Do As I Say

Hide And Eat

Trace

I felt a blood-curdling scream tear out of my chest as the pestle came crashing down on my face.

My life flurried in front of my eyes in those few seconds.

The images of me crawling on the floor when I was two, kicking up my legs and giggling at my parents.

Me when my sister was born cradling her in the crook of my arm.

Me, Val and Ryan when we were seven searching for frogs in the creek, laughing and nudging each other in our over-sized Wellington's.

Me breaking away on the inside when my parents died in the car accident.

Me when my little sister entwined her fingers through mine and told me we'd make it through.

I smiled through the tears blurring my vision for the last time, wincing as it put pressure on my broken nose and the bruises that punctured every inch of my body. I've always wanted to die like this. Smiling. I realized the pestle had only reached the outline of my face when suddenly it came to a hair-raising stop.

My whole body froze as I realized I wasn't dead. I squinted through my tears and confusion. Val was peering down at me eerily, his hand hesitated, the pestle suspended in midair. I realized that he was listening to something, his ears straining to hear better. The blood in me chilled when I slowly focused on what he was listening to. My heart sank to the bottom at the sight of his lips curling back into a haunting smile.

"Yeah, we'll get out for sure," Some person was saying to another and then he laughed shakily outside in the corridor. "I mean that Ryde guy seemed like he had his shit together, maybe he'll come up with something."

"I hope, man," The other said, his tone betraying his excitement. "If he does, then we'll be outta here and away from that fucking bitchface."

The voices faded away and Val turned down to me with his smile full of destruction and mayhem. It widened.

"Well, it's time I show you all my charming side," He said, his smile cracking wider and then he threw the pestle across the room which struck the adjoining wall with a loud thud. My heart leaped inside my chest, my insides squeezing together.

I tried to shrink away from him but he grabbed onto my collar and snatched my face up to his. I closed my eyes tightly, gnawing into my bottom lip. I tried to breathe but my chest closed in on itself. Fear raked every expanse of me and my body twitched aggressively against Val's. I sucked in as much air as I could as my lungs cried out for more.

Val suddenly tilted my face up and started brushing his lips across each and every tear running down my cheeks. His cold lips sent stinging jabs of pain through my bruises. I flinched, my heart almost crawling up my throat now. He continued brushing his lips across them more tenderly. I slowly opened one eyelid and saw him gazing at me, his eyes partially open and darkened with some unnamed emotion while he kept caressing my tears.

"Please," I croaked, brokenly as I gazed into the empty swirl of his hazel. "Stop this. Let me go, Val. You don't have to do this. This won't get you anything. Let us all go. Please."

He murmured something against my skin but I couldn't hear him. His lips drew away from my face as he swung me into his arms and started carrying me outside. My whole body was saturated in cold sweat and my heart rammed into my chest, trying to burst free as Val entered the elevator.

I stared at my reflection in the smudged glass. My dark hair was crusted with blood, my face caked in it along with tears and dust and the only thing that I could see past the blood where my light brown irises that were dilated appallingly. Val watched my reflection and his and then rested his head on mine.