me forward so I was nose to nose with him. His eyes bugged out painfully. Each vein was pronounced and his pupils dilated enough to reduce his iris' to slivers of color impossible to focus on.
It was then I swore I could feel him inside my mind. I focused for a second and in my mind's eye I could see tendrils of red slithering their way around my eyes and forcing themselves into my brain. I must have been going insane. He must have given me something for a thought so ludicrous to seem perfectly plausible. On instinct I gritted my teeth, coiled my muscles, and I sliced through the energy that he had used to invade me.
He fell back then. I watched as he kicked the floor with the bottoms of his shoes. He groaned, his teeth gnashing and his head banging against the filthy wood. He turned onto his side and coughed up blood before going still.
I waited for a second before poking my foot out from the cage. Kicking him I found him unresponsive. I grunted as I reached out to grab his leg and pull him toward me. I used his pants to drag his midsection closer to the cage so I could reach into his pocket and grab his keys. I shoved them in my back pocket and searched him for a phone. It was locked but I could still call emergency.
"Nine-one-one."
In a frantic, hushed tone I said, "This is officer Maxine Hazelwood. Trace the location of my call and send backup to my location."
I put the phone back in his pocket and unlocked the cage. After stepping out I turned his body over. I felt something hard over his heart so I reached up his shirt to find a sheath hanging from his neck. I removed it and pulled out the knife. It was an anelace dagger with a perfectly sharpened, shining blade and a black leather hilt. Along the blade runes had been etched and filled in with gold. I assumed, at least, that they were runes. They didn't look recognizable to me.
I looked down at the body beside me. With my key I ripped away the flesh of his shin only for it to regrow. I then slid the blade through his leg, slicing him open like butter after just a simple push. The wound stayed open, and so I slit his throat. It was then I heard the agonizing screech of a banshee.
I stood and burst through the door of the shack as I secured the sheath around my neck. I ran toward the screams and into a large, three story house. Once inside I felt ice send nails through my skin to sink deep into my bones.
I quickly glanced around the living room before racing up the stairs, down the hall, and up another set of stairs. Upon seeing the back of an elderly woman I wrapped my left arm around her and pressed the tip of the dagger against her jugular. Another woman stared at me. She looked just like the man I'd killed. She looked down at the weapon as though it had already been plunged into her chest.
The screaming ended on a gurgle. It was then the woman rushed forward, shoving my captive and almost sending me down the stairs. On accident I took the second life. I left the body at the top of the stairs and I raced after the woman.
I chased her into the bite of autumn air yet to be touched by the sun. I almost reached her when she leapt onto the roof. I ran around the house but by then I'd lost her.
I retreated back into the house. With attention to the exits I searched the first and second floor. At the top floor I found the body of the elderly woman. I stepped around her to enter the room.
Three beds with shackles attached to their headboards were lined against the walls. Apart from that the room was empty. The woman I'd met before laid atop the bed she'd been secured to, her mouth agape and her eyes devoid of life.
I suddenly heard sirens in the distance and the tension eased from my body only slightly. I tilted my head back. Suddenly I was aware of my breathing, my slowing heartbeat, the blood leaving my head and returning to the rest of my tingling body. Still staring at the ceiling my attention was drawn to a hatch. I came forward. Standing directly below it I couldn't see anything that would open it.
I looked around the room for anything I could see that was out of place. I turned over the beds, looked over the floorboards, and ran my hands over the walls until I noticed the bulb at the tip of one of the bedframes looked different than the others. I twisted it and the compartment slid open. Sticking the dagger between my teeth I eased myself into the nook.
In the dim I could faintly make out the outline of a tall man. Chains held him in place. Slowly I lowered myself to come close to him. I put my two fingers over his pulse. I felt nothing. I gasped in shock when I heard his deep inhale.
"Maxine," He groaned with a voice so deep and rich it sent shivers down my spine, "You're alive."