Chapter 3

Chapter 3

He points a bony, gray-ish finger at Christa and my heart drops to the pit of my stomach and a quizzical look covers her face. She steps forwarc toward the rotting table and Master's men step next to her with evil grins hiding behind their masks. They grab her arms and lift her violently into the air. She kicks her legs and flails her arms trying to stirick the men. The minions use their free hand to lock a tight griop around her legs. She begs and pleads with tears streaming from her light blue eyes, her blonde hair wildly thrashing around as she tries her hardest to break the grips of Master’s men who are now pulling her up onto the table. They tie her down with leather straps, she kicks and screams and throws herself around the table trying to avoid being tied down. Master’s men finally get control of her and she is strapped tightly to the table. Her face and eyes are flooded with tears. Master’s men climb up onto the table, the taller man pulls out a wooden bat and the other a rusty crowbar.

"No! Plase! No! What are you doing?! Stop!"

She sees the weapons and starts screaming and kicking, thrashing around like a fish out of water. Master’s men chuckle sadistically. Master claps his wrinkled hands and their laughter ceases. They quickly fix their gaze upon Christa; he snaps his fingers and the men begin beating her with their weapons, showing no sign of mercy. It seems as if they are barely fazed by Christa’s screams as they continue to take violent blows to her upper body. Master stands silently with a cruel smile on his face. The muscular man kicks her in the face and the other takes one last brutal blow to her head with the crowbar and she falls limp. They jump down from the table and retreat to the second floor of the mansion. I can’t take my eyes off of Christa’s limp body. Her face covered with crimson blood and her shirt ripped and torn covered in her blood and tears. The table is now soaled with blood and there are marks and indentions from the brutal hits of Master’s men, there are wear marks from Christa thrashing around while tied to the table.

Master turns to face us, still smiling.

“I hope you learned something from this experience. Just remember, if you ever think of escaping you will end up just like your friend. You are dismissed.”

We all walk slowly to our dingy cots and sit silently. I look out the window, it is already dark.

“I think we should get some rest. You never know what he’ll have planned for tomorrow.” I say to the others who just nod their heads wearily. They all lie down on their cots and gently drift to sleep. I stay awake all night; every time I close my eyes I see Christa’s pale body lying motionless on the table. I finally lay my head down on the cot and fall asleep around 2 a.m.

Erika shakes me awake, “Alexis. Alexis! Get up. He’s calling us” I jump up and throw my black hair into a quick ponytail with the orange hairtie that was secured around my wrist and follow her into the main room. We find Master standing on a balcony above us on the second floor.

“Your friend’s blood needs to be cleaned. Your first assignment for this morning will to be to scrub this room spotless. I will separate you into two pairs and you will each clean one half of the room. If I am displeased with either pairs work, you and your partner will choose which of you will end up like your friend.”

We all stand silently, I try to avoid Master's gaze.

He looks over the rusty rail of the balcony and chooses our partners. “You… with you and you with… you” He chose. “It is currently 8 a.m. I will return in exactly 3 hours to inspect your work. Good luck children.” He backed away from the balcony and left us to our work. "

I was paired with Thomas and Erika with Austin. Thomas, Nathan and I handled the left half of the room and Erika, Taylor and Austin cleaned the right. Thomas and I began at a broken grandfather clock that stood only a couple feet from the table. I picked up a ripped cloth that sat in a moldy white bucket and began scrubbing the floor. We cleaned and re-cleaned every spot in the room, the table and floor took us the longest because of Christa’s blood. We approached the table slowly and scrubbed the floor beneath the edge of the table, I could see where Christa lay and the pool of blood that formed around her that had dripped onto the floor. Thomas and I clean the area as best we could, but sadly 11 a.m. comes quickly and we just finish when Master walks down the stairs into the main room. I toss the rag back into the bucket and the once clear water is now a mud red color. He carefully inspects every inch of the room. We silently pray for each others lives, that we won’t have to choose and none of us will end up like Christa did.