The First

by Michael Santana

  I hope you feel blessed at learning my tale, very few know it. If your friend hadn’t run off, we would not have had this time together. I am glad we did. I can see by your eyes that you are tiring of my story. Since you have very little flesh left to flay, it is time to find your friend and get our little reunion party started.

  Casey sees the light.

  The sun had set, and her father still hadn’t come for her. Mandy’s muffled screams from the adjoining room had grown louder and more frequent before slowly becoming nothing but sobs. Casey’s stomach cramped locking her legs in place. She had tried her best to hold it in, but couldn’t any longer. Crying, she pulled her pants and underwear down and peed in the dirty corner of the room. The smell of ammonia started to waft in fill the tiny space.

  Spent, totally exhausted, mentally and physically beat, she quickly pulled first her underwear, then her pants up. That was when the moonlight first shown in the room. Across from her halfway up the wall, a small rectangle of its luminous glow was starting to appear.

  “A window there is a window.” She thought.

  She tiptoed across the room to where the small section of light was becoming more apparent. Looking up she saw the window that she hadn’t noticed before. She realized that the moon had crossed the sky and was now at its peak. It looked as if it were right outside the window. If only her arms were long enough, she could just reach out and grab it.

  Looking at the glass, she knew what she had to do, but to do it was suicide for sure. It would let him know exactly where she was, but if she didn’t then, Mandy would die. Once Mandy was dead, he would come looking for her. There was no way for her to escape and maybe only one way to be saved, by now the police had to be looking and might hear her if she screamed. She had to find a way to break the window. If she could break it, then they could hear her scream.

  “They have to hear me,” she corrected herself. “If they don’t, he’s going to find me and then he will do to me whatever he’s doing to Mandy or worse.”

  The last thought caused her body to betray her, and she started to shake uncontrollably. She felt like she needed to pee again.

  Casey hugged herself tightly and squatted back in the corner she had just visited. The urine spattered on the floor and on to her shoes this time. She felt like such an idiot. If she hadn’t dropped her purse while running, she could have called her father. He would have brought fifty cops and put fifty times fifteen holes in the bastard. She didn’t have time to do math; she had to break the window. She doubted they would check the church grounds more than once. Even if they did, who would suspect a priest of kidnapping two girls? He would say he hadn’t seen them and then they would move on to one of the usual suspects all the while she and Mandy were tortured to death by some deranged maniac in priest’s robes.

  Footsteps outside of the window drew her attention. It’s “now or never,” she told herself. Taking off the urine-soaked shoe, she heaved it at the window, missing it by inches.

  “Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!” She exclaimed.

  Frantically, she scrambled across the room retrieving the shoe and then made another attempt at the window. Another throw resulted in another miss. Casey began to hate all the time she spent on the computer and not outside playing sports. She could barely hear the voices outside the window but was sure they would soon leave, and start searching somewhere else.

  She took off her other shoe and this time one after the other almost simultaneously she hurled them with all her might. The first one missed by at least a yard that didn’t matter since the second struck the window hard in its center before resting in the little niche on the sill.

  For a few seconds, nothing happened, and Casey all but gave up hope. Then the moonlight on the wall went dark as a face blocked the window and peered inside. She heard an excited conversation, and then another face peered in the little rectangle.

  Casey jumped up and down, waving her arms around but still stayed silent. Now that the searchers had found her and with help on the way, Casey didn’t see a reason to give the psycho a heads up. If he didn’t know they were coming, there was less of a chance that he would kill Mandy and then herself out of desperation. Moments later, she heard two sets of footsteps outside her door and almost screamed out. Instead, she rapped lightly on the door hoping whoever was out there would not shout out alerting him to their presence.

  The door opened with a tiny squeak from a joint that was in dire need of oiling. A blinding light filled the room as the door swung open wide. Using her forearm to shield her eyes she moved forward towards the open door. She had been in the dark room so long she knew it would be minutes before her eyes could comfortably deal with the light. Keeping her eyes shielded she let out a little sigh of relief as the hands grasped her arms on either side of her body. They moved quickly with her. “It’s her, we have her” Casey heard one of them say.

  “He still has Mandy. I think he is going to kill her.”

  “Who has her? Where is she?”

  “I don’t know. He was in the room next to me. I could hear her screaming. He is hurting her.” Casey continued, as they sped her through the halls.

  The two moved her at what seemed like an impossible pace, and everything flew past her in a blur. Then suddenly they stopped abruptly almost causing her to topple over. She felt something wrap around her ankles, and then everything went upside down.

  Her eyes adjusted to the low candlelight as she spun in a slow circle for what seemed like an eternity before finally stopping. Her heart sank, and all hope vanished, as a full realization of what was happening became clear. Next, to her, hanging upside down, streaked with blood from where he had torn strips of skin from her was her friend Mandy. Looking into the eyes of her rescuers, she realized too late her mistake.

  The two nuns stared back at her smiling. One, the lighter of the two, made the sign of the cross on her forehead. She watched as one after the other they took off their clothes. Mandy’s eyes stared transfixed at something Casey couldn’t see. The two nuns approached her slowly, their naked bodies gleaming in the light. Reaching out one of them slowly spun her until she was staring into the face of the priest. Manzili smiled, and Casey screamed.

  The End