Chapter Three: Liam

When we are first born, it’s with one feeling; terror. We are scared, yes. However, being scared opens the doors for something wonderful to happen. Your mother showers you with kisses and soft coo’s to console you. Thus, gaining more feelings, and for the first time ever, stopping to take a breath. This is something we don’t think of often. Even as we grow older, we often let the world pass us by. We don’t stop to think about what we could be missing, or what could be true. As a human, we see, hear, and think what we want. A human’s perception of reality is never correct, that is, until it slaps you in the face. As an adolescent, or teenager if you will, we see this most often. Teenagers are prone to distorting reality. We are in a constant state of blissful ignorance, always thinking we can overcome anything. As far as we know we are invincible. Then something happens, a situation arises that shatters your bulletproof exterior. That’s how it was for me. He ruined us, took away everything. Life as I knew it ended that day.

               

“God, Mr. Jones failed me on that math quiz!” Jess hollered.

                “Calm down, you can retake it!” I laughed.

She angrily fumbled with her locker knob as she continued to rant.

                “You get one problem wrong and he fails you! As if he is all that perfect. Who does he think he is, God?” she slammed her locker shut.

                We walked out of the building and headed down Benson, as we had done for eight years. The wind was frigid, and I could feel my nose go numb. I began to shiver, but I wasn’t all that cold. I was nervous, frightened actually.

                Today is the day I am going to tell Jess how I feel. How madly in love I am with her.

                We approached her front door, and my tremors became worse. I grabbed her hand as she reached for the knob, knowing I would need to stay outside for this. When I got nervous being inside only made it worse. I would feel as if I was trapped.

                “Jess I-I have to tell you s-something.” I stuttered.

                “Why so serious, Joker?” she teased, but quickly realized the concern in my face. “Liam, what’s wrong?”

My mind exploded through my mouth. My tongue unable to stop my words, allowed the wreckage to pass through.

                “Jess, there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about you. I mean maybe that’s because we see each other every day, but in class, and at home you are always on my mind. Your angelic voice rings in my ears, and your beauty bewitches my mind. From the day I met you I felt this warmth inside of me. I have never felt that with anyone else. When I am with you, the world stops, my problems fade, and I feel alive. Not to mention how beautiful you are, I mean God Jess, you are perfect! Without you, I would be nothing. Hell, I would be lost!” I gasped for air, and wiped the sweat from my forehead, “I-I love you Jess.”

                There it was. I had poured out my heart and now it was flopping around on her porch like a fish out of water, waiting to be placed back into its wet sanctuary. I slowly raised my eyes to meet hers, but they weren’t there. In all the years I had known Jess, she had never broken her gaze with me. Now, her stare was fixed on her feet. She sighed, and took a step back from me.

                Crap.

                “Liam, I-“

                Just then a blood curdling shriek came from up the street. A crimson shadow was hurdling towards us.

“Help me please!” he cried, “a car has hit my daughter, Eve. There is so much blood!”

                He pointed behind him to a broken body lying in the street. He looked at us with his wild eyes, clenching onto his bloody shirt.

                “I can’t stop the bleeding, please help me.”

                Jess took the man’s hand, and looked back at me.

                “Let’s go.” She commanded.

                The three of us took off running for the body. As we neared I couldn’t help but notice something was missing; the girls arms. My heart stopped. Jess screamed and fell to the ground. I looked back at the man, who was now holding a metal rod in his hand.

                “She was no good anyways,” he growled, “her blood bitter, her body weak.”

                He stepped forward, tightening his grip on the rod, which I noticed looked much like a fire poker. He looked at us, smiling.

                “You two, however, are the ones. I can feel it. I will make you flawless.”

                Suddenly, he turned for Jess. I lunged at him, grabbing onto his leather coat. His face twisted, and he grabbed me with his free hand, throwing me to the ground. With one smack, his poker connected with my temple. Darkness clouded my eyes; Jess’s screams were the last sound I heard before I was encased in blackness.   

 

                My quivering hand sifted through the dirt I was lying in. I was confused, remembering only seconds later I had been attacked. The dirt was wet, but warm. I slowly let my eyes flutter open. The light was blurry and dim. I sat up, the room rushed, and my head pulsated. I clutched the sides of my head, trying to stop the dizziness. Blood dripped down my fingers, landing in the pool of warm blood I had been lying in. I shivered along with a breeze I hadn’t felt before, bumps formed on my skin, and the hair rose all over my body. It was then that I had realized why I was so cold; I was naked.

                “L-Liam?” Jess’s voice startled me.

                I turned my head towards her voice, only to see her huddled in the corner; naked and bloody like me. I crawled over to her, and took her in my arms. She embraced me back, and cried into my chest. For what seem like hours we sat and cried at our confusion and pain. I stroked her hair, as she sniffled.

                She lifted her head, asking me the obvious, “Where are we?”

                “I don’t know. All I remember is being hit after seeing that girl-“

                “He took us!” Jess shouted.

She was right. We had been kidnapped, stolen from our comfortable lives and thrown into what seemed like a scary movie. I didn’t even know where we were, only that it looked like an abandoned house or cabin maybe. It was lit only by a fire, and smelled of mildew and something worse, but I didn’t know what. I looked around, but gave up after only being able to see shadows and a door without a handle. Jess began to violently shake, and breathe heavily. Her eyes darted around the room and she clung to me. We realized our grave reality; we were trapped, naked, and scared.

Footsteps echoed behind the door. We pressed ourselves into the corner, terrified. Without warning the man who had attacked us burst through the door. He was unusually tall, and lanky, almost too thin, as if he rarely ate. His hair was long and tangled, as was his beard. His dark black eyes had the same wild stare in them that they did when he attacked us. Insanity lurked in his crooked smile, hiding behind his yellowed teeth. He smelled of old blood, and body odor. His stench filled my nostrils and I had to try hard not to vomit. He inched closer to us, locking his eyes on Jess.

“Get the f**k away!” I shouted, pulling her closer to me.

He didn’t even take notice to me. He crouched down in front of Jess, and extended his bloody hand towards her. I rose up to push him back, but he caught me off guard and grabbed a fist full of my hair with one hand. I squirmed trying to release from his grip, he was strong for being that scrawny. With his free hand he turned back to Jess, stroking her hair. She shrieked, slapping his hand away. He sighed, and released his grip on me, sending me face first into the graveled floor. He sauntered back to the door, stopping as he reached for the knob. He turned his head to the corner across from us.

“See what happens when you accept the flaws,” he shouted, “now you’re being replaced.”

Angrily, he flung the door open, whispering to himself, and slamming it shut again. I peered over to the corner; I could only make out a shadow.

“I think someone is over there.” I whispered.

Jess nodded, “Hello?”

She leaned forward, and slowly began crawling over to the human figure.

“Whoa. Wait!” I grabbed her arm.

“They might be knocked out like we were. Maybe if we work together we can all take him down.” She said.

Regrettably, I released her arm, and watched as she made her way across the room. With each crawling movement she shook. Finally, she was close enough to the figure to touch it. She extended her arm into the darkness, whispering to it.

“Hey, can you hear me?” she shook the figure.

The shadow fell forward; reviling it was human, barely. Jess jumped to her feet in a panic. She began gasping for air, backing away from the person. I ran over to her, stopping once I saw the horrendous sight. I grabbed jess’s arm, and pulled her away from the body, or what once was a body. Suddenly I was able to place the disgusting smell; rotting flesh. The mangled body looked like a teenage boys, but was missing some parts. He had been scalped carelessly with a patch of skin and hair still attached. One of his eyes was hanging from the socket, and I didn’t want to know where the other was. I glanced downward to the pile of intestines that had fallen from him when his body toppled over. I stepped a little closer to him, noticing one of his ribs had been broken off. Jess began wailing, muttering so quickly I couldn’t understand her.

“Jess calm down! Please, he will hear you!”

She raised her arm slowly, pointing at the boys legs.

Oh my God.

Around his thighs were thin, jagged lines. I got even closer, and to my horror I could see what she was pointing at. The glow of the fire reviled the mismatching legs sewn onto his body. Almost passing out, I grabbed onto Jess, pulling her away from the body. She began to freak out.

“He is going to kill us! He is going to cut us up and put other body parts on us! He-“she began to hyperventilate.

“Whoa, whoa, calm down! Breathe, Jess, breathe!” I patted her back. “Look, I don’t know how but we are going to make it out of here. I promise I will do everything I can, but you have to fight too.”

She took deep breaths and nodded. “I will.”

“Besides,” I smiled, “or parents have probably noticed us gone by now and have all the cops in town looking for us.”

She looked up at me, smiling, with hope in her eyes.

“Liam,” she stepped closer to me, “I love you too.”

I almost laughed. Here we are stuck in a dark room, with a dead body, and a serial killer outside, and now she says I love you back? Holy s**t. I pulled her into my chest, letting tears roll down my cheeks.

“S**t Jess, you couldn’t of picked a better time to say it back?” I said with a pinch of sarcasm.

She looked up with me, her expression solid and serious. “Liam I wanted you to know now that I felt the same, just in case-“

“Don’t talk like that,” I snapped, “there is no just in case. We are going to make it out of here.”

I looked over at the mangled body. “In one piece too.” I added.

I spoke too soon.

The man reappeared at the door, opening it slowly this time. His eyes, once again, locked on Jess. Quickly, he walked over to her, striking me down before I could intervene. He clutched her arm so forcefully she fell to the ground with a thud. He had dragged her to the door by the time I was able to get to my feet. I ran to the door, reaching it just in time for him to slam it shut. I pounded and screamed into the door.

“Jess!” I yelled, pressing my ear to the door.

I listened helplessly as her screams echoed behind the door, then faded into silence.

 

Author's Note

What do you guys think? :)