Beach Week

20: Hell's Kitchen*

"We don't have time for this," the skinny one growled, pushing his glasses farther up his nose. "You take one and I'll take the other. On the off chance Avery wakes up we will deal with her then." He looked over Avery's bloody features and seemed to take in the moment as if it was perfect. A strange expression covered his face as he took her in. A mix of happiness and morbid curiosity. Her blood had partially dried, but she hadn't given an indication of if she was alive or not other than the subtle rise and fall of her chest. He looked Avery over for another minute before he produced a knife from behind his back and approached Sara, while the other closed in around Taylor.

Sara tried to escape the binds to fight off the one approaching her. It wasn't long before the other loomed over Taylor and cut off her view of her friend. Taylor heard Sara scream in agony as her attacker cast a foreboding shadow over her and let the blade of his knife come into view. His muscles flexed as he gripped the knife tightly in his hand. He played with it for a minute, dangling it in front of her face and running the blade slowly between his fingers, as if just to taunt her. The metal gleamed in his hands with each motion, and she couldn't help but wonder if it would still shine when it was covered in her blood. It was cold against Taylor's skin when he pressed it lightly to her neck, giving her goose bumps as he traced back down her arm with the blade. He never cut her, but the threat was very real.

"I am sorry about your friend Amy. She was just collateral damage and had to be taken care of before you could know we were waiting. I'm glad she didn't see me or you may have taken another way out. I had to hide, and it's lucky I did. We didn't want either of you to get away." The blade once again found itself at her neck, but he pulled away. It seemed like a game to him. The light tracing of the sharp blade over her arms and side before he plunged the knife inside her was all a part of his game. "You can apologize to her when you see her in the afterlife," he said, smirking. The knife froze on her upper arm, and Taylor knew what was about to happen.

"Wait," she choked out. She was grappling for a way to put off his torture, and buy time for Aaron to get here. "You told us that you were his best friend, but we don't even know your names. We didn't even really know Jeff, but at least we knew his name so we could honor him in our own ways while suffering the burden of letting him die." Taylor tried to play into their minds, she wasn't sure which one was more delusional, but if she could play into it there was a better chance to survive. "Can't I know yours?

He frowned, pulling his thick eyebrows together in thought. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter whether I tell you our names or not, does it? None of you are leaving this room. Not alive anyway."

Taylor nodded her head. "I just want to know the name of the guys who brought us to justice. The pair that made us admit our darkest secret; the one we couldn't even admit to ourselves." Taylor wanted to roll her eyes, she knew Sara would if she wasn't busy being sliced away at. Now she was just spewing bullshit, but from the look on her tormentor's face, he was eating up every word of it.

He nodded, running his hand through his dark hair. "I'm Zach." He pointed the knife over his shoulder. "The one messing around with Sara, that's Reed."

Taylor sat up straighter, and tried to listen outside for any indiction that Aaron was here yet. She couldn't hear anything over Sara's screams. So she still had to stall. "I understand that you're hurting, Zach. It's hard to lose people that are close to us. I've lost family members, so has Sara, but there are ways to get over your pain without stooping to our level. You don't want to kill. If you do this, then you're just as bad as those guys who hurt Jeff, and you don't want that." Taylor wiggled her hands in their binds, causing Zach to snap his eyes to them. It was a distraction method, and so far she was doing really well at keeping him preoccupied. "Let us go, Zach. I'm studying to get my PhD in psychology. I have some connections in the field. I know a lot of therapists who would be willing to talk to you and help you through this. I can get you help if you accept it."