Tethered Twins

Rex T Jules

“You are a very lucky man.”

Rex awoke to a sharp pain as a knife slowly scratched away at him. He looked down at his arm and saw that a diamond symbol had been haphazardly carved into his skin.

“I very rarely miss and a cut like that so close to your spine? Not many people would survive that. Maybe I’m still in shock because someone HIT ME OVER THE HEAD WITH A BAT!” Vlad, the man with the knives, was not happy.

“What made you think it would be a good idea to attack someone with such a great collection of knives?” said Vlad. “I could cut holes in you so small that you would bleed out from a thousand places bit by bit. Perhaps you’d prefer a larger knife that I’d use to chop through your limbs, section by section until you were nothing more than a pile of meat? What will it be?”

Rex was tied to the bed with ropes connecting his arms and legs to the four bed posts forcing him to make a star like shape. The ropes had specks of blood on them as if they had been used before and he prayed they hadn’t been used on Emmie or Will.

“You’re a quiet one. Very well,” he looked down at his belt deciding which knife to use.

He retrieved a thin knife from his belt; it was a long knife that had a blade which stuck out on the end. The knife was no more than two centimetres thick but the edge still looked razor sharp.

“Don’t move or this will be even more painful that it has to be,” he said, as he positioned the knife in front of Rex. With a direct thrust he plunged the knife diagonally through Rex’s chest, past his rib cage and into his lungs.

The force jolted Rex upwards and he could feel his lung start to tighten as it registered the shock.

“Right now, you can still breathe but if I move the knife out of you then your lung will deflate and you’ll slowly and agonisingly drown. Your lung will collapse in on itself and you will spend your last few hours in horrific pain,” teased Vlad.

Rex grimaced from the thought. What have I gotten in to? he asked himself.

“However, if you tell me where Emmie is then I’ll leave the knife in and walk away. You’ll be able to call an ambulance and if they’re very careful you may just survive. If you tell me nothing then I’ll pull the knife out and sit here until you die. Your choice,” said Vlad.

“I don’t know, I swear!” Rex wasn’t lying, he really had no idea.

Vlad teased the knife to the left ever so slightly. It was enough to allow air to seep from Rex’s lung, which caused him to panic and force his mouth open in a mad fight for air. Vlad saw this and held his hand other Rex’s face and nose, forcing the lung on his right side to fight harder, applying more pressure to the knife wound.

Rex’s human instinct to survive was killing him. Every breath took him a bit closer to death.

Vlad removed his hand and Rex gasped for air, his lung continuing to cause its own destruction. “If you lie to me again I will collapse your lung and we’ll start on the other side. After that it’s game over.”

Even if Rex knew where Emmie was he’d never tell this madman. He didn’t want another person to endure what he was going through. If his death would save Emmie, then so be it.

“Go to hell!” shouted Rex, trying to kick his legs in a desperate attempt to hit his attacker. The rope held them down tightly and he was unable to fight back.

“Fine!” screamed Vlad as he removed the knife.

Rex’s body went into shock. He felt a sharp, tight pain on one side of his chest and leant forward on the right side of his body trying to force his lung back to life. Every intake of breath made the pain worse and the agony started to spread all around one side of his chest. Breathing became laboured and a constant torture.

“One down. One to go. If you don’t get medical care soon you’ll lose the lung forever, that’s years off your life expectancy gone like that,” taunted Vlad. “If you tell me now you’ll live but you’ve seen how easily I can end your life forever. “

“Ok, fine I’ll tell you,” Rex didn’t know what to say so he lied hoping it would save his life. “She’s gone to London. She heard that someone was after her and her brother and so she went where no-one would ever look for her.”

“Interesting,” he leant in and placed his hand around Rex’s face. “London is a big place. I need more.”

“Yes… well … she said if I needed to find her she would be living by the old London Eye, although I can’t promise she will still be there,” said Rex.

Vlad let go of Rex’s face and walked away. He dialled a number on his phone and shouted orders to someone else. When he had finished he said “London it is. My brother is on his way there now so it’s waiting time for you. I’ll give him four hours and if we don’t have Emmie by then I’ll kill you.”

Rex groaned from the pain. “Here let me help you with that,” said Vlad, as he punched Rex in his chest forcing him to cough up blood. He retrieved a knife from his belt and ripped Rex’s jeans.

He carved a line into Rex’s leg, causing him to groan in pain. The groan made him exhale air quickly, forcing his lung into further shock. He fought the pain through gritted teeth as his leg and his chest cried out for help.

“For every ten minutes we have to wait I will cut you again. If you are lying then all you’ve done is bought yourself four hours of agony along with a slow death and believe me, if we can’t find her, then I’ll show you even more depraved levels of pain. Tick tock.”

He pulled a chair in front of Rex and sat down. For the next nine minutes he played with the knife sweeping it through the air and taunting Rex with it. When the tenth minute arose, he made another cut with the knife. “Three Hours and fifty minutes to go,” he repeated his earlier taunt. “Tick Tock.”