Out of Curiosity

After everything that happened, no one really gave a thought to how it had occurred or even how it had even happened. No one was curious enough to question the one person who may (or may not) know what went on.

Hollie had never been approached by someone who had been just so curious that they had to break the mould of people who wouldn't dare to speak to her.

It was amusing, in a way, to her because no one really blamed her for what happened – oh no, it was all his fault.

The man in question who no one dared to be curious about.

His name was Aaron Evans and he worked in the local secondary school within the area that it had happened in.

He was well known but not well liked, at least not by most and majority that resided in that school for the five years that the law claimed they needed.

Some think that it was that which lead Hollie to be sat drinking her coffee in the coffee shop just around the corner from her parents' house on that particular day. She never denied it nor did she confirm it.

A complete and total mystery was the day even though most could take wild guesses and be almost right.

With sitting where she was, Hollie could rest her eyes on the figure that was across the room from her. The figure was a man in his early thirties reading the newspaper. His wedding ring glistened whenever the light hit it.

In Hollie's mind it was already decided then and there and no one could have even talked her out of it – not that most wanted to, no. It was just mostly... boredom they may have prompted them to do so. Which, none of them did.

Aaron shifted the paper in his hands so that his left one could make its way to the table to pick up the cup of coffee that he's had for the last twenty minutes. Well, that's what he had assumed but instead he was just grasping air which in turn made him lower the paper.

He was baffled over the fact that his coffee was just gone from the table – the coffee drops that were next to it were gone as were the serviettes and the empty packets of sugar he had used. Of course he'd been discreet with getting the packets of sugar – he didn't need the sugar, it wasn't like the coffee was too strong for him. Of course not, it'd never be.

It was reasoned in his head that he wanted the sugar for better taste and not because it was too strong for him.

Hollie called a bluff but never said anything. Her eyes stayed on his figure sitting at the table.

It was actually quite entertaining, if she was being honest with herself. A grown man who showed himself to be superior to most was actual one who was walked all over by his wife. And at times Hollie really wanted to just walk up to her and thank her for being bitchy to him – but no, she didn't.

She couldn't really, could she?

Standing from where she had been seated for the best part of an hour, Hollie deliberately made her way close to his table as she walked towards the door which was practically next to him.

Hollie kept her smile to herself as she was about to pass the table Aaron was sat at but was stopped by him.

“Hollie? I haven't seen you for a while – what have you gone onto study? If I recall correctly, you got the highest A-level in History that I taught,” the low, almost arrogant voice of Aaron Evans grated on Hollie's nervous a lot – it always had done even when she was in school – but she forced a smile onto her face and turned towards him.

“I'm home from Uni for a little while – the course I'm taking has a break every year at this time because of the overcrowding of the placements,” she told him – all truth though, she didn't once lie in what she told him.

Her course had been put on a break because of the overcrowding placements but normally she would spend that time on the Uni campus with her friends because she still had her dorm there.

“I always knew you'd get into Uni Hollie. You were completely able but during your GCSE years you didn't pull your weight all that well which wasn't that good for your overall mark.”

“Yeah, I was just lazy then and wanted to have fun rather than work like I should have done. Look... I have to go now – running late for my doctor's appointment. It was nice seeing you again sir,” she gave him a (fake) smile before making her way out of the coffee shop without letting him reply to her.

That conversation had been harder than she had first thought. Who knew that even though it might be easy to have a civil conversation with a teacher you hate in school, it'd be hellva lot harder having a conversation outside of school – after leaving and being away from it for almost two years – with the same teacher that you hated in school.

But still, that conversation set everything in plan. Hollie knew it'd all be in plan, no matter what Aaron decided to do before going home to his wife. It would be taking place tonight, whether Aaron knew it or not.

Which was obviously not but Hollie just shook her head at that thought before leaving the road the coffee shop was on and slipping down the back alley.

The rest of the day went slow for Aaron – he still never found out who got rid of his coffee – but when it came to five pm he was just about rearing to head home for food and a wife who would be going out tonight. That was the best part about tonight for him – well, it was to him at that moment in time.

He never knew what was in store for him, and really no one else did either. Though they all guessed and assumed because really, it wasn't that hard for them to figure out.

Though, it was only not that hard for the people who knew Aaron, meaning the students in the school that he taught at. Most of the other people were completely oblivious to it much like he was.

Upon reaching the road just before the one he lived on, Aaron found it slightly peculiar seeing bags sprawled out on the pavement in front of the house that was meant to be derelict. Judging from the door that was open, it didn't seem to be derelict.

And being the person that he was – a very nosy one – Aaron decided to investigate by going up the path and to the door of the house. “Hello?” he called into the dark, dusty hallway.

He came to the conclusion that it probably was still derelict but had probably been broken into by some teenagers and he jumped to conclusion that it had to be one of the students from his school. It also meant that he didn't stay outside; the inside was much colder than the outside was.

It was darker and creepier too. And of course Aaron put that down to the place being derelict again.

“Anybody in here?” he called out, walking deeper into the house. The weight of his footsteps made the floorboards creak with every other step her took. “I know you're in here so just come out.”

He heard a noise behind him and just as he was about to turn around, something sharp and heavy hit the back of his head which made him collapse onto the dust floor, knocked out.

Hollie dusted off the brick she was holding as she looked down at the man laying at her feet. That was easier than she had first thought.

-

Coming to was a hard thing for Aaron to do because he just didn't know what had gone on. And he's always a man who knows what has gone on – or at least, that's what he thinks and assumes.

Arrogant could be his middle name.

The first thing he realised when he actually came to was the fact that both his hands had cling film wrapped tightly around them. It was probably tight enough to be cutting off his blood from flowing properly.

He couldn't move a single finger, not even a small way. They were wrapped far too tightly and almost professionally (although, Aaron pondered, how could someone become professional with wrapping cling film around someone's hands?) which made him even more confused.

The next thing he noticed was the fact that he was tied to a chair and his hands were behind him. Even though that really should have been the first thing he noticed, it wasn't.

Now Aaron was really confused – and Hollie could see that from where she was. Not that she was going to intervene just yet, no, she was just going to observe how he acted.

It wasn't like she needed him to be quiet. Basements in houses that are derelict meant that no one can hear you. And it's even better when it's not a derelict house that sits on a street full of families.

“Whoever this is, it's not funny!” Aaron called, still assuming it was some boys from the school he worked in. Though it wasn't a boy it was someone who used to go tot he school he worked in.

Hollie had to listen to him shout insults and threats to the 'boys' that were somewhere in the house, 'hiding', according to Aaron, for almost ten minutes.

And really, it was tiring her out but she knew the only way she'd managed to get him to shut up would be to show herself to him and do something about it. She really didn't want to do that yet but because he just wouldn't stop being so fucking cocky, she gave up hiding herself.

When Hollie stepped into Aaron's sight, he looked... well shocked would probably be an understatement. He had only just seen her today and she was a girl for god's sake.

“Just shut up. Whatever you were going to say – shut up. You're doing my head in more so then you normally do,” she told him, shaking her head before running a hand through her hair.

Aaron was still shocked that it was Hollie standing in front of him, seemingly the one who had wrapped the cling film tightly around his hands and tied him to the chair. He was, once again, baffled about how a girl could do that to him.

“So...,” Hollie began, looking at Aaron and grinning, “bet you're wondering what this is all about. Maybe I'll tell you and maybe I won't, but just out of curiosity Aaron, will you scream or not whilst I'm doing it all? I just want to know whether I have to gag you some way because your voice is... how should I put it, annoying? Grating? Horrible? All of the above?”

Aaron seemed to have finally found his voice (or decided that listening to the girl who had, seemingly, knocked him out was finally too much), so when he opened his mouth Hollie cocked a hip with a hand placed on it. Was he not going to listen to her?

“I don't know who you think you are but this is not funny anymore. I don't know what you're trying to prove but it's not going to work,” he said, using a firm voice that maybe would work in the classroom. But then, this wasn't in a classroom.

It was in a basement where no one knew he was.

Hollie just laughed before shaking her head, “Really now? I tell you not to do something but you still do it? In case you don't realise Aaron, you're at my mercy. You are not in charge here so you can't dictate a single thing that I do in this room.”

It was then when Aaron did actually realise that he was, in fact, at her mercy. He really wasn't a stupid person but his thoughts right then at only just realising that made him think that he was.

Because really, he was tied to the chair with cling film wrapped around his hands and yet he didn't realise that he should just listen to Hollie because she was the one to put him in that position so it was obvious that she could be the one to let him out of that position.

If she wanted to, that is.

And in her mind, she didn't want to. Not now and certainly not ever.

“I think that I am Hollie, Aaron, and that I'm quite annoyed with your voice at the moment. And seeing as I'm the one in charge here, it's not a very good thing for you that I'm annoyed. Because Aaron, I can vent my annoyance out on you just like you used to take your frustration out on us,” Hollie gave a smirk at the end of speaking. And of course the smirk made Aaron furrow his eyebrows because he just didn't understand why she was smirking like that.

He couldn't see anything funny about this situation.

But then again, he was at the butt of whatever she was smirking about, he just knew it, so it could have explained why he didn't find it funny.

“What's so funny?” he demanded. Hollie gave a bigger smirk gazing at her finger nails, as if he wasn't there asking her a question.

Just as he was about to ask her again, Hollie spoke, “It's just... I forgot all about Donna for the past days. You just helped me remember. So I guess thank you could be said to you.”

Aaron wasn't quite whether he should be worried or not – he did know someone called Donna – so when he looked at Hollie's face to see whether he should, he was met with a blank face. It gave him no indication as to whether he should be worried or not.

“Mhm... now where did I put her?” Hollie mumbled to herself, ignoring Aaron as she wandered around the basement.

There was a door at the other side of the room which lead to a small cupboard. Hollie made her way over to it and opened the door. A huge smile appeared on her face. “Found her,” she sung out before ducking down and picking up something that had fell on the floor.

Aaron tried to see what she had picked up – or at least, in the cupboard – but it was too dark for him to see anything and it seemed like Hollie was deliberately blocking him from being able to see anything. He watched as she stood up and begun walking towards him; her left hand was behind her back. She was hiding something from him.

“You know Donna, right Aaron? She was always a bitch to me. I guess she got the justified death then,” with that she brought her hand from behind her back and placed the object on Aaron's lap.

And boy did he scream.

The object that Hollie placed on Aaron's lap was a head. A human's head that belonged to a Donna Jones that he just so happened to know. And he just so happened to know her from the school he worked at because, surprise, surprise, she the deputy head of year to the year that Aaron was head of year to.

Aaron stared down at the severed head of Donna, eyes wide in horror. He didn't want to believe what he was seeing was real – he didn't want this head to be on his lap. The head of a woman he worked with.

Though, if you asked most students, they'd say that Donna Jones was male because she didn't look like a woman. At all.

“That's nothing Aaron, she was dead before her head left her body. Though I was tempted to do it before...,” Hollie trailed off with a smirk as Aaron progressively got paler and paler.

The thought of what could happen to him was slowly sinking in and for once in his life, Aaron was feeling the unmistakable emotion of fear.

“I guess you've finally realised then, huh Aaron? So then this show should get going,” Hollie gave a laugh before walking over to the wall that Aaron was facing. She picked up the bag that was on the floor and Aaron couldn't work out how he had missed it.

He really didn't want to know what was in it. Though, he was a smart man so there were images running through his mind of what could be in the bag. And each image was something he hated because of what he saw.

“Now then, I know you'll probably give me trouble even though your hands are tied together, and quite frankly that thought annoys me. So I got especially for you – Donna didn't need it because she was out rather quickly. It was actually quite pathetic of her, if I'm honest,” Hollie gave a small smile to Aaron at the end of speaking before withdrawing the needle from the bag she was holding, and with a small step forward, inserting it into Aaron's upper arm.

It was only then that he realised that his shirt sleeves had been cut off. He had been so preoccupied with the fact that his hands were wrapped in cling film and then about Hollie being behind this all that he hadn't noticed his ruined shirt.

Hollie then pulled the needle away from him and dropped it on the floor with a satisfied nod. “In a few minutes you'll be paralysed but still be able to feel everything that I do to you. It wasn't as if I'd let you go easily now, is it?” She gave a chuckle.

It was as if Aaron could feel the liquid from the syringe seeping through him. And as Hollie said, a few minutes after, when he tried to move, he couldn't.

So when Hollie pulled a knife from the bag, Aaron didn't move. When she moved forward and placed it on his thigh, he didn't move. And when she dug it deep into his flesh, dragged the blade down towards his knee and made blood start pouring out, he didn't move.

But he did feel the pain though.

He did want to clench his teeth to try and take the pain but he couldn't move to clench them together. Hollie gave a small laugh. “My Aaron, you're very quiet right now. In fact, I think this is the quietest I've ever heard you.”

Aaron was trying to think of anything to take his mind of the pain his leg was currently in. He wasn't looking down so he couldn't see just how deep Hollie had gone but judging from how it felt, he guessed that she had gone quite deep.

“I wonder whether you've wondered about the cling film that's covering your hands. Knowing you, you probably have. So I guess that you want to know what it's for?” Hollie mused, swinging the now bloodied knife between her forefinger and middle finger. “Well, you see your hands? They're fucking perfect. I know, how can someone like you have perfect hands? It baffles me as well. Anyway, your hands are perfect and well... I want them. For no other reason than they are perfect. So in order for me to get them you have to die. That's the way the rules work and quite frankly, it wasn't like I was going to leave you alive anyway.”

Aaron knew his hands were soft but he didn't know they could ever be classed as perfect. Sure, he did moisture them nightly and always washed them with soap every time he could, but perfect didn't make sense to him.

How could hands be perfect?

“You see? Another think I like about this injection I've just given you – no confusion! Ha, sometimes I really love the things I see on the television, after all without half that stuff you wouldn't be here right now, and that head would certainly not be on your lap.” Hollie looked back into the bag and brought out a black white board pen.

Dropping the bag on the floor, she moved closer to Aaron and uncapped the pen. Instead of doing something to the front of him, she moved around to the back of the chair. To where his hands were tied and wrapped. Then carefully she drew a dotted line just above where the cling film stopped on his left hand. She then repeated the process on his right hand before recapping the pen and going back to the bag.

“Now, I did have thought to make it as much painful for you as I could but the object I was going to use would have then proved difficult for me so instead I opted for a different object that would, unfortunately, bring you less pain,” she told him as she dropped the pen into the bag, “However, I then got something else that I could use on you to bring more pain but not necessarily for the hands. I'm sure you're familiar with a razor blade Aaron, am I right?”

With that she withdrew a razor blade from her bag along with scissors. Aaron really didn't want to know what she was going to be doing with them but he had a feeling that he wouldn't get a choice in the matter. Hollie then moved and sat in front of Aaron's legs. She knew that if she hadn't used the paralysing drug then she would have been kicked by Aaron right now.

She loved being one step ahead.

Using the scissors, she cut the trouser leg along the stitching. She then cut across the top of the fabric which let her pull the fabric away from Aaron's leg. It left his whole right leg exposed to her. The blood flowing from the cut on his left leg hadn't once stopped or slowed down.

“Let's see what this does if I do this...” Hollie dragged the side of the razor blade across Aaron's thigh and watched as a line of blood appeared. “What would happen if I done it bit harder, mhm?” She repeated the action but this time deeper and when the blood appeared she could actually see the cut this time. “Much better.”

Without giving Aaron time to recover, Hollie kept dragging the blade up and down his thigh, getting deeper each time which drew more blood as well. Pretty soon there were many lines that ran into each other and crossed over that lined Aaron's thigh. But she wasn't done.

“You didn't think that was all, did you Aaron? Of course not, why would that only be all? I'm not that nice,” Hollie gave a smile at the end of speaking before running her finger over his thigh, smudging the blood. “Now let's see if I did this--” and with that she dug his finger tip into one of the cuts and grabbed at the skin. And without warning, she yanked it up.

Now what Hollie had been doing wasn't just random cuts – she knew what she was doing so it couldn't be random. But she was also doing it in a certain way so that when she pulled at the skin it would be loose and cut up enough to come up without much trouble.

And that's what happened when she pulled it up.

Aaron wished he could move or even make some noise because what Hollie was doing now (which was pulling his skin up and revealing his muscle) was absolutely killing him.

“Now would you look at that,” she said bemused, “it worked.”

And because it worked, Hollie repeated the process with all the other cuts and after a while the whole of Aaron's thigh was... well, just muscle.

The pain was excruciating for him.

Hollie then picked up the razor blade again and brought her hand to hover over his thigh. She looked at Aaron, “Should I?” He wanted to shake his head no but he still couldn't move so instead he just sat there and pleaded in his mind.

“I should? Well, okay then, if you say so.” With that, Hollie brought the razor blade down and dug it deep within his muscle.

If Hollie was being honest, she never really expected it to get this far. She had always wanted to get her own back on Aaron but even then, she had never expected to be doing what she was doing right now. But she was enjoying it so it wasn't like she was going to complain about it.

After giving a few tugs (which tore at the muscle), Hollie dropped the blade on the floor before going back to the bag and pulling out the last thing that was in there – a hack saw.

She was tempted to tease him with the fact that she had stole it from his school's D&T department but decided against it. Right now she wanted to just get the last thing over and done with before doing the final thing of the day.

Going round to where his hands were, she positioned the saw on the dotted line and with a smile, began sawing away at his skin.

Aaron never believed that the hack saws could really do that much damage – they were in his school, after all – but at this moment in time, he knew that they could because he could feel the blades digging into his skin.

Hollie was enjoying the fact that there was no screaming, crying or noise coming from Aaron. It would have given her a headache and that was something that she really did not want.

After a while of sawing away, she noticed something white in the mist of all the blood that was covering his arms (and her hands) – his bone. Grinning manically, she started moving the saw faster so it would go through easier and faster.

The blood that Aaron was losing was affecting him quite a bit; he felt a bit drowsy but couldn't close his eyes to blank out into sleep. However when the hack saw began sawing away at his bone, Aaron lost the drowsiness and was just submerged in pain.

His body was struggling to stay awake but his mind was screaming to just let go of it so the pain would be over. But Aaron was stuck in the limbo of not being able to do anything and just wanting the pain to be over and done with.

When the saw hit his other hand's bone that was when his body and mind just couldn't take it any more. The pain that he was feeling slowly faded and instead was replaced with darkness.

Hollie dropped the saw from her hands and used both of them to hold Aaron's hands. They were now disconnected from his arms and in her hands. She couldn't wait to put them on display in her bedroom.

Now the only thing she had to do was leave a gift for someone.

-

When a teacher walked into Aaron's office, he was puzzled to why he wasn't there. He then noticed a bag sitting on his chair.

Curious, he walked over to it and saw it was zipped up. The teacher looked around to see whether anyone was around to see before unzipping it.

All anyone heard was a blood curdling scream coming from Aaron's office.