Drip.

Third Person:

The man walked quickly back to his little room, he’d forgotten about the killing. He’d been too preoccupied trying to figure out why he wanted…

No. He didn’t want that.

Yet somewhere he denied that. He did want it. He wanted it all to end. He wanted to stand surrounded. He wanted to stand in ruins. Death sentence maybe. He was tired.

The man fell limply into the chair. The two screens somehow glared menacingly at him in the dark room and he squinted against the light. Nobody was moving. Leah looked to be asleep. Boring. He tapped his fingers against the metal table he was sat in front of. He needed a new book of puzzles. He’d accidentally ripped it up instead of beating his head against a wall.

Then there was movement.

He leaned forward and pressed his face to the screen on the left. Britnay, new girls, and Arielle were in that one. He could see Zayden’s legs coming out of the corner of the screen though. The motion was Britnay stumbling towards him and screaming.

He hit the mute button and wondered why he had it muted anyway.

“No! I won’t listen!” She was pissed. “It’s unfair!” The man switched his view so he could see Zayden and Leah, who looked like she just woke up.

Oh. Shit.

He kept watching with a fist in his mouth, turning the volume down. Poor Leah, having to wake up to that noise. Then again, how could she sleep anyway? He leaned into the screen, placing his elbows on the table in front of him and then holding his head up.

Britnay got closer and closer to Zayden and Leah, the new girls close behind her. They pulled Zayden away and Britnay leaned over Leah, said something lowly, and smiled the sickest smile the man had ever seen. Leah looked scared out of her mind as she screamed and Britnay didn’t look surprised. In fact, she looked rather happy. Leah’s arms covered her face except for her eyes, which were wide and blind.

Zayden and Arielle were screaming and being held down by the other two. For a second the man let his mind slip. They liked the small girl even more than he did. He was left to wonder why he put her into his little game anyway?

Britnay slammed Leah’s head back against the hard cement wall and the man felt his eyes widen in fear. He wanted to interfere so badly, but regrettably couldn’t. He wouldn’t. He refused to break his own rules. Zayden and Arielle had to stop that stupid, stupid…

Then he remembered that that’s why they’re all there. It was his little killing game.

Why?

Britnay’s fingers were wrapped around Leah’s throat now, shaking her back and forth. Squeezing. Suffocating. Killing. Britnay was letting out around sixteen years of pampered rage. The man almost couldn’t take the irony. If only…

Then a miracle happened and the man couldn’t decide how he felt about it. Half of him, the fatherly half, is proud. The other half of him, the sadistic side, is enraged.

Leah shoved four slightly crumpled granola bars into Britnay’s face before going completely limp. Half number two is boiling under the surface. How could she get that passed him? He would kill her. The first half was telling the second half to shut up and cool down. Leah wasn’t being killed now at least. She was smart. What was there not to be proud of? Second half calms down and admits that it was rather smart. First half wins the argument.

The man looks back to the screens, taking in Britnay’s shocked and horrified face. She slowly lowered her hands as she realizes what was shoved in her face. Food. She jumps backwards and stares silently at her hands and the man is forced to turn up the volume.

“What? Why were you keeping these hidden?” Britnay is in awe. “How’d you hide… is that why… did he…” She stopped rambling and the tears streaming from her eyes were evident. “I’m so sorry.”

Zayden made a mad dash for Leah after one of Britnay’s goonies let him go. He stumbled and fell to his knees right next to her. He put his hands on her face. “She can’t hear you.” The man starts to wonder why?

Was she dead? Or just unconscious?

“What do you mean Z?” Arielle asked fearfully as she made her way slowly towards the two.

“What do you think I mean?!” The boy yelled. That’s when he reached down and lightly placed two fingers to Leah’s neck. He looked down and shook his head.

“You mean she’s…” Arielle trailed off. She touched Leah’s neck also. If she was breathing the cameras weren’t detecting it.

“What?” It was a whisper. Britnay’s face turned into a pale mask of guilt. The man sniffled. Wait. What? He’s crying? He shouldn’t be crying. He should be grinning, murmuring ‘oh, the drama.’ That’s what he did this for…

Right?

“Not her.” He whispered, none-the-less, angrily drying the tears on his face with his sleeve. “Please. Not her.”