You're Cute When You Scream

The room was silent as Ronnie and I exchanged stares. “After all these years,” I scoffed, being the first to say something, “this is where you end up?”

He looked almost offended. “I’m sorry, but last time I checked, you’re the one who never came back to visit, Aliza.”

I shrugged, “It’s kind of hard, always watching your brother go from jail to jail.”

“Can’t blame me for living my life. Where I ended up now may very well be the best and worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

He sighed and sat down in one of the chairs across the room. “I came with those guys – Avenged Sevenfold – seeing as they offered me a chance to escape. We ended up here on a mission of vengeance. I didn’t care about the other bitches involved…but with the girl they just took away – Myra – something is different about her. I…I care for her.”

I gasped, genuinely shocked. “Ronnie, you’ve never liked a girl for real!”

He laughed a little, “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.”

Soon our smiles dropped, realizing that our reunion wasn’t exactly under happy circumstances. “Are they going to hurt me?” I asked quietly.

It took Ronnie a while to respond, as if he was experiencing some sort of back and forth mental warfare. “I’m not really sure how to answer that. I can’t tell whether they’d be easier or harsher on you if they knew we were related.”

I gulped loudly after he finished talking. What happens if I end up looking like that Myra girl? I mean, I’m used to getting in fights…I have all older brothers…but what if she did too? Do I stand any better chance in avoiding injuries?

Ronnie got up out of his chair and walked over to me. “It will be ok, sis. Just know this, regardless of what happens I won’t let them kill you.”

“Oh that makes me feel fantastic,” I groaned, looking at him with fear and worry in my eyes.

He gave me a sympathetic smile as he wrapped his arms around and pulled me close to him into a warm embrace. I hadn’t been able to hug him in 8 years, since he had always been behind prison bars or visitor room glass.

“I’m so happy to see you again, Ronnie,” I said, pulling him closer and never wanting to let him go.

He smiled down at me and offered to give me some food. I gladly accepted and followed him into the kitchen, making sure that I could enjoy every second I had with him before those evil men returned.

*Normal POV*

“LOOK OUT!” I heard the girl scream just as the automatic doors had acknowledged my presence and were slowly opening. I quickly glanced up to see a reflection of what was taking place behind me.

The nurse had stepped out in front of Syn, who was clearly dead set on preventing me from running away from him. I couldn’t believe what was going on. I didn’t even know this girl, and yet she’s risking her safety for my sake. Blood was still dripping off of her body, now collecting into a separate puddle on the rug.

“Move out of my way, bitch,” Syn growled.

She stood her ground, most likely giving him a look of defiance. “Being that it’s my job to take care of sick or wounded people, I can say that that woman is unable of enduring much more treatment from the likes of you. You’re going to kill her, or at the very least make parts of her body completely useless!”

He shrugged, “Ok…that’s a problem because why? It will only make her die eventually. That’s no big deal.”

Doctor Manor stood nearby looking anxious and almost scared for his employee’s sake. “Nicole, you are correct, Myra is in a pretty harsh condition, but these men are not the kind you mess around with. Just…just step out of the way.”

Nicole looked at the doctor in shock. “How dare you consider yourself to be in a medical profession,” she said accusingly and disappointed.

“It’s not my choice, it’s just what’s best.”

“Yeah, what’s best for you,” she replied.

“It doesn’t matter how horrible of a medical condition she’s in. You think that’s bad, you should see the bitch I’ve got back at home. Her body was annihilated before she died,” Shadows grinned.

“You mother fucker!” I shouted, taking a step closer into the room.

He just kept that stupid smile on his face, probably thinking of all the horrible, disgusting things he had done to Randi. I had almost been reduced to tears just thinking about her, but Nicole prevented that from entirely happening.

“I can handle them. Just get out of here,” she said firmly.

I couldn’t just leave her here to face all three of them. “I can’t do it. They could kill you.”

“I’m a nurse, Myra, I know what to do.”

It was clear that she wasn’t giving me much of a choice so I gave in. “Thank you,” I said gratefully before suddenly dashing through the opened doors and into the parking lot. I could only hope that nothing too horribly bad would happen to her for this little stunt…

Clouded forms of my exhaled breaths continued to blow back into my face as I ran as quickly as I could in the chilly air. Mushy snow made sloshing noises under my feet as I continued moving forward, without any real organized plan or thought. I didn’t think how I’d make it to any reasonably safe location without a car, or at least a friend.

I paused in the middle of the large parking lot to take a few deep breaths. I bent my legs slightly and rested my arms on them as I hunched over and tried to calm down. I knew I didn’t exactly have time to be taking a breather, but there was no way I’d be able to keep running non stop without passing out or just dying of exhaustion.

Over my breathing, I could’ve sworn that I heard footsteps behind me, and yet each time I looked up over my shoulder, no one else would be in the parking lot. Just as I was standing up, someone came out of nowhere and gripped my head tightly from behind me.

He shoved me into a nearby parked car and bashed my head into the cold metal several times before my body finally lost consciousness and fell into his arms.

*Nicole’s POV*

Nervously, I stood in the same stance, maintaining my eye contact with the man in front of me. I had no idea what they would try to do to me, but after that previous experience with all those patients’ blood, I will not tolerate any more of this shit.

No one made a move or said a word, thus making the tension very heavy in the air. Although the blood was beginning to form a layer of crust over my body, I was slightly relieved. After all, running away would be hard to do if I was still dripping wet.

The man who had wanted so badly to go after Myra stepped forward and pushed me out of his way. “Shadows, Rev, do me a favor and deal with this little rebel. I’ve got to teach a lesson to my lovely girlfriend.”

“She’s your girlfriend?” I asked in doubt.

“Damn straight,” he replied before running off into the parking lot, leaving me completely confused as to why someone like her would ever want to date a guy like him.

After he left, I was stuck with the two weirdoes from earlier, and Doctor Manor of course. The wing that led to the maintenance room was mere feet from me and I’m sure that, using the element of surprise, I could probably make a mad run down the hall. I mean shit – the doctor was just staring at the floor, looking at it as if it could offer him some philosophical answer to this dilemma; Shadows was talking to someone on the phone; and the Rev was snickering while reading some Good Housekeeping magazine. It was almost as if they completely forgot about me.

I shook my head in shock and grinned to myself as I got down on all four’s and crawled over to the hallway entrance. And by the time I made it a quarter of the way down the hall, I couldn’t help but start laughing that at their stupidity. Unfortunately, they realized where the laugh came from and bolted down the hall after me.

Even though I was being chased, I still had the upper hand. I knew this place (and its vents) back and forth. The reason I was heading for the maintenance room was because the biggest vent entrance is in that particular location.

I locked the door behind me and tugged on the light bulb’s string to give myself a little light. I quickly grabbed a flashlight and screwdriver, getting to work on removing the metal plate acting like a ‘door’ to the vent itself. I set it down as quietly as I could, hoping that those guys didn’t already knew which room I was in.

I stepped up on the counter and shimmed myself into the tight fitting tunnel. The metal was cold against my bloodied skin, creating a layer of goosebumps. I groaned as I used my elbows to pull myself forward. It was times like these when I desperately wished that I had considered working out a little more in my free time. After all, my upper arm strength was nearly non-existent.

The goosebumps soon turned into drops of sweat as I continued moving forward closer and closer to the roof. I could feel it…I was almost to the top! I grinned happily as I saw the exit. However, the smile dropped as soon as I saw the Rev standing there with a scary ass smirk on his face.

“Well, look what I found crawling around in the vents,” he said happily as he gripped me by my throat and pulled me up out of the tunnel.

He began walking closer toward the ledge. “Going down?” he asked as he held me, still by my throat, dangling over the side of a nine story hospital.

I began trembling as I caught a glimpse of the snowy parking lot so far down behind me. “P-please, don’t do this,” I pleaded, gripping onto his fingers, hoping that that could be enough to ensure that I didn’t fall.

“Actually,” he said, wearing an inquisitive face, “now that you mention it, I guess since you love crawling through tunnels so much I know one you can slide right down.”

He pulled me back over onto the safe side and began walking over to where I had originally came out of. I had thought that he just planned on sending me back down the tunnel I came from, but I was incorrect. He was instead walking toward a similar looking tunnel, only this particular one had a lot of black smoke coming out of the top and this one was also pretty much a 180° drop.

“Remember,” he said, dangling me above the smokestack, “smoking kills!”

He cackled as he let go of me, sending me plummeting down. I screamed out as my stomach began to ascend up into my throat. I immediately began choking because the moment I opened my mouth, smoke poured inside and caused me to cough nonstop.

And then, just as horribly as it had started, the ride ended with the sound of my legs making contact with very hot coal…and the sound of my legs snapping from my ankles up. I screamed as I fell to the ground, completely unable to move my legs. My palms met the coals, easily burning away at the skin.

“HELP ME!” I cried out desperately, knowing that no one would be around this part of the hospital at this hour. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I heard footsteps coming down the hall. This wasn’t over yet.

*Normal POV*

Clearly, the first thing I picked up on was the pounding pain I was feeling in my head. As I expected, my arms were strapped down and I was laying in a hospital bed. “W-what’s going on?” I asked, still a little dizzy from the blow to my head.

“Nice of you to finally join me,” Syn said with his back turned to me.

“Believe me if I had a choice I wouldn’t be anywhere near you,” I spat.

“Well that’s really a shame because now we’ve got a little game to play. It’s really simple…you let me do what I plan on doing without screaming or crying and you’ll be fine. But if you scream and/or cry then I will open up the tube attached to your arm and let some acid enter your blood stream.”

My eyes widened when I saw him come near me with a surgical drill. “Y-you expect me to not fucking scream when you’re pointing a drill at me?!” I gasped.

He shrugged, “It shouldn’t hurt that much…I’m only going to make those three scarred letters on your chest a little deeper, just to make sure they last as long as we’re together.”

I scoffed, “Guess you won’t need to make it too deep then. We won’t be together all that long.”

“I think that the baby in your stomach says otherwise,” he replied, crawling on top of me with the drill.

He smiled as he turned the drill on and aimed it at my chest. I turned my head to the side and bit down hard on my lip, squeezing my eyes shut. Before he had even began I was already gasping for air. The spinning drill made contact with my chest as it ripped off both scabbed and average skin alike.

He began tracing the ‘S’ and I began squirming like crazy. Blood squirted up across his face and shirt, causing him to smile. I was even more concerned than normal because this was right above my heart, and well, he never was one to care about whether or not he was digging too deep.

By the time he was touching up the ‘Y’ I just couldn’t take it anymore. My mouth opened and a small scream escaped as I exhaled. He clicked his tongue with disappointment. “And here I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do this to you…”

He kept the drill in place with one and reached over to the IV with the other. A yellowish-while liquid crawled down the tube, heading for my arm. I cried out the moment the acid entered my blood stream.

The acid mingled with the blood, causing it to boil and kind of make the veins fluctuate in size. The skin above the veins where the acid had touched began turning black. The feeling was terrible…like a flame crawling up and down my arm, as slowly and painfully as possible.

Syn closed the tube off again and returned to his work. “Hopefully I will have to do give you another dose because watching your writhe in pain like that is just too amazing,” he grinned, with such a demonic look in his eyes.

The ‘N’ was all that was left now and I wasn’t entirely sure if I’d be able to handle it. On one hand, I didn’t want to give in to him, especially after that last comment, and the acid hurt like hell. But at the same time, having a drill spinning into your chest and splashing the walls with skin and blood isn’t exactly a pleasant feeling either.

I drew in a deep breath as he approached me again with the drill. Instead of turning my head and closing my eyes, I stared straight at him, my eyes not once blinking. If I’m going to get anywhere away from him then I need him to know that I’m not afraid of him.

He wasn’t too shaken by my eye contact, he just dug the drill in and managed to finish the process without me screaming or cowering. It’s amazing what a little bit of determination can do for you.

He was about to make some sort of dumbass comment about me not screaming or something, but then his phone started ringing. “Well it looks like the hospital party is over,” he said with disappointment as he untied me and ripped the IV out of my arm.

*Katie’s POV*

Zacky stopped dead in his tracks as we ran into Syn and Myra. My mouth instantly went dry and my heart skipped a beat. She had looked ten times worse than she did when I saw her last. Her face was beat in, with a particularly large and still slightly bleeding gash across her forehead. Her right arm was bruised and her veins seemed to be black or something…either way it didn’t look normal. There were burn patches on the same arm, which didn’t look like they came from any sort of fire. There were bruises shaped like fingers along her neck. Her skin was covered in a thin layer of old blood and her clothes were shredded from what looked like whip marks.

We were in a damn hospital, so how could she walk these halls without any medical attention?

Syn put Myra down and held her up against the wall by her throat, while he glanced around the corner and waved at the Rev and Shadows. They came around the corner carrying another girl who had passed out.

Bones were sticking out of her skin on her legs and her skin was covered in a mixture of blood and soot, as if she was in a chimney or something. And she happened to be wearing a nurse’s uniform too.

“Vengeance, where were you going?” Shadows asked with a very skeptical look on his face.

“And why are you carrying her like she’s a baby?” The Rev added.

I glanced nervously at Zacky, who began stumbling over excuses. This wasn’t good…