In the Burnt Tower

Deep inside the burnt tower, I can barely see the light. The only sense of any kind that I have about me was hearing, which allows me to pick up on the sound of her cackle in the dark.

I sit and shiver feeling the tightness of the leather on my wrists. I have been bound to this chair in the abyss of soundless confusion. How long has it been? Days? Weeks? I stop thinking as soon as footsteps clatter in a familiar rhythm above my head. My body shakes more violently now to ready me. I hear the clatter closer now, and I know what's to come.

I hear the cackle, the dreaded sound ringing in my ears and due to the lack of sight, I hear a light dragging sound behind each dreaded step. The clicking is as close as it can be and I feel hot breath on my face. The smell is of rotting skin and alcohol and it comes in waves of nasty warmth; she is just inches from my face.

"I Brought your dinner here. Eat up, pet! You'll need your strength soon." Her tone more ominous than I've ever heard.

She loosens the straps on my arms and legs, breathing her hot death upon me. My wrists and ankles burn with an itch, my raw flesh touches the cool air. My meal is a freshly killed animal of some sort, and I rip the fur off with my gnarly mangled finger nails. Blood soaks my tongue and teeth as I force the uncooked meat down my throat.

When I had arrived here, dragged from my bed and into this charred nightmare, I fought when I was freed. A mistake on my part, I found very quickly. With a cackle and some audible strain she took control of my limbs, tossing me across the dark stone hallway and forcing me up a wall. "You are my pet" she had said "you will eat, and if you don't..." Her wicked sharp nail sliced like a freshly sharpened knife against my skin causing blood to spill onto the stone floor. I was dragged back to my chair, my limp crippled body sliding across wet ground and strapped back in. What had I done to deserve this?

I wake in the morning to the dripping of water from the ceiling to the floor three seconds separate each drop. Each drip makes it harder to think, each drop splashing louder than the last. Counting the seconds of my life away hoping it will be the last soon to end this fear. I hear the cackle repeating across the walls bouncing around and back. This time I don't think I'm being fed. I hear buzzing sounds surround me in the darkness like horrific music being played on an un-tuned violin growing faster and faster. A horde of wasps? It's screaming now as I tense my entire being in preparation for my flesh to be torn apart by insects. Just as it grew its loudest, the sound disappeared as quickly as it started.

What was wrong with me? What had she done?

I wake screaming into the endless blackness that surround me, I have done this so many times and no one has come looking.

I am Alone. I fall back in to sleep.

"Tonight is the night, Pet!" I hear her voice echo from the long black hallway.

Sweat beads down my brow as I start to think of the horrible things to come. Ants crawling in my ears? Hot wax poured in my eyes?

I hear a gear reeling pulling something overhead. I see the roof open above and see the moon, it blinds me with its intensity and everything is illuminated at once, I'm no longer in a dark room, and I was never alone.

Bodies dangle, stapled in grotesque fashions. Dead eyes staring, screaming for help. Different sections, dismembered limbs. Hands, arms, and even ears are nailed around the intestines of others strung up like lights on Christmas lining the walls in bloody horror.

I hear growling close, and heavy footsteps instead of the typical clicking of heels I had become accustomed to. Just then I see a silhouette of a beast, drool glistening between gnarled jaws and steamy breath. The jaws open to speak.

"Good night, Pet." I hear in a mix of deep screeching voices before the claws of the beast come across my chest, ripping my flesh and scraping my bones.

A spray of bright red is all I see before I'm welcomed back into the black abyss.