She looked at Emily.
Zoe was still lying flat on the floor, but now she was on her stomach. Emily sat on her back, pinning her there. She looked totally enthralled as she watched Missy torture Joe. All five fingers of Joe’s right hand were mangled wrecks. The digits were twisted in different directions. In more than one place a bit of broken bone poked through torn flesh. Joe was shaking and sobbing in his chair. This was the man Emily supposedly loved. She hadn’t actually loved him, of course. It was just another of her many deceptions. She didn’t know or understand the connection between Emily and these psychos, but it didn’t matter. Knowing wouldn’t change anything.
She heard footsteps from the hallway and glanced that way to see the bald duo returning from their bedroom romp. The guy wouldn’t look at them. He shuffled off out of view again while the girl went back into the kitchen. She returned to the living room a few seconds later, the big knife she’d threatened them with earlier in her hand again. Annalisa felt a pit open up in her stomach as the girl came right up to her.
“Look at me.”
Annalisa raised her head and looked the girl in the eye.
The girl smiled. “You’re pretty.”
Then she grabbed a handful of Annalisa’s hair and wound it in a tight knot to hold her head steady. Annalisa’s eyes jittered in their sockets as she watched the girl’s other hand slowly bring the big blade toward her face. She felt the heat of it as it closed to within inches of her flesh. She cried and started breathing faster.
Someone was saying, “Nonononononono…”
She realized it was her own voice.
The girl placed the blade flat across one of her cheeks. Annalisa screamed as she felt her flesh blister and sizzle. The girl tightened her grip on her hair and managed to keep her head relatively still while continuing to press the blade into her flesh. Her cheek melted and a scent of cooked meat filled her nostrils. She sucked in a deep breath and unleashed another ear-shredding scream. Her lungs felt ragged, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t about to stop screaming. Maybe if they all screamed loud enough someone who could help would hear.
The girl at last relinquished her grip on Annalisa’s hair. The hot blade came away from her face as she stepped back to admire her handiwork. She looked pleased. “There. Now you’re not so pretty.”
She giggled.
Annalisa’s cheek throbbed and burned. It was near unbearable. She wished they would just kill her and be done with it, but she knew they were just getting started.
A crushing guilt assailed Chuck as he watched Missy go out to the balcony and return with another chair. This was all his fault. It was undeniable. This wouldn’t be happening if he hadn’t unleashed his inner asshole at the coffee shop that day. The truth was more complicated than that, another voice in his head argued. This was really all down to Emily. She had steered Missy Wallace here. And while that was true, it did nothing to lessen his guilt.
Missy set the chair in front of him and sat down.
She smiled. “Hello, Chuck.”
He glared at her, didn’t say anything.
She held out a hand and said, “I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced. My name is Missy Wallace. I’m a famous murderer.” She glanced at her hand and lowered it, her smile becoming a smirk. “Oh, I’m sorry. You’re hands are kind of tied at the moment.”
The comment elicited a giggle from the bald girl.
Missy leaned toward him. “So…Chuck. What happened to you, man? You look like someone used you for a punching bag.”
“They did.”
“When did this happen?”
He sighed. “It doesn’t matter.”
She slapped him. “Tell me.”
The slap wasn’t a hard one, but he was still tender from the abuse Emily had dished out and it hurt like a bitch. “It happened in the early morning hours the day after…I insulted you. I…went off by myself. The others weren’t there. I drank all night in a bar across the street from the motel where we were staying. A place called Big Sam’s.”
“Where was this?”
“Little town just inside the North Carolina border. I was there after closing time. Some people who worked at the bar dragged me into a back room and beat the shit out of me. Guy named Joe Bob, he was the bartender, and a couple of his friends. I was too busy getting stomped to get their names.”
“What?” Zoe was looking up at him from the floor. “That’s not what you told us at all.”
“I know. This is the truth. What I told you was a lie.”
“But…why?”
Missy twisted around in her chair and glared at Zoe. “Shut up! You don’t have permission to speak. I hear your voice again, I’ll cut your fucking tongue out.”
She turned to face Chuck again. She flashed a smile of false sweetness. “So why did you lie to your friends, Chuck? Is it because you’re a fucking dirtbag not fit to lick the shit off a bum’s shoes?”
“They threatened me. I could’ve gone to the cops, but I was afraid of them.”
Missy laughed. “So you’re really a big fuckin’ pussy?”
“I was that night, yeah.”
Missy pursed her lips and looked away from him, staring at some vague middle point behind him. She was thinking seriously about something and that worried him. The situation was already awful and hopeless. But he didn’t kid himself. This girl was a monster, but she was also smart and creative. She could-and probably would-devise ways to deepen and prolong their misery.
She focused on him again. Her smile this time was smaller and more mischievous. “That girl on the floor is your girlfriend?”
Chuck’s eyes misted. “Yes. Don’t hurt her. Please.”
Missy’s expression turned serious. “What if I told you I’ll let her live if you help us torture and kill the rest of these fucks? Would you do that?”
“No.”
He heard Zoe sniffle and he frowned. Would she want him to do that? He didn’t believe the Zoe he knew would want her own life spared as part of some twisted bargain. But maybe he was wrong. You never really knew the ugliest truths residing in any person’s soul until you placed them in a situation like this.
Zoe’s sniffle gave way to a whimper. “Chuck…I don’t wanna die.”
Missy’s nostrils flared as anger lit up her face. She stood up and kicked the chair aside. “Didn’t I tell you to keep your fucking mouth shut?”
Zoe whimpered again.
It was barely audible over the moans of agony from Joe and Annalisa, but Chuck heard it and it tore at his heart.
Missy kicked Emily and sent her scurrying away across the floor. “Turn over, bitch.”
Zoe whimpered and didn’t move.
Missy kicked her.
Zoe cried out.
Missy kicked her again.
And again.
Zoe turned over with a great groan of exertion. Her whole face was wet from her tears. Missy took the hunting knife from the bald girl, then knelt and straddled Zoe. “This should be fun, if a little messy. I haven’t cut out a tongue in a while.”
She squeezed Zoe’s mouth open and lowered the blade to her face.
“I’ll do it.”
The words surprised him as they came out of his mouth. The bargain remained a loathsome, sickening thing, but with the prospect of Zoe’s mutilation and death right on the cusp of happening, it was suddenly much more palatable. And now he was seeing very clearly into the ugliest side of his own soul. Yes, he really could murder innocent people if it meant saving the life of the woman he loved. She wanted him to do it, after all.
She’d voiced the darkest wish imaginable.