Vulnerable

Chapter 43

Usually the lights turning on would be enough to wake me. If not then I would wake to the voices of Benji and Cole. But today, I didn't stir until the knife was slicing into my arm.

'Good morning Princess.' Benji said from behind the camera, as Cole made neat criss-cross cuts up my arm, causing me to hiss in pain.

'What a wake up call, eh?' Cole laughed, using the bloody knife to stroke my cheek. Benji took off my oxygen mask, before sitting beside me on the bed, stroking my hair.

'She looks so beautiful in the morning.' Benji said, kissing my cheek and forcing me to sit up and lean against him.

Cole grinned up at me, before taking the knife and slowly dragging it down my skin. I screamed and thrashed around in Benji's arms, who kept me held down, as Cole sliced away a layer of skin on my arm.

'Don't you love the sound of those screams?' Cole asked, looking to the camera. He turned back to me, and started dragging the knife again, taking off more of the skin on my arm.

'Please!' I screamed. 'Stop! I'm begging you.'

Cole kept going until the whole of my left arm was raw and bleeding, the navy bed covers turning black as they soaked up the blood. None of the cuts were deep enough to cause me to bleed out, but it was still agony.

Benji held me as I sobbed, stroking my hair as if he were a loving uncle. 'Do you give in yet?'

My family. My friends. Their lives were in my hands and I couldn't let them die because of me.

'No.' I cried, as Benji grabbed my other arm and offered it to Cole. My screams fell on deaf ears as I begged Cole to stop, slicing away at my skin, removing layer by layer. He thankfully avoided the areas that Benji stabbed me in yesterday, because that would have killed me.

After an hour and a half, both of my arms were a mangled bloody mess and my voice was hoarse from screaming. Benji was holding me against him the whole time, making it impossible for me to move. Not that I could have gone far anyway, with my leg chained to the bed.

'Let's take a quick break and read through some of the requests.' Benji said, leaving me laying on the bed, crying and panting, my chest heavy after all my screaming.

I don't know how long passed, but my eyes were closed as I prayed for the agony in my arms to fade away. It didn't. I could feel as my heart pumped, the blood escaping through all the broken vessels in my skin.

Benji and Cole were talking, but I couldn't hear a word. My heat best echoed in my ears, my head aching from lightheadedness.

Suddenly a sharp pain exploded on my cheek as a hand slapped me hard. My eyes shot open and I gasped out, meeting Benji's angry eyes.

'I don't appreciate being ignored, Princess.' Benji said, gripping my jaw so I couldn't look away.

'I...I'm sorry.' I cried, my vision blurring.

'What happens to bad girls?' Benji smirked. Tears slid down my face at the thought of another punishment. What could he do to overpower the pain in my arms?

'They get punished.' I whispered, Benji's grip on my jaw tightening.

'Exactly, Princess. And our viewers have some brilliant ideas for us to try out.' Benji said, nodding to Cole who was leaving the room. 'Cole is just going to get some lemons and some chillis. Why don't you guess what we're going to do with them?'

Benji let go of my jaw, letting my head fall back into the pillow. His hand gripped my forearm, making me scream out in agony.

'I said, guess what we're going to do.' Benji growled through gritted teeth.

'I don't know!' I sobbed, black dots swimming across my vision from the pain.

'Guess, Princess.' He ordered, dragging his finger down my bloody arm.

'I don't know.' I cried. 'Stop, just stop.'

'You think this hurts, just you wait.' Benji said, letting go of my arm and wiping my blood off his hands using my t-shirt.

'You're going to...' I stammered, trying to breath through the pain. 'You're going to put them on the cuts.'

'Clever girl.' Benji grinned. 'In the meantime, do you give in yet?'

'No.' I whispered, knowing I was close to passing out from pain.

'Why not? They don't care about you. That Charlie boy threw a party last night. All your friends went. I even heard your precious boyfriend was moving on in the arms of a very beautiful uni student.'

'You're lying.' I spat. Would they really have a party while I was missing? Would Logan really get with someone else? Our relationship was messy and stressful, and it looked like I was going to be stuck with Benji and Cold until one of them accidentally goes too far and kills me. Could I really blame them for wanting to move on?

'What could I possibly have to gain from lying to you?' Benji said, holding his hands up in a mock surrender.

'You want to break me.' I whispered. 'You know they're the only piece of hope left for me to cling onto.'

Benji sat back and watched me amused. He liked to hear me explaining my own torture, as if it were a way of rubbing salt in the wound.

My chest was heavy and I was struggling to breath. Benji didn't seem to notice, or maybe he did and just didn't care.

'I know they love me.' I breathed. 'I know they're coming for me.'

'You're delusional.' Benji laughed. 'You're alone in this world. Cole and I are the only thing left for you.'

'You're a monster.' I choked out, my breathing getting more painful by the second. 'I will never believe they don't love me. I will never stop loving them.'

My vision grew darker, black dots taking over. The last thing I saw before passing out, was Benji's shocked face as he realised my lungs were failing me. Maybe they weren't failing me, maybe they were saving me.