Page 14 of Vengeance of Childhood Proportions (Till Death Do Us Part #7)

As I walked over to the wall to get the supplies ready for Sam, I took a peek at John because he’d fallen silent. The man was passed out. I could see the lack of blood in his left hand. After sixteen hours like that, I might have to amputate it.

Huh. Just one more thing to add to my resume, I guess.

I grabbed a butterfly knife and medical grade latex gloves. I was not taking off the infected skin on Sam’s chest wound to help him. The procedure would cause him a lot of agony. His screams were my goal.

I had a rolling cart that I used to bring supplies over, depending on where I was in the cell.

The pipe that had once been my shower and toilet was now a covered drain that provided easy cleanup.

Jason or I poured a gallon of undiluted bleach down it daily to destroy any evidence that might accumulate in the pipe.

As I neared with my cart, I saw Sam’s mouth moving. He was delirious and mumbling a lot of nonsensical things. The fever had gone to his head many days ago. But that wouldn’t stop him from feeling pain. If anything, it might enhance it.

I’d need to ask Jason about that one. If my assumption was wrong, that might be a reason to bring down his fever.

“…ease…” I ignored Sam’s mutterings as I got my purple gloves on. Not much grossed me out, but I was not about to touch infected, charred skin barehanded. “…ail…ee…ease…”

I paused. That last bit was louder. And something about it had my ears ringing. I put down one of the gloves, having only halfway gotten it on before I heard him talk.

I walked over to the sink where I got one of the buckets of water that are prepped there. Sometimes it just makes life easier to have the water handy without needing to wait for one of the buckets to fill.

Sam shouted and then wailed when I threw the water onto his face. I heard John wake at the noise and immediately start to moan as his own pain registered.

“What the fuck did you just say?” I demanded, tossing the bucket unceremoniously towards the sink.

Gasping and spluttering water, Sam opened and closed his mouth several times before he was able to speak clearly. “Please. Please, stop. We’re sorry. We’re all so sorry. We didn’t know. We were kids?—”

“You didn’t know ?” I repeated back, my voice loud and harsh. “You didn’t know that sticking your penis inside a bound girl was wrong because you were just a kid ? You were old enough to know where to put it, Sam! You just didn’t ask for permission !”

I wasn’t sure if the liquid coming down his face was only water or tears too. His face was scrunched like he was trying to cry, but I was fairly certain he was too dehydrated for that. “We’re sorry?—”

“You’re only sorry because you’re here !

What the fuck have you ever done in your life, Sam, that would prove to me that you’ve been sorry since the day you and your buddies gang raped me?

Were you aware I got pregnant? Not only was I forced to go to school with the boys who raped me, but I got pregnant by one of you.

My depression made me lose the baby! My baby!

At fifteen, I was forced to grasp the fact that I’d killed my baby because I couldn’t handle the shit inside my head! ”

I scoffed, shaking my head. “But you’re ‘sorry’. Well, Sam, I’m afraid it’s too little, too late. If you were truly sorry, you would have confessed to your crimes instead of caring more about playing a fucking hockey game.”

“I’m sorry…” His voice was getting lower, more slurred. “I’m so sorry, Hailey.”

I froze. My hand was outstretched, reaching for the glove I had yet to put on. My ears started to ring and I felt a flush under my skin like I’d been standing in the sun for too long.

Slowly, I pivoted on my heels to face Sam again. “What the fuck did you just call me?”

His eyes were blinking slowly. He was running low on energy and I was about to lose him to unconsciousness again. I ran over to the sink, grabbed another bucket, and threw it on him again.

Sam roared out in pain, trying to sit up but the straps on the table held him immobilized. “I’m sorry!” he shouted, coughing. “Hailey, I’m sorry!”

I dropped the bucket. It clattered on the cement floor, echoing like a gunshot.

Hailey. Fucking Hailey . My heart was hammering and I thought for a moment I was going to throw up.

I walked right up to Sam and grabbed his chin. I forced his head towards me, gripping him hard. “What the fuck did you just call me?”

His cheeks were pinched between my fingers, but I heard him clearly. “Hailey. That’s what Christopher said your name was.”

I dropped his face like he’d just spat acid at me. Hailey. I couldn’t breathe. The fuck? I’d been doing all of this, torturing them for five weeks to exact my revenge, and they thought my fucking name was Hailey!

I ran over to John, who was whimpering out his pain as he tried to gather the strength he needed to stand on the stake again. His face was about a foot above mine, but I didn’t care. I kicked the stake out from under his foot, not giving him the option to stand anymore.

He cried out as he dangled from his wrist.

“What the fuck is my name!?” I demanded of him.

John was shaking his head, either too distracted from the pain to answer or he didn’t know the answer.

I screamed!

They obviously remembered assaulting me.

As soon as I’d stepped into the bunker that first day, they knew.

Christopher, Sam, and Andy had recognized me before John and Amber had.

John had also been unconscious at first, exhausted from trying to break free of his cell.

I tried to think back over the last five weeks.

Had any of them said my name? They’d said Jason’s but had only remembered him as ‘Janitor Kadeer’.

But none of them had said my name.

They’d raped me. They’d forced themselves into my body in the most heinous, humiliating way possible and they didn’t even know or remember my name ! I’d gone to school with the lot of them since preschool. There’d only been around a hundred of us in our graduating class.

And they didn’t know my fucking name !

I didn’t remember picking up the knife. I didn’t remember carving my name into Sam’s body over and over again. I didn’t remember cutting off his genitals and shoving them down his throat.

I hadn’t experienced a blackout haze like that in years.

I’d honestly thought Jason had cured me of them, but apparently we were both wrong on that front.

When he came down the stairs of the bunker hours later, I was a bloody mess in the corner of the room.

None of it was my blood, but it still must have been a shocking sight.

Jason crouched down in front of me. “Hols, what happened?”

His calm demeanor helped to soothe my rage, but it did not extinguish it. I lifted my head just enough to show him that I wasn’t harmed. “They don’t know my name. They ruined me, broke me, and they don’t even remember my fucking name.”

Jason looked over his shoulder at Sam. I wasn’t sure if he was dead or alive, though based on the amount of blood on me, him, and the floor, I was going to guess dead. Carefully, Jason shifted on the balls of his feet to face me again. “I see you reminded him.”

I couldn’t help the snort that came out of me. Only Jason could be so aloof while I was a fucking mess.

Jason stood up, holding out a hand to help me up.

He took the knife from my gloved hand that I didn’t realize I was still holding.

“Go take a shower, Hols, and then get out of here. I’ll clean up.

Though, we might have to figure something else out with this body.

You pretty much signed your murder confession onto his skin. ”

As I made to exit the cell, my eyes landed on the carvings in Sam’s dark skin. If there was a Hell, I hoped the Devil let him keep my handiwork. I wanted him to remember my name for all eternity.

Holly