It's up to Me to Make You Bleed

Never had I felt so much liquid soaking into my fingertips, as I had been feeling right now. My hands cradled the gaping gash in my stomach, attempting to collect all the spilt blood. Layers upon layers of blood would drip onto my hands, harden to my flesh, and then be covered by a fresh coating. It felt like the manicure from hell.

And yet, even in the midst of this madness, I just couldn’t bring myself to yell at Jimmy or try and reprimand him. Even though he isn’t my biological son, I had always thought of him as my long lost son I’d just been reunited with. Our family seemed so complete when it was the four of us – Joe, Jimmy, Courtney, and myself.

It seemed as if every bad mistake I had made in the past was erased and that life started anew with such wonderful people. But not even in my worst nightmares could I imagine this being the demise to all that I had loved.

And then, I just broke down and began shedding countless tears. What had caused this to happen? To cause Jimmy and the boys to even think of doing something like this? To drive Courtney to killing one of them out of fear for her own life? How does something as crazy as this happen over night?

Besides all the questions pounding into my mind, I couldn’t help but also notice that the room had been deadly silent since Jimmy stopped stabbing me. Courtney had been screaming for them to stop, but her screams finally died out. Matt and Brian stood near her, watching with looks of interest and uneasiness. Jimmy was breathing heavily as his blood-soaked hand clutched the screwdriver tightly.

I sighed quietly as I stood myself up, keeping my fingers over the wound, as I rested up against a nearby wall. Everyone’s eyes were on me, which seemed to have fueled my confidence and my knowing that this has to be done.

My mouth was dry, making it very difficult for me to share with everyone what I needed to say, but I persevered. “J-Jimmy,” I said, causing him to look sharply at me, “I can understand why you did what you did to me. You must be very upset that your father is dead –.”

“He wasn’t just dead, he was murdered!” he interrupted.

I nodded calmly, “Ok, yes you must be very upset that your father was murdered, but what you are doing right now isn’t going to bring him back. I know that in your opinion, you can some how justify what has happened by making me suffer, and you could be right, but is that what your father would have wanted?”

I paused just long enough to watch Jimmy’s face show a flicker of doubt in what he was doing.

I faced the other boys as well and repeated the question. “Do you boys think that Joe would appreciate hearing that the three of you attacked and hurt your own sister and friend for some sick purpose? Do you think that Joe would be dead if you hadn’t done any of this?!”

As expected, the room was left silent, heavy with doubt and remorse. None of them could look me in the eye, which gave me even the slightest hope that I could stop this madness from continuing.

There was a box of old clothes over in the corner, so I reached inside and pulled out a tattered shirt to wrap around my stomach, freeing my dry, bloody hands. Figuring I’d give the boys some time to think about what they had done, I turned my attention to Courtney.

“Are you ok?” I asked, for the first time seeing the severity of what she had been put through since her disappearance.

“I think the better question is if you are ok,” she replied.

I nodded, “I’m fine, Court, but I…I just can’t believe how strong you are even after enduring all that you have down here…in our own house.”

Courtney stared at the ground as she spoke. “It’s not easy, but what choice do I have? I’m sure these assholes are just going through a psycho phase, which means it won’t last much longer, which gives me all the more reason to survive. I’m sorry for killing Joe, mom, believe me it kills me inside. I just wish it could’ve been one of them!” she screamed, glaring at the boys who were giving her just as nasty looks.

A noticeable tension descended down in the room, and I knew I had to get rid of it. “Ok, Courtney, it’s very reasonable that you would feel this way toward a person who attacked you, but you all should know that killing isn’t the way to solve your problems, especially since there shouldn’t be a problem here!” I reasoned.

“There is a problem,” Jimmy replied, “my father is dead!”

I sighed, slightly annoyed, “Jimmy I am aware of that fact, trust me I’m hurt too, and still slightly in shock. But once again it wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t done all of this beforehand! Joe is probably up in heaven right now, feeling filled with disgust at the sight of what you boys are doing!”

This time, that ‘flicker of doubt’ on Jimmy’s face lasted for a much longer amount of time. This was it – he was gonna stop all of this now, at least for our sake and Joe’s sake, I hope he does.

*Jimmy’s POV*

As much as I tried to tune it out, Julianne’s words entered my mind and really fucked with my conscience. What must dad think of me? I’m such a failure of a son. And to make matters worse, she was also right about the fact that most likely, with the exception of freak accidents, my dad would still be alive right now if we hadn’t done this to Courtney.

But could living a safe, mundane life even satisfy me? What would happen if I just stopped all of this now? None of us could ever go back to how our lives were, meaning we’d be forced to live incomplete lives. I’d hate to say it, but we’re honestly too far deep in this shit to back out now.

Plus, it’s not like doing this is really a bad thing anymore. We’ll be making big bucks after selling these videos and I can’t let myself be worried about ‘what my dad would think,’ because he’s not here anymore. He can’t do anything to stop me and neither can Julianne or Courtney.

Both Matt and Brian were looking to me, knowing that the decision to keep going or to quit was pretty much up to me. I smirked when I glanced up to see Julianne’s hopeful expression.

“Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t give a shit about what you or anyone else thinks of me. You and your daughter are going to make us millionaires, and that’s all there is to it. Although I do applaud your efforts, you almost convinced me to stop,” I told her.

Her hope wilted as quickly as it had arrived and she slumped back down to the floor, completely crestfallen. “You’re willing to destroy the lives of your family and friends just at a chance to make money? You’re worse off than I imagined, Jimmy, you’re sick,” she gasped.

I shrugged, “Call it whatever you want, I think of it as genius. I mean, do you guys want to keep going?”

Brian was the first to answer, “Fuck yeah, I know I do. Sorry Julianne, but we’ve started something we can’t turn back on. We’re different people now, and I wouldn’t go back to how it was before for anything.” Matt agreed.

“Then I guess it’s settled,” I said, returning to my camera booth. “Action.”

*Normal POV*

It made me absolutely disgusted to not only watch what Jimmy did to my mom earlier, but also to have to see her hopes be crushed so brutally when she tried to change their minds. Matt stepped forward, heading toward my mom.

“You know, Mrs. S, I think you almost convinced us all to abandon ship just a minute a go. And to thank you for not being successful, I think we should introduce you to what I’d like to call, The Cruncher.”

Personally, I myself had never met The Cruncher, but something about it tells me that it isn’t a pleasant thing. Matt walked into another room and returned quickly with what looked like something on top of a cart with wheels.

He brought it over toward my mom who gave him a look of disbelief. “What did we do to deserve this?” she asked sorrowfully. I’d been asking myself the same question since all of this began. And I really don’t think there will ever be an answer.

Matt shrugged indifferently as he pulled the sheet off of the cart, revealing some sort of machine with a couple of levers, two metal plates across from each other with a space in the middle. Like I said, this wasn’t a very pleasant thing.

Before we all got to see what The Cruncher did, Brian glanced over his shoulder and asked, “Can you see everything, Courtney?”

I scoffed, “Thanks for your consideration but I’m not going to watch you a-attack my mom.”

“Oh really?” he asked, as he strolled over toward me and stood behind the chair.

He tightly gripped my skull holding me in place, forcing me to stare in her direction. “If you don’t watch, then I’ll make it twice as painful when it’s your turn.”

Despite his threat, I still attempted to squirm in his grip, although that slowly proved to be relatively pointless. Matt finally approached my mom and grabbed one of her arms, setting it down in the open space of the machine. He cuffed both her wrist and her forearm down in such a way that she couldn’t really move her arm very well. He grinned evilly as he glanced over at me before twisting the lever.

It didn’t take me too long to realize what he was going to do. “Stop it, Matt don’t you dare even go through with that! You don’t even plan on applying the necessary medical attention that would be needed. Don’t you –,” Brian cut my screaming off by clamping his hand over my mouth, allowing Matt to continue spinning the lever faster.

My mom’s eyes darted down to the metal plates that were closing in more and more on her arm. She cringed as the cold metal touched both sides of her arm. Matt slowed down a little bit, dragging the process out.

Slowly, the plates came closer and closer together, ignoring the fact that there was a limb in the way. The push of the plates increased the amount of pressure being forced upon my mom’s arm. Even from here I could already see her skin turning blue and green.

“Almost there,” Shadows grinned as he watched the bone begin to bulge in her forearm.

He twisted it just a little more before a sickening cracking, splitting noise filled the air right before my mom let out a ear-piercing scream at the sight of her bone sticking out through her flesh, blood leaking out of the openings.

The levers were twisted in the opposite direction, pulling apart the plates as the cuffs were unlocked. My mom’s limp arm fell to her side, giving me a full view of the damage. The skin around the bone was severely bruised, practically showing all colors of the bruise rainbow. The bone was sticking upward with pieces of flesh dangling from where the skin was forced open.

And to my horror, Matt was going to grab her other arm next! My mom would never be able to survive this with two broken arms. I couldn’t let them do this. I bit down as hard as I could on Brian’s hand until I tasted blood. He jerked his hand away from me as he groaned.

“You get the hell away from my mom, Matt. Why don’t you grow up and pick on someone your own size.”

His head whipped around as he faced me with an interested expression. “If you wanted some attention, Courtney, all you had to do was ask.”