by A. Zavarelli
For the few brief moments he’s gone, I wriggle furiously, pulling at one of the ropes with my fingernails in an attempt to shred it. Allan comes back before I can get anywhere, and Alanna groans as she comes out of her drug induced stupor. She blinks her eyes a couple times before they quickly fill with terror. Before I can think of anything to comfort her, Eleanore slips through the front door.
Her heels click along the hardwood floors as she walks into the center of the room, taking stock of all the puppets at her disposal.
“Well, looks like the gang’s all here.” She muses. “Now the real fun begins.”
I still my wrists when her gaze turns to me, cold and deadly calm.
“Now Victoria,” she says. “You get to choose who I kill first. Your best friend, or your boyfriend.”
The word no tumbles weakly out of my mouth as I shake my head vehemently. It’s all I can manage, and this only seems to irritate Eleanore further.
“I think you seem to have forgotten how persuasive I can be.” She turns to look at Allan, waving him over. “Untie one of her hands,” she orders.
Though my fear is a real living, breathing thing at the moment, it’s overshadowed by a small glimmer of hope. If Allan unties my hand, I may have a shot at getting the gun.
Like a good little soldier, Allan stomps over and nimbly undoes one of my binds. He strings the rope back beneath me, dangling my bloodied wrist in front of Eleanore.
At the site of it, Gabriel snaps. “What the fuck do you want Eleanore?” he pleads. “I’m sure whatever it is, we can work something out…” his voice trails off and his eyes fill with desperation. “Just please don’t hurt her any more.”
Eleanore shoots him a stone-faced glare. “There is nothing you have that interests me. This…” She waves her hand around the room. “Is what I want. And as long as you play along with my game and follow my instructions carefully, I won’t kill her just yet.”
Allan kneels down on my free arm, effectively holding it in place as Eleanore hands him a giant metal tool that looks somewhat like a wrench. My stomach churns as I try to stay calm, taking in large gulps of air.
“Now.” Eleanore focuses on Alanna and Gabriel. “This is what we are going to do. I need you to listen carefully to my very simple instructions. I will ask you a yes or no question, and you will respond with yes or no only.”
Alanna glances nervously at Gabriel and then back to me, tears streaming down her face.
“If you say anything else, and I do mean anything else, even so much as one word,” Eleanore continues, “I will break one of Victoria’s fingers.”
Gabriel glares at her as Alanna sobs, trying to control her rising panic.
“Is that clear?” Eleanore asks.
Alanna nods meekly and Gabriel simply grunts before looking down at me with his most reassuring expression. I know he’s trying to tell me he won’t hurt me.
“Okay.” Eleanore smiles. “Let’s get started then, shall we?” She pulls a chair from over by the door and sits next to me.
“Alanna,” she hisses, “we’ll start with you. Victoria’s best friend. Someone she relies on and trusts with her every secret. Someone I’m sure she has come to think of as a sister.” She glances down at me with an icy smile. “What do you think Victoria here will think of you once she has learned of your betrayal?”
My face contorts in confusion as Alanna shakes her head violently.
“Let’s talk about Dallas, shall we?”
Alanna tries in vain to bury her face in her shoulder, blocking out everything around her as Eleanore’s voice rings through the room.
“I believe it was in Dallas four years ago, that you sold out your best friend for a little fix, wasn’t it?”
Alanna remains silent in response, and my whole face goes clammy. I don’t want to believe it, but she isn’t saying anything to defend herself.
“You were so desperate for your fix,” Eleanore continues, “that you willingly gave away Victoria’s information to the first bidder. But, by the time I had gotten there, like the true junkie you are, you had reneged on your side of the bargain. I wonder exactly what it was you told Victoria to get her to leave with you that night in such a panic.”
My entire body numbs as I recall the night in Dallas when Alanna came back to the hotel in a cold sweat. She told me that she had been recognized by her husband’s friend and we had to leave right away. How could Eleanore possibly know about that… if it isn’t true?
Eleanore grows tired of Alanna’s sobbing and claps to get her attention. “So junkie whore, tell her it’s true. She needs to hear it from you to understand what kind of friend you really are.”
I glance up at Alanna, tears brimming my own eyes.
“Yes, but… Victoria…” Alanna sputters.
“Tsk, tsk.” Eleanore wags her finger. “I told you, Alanna, very simple rules. What kind of friend are you exactly? Now I have to break one of her fingers.”
Alanna starts to blubber uncontrollably, but it’s no use. I turn my head away as Allan clamps the cold metal against my pinky. I’m sure nothing could hurt worse than the betrayal I feel right now, but I’m wrong. Faintly, deep in the haze of my own agonizing screams, I hear Gabriel swearing as he watches my finger being snapped in two.
After a few moments, the pain begins to numb courtesy of the adrenaline racing through my veins. I dare to hope that I can stay numb if this is going to be the kind of game Eleanore wants to play. Numb might be the only way I will survive.
“Now, Gabriel,” she says spritely, “I do believe it’s your turn. You seem much more intelligent than your female counterpart there, but we shall see.”
I don’t want to hear whatever it is she’s about to unleash on me. Not Gabriel. I try to block everything out as I tell myself he would never do anything to hurt me.
“So it’s quite funny,” Eleanore begins, “the other day while I was waiting outside of your apartment, at six in the morning no less, that I ran into Anya Petrovski as she was leaving your place.”
Gabriel’s jaw grows rigid, his eyes pleading silently with mine.
“Well, anyway, I had a nice little chat with Miss. Petrovski. She was quite forthcoming, actually. She seemed to have no qualms about disclosing the fact that she had stayed at your apartment the night before.”
My chest constricts as I wriggle beneath Allan’s forceful grip on my arm. I want to run. Far away from this place, from all of it. I can’t even bring myself to look at Gabriel as a fresh wave of tears runs down my cheeks.
“So?” Eleanore asks. “Yes or no, Gabriel.”
“Yes,” he says flatly.
On some level I secretly wish he had explained, even if it meant more broken fingers. But it doesn’t matter now. What explanation could there possibly be for Anya staying at his apartment? Especially given he knows exactly how I feel about her.
“So, Victoria, there you have it.” Eleanore sighs. “Your best friend and your boyfriend. Both have betrayed you. Now you must choose who will live, and who will die.”
I glare up at the twisted face hovering above me, wondering how she ever came to be this way. “I won’t do it,” I say resolutely. “You’ll never turn me into you, Eleanore.”
She just laughs at my response as though she knows better. “Always so stubborn. Shall I continue to break your fingers then?”
“Go your fucking hardest,” I encourage. What’s a few broken fingers if it buys me some more time?
“Fine,” she smirks. “Then onto plan B.”
She walks over to Alanna and unties her from the chair, all while humming a cheery tune. She grabs her by the hair and shoves her into Gabriel’s lap with a satisfactory smile. Alanna whimpers and tries to pull away, but Eleanore just pushes her right back into place.
“Kiss him,” she demands. “Or I will break every one of Victoria’s fingers.”
Alanna glances back at me, her face stricken with panic. I close my eyes and burrow my face in my hoodie, knowing I c
an’t bear to watch this.
“Wait!” Eleanore stomps back across the room and presses her heel into my neck, effectively bringing my gaze back to Gabriel and Alanna.
“If you don’t watch them, I will make her keep going.”
My stomach lurches as my eyes rake over Gabriel. He’s stiff and his eyes are cast down to the floor. Completely out of control, and out of his element. Alanna pecks him on the cheek quickly before pulling away.
“Oh, you can do better than that,” Eleanore says. “Kiss his neck, slowly. Keep kissing him until I tell you to stop.”
“Don’t,” I plead.
Alanna looks both relieved and sick as Allan moves the wrench towards me again. I close my eyes and tense up as I prepare for the pain. A quick snap and acid burns my stomach, urging me to empty the meager contents onto the floor. I breathe through it and try to stay calm as Gabriel curses and rocks in his chair.
Eleanore lets out a disappointed sigh and pushes Alanna onto the floor.
“Get down on your knees in front of him, and pull down his pants,” she says.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” I scream. It’s guttural and agonizing and I don’t even know where it came from. “Please, Eleanore… anything but this. You can break every bone in my body if you want to.”
Gabriel is shaking his head and glaring down at me. He doesn’t want me hurt. But I’m hurting too much already.
“Fine,” Eleanore concedes. “I can be lenient. I am not a cold hearted monster,” she says. “I will let you choose. You let your best friend fuck your boyfriend, or…” she trails off and gestures at the man holding me down. “Let him fuck you until he’s bored with you. Your choice.”
“Gabriel rocks violently against his restraints, looking like the hulk as he tries to smash the metal chair beneath him. “You’re fucking dead! I promise you I will kill you when this is over!”
“Fine!” I cry out. “He can do whatever he wants to me. Just please let them go.”
Eleanore ignores me as she turns her icy gaze on Gabriel, walking across the room to slap him hard. “You have no idea about your slutty little girlfriend here. I knew she would go for it, that’s why I asked her. You need to see her for what she really is. A whore. She’s been begging for it before she even hit puberty.”
“You mean you let someone rape her repeatedly,” he hisses. “Some fucking mother you are!”
“Is that what she told you?” She shakes her head in disgust. “Because, I can assure you she was begging him for it. You should have seen how pathetic she was.”
“I was eight years old!” I bawl out. “How could I possibly be begging for it?”
“Enough!” she snaps, walking back across the room to sit down in the chair beside me. “Fuck her now, and make sure it’s brutal. I want to see all of them squirm.”
I vaguely hear Gabriel cursing at Allan before he thrusts himself on top of me, holding me down with the brute force of his body weight. His hands seem to be everywhere, groping me as he tries to rip my jeans off. I manage to get my mangled hand free of the rope and punch him in the face. His eyes narrow and turn to shades of pure black as he grabs my head and slams it down into the floor.
“Fucking bitch!” he spits in my face.
He’s angrier now, and his hands let me know it as he assaults me. I’m still disoriented from the bump to my head, but I manage to bring my knee up between his legs, hitting him square in the balls. He doubles over on top of me, crying out in agony.
I can’t move, can’t see anything around me. I can barely make out the muffled voices in the room underneath his suffocating weight. All I can feel is the pain everywhere I try to fight him off. And then his fist, smashing into my face repeatedly. Blackness wavers in and out of my vision, threatening to take me under.
Something warm is trickling down my head. Blood. But he still hasn’t managed to remove any of my clothing, and I can at least be grateful for that. It’s short-lived though when his eyes go deadly calm and his hands wrap around my throat, squeezing hard. My breath slips from my chest as I flail beneath him. I pull at his arm, but it’s no use. I’m going to die if I don’t do something.
I slip my free hand beneath me, reaching for the gun in one last attempt. After several fumbles, I’m finally able to dislodge it from my waistband. I pull hard until the rope slackens beneath, giving me enough room to shove it into his gut. Confusion washes over his face, and his hands loosen around my neck as he leans up to see what I’m holding. Without hesitation, I fire off two rounds. He slumps over on top of me, his blood soaking into my clothes.
Chapter Six
Victoria
When I catch my breath, my eyes flash open and the outside world invades my senses. I push the heavy mass of Allan’s body off of me, the noise in the room finally registering in my brain. Gabriel is screaming something, but I can’t focus on the words. My head is spinning when I sit up, the blackness threatening to return. I almost succumb to it before I close my eyes and force myself to take some deep breaths.
It takes me a minute to get a grasp on what’s happening around me. When I look across the room, Eleanore is on top of Alanna, punching her relentlessly. Alanna flails her arms weakly in defense, but has clearly already lost the battle. The sight alone is enough to send another surge of adrenaline through my body. I stand on shaky legs, the sheer force of will the only thing holding me together at this point.
Gabriel screams something at me, but I can’t and don’t want to hear what he’s saying. I have one thing on my mind as I creep up behind Eleanore and place the cold metal barrel of the gun to her head.
“Get off of her, now.”
Everyone in the room is staring at me. The voice that just came from my throat is so foreign, so cold and unfamiliar, I don’t even know what to make of it. But right now, I really don’t care. Eleanore freezes when she realizes what’s happening, and Alanna lets out a soft moan as her head lolls to the side and she passes out.
“Get on your knees, and don’t fucking move,” I command.
She reluctantly does as I ask while Gabriel stares at me in shock. He’s pulling at his ropes, still trying to get free.
“My darling daughter,” Eleanore says sweetly, “what do you think you’re going to do with that gun? You would never shoot me, the mother who raised you.”
Maniacal laughter bubbles up my throat as I stare at her with wild eyes. “Wouldn’t I?” I challenge. “I hardly think you deserve any semblance of the word mother.”
“Victoria,” Gabriel bellows, his face etched with panic. “Untie me and give me the gun. I will take care of this.”
I glance at him, and my heart squeezes in my chest. Betrayal hot and fierce slices through me all over again as I remember what happened earlier, and I have to tear my gaze away from him.
Eleanore laughs at my reaction. “You see Victoria, admit it. You don’t trust him anymore. And why would you? You can’t trust him or Alanna. I’m the only person you have left in this world. Just put the gun down, and we can forget about all of this. I love you, Victoria. You are my daughter. We can leave here together, finally be a family again.”
Her words feel like acid to the ever-present wound inside of me. I know they aren’t real, but those are the words that I’ve wanted to hear for so long. Needed to hear.
“Victoria,” Gabriel growls. “She’s lying. Untie me, and I can help you.”
Eleanore’s hollow laugh echoes through the room as Alanna starts to whimper beneath me. It’s all too much. Too much noise. I can’t think… I need to think.
“Everyone just shut up!” I scream, waving the gun wildly in my hand. “Just shut up!”
The room goes silent as they all stare at me, waiting for my next move. I use my free hand to rub my swollen eyes, and in that moment of weakness, Eleanore springs on me like a wild animal taking down it’s pray. My back slams into the ground as she launches herself on top of me, trying to wrestle the gun from my grip. The blackness is starting to take over again, a
nd I know I need to make my decision now. Eleanore’s made her choice. She’s chosen to betray me yet again.
My eyes are blurry and unfocused as I squeeze the trigger, a million emotions swirling inside of me as the bullet flies from the cartridge. Nothing seems to happen at first, and it feels like forever before Eleanore doubles over in pain. I manage to scramble back to my feet, keeping my gun and eyes fixed on her.
She’s holding her hip, blood pouring from the open wound as she looks up at me in disbelief. There’s no disguising the pure hatred on her face. This is the real Eleanore. The one that I’ve always known.
“This is why!” she sobs. “Why I could never love you. You’ve destroyed everything… the only man that ever loved me, and you took him away.”
“I didn’t take him from you,” I rasp. “You did that yourself.”
“No!” Eleanore screams defiantly. “He always loved you more. No matter what kind of evil little monster you were, you could do no wrong in his eyes.”
“I was his daughter…”
“Yes, his one and only,” she spits back. “I hated you from the day I met you. All he could talk about was how you looked just like your beautiful mother. You have no idea what it was like for me. I had to live with the constant reminder of the woman he still loved. He wouldn’t even have another child with me, he refused.”
A small pang of unwelcome sympathy slithers into my chest for the pathetic, bawling mad woman in front of me. I had no idea how Eleanore felt before. What her reasons were for acting the way she did. And here she is, pouring her heart out. And for once, it all seems to be completely genuine.
“He would have stayed with you,” I whisper. “He did love you, Eleanore. We both did. We tried to get you help, but you wouldn’t take it.” I pause for a moment, unsure of what I’m about to say next. “It’s not too late, we can still do that.”
Gabriel is shaking his head and trying to talk to me again, but I drown out his voice. This is my decision, and I won’t let anybody take that from me.
At my sympathetic gesture, Eleanore stops sobbing and returns to the stony-faced woman she’s always been. “I don’t want your pity, and I don’t want help. And I can promise you one thing, Victoria, if you let me walk out of here alive, this will never stop. I will find you, and I will kill you. I will never stop my hunt, until you are dead. It’s the only way.”