It's up to Me to Make You Bleed

Time stood still as small dust particles floated through the slit of light offering this dungeon-like room some brightness. I don’t think I’ve blinked yet. My eyes locked with the very same hazel eyes that I had come to trust, come to laugh with, come to enjoy living around. Those very same eyes would haunt my dreams forevermore.

This has got to be a joke. There’s no way Matt could be capable of doing what that monster had just done. The entire time I’ve known him, all he’s done is try to protect me. Now this? It just doesn’t add up.

Finally, he averted my stare with a brief look of regret and shame.

“T-tell me it’s not true, Matt. That couldn’t have been you that did that,” I choked out, tears slowly sliding down my cheeks. “No…no it wasn’t you. The evil bastard who did this to me, he’s still over there somewhere in the shadows. He switched places with you last minute framing you.” I tore away from him and scanned the darkness on the other side.

“Where are you?!” I shouted, my voice cracking every now and then, but I didn’t stop asking the question. No, Matt didn’t do this…someone else did. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Matt cringe every time I shouted the question.

“Just fucking give it up,” he sighed. “You’re wasting your breath.”

My head jerked back around so that I was facing him. “What is that supposed to mean?” I whispered, already knowing the answer.

“It was me on top of you the entire time, Courtney. No one else is hiding in the shadows. I raped you,” he said bluntly.

“Don’t say that,” I murmured, pulling my knees up to my chest and wrapping my arms around my legs. “It’s not true –.”

Suddenly, he leaped up from the ground and back onto the table, staring me directly in my eyes. “I’m not sure who you’re trying to fool, Courtney, but this is real. It really happened, it was really me doing that to you. So stop pretending!” he roared. His eyes confirmed his reaction, he meant what he was saying.

“W-why, Matt? Why are you doing this to me?” I asked, feeling all too cliché.

There was a short pause before he responded, probably giving himself some time to think about how to answer that. “Do you know how much money snuff film makers could make for selling their tapes?”

Everything just suddenly dropped. I no longer felt confused or hurt. All I saw was red. “You’re doing this to me to make a small amount of cash?!” I shouted, enraged.

“At least you’ll die for a good cause,” he smirked, unphased by my sudden reaction.

That was just about it. The glint of a small pocket knife dangling from his belt caught my eye. Without further hesitation, I reached forward and pulled the knife from its resting place, whipping it open and aiming it at his face.

“Matt, I can’t believe you are so fucked in the head that you are willing to destroy our friendship and my life over something that probably won’t do you any good,” I tried to reason with him one last time.

“Why would any of that matter?” he grinned, “for the longest time my goal has been to see what you’re like in bed. I’d say that’s a mission accomplished…and I’ll be getting paid for it too.”

“You’re despicable,” I growled, lunging my arm forward, watching as the end of the knife slid across the bridge of his nose, leaving behind a slight severance of skin, with a small amount of blood bubbling to the surface. He was completely shocked…maybe he didn’t realize that the person with the knife aimed at his face was actually going to use it.

His shock, much like my pain and confusion, soon turned into anger. “You’re going to pay for that one, Courtney.”

“Why, Matt? You were like my best friend,” I retorted, jumping off of the table, incase he was going to try to retaliate.

“Look at what you did to my face,” he said, pointing to the small line of blood.

I scoffed, “Look at my face!” Sure, I hadn’t seen my reflection yet but what had happened last night was inhumane.

Speaking of last night…originally there were two men who attacked me when I first woke up. If one of them is Matt, then who could his partner be? Was it one of the guys? My own stepbrother? Someone from school? The possibilities were endless, honestly. But my best guess would be that it was one of the guys. Zacky? Johnny? Jimmy? Or…

A door slammed shut in the other portion of the dungeon. He was coming. Would his identity be concealed? During all this thinking, I forgot that Matt was still pretty upset about his minor injury. He had since then come up from behind me and pulled me back up against his rock hard chest, using my hair as a means of keeping me in place.

A cold, steel knife was placed up against my throat and instantly my heartbeat increased. My eyes remained glued on the entrance, just waiting for him to walk in. His footsteps seemed to echo off of the walls as he drew closer. I couldn’t swallow because of the knife locked in place. Matt kept a firm grip on my hair with his free hand.

The door knob jiggled, revealing… Zacky? Johnny? Jimmy? Or Brian?

No…this definitely couldn’t be true. Not Brian too, not the guy who I had secretly hoped for so long actually liked me. Not him. His eyes widened when he realized that I was still down here, and now knew who he was.

“C-Courtney,” he whispered, staring intently at Matt and I.

“She knows the truth now, dude,” Matt informed him over my shoulder. “This could actually make things more interesting now.”

I couldn’t really read the look on Brian’s face. Was he happy to be found out or did he regret having done what he has? “I’d feel a little more comfortable if you would so kindly take your knife away from my neck,” I commented, trying to not focus on his expression.

“I have a better idea,” Brian smirked. No, it wasn’t Brian anymore…not the Brian I knew.

*Brian’s POV*

It had been an hour, presumably, since Matt had gone downstairs to have his alone time with Courtney. Surely, they’d be done by now and it would be safe to go down there and find out today’s activities. I causally headed down to the basement, without any sort of mask, since I assumed Matt would have Courtney locked back up.

I heard some noise coming from the second room inside our torture chamber, so I decided to see what was happening. The very first thing I saw when I opened the door was Courtney’s eyes, filled with hurt and sadness. She knew the truth now. A small part of me really did feel horrible. At least before she didn’t know who I was, so she couldn’t hate me entirely. Now that she knows, well, I’d say it’s obvious that she probably hates both Matt and I.

I’m sorry, Courtney, I really am. But just know that you will always be my favorite, and your death will make our lives even better.

“I’d feel a little more comfortable if you would so kindly take your knife away from my neck,” Courtney said, glancing back at Matt.

A thought suddenly formed in my head. Hell, even if she does know, it wasn’t going to ruin my quest for blood. “I have a better idea,” I smirked, exchanging glances with Matt as I reached into my pocket for my own knife. “Let’s play a game of tag. Matt and I will be ‘it.’ I’d get running, if I were you, Courtney,” I warned.

Matt quickly caught on and let her go so the game could begin.

*Normal POV*

It took my mind a few minutes to realize exactly what kind of game these two were referring to. I had fallen onto my knees after being unexpectedly released from Matt’s grip, so it took a little long to get back up onto my feet.

Brian smirked as I ran in his direction, toward the door. “Like that makeover I gave you last night?” he asked.

I stopped running. “You did this to me?!” I asked, once again enraged.

“Clearly. Are you going to try and get me back for it?” he challenged.

I went to go attack him, with both of my hands tightly balled into fists. “You fucking asshole!” I screamed just as I was about to punch that smile right off of his face.

As my arms were raised in the air, I had apparently left him a lot of room to work with. He easily dodged my feeble offense and jabbed his knife deep into my side, close to the stomach. Just as quickly as he had slammed it in, he ripped it out, dragging waves of blood out after it. The blood splashed all over his face and chest. And he was smiling.

“Better stay focused on the game,” he laughed.

I kept one hand securely over the wound as I ran past him and into the first room. I had already forgotten about Matt, since I was kind of bleeding out of my abdomen, which could lead to serious issues.

My eyes scanned the room, but I couldn’t find any signs of doors or windows. Matt suddenly leaped out from behind what looked like a dresser and lunged toward me, scraping the top of my shoulder with his knife. I cringed as blood leaked down my arm and even down onto my chest, right between my boobs.

I just realized that I was still half naked from what had taken place earlier, which made the situation all that much worse…relying on my own blood to cover up my naked body, a poor makeshift for clothes.

Brian stepped into the room, and both of them began to circle around me. I felt completely trapped and scared. They wouldn’t kill me so quickly like this, would they? Eventually they closed in enough so that there was honestly nowhere for me to win.

“Looks like you lose,” Matt stated.

Simultaneously, Matt and Brian made the move to stab. I felt both knives enter my back and stomach. Blood dribbled out of my mouth, and obviously out of my stab wounds. I could hear it drip onto the concrete floor into a fast collecting puddle. I wasn’t done yet. I gripped the hilt of both knives and pulled them out, screaming in pain. I threw them down onto the ground and shoved past them, heading for the door I finally discovered, the one near the small red light.

Brian and Matt were close behind me, but the door was closer. Just as I was about to reach out of it, the knives mercilessly entered, sending me flying down into the ground.

“Nice try, there, but you should know by now that there’s no way you’d win,” Matt laughed, placing one foot down on my back to pry the knife from my back. That one went in the deepest.

My vision started blurring, either from tears or from the slow loss of unconsciousness. Together, they walked toward the door and opened it.

“We’ll give you some time to enjoy the sting of defeat,” Brian said as he turned back to face me, remorseless.

“Dinner’s ready,” a familiar voice announced from far away. Could that be…mom? I forced my eyes to stay open to get a better view of what was outside the door. “MOM!” my voice croaked out. But she wouldn’t hear me.

They shut the door behind them, locking it. The red light went out. Finally, it came to me. I was a prisoner in my own home. And I was going to die by the hands of two of the only people I had ever come to trust in my life.