The life of aountain vampire ch 2

Chapter 2

The Pitiful Plaything



Hours seemed to go by before I came to.  When I finally regained my séances, I could hear the sounds of heavy rain and the occasional crash of thunder, but try as I may I couldn’t see anything.  Trying to open my eyes I found that I couldn’t because something was covering them, whatever it was, it was tight against my face.  I stayed as still as possible not knowing what to expect.  Hopefully they had forgotten me, I thought to myself.  Slowly I start to hear someone in the room with me.  If anyone then who?  It didn’t sound like any of the guys that did this to me.  "Hello, is anyone there?  Please, if there is anyone there answer me!"

Brad laughed as he walked toward me.  "So sleeping beauty is awake.  I thought for a minuet there, that Kevin had finished you off with that shot." 

Kevin pats my head hard and starts laughing, "Na-Nah, just a little bump on the head, ain't that right baby boy?"

"Where am I?  I….I can't see.  What do ya want with me now?"

"So ya want to see, huh?  Hey, would one of ya guys be so kind as to help our little friend out?"  Kevin laughed.

As Brad untied the blindfold, he gave a sharp tug on the cloth, causing pain to shoot through my head.  "Oops, sorry I guess I pulled it a little tight there.  “My bad."  He laughed.

After slowly opening my eyes, I start looking around to see where I was.  From what I could tell from the dim lighting I was in an old building of some sort.  There was a barrel in the center of the room with a fire going, which seemed to be the only light in the whole place.  Well except for the random flash of lightning through the broken windows that weren’t boarded up.  As my eyes grew more accustomed to the lighting I could make out more and more of where I was.  A cold flush ran over me when I finally realized where I was- the old Raven Theater!  What a place to be alone with a bunch of guys like this.  I just couldn’t help but think of what they were planning to do to me.  I mean I’ve heard the roomers of what they do with each other when they are alone, but now I’m here, alone with them.  Looking around I noticed that I was alone on the middle of a large wooden stage.  I scramble to my feet I start walking towards the edge looking for a way down.  There had to be a way out of here, I thought to myself, there just has to be.  Walking around to see where my escape was, I realize to my horror that my wrists and ankles were bound by hand cuffs connected to long sturdy ropes and the only place I could go with ease was on the stage.  Needless to say, they had me on a leash and to beat it all they had taken off all of my clothes!  Well, all accept my boxers and cap, which for some reason I still had on.  The rest of my stuff was in a pile on the floor by the side of the stage.  "What tha hell is this you jerks?  Taking hold of one of the ropes I tried my hardest to pull it loose from the wall, but there was no budging it.  My head throbbed with a killer headache, but I wasn’t about to let them know that.  No telling what they would do with that bit of information.

Kevin just grins, "Nothin' much.  Ya see we can't let you go off and tell people what has happened tonight, at least not yet anyways.  So we're going to have a bit of fun before we let ya go.  Oh, by the way, you don’t mind do ya? 

"Fun!?  What do you mean fun?"  I asked in a panicked whimper, pulling at the cuffs to see if they would give any, but instead they seemed to get tighter.

Kevin smirked and shrug’s his shoulders.  "I mean, if you don’t have any money to give us, then I guess you will have to do."  Kevin laughed as he walked around the barrel, digging around in it causing the fire to flare up.  Walking back over to where I was he smiles brushing a strand of hair from my face and whispers in my left ear “Almost ready...but not yet."

In a frantic panic, I pointed over to where my clothes were.  "I have my wallet in my back left pocket.  If there is anything in it, take it.  I may have a five in there but I'm not sure.  Take that and let me go."

Brad walks over to my clothes and picks up the jeans pulling the wallet out and tosses it to Kevin.  As Kevin goes though the wallet Brad comes up behind me and kisses me on my left ear.  While running his hands down my sides and across my stomach he pulls me back closer to him and whispers in my ear "Oh you've really done it now pretty boy!"  With that he gently bites and pulls on my ear then walks back over to Chris and climbs up onto the back of one of the chairs to watch Kevin's next move. 

As he walks over to the seats by his boys he just looks my way and smiles.  "Boy's ya know what to do..."  With that they jump out off their seats and walk my way. Climbing on to the stage, they start pulling the ropes tight.  I tried to pull the ropes back but couldn’t, they were just too strong.  When the ropes were pulled as tight as they could go I was left standing with my arms and legs spread wide in a large X shape.

"What are you doing?  No.  Please stop!  Just tell me what it is you want from me."  I plead, pulling the ropes but to no use.

Kevin walks up to me tapping the wallet in his hand.  "You lied to us.  Now why did you go and do that for?"

"No, I didn’t....I…"

"YOU LIED TO US!!!!!!!"  He screamed, hitting me across the right side of my face with the back of his hand.  "Chris asked you if you had any money and you said that you didn’t.  If that isn’t a lie then I don’t know what is."  Blood began dripping from my lip, I tried to talk but Kevin grabs me by the throat smiling at me.  "Sssshhhh, no....you will not get the chance to lie to us again.  Do you remember what I said would happen if I found out that you had lied?”  He begins nodding his head in a mocking gesture.  “Yes, you remember, don’t you?  Oh, the time for talking is over pretty boy....now the fun can start."

With that Brad jumps up and yells.  “YEAH!  HHHHHHHHAAAAAAA!!!!  It's party time."  Walking over he leans on Kevin's shoulder, giving me a long, evil look.  "Hey Kev, let me go first.  I've always wanted to try something like this but I've never had the chance, well till now that is.  Oh come on man, let me play first!  I won't be too rough, promise."

Kevin nods and let’s go of my throat, then walks back over to where he had been sitting.  He points at Brad and raises one of his eyebrows.  "Just remember not too rough, the rest of us want to have a go at him too."

Brad claps his hands together and jumps up, smiling like a madman.  "Yes!  Your mine now, little boy, and I want to hear you scream."  Brad chuckled as he walks over to a small table in one of the corners and starts sorting through some cds...  "Now all we need is some music to set the mood and then we can get started.  Oh hell yeah, here we go, the perfect song."  Turning the player up as loud as it would go the song Closer by Nine Inch Nails starts drifting through the empty building while Brad laughs and points over at me.  "Hey Kev!  Let me see your knife for a sec."  Digging through his pockets Kevin tossed the small folded blade over to Brad.  Brad catches the knife and turns to me, smiling.  "First thing's first, this thing has to go.  After all you won’t be needing it anymore.”  He then cuts the string that held a small silver cross that I had around my neck and tosses it to Kevin.  "Here man I don’t think he will need this.  Hey guys take a look at this!  He's sweating like a whore on Sunday and I haven’t even started yet."  Tracing a finger down my chest he placed it in his mouth and smiles down at me.  "Now that is the taste of fear and damn don’t it taste good.  Man, I am so loving this."

Coughing and gasping for breath I plead with Brad. "Brad don’t, I aint never done anything to you so just stop and let me go.  Please, I'm begging ya." 

"Man just shut tha hell up.  It’s your fault you’re here, anyway.  All you had to do was give us the money and then we would have been on our way, but no!  You had to try and play us, so just shut up and take it like a man....HAHAHAHAHA....more like a little baby."  He then starts circling me as he takes off his jacket and tosses it on to the back of the nearest seat.  "Now I'm gonna show you how a man does it...so I hope that you are ready for a wild time little boy."  He walks over behind me and rubs his hands down my sides and hips; cupping my upper thighs in his hands, as he squeezes them in tightly it causing me to jump and gasp for breath.  "Now that's a firm body if ever I felt one.  Man this is going to be one hot time."

After he lets go of me I gasp again for air and try to plead with him.  "Brad, please don’t.  I'm sorry I lied, just don’t do this man, please be reasonable."

"Man, I said to shut tha hell up.  If you want to beg then I'll give you a reason to beg."  With out another word he runs the small sharp blade up along my left side cutting a deep gash from my hip to just below the last rib, but before I can make a sound he covers my mouth and then shows me the knife blade with my blood dripping from its tip.  "Now there is a reason to beg boy."  Grabbing hold of my hips he pulls me close and whispers in my ear.  "How does it feel baby boy?  Good I bet.  Now take it like my boy should."  Pushing me over he gently slides his hands back down my sides, but this time he doesn’t stop at my hips.  Ever so slowly he nudges his finger tips under the cuff of my boxers and maneuvers his hands further down.  Gasping in shock I start to scream but he is to quick. He muzzles my scream with his left hand and jerks my head back hard against his chest. 

“Now now.  Don’t go and spoil the mood baby boy.  If you just relax it will be over soon, well not too soon. Hahahahahaha…  Biting my lower lip hard I start sobbing and shaking my head in total disbelief of what is about to happen to me.  Annoyed by my whimpering and sobbing brad grabs a hand full of my hair and shoves my head forwards.  Shut up you little brat, if your not going to enjoy this then I guess we will have to do this the hard way.  Just for your info kid, I prefer the hard way myself. I just stand there with my head down and my face covered by my hair sobbing.  Brad grabs the back of my shorts and jerks them down hard.  I hear him undo his belt and slowly unzip his jeans. “Now baby boy the real fun can start, so please try and have some fun, I know I will.”  Now a different kind of screaming fills the empty building.  One screams in pain while the other in pleasure. After a few minutes the screams change again, the pleasurable one fades to a soft panting grunt while the painful one drags out into heave sobbing and crying.  After redoing his zipper and belt, brad slumps over my shoulder and nuzzles his noise into the back of my neck.  Damn boy that was real nice thanks man. 

“Look at you, shorts all hanging down around your knees.  Boy don’t you have any manners.  Brad grunts and smiles then takes hold of either side of my boxers and pulls them up hard around my waist. Gasping in pain through the tears I manage to look up between the strands of hair that hang over my face. “

Kevin just looks at Brad with a less than amused grin on his face and just shakes his head.  Nice man, real nice.  As if we really needed to see that you pig. HAHHAH.

Brad just makes a weird face with his tongue stuck out and flips Kevin off.

“Now that you have had your fun you can let me go now. Please!!!! “

“UM No... I don’t think I’m done with you yet, that was just to get me in the mood.”  Brad just pats me on the head hard then starts circling me again, tapping the knife blade on his chin as he decides what to do next.  "Boy you have such a nice body, not sure what to do or where I should start first.  Standing in front of me, he knees me in the stomach causing me to fall to my knees and gasp for breath.  Hey, Kev … this ain't half bad, Ha-ha, you wanna go at it?"

Kevin just looks up and raises his hand.  "Not just yet, but thanks for the offer.  I'll let you have some fun first."  Kevin just smiled at me as he starts flipping through the sketch book he had found in my pack.  Looking up at me he asked, “Did you do these?"  Flipping a couple more pages he raises an eyebrow, "They’re not that bad man."

Brad just grunts and looks back down at me.  "Now, where were we?  Oh yeah!  My scream.  Go ahead and give it to me baby boy.  I want to hear you scream!"  Biting my lip I try to hold it in, shaking all over from the pain.  I start sobbing and looking at the floor.  "OH NO YOU DON’T!”  I want a scream and baby; you will give it to me!"  Grabbing me by the hair he pulls my head back and runs the knife up my right side.  I scream as the blade slides deep into my thigh.

"PLEASE STOP!  OH, GOD PLEASE STOP!"

Smiling he wipes the knife on my stomach again.  “Now that’s a good boy.  Oh and a real nice scream there Jev.  See that wasn’t so hard now…was it?”  Crying and sobbing I try to stand back up just to have Brad stab me in the back and push me back to my knees.  He then brushes my hair to the side and softly kisses me on the back of my neck.  "Now that was what I needed.  Thanks man.  What should I do with you now, huh?  Should I do this?" 

With out a word, he garbs me by the hair again and yanks my head back, smiling over at his friends, and slashes the tip of the knife across my right cheek just below my eye.  Blood beings pouring from the gash and down my cheek, as it drips from my chin it snakes its way across my chest and down my stomach.  Screaming out from shock as much as from pain I begin thrashing around and pulling at the ropes desperately trying to get free.  This just seemed to piss Brad off and he slashes me across the chest a few times in a vain attempt to reassert his control.  Seeing that this was only making things worse he grabs a hold of both sides of my head and slams it into his knee.  As he does this one of my front teeth catches him on the top of his leg and cuts it deeply.  “What tha hell…., you bit me you stupid little bitch.  I’ll teach you to bite me.”  Grabbing me around the neck from behind with his left arm he pulls me up off my knees and begins to try his best to suffocate the life out of his badly bleeding plaything. 

“Bite me huh, I’ll show you what happens to stupid little boys who try and be cute by biting people.”  I gasp for breath and trying to pull his arm free from my neck.  Consciousness begins to flicker away from me, but just before I black out, I hear Kevin tell him to let go and back off before he kills me.  As he lets go I fall back to my knees and begin coughing up small drops of blood as I continue gasping for breath.  Brad gives me one last kick in the ribs as he walks back over to his seat mumbling under his breath.  “Stupid little jerk, next time you won’t be so lucky, that I can promise ya.”  As he slumps back into his chair he smiles over at Kevin and lights up another cigarette.  After taking a long draw he casually blows a puff of smoke above his head and flicks away some ashes.  "Hey man, you have to try that.  It’s such a head rush." 

After taking a few long deep breaths I finally manage to stagger back to my feet.  Steadying my self by holding onto the ropes I look over at Brad and wipe a small trickle of blood from the corner of my mouth.  “You’ve had your fun, now let me go.  I have to get home, its getting late.”  Brad bursts out laughing and flicks what’s left of his cigarette in my direction.  “HAHAHAHA… Hear that Kev he’s got to get home!  Baby boy you aint goin any where the fun is just getting started.” 

Kevin just looks over at Brad then at me and starts shaking his head.  “It's about time I made him pay for his little error in judgment."  Kevin walks over to the barrel and pokes the fire back up a bit.  "Now it's ready."  Pulling a poker out of the barrel he takes a long look at its brightly burning tip and then sticks it to some old newspapers stacked on the floor.  He cracks an evil smile as the papers lit almost immediately.  "Yep, now it's ready." 

Walking over to where I am he circles me a few times and stops just behind me.  "You have such a nice body.  Has anyone ever told you that before?  It's a real shame that we are going to have to mess it up so badly."  Taking a handful of my hair, he breaths in deeply.  "Smells nice, by the way what shampoo do you use?  It’s nice; I’ll have to get some for me some time."  I shiver as he tosses it over my right shoulder and gently runs his finger tips along the back of my shoulders and down the center of my back stopping just above the cuff of my boxers, then he just sighs.  "Yeah, a real shame aint it."

Without another word he rams the poker into my back and all the way through until its glowing tip comes out just below my ribs. As I scream in agony he gives it a sharp twist and pulls it out with one swift jerk.  It makes a hissing sound as it burns its way back through the skin.  Smiling wryly he covers my mouth with his left hand and holds the burning poker, caked with blood, up near my face.  The scent of burning skin and blood almost causes me to throw up.  "Now how did that feel?  What no answer?  Oh well you probably would have just lied anyways." 

Pushing my head forward he slowly walks back over to the fire and tosses the poker back into the barrel and starts digging around in it with something else.  Coughing up blood I try to call for help but no words seem to come out, just an inaudible grown and droplets of clotted blood.

Brad laughs and points over to where I am. "Oh look Kev, he's trying to talk!  Isn’t that so cute?  As if anyone could hear you anyways."

"Boys could you loosen the ropes please, I think I'd like him on the floor for a bit.  Yeah, I think that would be the best position for him."  Brad and Chris Jump up on the stage and begin to untie the ends of the ropes.  As they loosen the ropes Kevin walks around me taking off his jacket and smiling.  When the ropes were loose enough I fell to my knees again, almost hitting the floor.  The sudden stop causes my cap to come loose and slide free from the hair that was holding it in place.  Steadying myself with one hand on the floor, I sit back on my knees and weakly look up at Kevin brushing the now free flowing crimson hair from my eyes.  Suddenly the whole place lit up with a blinding light as a crack of thunder boomed outside.  The storm had gotten worse over the hours I had been detained in that crumbling place of pain and humiliation.  It was as if the sky itself was protesting the cruel treatment of there feeble plaything.

Wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of my mouth I ask in a feeble cracking voice "What are you going to do to me now?  Please just let me go.  Please!"

Folding his jacket neatly and placing it on the stage, Kevin walks over and stands there looking down at me.  "What makes you think that I'm gonna tell you anything?  Oh, other then this will hurt, a lot I guess.  Now, I said on the floor."  Kicking me in the stomach he then places his right shoe on the back of my head and pushes me to the floor, flat on my stomach.  Standing there just looking down at me and shakes his head  "No, on second thought I don’t think I like you like this...nope, not at all.  Brad, Chris can you turn our guest over on his back for me please?"  Brad begins to pull me back to the middle of the stage, pulling my arms behind my head as Chris pushes my ankles back together.  "There we go.  I think that is much better don’t you agree?"  All I could do was shift painfully from side to side in the pool of blood and sweat that had formed below me from brads earlier handy work.  Straddling me he then sits on my stomach looking down at me and blows me a little kiss.  I try to resist but Brad just holds my wrist tight over my head while Chris held tight to my ankles.  Leaning over he places his hands on the stage on either side of my head and smiles down at me.  "Now what's the matter?  Don’t you want to have some fun too?"

Gathering all the strength and hatred I could, I just look up at him and grit my teeth hard. "NO!  I'd rather die then give you satisfaction!  Especially like this!"

"Is that so?  Well, I guess we will just have to see what we can do about that then, now won’t we?"  Sitting back up he looks over to Brad and motions for him to go over to the fire barrel and bring him another piece of hot metal.  Just as Brad let go of my arms I start to take a swing at Kevin, just to have him catch my fist in mid swing.  “Now what were you gonna do just now eh?  Not something stupid I hope.”  With that he slams his left elbow into the center of my chest cracking three ribs and causing a sharp jolt of pain to run through my whole chest. Smiling down at me he slowly leans over and lays his head on my chest just beside my rite nipple.  “Oh poor baby I think I might have broken a rib or two with that one.  I’m sorry; I guess I just don’t know my own strength.  Can ya forgive me there man?”  I try to catch my breath but all I can taste is the sweet metallic taste of blood running down my throat.  As Kevin stands up to let me breath I manage to roll over onto my side and begin coughing up large clots of blood and spit.  “Hey, now, what’s this?  I didn’t say you could move there now did I?”  With that he gives me a hard kick to the stomach with his left foot, causing me to roll back flat onto my back.  “Much better now don’t move.”

After a few seconds Brad comes shuffling back over to where we were holding a brightly glowing piece of metal.  “Hear man I got ya ah special treat.  Watch it now, its still kinda hot.”  Kevin looks at the brightly glowing object then down at me smiling.  “Oh now this is gonna be fun, thanks man.  Hey Jev, lookey here I got something for you, and I really think you’re gonna love it.”  Straddling me once again he sits back on my hips this time with a bone jarring thud.  “Ops, sorry man, hope I didn’t hurt ya or anything.”  Grunting loudly from the weight that now rested itself on my hips I just look up at him and gave him a painfull grin.  He didn’t care much for my attitude, and he let me know it with a back hand across the face.  “Now if your gonna get all snippy with me, then I guess we will have to leave.”  Still coughing and trying to catch my breath I just grunt.  “Oh please don’t go.  Were just getting to have some fun now aint we.”    Leaning over he kisses me on the forehead and smiles.  "Dang boy.  You sure can be a smarty pants when ya wanna be can’t ya.”  I just smile up at him and blow him a bloody kiss.  “Well then I guess since you asked so nicely, then we will have some fun now.”  Leaning back up he once again takes the small shining object from Brad and looks down at me with a more sinister smile this time.  “What say we return Jev’s stuff to him?  I sure bet he misses it.  Don’t ya think so Chris?” 

Now up to this point, Chris had just been sitting on the edge of the stage holding my ankles and not much else.  Kevin looks over to him and barks the question again.  Chris just shrugs his shoulders and mumbles.  “I guess so man, I guess so.” 

Kevin gives him a dirty look and then returns his attention to me.  Leaning over close, he braces his weight on the stage with his left hand and slowly holds the smoldering piece of metal close to my face.  With wide, disbelieving eyes I finally recognized what the brightly glowing object was.  It was the small cross that Brad had taken from me and tossed to Kevin earlier in the night.  Shaking all over from both fear and pain I start shaking my head and pleading with him not to do this.  He just smiles down at me and nods his head.  “Oh yes little boy, oh yes.” 

With that being said he pushes the small burning cross deep into my forehead and holds it down as it burns its way deep into my skin, hissing and sizzling as he pressed all his weight behind it.  Screaming in agony I start to toss my head from side to side, but he pushes the burning metal harder onto my forehead keeping me from moving. Brad looks up with a frown and punches Kevin on the shoulder causing him to loose his grip on the now smoldering cross.  “Crap man, that scream was better than the one I got out of him.  Dang I wish I had thought of melting that thing into his head before you did.  Dude you have all the luck.” 

Kevin just looks up at him and smiles.  “Well Brad ole buddy, I guess when ya got it, ya got it.”  The smell of burning skin drifted through the room as Kevin leans back up onto my hips and asks to see the knife that he had given to brad a few hours ago.  As Brad hands him the small blade, I start sobbing and trying my best to scream out for some one to help stop them, but all that seems to come out was a high pitched screech that seemed to be lost in the violent screams of the music and the loudly rolling thunder outside.  Brad knelt down beside my head and grabbed a hand full of hair pulling my head up off the stage.  “Shut up man before I cut your tongue out.”  Letting go of my hair he slams my head back down onto the stage and I start to lose consciousness.  As I fade in and out I can make out Kevin smacking me on the cheeks trying to keep me awake.  “Now… now, there will be no sleeping till we are all done.  Ok?  Hello can you hear me down there?  Hellllllloooooo.  Earth to Baby boy, come in Baby boy.” 

As he continues to try and keep me awake he gives Brad a foul look and starts cussing him. “What were you thinking?  Ya know if he goes and passes out then well have to wait till he comes too again, if that ever happens, before we can finish having our fun.  Man you can be such an idiot some times.”  Growing more annoyed with each slap, he finally stops and just sits back tired and ticked off.  With one final hard slap he growls ‘I said wake up boy and I men NOW!”  With that my eyes spring open just to see him glaring over at Brad and flipping him off.  ‘Oh hey there man, thought we had gone and lost ya for ah second.  Feeling better are we?” 

I immediately start sobbing and shaking my head.  “No I’m not.  Just leave me alone and go away, please.”  Hearing my pathetic whines, they both burst out laughing and mocking me.  “Umm… no, I think we are gonna stay right here until we’re done with you.  But I’ll make you a deal.  If you give us a smile I might just leave and not bother you again, that is if it’s a real nice smile.  Think ya can do that for me, eh?” 

Painfully I do my best to smile but they just shake their heads and frown.  “Pitiful, just pitiful, I’ve seen better smiles on the pieces of crap in my toilet.  What do you think Brad, Chris?  Can he do better or should we just leave and get something to drink?”  Brad just starts laughing and pointing while Chris just looks at the floor and kicks a piece of trash around with his foot.  “Nope, I think you can do better, here let me help ya.”  With out warning Kevin grabs me by the hair and pushes my head down on the stage.  Leaning over he cruelly yet carefully cuts each side of my mouth making it into a grotesque clown- like smile.  “Now all we need is some lipstick and we will have ourselves a great little smile here won’t we.”    Taking his thumb he smears the blood that is now pouring out of his freshly done work across my mouth and over to the other side.  “There much better.  Hey now is that a smile or is that a smile?”  Brad leans over onto Kevin’s back and smiles down at me gloating.  “Yep now that is a face only a mother can love.”  AHHAHAHA great job there Kev, you should really think about going into plastic surgery, HAHAHAHAHA.” 

Smiling down at me he taps the knife on his chin.  “Hey now that is an idea.  What do ya think Jev? Dr. Kev surgeon to the stars.  HAHAAHAH nice ring to it don’t ya think?  Don’t ya think so?  What.... cat got your tongue?" 

Slowly tracing his finger through the blood that had splattered on my chest he leans over and rubs some across my lower lips.  "Here ya go, have a taste.  I know you have a thing for Vamps.  So go on have some.”  Kevin carefully he takes the knife and pricks the tip of his finger letting a small drop of blood to trickle down.  “Now here have a taste of the one who owns your butt, boy."  Again he traces his finger across my lower lip mixing his blood with mine and smiles.  Clenching my teeth tightly together I do my best to spit the blood back out and into his face.

"No, I won't.  You don't own me, and you never will!"

"Oh really?  We'll see about that."  Picking his knife up from the stage he stabs me in the right shoulder and pushes it down hard.  As I scream he shoves his finger in my mouth and scrapes the blood off with my bottom teeth.  Pushing my jaw shut preventing me from spitting it back out.  "Now if you try that again you might not like what will happen next.” 

I try to spit out what he has put in my mouth but can't.  The pain is horrible and I'm unable to breath.  Kevin just smiles down at me and laughs.  "What's the matter?  Does it hurt baby boy?"  Driving the knife deeper into my shoulder, I feel myself about to pass out again when he jerks it out and slaps me across the face again.  “No not this time, you won’t go sleepy by till I say it’s time, got it baby boy.”  I beg him to stop and to not to stab me again, but he wouldn’t listen to me.  I start to cry as he slowly runs the blade along the outer edge of my thigh.  The blade jumped and skipped along creating small cuts and nicks on my skin.  Leaning back up he runs his hands up my bloody chest and smiles down at me.  After a few seconds of just looking down into my eyes he leans over and lays his head on my chest, listening to my heart beating wildly.  Softly kissing my cheek, he smiles and looks me in the eyes again.  "Now let me ask you something.  Was it as bad as that?  I mean I was having fun, but I guess we’re not all wimps and cry babies like you."

The pain was almost more than I could take, so all I could was shake my head.  "Oh well, if you’re not gonna have any fun with me then I guess it’s back up ya go.  Chris, it's your turn so get your skinny butt over here and let’s see if he likes you better."

Chris just sat there and shook his head.  He just looked at the floor and started messing around with a piece of broken tile.  "Nah, man this isn’t what I signed up for tonight so ya'll just go on without me okay?"

"Hey man it's your loss but you don’t know what a sweet time you’re missing."

Kevin kicks me in the ribs and walks back over to where his smokes were and lights one up, blowing a large cloud of smoke over his head.  Meanwhile, Brad is messing around in the fire barrel, poking around to make sure the embers are still hot and glowing.  After Kevin takes a few more draws from his cigarette, he and Brad pull the ropes tight once more.  As they tie them off, I am again left standing in the middle of the stage arms and legs spread wide.  Digging around in the barrel Kevin then pulls out another piece of hot metal. 

This time he stands in front of me and lifts my head to look him in the eyes.  "Oh don’t go and pass out on me.  I'm not done with you yet...not done by a long shot."  He takes the lump of metal he starts to untie a piece of wire that was wrapped around it.  This time there were several smaller metal rods that made up the larger one.  With great care and deliberate thought he begins pushing them into my body slowly, allowing them to burn their way in.  He put one in each arm just above the elbow and one in each leg near my thigh.  With each one he would smile and say, “Now that has to hurt!"  In total there were about twelve smaller rods that he placed in several different spots across my body.  "Hey Chris lookey here, I have me a life size voodoo doll!  What do ya think of that?"
Chris just looks up and gave a mirthless laugh.  "Yeah man, that's real funny.  Can't ya just get it over with?  I mean this isn’t right."

Kevin finished pushing one of the burning rods into my shoulder then walks over to where Chris was sitting and looks down at him.  "Are you trying to tell me what I should do here man?"  Still holding one of the hot pins he grabs Chris by the collar of his shirt and pulls him close to his face.  “I asked you a question!"

"No man!  I just think that he has had enough.  I mean he just lied about a few bucks, that's all.  Cut him some slack man."

Kevin just looks at him then turns to me and smiles.  "Well, if you think he has had enough then by all means, put him out of his misery or shut up."

Brad jumps up and grabs Chris by the arm.  "Yeah man it's your turn or do you want to join him?"

Chris shakes his head and tries to talk them out if it, but it finally boiled down to either he participated or I would have company on stage.  Reluctantly he agrees and Kevin hands him the knife that he had in his pocket.  "Now do it or you will be next."

Almost to the point of tears, Chris walks up to me lifting my head to look me in the eyes.  In a small voice almost unheard I beg him not to.  "Please don’t.  You don’t have to do this.  Please don’t.  I'm beginning ya not to."

"Man, I'm sorry but I don’t have any choice.  I'm so sorry.  I'll try to make it as painless as I can."  With that he picks my cap up off the blood soaked floor and gently pulls it down over my eyes, whispering for me to forgive him and that I should brace myself. I start sobbing uncontrollably as he put his left hand on my right shoulder then softly whispers “I’m so sorry.’  He then pushes the knife deep into my right side just above the hip.  Pulling me close, he muffles my scream with his shoulder.  Again he whispers in my ear for me to forgive him, and then softly kisses me on the cheek.

As Chris walks off the stage, Brad grabs him by the arm and demanded to know where he was going.  Chris turns and punches Brad in the jaw, knocking him to the floor.  Pointing the knife at Kevin, he just looks at him with the most hatred he has ever felt for any one person in his whole life.  The only thing he could do was walk over to where he had been sitting and just tries to ignore them the best he could.  He had to save his own skin after all, but that still didn’t make this rite.

"What tha hell  is your deal Chris?  That hurt!"  Brad yelped rubbing his jaw and looking up at Kevin.

"Yeah, what is your deal man?  Why did you go off on Brad like that for?"

Chris just looks at Kevin and starts to say something but was unable to talk.  He just points the small bloody blade at Kevin and fights back his own tears.  After a few heart pounding seconds he throws the knife at Kevin, driving it deep into the floor between his feet.  After he calms down a bit he pointed at me.  "The guy has had enough.  I mean come on man, all this just over a lie about a few bucks.  Here if that is all it will take for this to end I can cover that.’ 

Reaching into his back pocket, Chis pulls out his wallet and tosses a wrinkled twenty dollar bill in Kevins direction.  “Hear man his debt is paid.”  And if you ever make me do anything like that again, you'll be finding a knife like that in your gut!"

Kevin bursts out laughing at Chris, doubling over from the absurdity of it all.  "Yeah man, as if you could.  You don’t have big enough balls to do anything like that to me!  Like Jev there I own your skinny butt and don’t you forget it.  There is only one way out of this and it's his way."

Brad gets up and walks over to where I was and pulls the cap back up from my eyes.  "Hey, wake up....What did he say to you?  Hey!  I asked you a question and you had better answer me now!"

I was unable to talk, let alone see much of anything, so I just stared blankly past him at Kevin and Chris.  Brad couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but he could see that they were arguing and pointing over to where we were.  Kevin walks back to where we were and picks up another piece of smoldering metal.  He looks back over at Chris and shoves it deep into my stomach as Brad pulled my head back from behind so I would have to look Chris in the face.  With a shudder I start gasping and coughing up blood then slump forward.

"He wants us to finish this, but I'm not quite ready.  I want him to see what happens to people that cross me."

Chris just gave me a look of sorrow, then turned his head away and closed his eyes.  I knew that he was not to blame and for one reason only.  If it was me in his place and he in mine, I would save my life over his without a second thought.  The next few hours were spent divided between Kevin and Brad.  Both were taking their time figuring out ways to make me scream and still keep me alive.  If I passed out from blood loss or pain, then they would wait till I came to, then the pain and screaming would start all over again.  I don’t know how much time had passed; I could never tell you that.  I just remember the one time I was aware of things around me, was when I thought I could hear the town clock tolling the hour, or maybe it was just a dream.  I just couldn’t tell the difference anymore.

"Well, I'm getting bored of him now, and I'm hungry."  Kevin yawned.

"Yeah me too, hey, how long have we been here?"

Wiping the blood off his watch, Kevin noticed the time.  "Man, where did the time go?”  Hey guys, we’ve been here for over twelve hours now.  Man, time sure flies when you’re having fun don’t it?  Finish up what you’re doing and let’s get out of here."

Brad nods and returns to the cutting he was doing on the one spot on my back that was still recognizable as skin.  "There, all finished and signed, hey Kev!  Come take a look and tell me what ya think."

Smiling and nodding his approval Kevin looked at Brad.  "Looks good man, now pack up the stuff and I'll be right out.  I have to finish something first."

Chris was the first to leave, but not before a long look over his shoulder back at me.  He just drops his head when he saw that I was looking up at him and reaching out my hand.  Brad grabbed the CD player and the rest of their stuff and headed out.  He stopped at the door and yelled back in at Kevin.  "Hey, how long ya gonna be man?  I'm starving and the game is about to start.  Besides I think we all need a hot shower, I got blood all over me.  Oh and Jev, thanks for the lovely entertainment...it was a blast!"  Laughing he starts for the door.

"I'll be out in a sec, just get the car started."  Looking back to me Kevin tilts his head and smiles.  "This shouldn’t take long now should it?"  Squatting down in front of me he looks up into my face.  Brushing some blood soaked hair from my eyes he just smiles.

With the last bit of strength I could find and look him in the face and hoarsely asked him one simple question. 

"Why?"

Kevin shrugs.  "I'm not really sure.  I guess you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time was all. Hey don’t take it personal or anything like that; you're really not that bad of a kid."  With that he pulls my cap back down over my eyes and shoves his knife deep into my stomach, just above my navel and pulls it up hard, cutting a long deep gash as it went.  With a soft moan and a long exhale I finally stop moving.  He stands up and puts his right hand on my head and closes his eyes.  In a small almost prayer like voice he whispers, "May flights of devils, wing you to your eternal rest."  He then makes the sign of a cross and blows me a small kiss.  Walking out of the door he turns for one last look and sighs.  "It was a good night though."  Walking out the door he yells to Brad and Chris, "Who's up for pizza?  I'm starved