The Perfect Nightmare

Part 1: Chapter 4

“Hello? Is anyone there?”
         “Oh wonderful,” Charlie said as she entered the room. “I was wondering when you would wake up. We have a lot to do, and not much time.” She walked around to look at the girl, a heap of metal devices in her hands.
         “What are those?”
         “These are thumbscrews. They go on the tips of your fingers, and when you screw it, they break your fingers,” Charlie explained as she slid one of the devices over the young woman’s thumb. “It will hurt, but it won’t kill you.”
         “Why are you doing this?” The young woman stared at her thumb as Charlie began to screw the bar down. She let out a sound of discomfort when the device began to pinch. Charlie smiled to herself as she continued to screw the bars tighter.
         “I don’t like rumors,” Charlie said. She stopped screwing the bars down and looked up at the young woman. “I know who you are, Traci. I know what you have been saying about your classmate. I also know that your boyfriend raped her.”
         “How do you know that?” Traci said through clenched teeth. She was trying not to make another sound that showed she was in pain, but after a few moments, she couldn’t help it and her breath hissed out between her lips.
         “I’ve studied the entire situation. I’ve talked to your classmates. Abby isn’t the only subject of your rumors or the only victim of your boyfriend. But you really went in on Abby, didn’t you?” Charlie moved to Traci’s other hand and slipped another device on that thumb. She began screwing it down until it was at the same level as the first. “Abby was your best friend in elementary school, wasn’t she? But you dropped her because you blossomed first, you grew up first. She was still a kid when you gained popularity. You couldn’t be seen with her, you couldn’t be associated with her. She was your main victim all these years.”
         Charlie began adding and tightening the rest of the devices on Traci’s fingers until all of them were uncomfortably tight. The sounds of discomfort and despair filled the room and it heightened Charlie’s excitement.
         “Please, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I said those things. I’ll tell Abby how sorry I am. Just please, let me go.”
         “Shh, shh. I know you’re sorry. Everyone is sorry when they’re in pain and suffering. But that feeling would go away if I let you go. You wouldn’t try to right your wrongs. You would go right back to it the moment you could,” Charlie said, patting Traci’s head. “You’re not really sorry, are you?”
         Charlie turned the screw and brought the bar tighter on Traci’s thumb, She screamed out in agony. This brought another smile to Charlie’s face. She continued tightening each device, listening to the sounds of despair and pain coming from her victim. When she was finished with each device, and all of Traci’s fingers were well and properly broken, Charlie sat back on her heels and stared at her. She had passed out from the pain, but her chest was still rising and falling.
         “What are you doing?” Jack’s voice broke the silence. Charlie stood and looked at him from over Traci’s unconscious body.
         “I’m doing my job. What are you doing?”
         “Nothing, I guess. Are you hungry? I was thinking about going out,” Jack said, leaning against the door-frame. Charlie nodded and walked passed him toward the exit of the darkness, through the back wall of the pantry.
         “I need to get cleaned up first.”



Jack and Charlie sat across from one another in a booth towards the back of the restaurant. They had ordered their drinks and were discussing what food they should order. When they had decided, Jack flagged down the waiter.
         “I’ll have the Deluxe Hamburger,” Jack said. The waiter wrote it down on his pad of paper.
         “I’ll have the chicken noodle soup with a side of garlic bread,” Charlie added. When the young man was finished he walked away and left the two to talk in relative seclusion. No one was sat around them, so they could easily discuss whatever topic they wanted to without fearing eavesdroppers.
         “What do you plan on doing with her? You can’t keep her forever,” Jack whispered over his drink. Charlie shrugged and took a sip of her drink.
         “I’ll finish it when I feel like finishing it. She’s a fighter. It took seven fingers to make her pass out. I might move on to her toes when she wakes up. I want to make her feel so much more despair.”
         “Despair…” Jack said under his breath. That was a good way to describe how he was feeling at that moment. He felt utterly despondent. He couldn’t wrap his head around what he had done to the man he had kidnapped. He couldn't understand what drove him to do what he had done. “How can you do this without feeling something?”
         “Oh, I feel loads of things. But I am not weighed down by your sense of morality. I’ve never been weighed down by morality. I do it because it makes me feel good. After all, it feels right,” Charlie said. Jack stared at her in astonishment.
         “You just accept this? Do you accept needing to do this? You truly believe we were destined to do this?”
         “Yes.”
         “Maybe I’m just a coward,” Jack said, bowing his head. “Maybe I’d be better off as food for the house.”
         “No, we are meant to do this together. The house wants both of us, not one or the other. It has plans for us, that much I know. Yes, we feed it now – but we are meant for something bigger than just that. There is an end goal that being within the walls has. We just don’t know what that is yet – we may not know until it happens,” Charlie explained. She reached out and placed her hand over Jack’s. “Look, I’ll be with you every step of the way. I won’t leave your side through this whole experience. We’re in this together.”
         “Alright,” Jack said, his voice shaky. The waiter arrived with their food and they ate in silence. When they were finished, Jack paid the bill and they left the restaurant holding hands.




“This device is used to break the toes, all at the same time,” Charlie said, handing Jack one of two devices that mirrored the ones on Traci’s fingers, only bigger. “Slip the toes in between the two bars and screw it down on both sides. Do it to just where her toes are held in place, not any tighter.”
         “Alright,” Jack said, crouching down in front of Traci. She was starting to come around, lulling her head from side to side and letting out little moans of pain and discomfort. He screwed the bars into place just enough to where she couldn’t push the device off of her foot. Charlie finished with the other foot and stood.
         “Now we wait for her to wake up,” she said as she smiled. “I wonder if there are any smelling salts in here.”
         “I’ll check,” Jack said as he walked to the wall where a red light bulb shined. He checked the rows of shelves and found a small box of packets labeled Ammonia Inhalants. “Here, I think this is it.”
         Charlie took a packet and tore it open, then put it under Traci’s nose. She inhaled quickly and opened her eyes. A look of terror slid across her face as she realized where she was and what had already happened to her.
         “What are you doing? What’s going on?” She looked around frantically, trying to get her barrings. She tried to move her hands and screamed out in pain. “What did you do to me?”
         “I broke the tips of her fingers with thumbscrews. Now I am going to break your toes,” Charlie said, kneeling in front of her. She began screwing the bars on her left foot tighter and tighter until Traci started to scream. Charlie moved to her right foot and began doing the same thing. Traci began to shake violently as the pain shot up her calves and into her thighs. Charlie could feel her despair, feel her will to fight to lessen and lessen with each turn of the screw. “You are going to die here, Traci. I will be the one to kill you. Your death will be slow and terrifying and painful.”
         Jack stood behind Charlie and watched, his arms wrapped around his waist. He felt sick watching the torture, but he continued to watch with rapt attention.
         “No, no, please! Please don’t do this. I’ve learned my lesson, I won't spread any more rumors, I won't talk badly about anyone!” Traci pleaded in between whimpers. “Please, you don't have to kill me. You can let me go. I won't say anything to anyone, I promise.”
         “Even if I cared, I couldn’t let you go. You say you won't tell anyone, but I know better. Sooner or later, you’ll tell someone. And we can't have that.” Charlie stood and walked around Traci until she was behind her. On the workbench behind her was a plastic bag and a roll of duct tape. She grabbed them both and turned back to Traci. “I’m killing you because you ruined their lives, Traci, and you knew what you were doing. Those rumors will follow them for years.”
         Charlie slipped the bag over Traci’s head and tied it in place. Traci started shaking and moving her head from side to side. The duct-tape came next – Charlie wrapped it around her neck, securing the bag in place and making it as airtight as it could be. She moved around to look at Traci’s face as she screamed and sucked in breath after breath, trying to move her arms out of the restraints to take the bag off. Traci tried to kick her legs out but the pain in her feet made her stop almost immediately. Through the opaque bag, Charlie could see her eyes wide and terrified. She continued to breathe deeply until her eyes rolled back into her head and she passed out.
         “She is still breathing,” Charlie said, leaning in close to Traci’s face. “Maybe ten minutes and she will be gone. Do you want something to drink?”
         “Yeah, a coke,” Jack responded, his eyes glued to Traci. Charlie patted him on the shoulder and left the room. He took a step toward the girl and reached his hand out to touch her. Her arms were warm. He checked her pulse and it was thready and barely there, but he could still feel it.
         “Here,” Charlie said as she walked in. She tossed the can of soda at Jack, who caught it with both hands. “How is she doing?”
         “Thready pulse, but hanging in there,” Jack responded. He moved away from Traci and tapped the lid of his can. He put a bit of pressure on the tab and opened it slowly. “What do we do now?”
         “We wait. She will die eventually. I’d give it another five minutes max,” Charlie said, opening her own can of soda. “We’ll leave the bag on her head regardless, just in case. Plastic bags are a dime a dozen.”
         “Alright,” Jack said, staring at Traci. It was different from what he did. It was less messy, to begin with – but it was also more painful to watch. Seeing the life leave someone so slowly, and Charlie had been methodical about it. The torture, the suffocation, it was all so calculated and executed to perfection – at least from what he knew. He hadn’t researched ways to kill people before. He hadn’t seen someone suffocate before. To be honest, it scared him to death – no pun intended.
         They waited in silence as Traci drew her last couple of breaths, then watched as her head fell to the side. Jack stepped forward and felt for a pulse, but there was none. He gave Charlie a thumbs up, but inside he was reeling from the death. It made him sick to his stomach.
         “Well, let’s put her in the pit,” Charlie said, setting down her drink.