You Know I Make You Wanna Scream

“You ungrateful little bitch,” Synyster growled as he glared down at me. “Here I am, showing some mercy and making you some food and you repay me by trying to run away?!”

“That’s not exactly how it went down. I wasn’t trying to escape, I was just tired of waiting so I got out of the cuffs and went to go find you. Shadows over here misinterpretted my actions and jumped to conclusions!” I shouted back.

Then, I kind of regretted it and realized that it might have just been better to say I was guilty. He walked around me in a circle, his facial expression was totally unreadable. Suddenly, he grabbed me by the hair and began dragging me toward the kitchen. He would pull harder with each tug, making a headache form on the spot. And on top of that, I thought that at any given moment he would just end up ripping my hair out, because he had that much of a grip on my hair.

“Where are we going?” I managed to ask.

“Well, let’s see we’re in a kitchen and I just made some food so what do you think we’re doing?” I rolled my eyes at the stupid tone he was using.

As we passed by the sink, I saw that there were a few dirty plates and utensils rotting in the dirty water. But then something else caught my eye – there was something sticking out of the trash can near the sink and it looked extremely suspicious. It looked like a bunch of glass shards, which I guess could’ve just been from a broken glass, or anything for that matter. But I just got a really bad feeling about it, even though there wasn’t any apparent danger. I could feel my paranoia start to get the best of me, slowly but surely.

I was thrown down into one of the wooden chairs surrounding the corroding table in the center of the kitchen. A simple turkey sandwich, a glass of water, and some vegetable-soup-from-the-can were placed in front of me. Everything looked normal enough, but I was honestly surprised that he was still going to feed me even after the ‘stunt’ I pulled. I looked down at the food in front of me, and I truly was hungry, but I just couldn’t bring myself to eat it.

“What, is that not good enough for you?” Shadows sneered. I looked between Shadows and Synyster and I knew it wouldn’t be smart to piss them off at all.

“N-no, that’s not it…it’s just that whenever I haven’t eaten for a while, it’s kind of hard for me to get used to eating for a little bit.” That much would’ve been true normally, but this wasn’t normal and that wasn’t the real reason why I wasn’t eating.

Honestly, I was scared – that they did something to the food. They didn’t demonstrate its safety in any way, which didn’t help me. “If you don’t eat that damn food right now, then I’ll make sure you never eat again,” Synyster threatened, taking a step closer to me. If I wanted to make it out of here alive with Randi, then starving to death isn’t exactly an option.

So, I decided to take a bite of the sandwich. It tasted like a normal sandwich, so I ate more and more until it was completely gone. “Taste good?” Shadows smirked.

I sipped some water and paused before admitting, “Yeah, actually.”

“Well, now that that’s taken care of, I think it’s about time I go take care of that other bitch,” Shadows laughed, while looking at me. Wait, he was talking about Randi!

I stood up abruptly, knocking down the chair behind me, “Don’t you dare touch her!”

“Riiight, like you’re gonna be able to stop me,” he smirked as he left the room.

Suddenly, the world started spinning way faster than I could keep up with and I felt myself falling to the floor, fighting to keep my drooping eyelids open. A pair of boots appeared in front of me and I looked up to see Synyster towering over me and wearing a malicious smile.

“Nighty night, princess,” he whispered as the world started going black around me.

*The Rev’s POV*

Today has been such a boring day. I mean, Synyster said something about how he poisoned Myra’s food or something earlier and Shadows and Zacky are obsessed with beating the crap out of Randi. Where’s all the fun? I started absent-mindedly throwing knifes at the dart board on the wall.

Before one of the knives actually reached the destination, someone caught the knife in their hand and began twirling it between their fingers. “Someone looks bored,” Synyster said.

“You have no idea. I haven’t gotten to play with anyone’s mind ever since those two whores have been here.”

“Actually, I could use some help with that right now.”

“Really?” I asked getting out of my seat, “Which one?” Synyster lead me to his room and I knew it was Myra, which was the one I was hoping it would be.

As we walked inside, the familiar smell of dried blood lingered in the air. My eyes wandered over to the blood-soaked bed to see streams of blood flowing from Myra’s wrists due to the new-and-improved spike cuffs Syn used. “So, do you have any requests before I work my magic?” I asked, smirking.

Syn shrugged, “You are the master at this kind of thing. Give her the works.” I nodded and then went to go sit in the shadows, waiting for her to awaken…

*Normal POV*

It felt like I had been asleep forever, and it was hard to reopen my eyes. Part of me wished I could’ve stayed asleep longer, just to escape from this living hell and from the pain. But all that wishing went away when I remembered – “RANDI!”

I sprung up in the bed I was laying in, which as usual, was a mistake because those fucking cuffs were back into my wrists and I was bleeding all over again, almost as if I had never even left this spot to begin with. I tugged on the chains, trying to get them untangled from around the bed posts, but nothing I did seemed to work.

“I’d like to think it would hurt a lot if you did manage to get out of those,” a voice spoke from the shadows of the room.

“It did hurt the last time I did it, but it would be worth the pain to escape.” The voice came out from hiding and I was met face-to-face with the Rev.

“What are you talking about?” he asked slowly. “You never escaped from those cuffs…”

“Uh, yeah I did. And then Shadows caught me sneaking out and he and Synyster made me eat that stupid sandwich and then Shadows said he was going to go hurt Randi and then I passed out.”

“Wow, you have a pretty vivid imagination. I can guarantee that none of that has happened today.”

“You’re crazy. How would you know what happened in here when you weren’t in here until now?”

“Hmm, maybe because I’ve been hiding in the dark here watching the whole thing?”

“Then why would you wait until now to appear.”

“Because Synyster just left and said it was my turn to do some damage.”

“Well, if you don’t mind, I’ve got some things to take care of, so…” I said in a bored tone, focusing most of my attention on trying to undo the chains like I did last time.

“Tell me something, Myra, what makes you think you’ve ever left this place?” he asked, slowly walking closer to me.

I stopped struggling for a moment just to look at him like he was crazy, “I already told you what happened, and to be honest I could give a shit what you think didn’t happen and what I know happened. I don’t need to explain anything to you.”

I thought my answer was clear enough, at least at first, because he did shut up for a good five minutes, but then he started up again, only this time on a different subject.

“How long did you and Syn go out?” was his new subject matter. I continued battling the chains while keeping up with his meaningless conversation.

“Uh, I don’t know, around 4 months. What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

“Just trust me. Alright, so 4 months…then when was it when you ran in on us killing Kayla?” He just had to bring that bad memory back up, didn’t he?

“It was two weeks before I moved,” I answered, confused, and still not knowing where this was supposed to be going.

“Ok, and do you have any idea what the rest of us thought when you ran away and then came back claiming that you were moving?”

“I have no fucking idea, Jimmy, now what makes you think I even care?”

“We planned and discussed how exactly we would kill you. And even I’ve gotta admit, we came up with some pretty crazy ideas. Obviously, just stabbing you to death would be too boring and not worthy enough for you, I mean after what you’ve done to us and all…”

I stopped moving, originally to hear how they think they’re gonna kill me, but then became just as interested in what they thought I ever did to them. I mean, I could’ve done a hell of a lot to them – starting by telling the cops what they’ve done to my friends. But I didn’t say a word, and now they’re still trying to blame me for something? This I gotta hear.

“And what exactly is it that I did to your pour demented souls?” I asked sarcastically.

He rolled his eyes, expecting me to say something like that, and replied, “Aw, are you suggesting you don’t want to know how you’re going to die?”

“No, because I’m not going to let you assholes get the satisfaction of killing me,” I said confidently.

“You can act all brave and say whatever you want to say, but deep down inside, we all know you’re going to die in this very house. Syn was chatting about our ‘plans’ right before you regained consciousness and I will tell you right now, you’re going to regret the day you were born.”

The confidence behind his words and in his tone was far superior to mine, and on the inside it weakened me a little, but there’s no way I’d let it show on the outside. I didn’t see any point in arguing back and forth between him, so I just glared at him defiantly.

“Well, I can’t tell if that’s you argreeing or defying us, but that doesn’t matter.” He began walking over toward me until he was finally sitting on the bed with me. He then stared into my eyes, without ever once looking away – it was almost as if he was searching my soul for something. He was really starting to act weird.

The Rev pulled a knife out from behind his back and began twirling it around. “Tell me, Myra, if you had to…take a stab at it, what would you say makes a human want to kill?” he asked as he stabbed the knife deep into the mattress. What kind of question was that? I mean, I’m not exactly a damn psychologist, so how would I know?

I rolled my eyes, not really believing that I was going to give him a legit answer, and replied, “My guess would be either out of curiousity, desire for power or control, insanity, revenge, and extreme animalistic behavior…” Huh, that actually sounded pretty intelligent to me.

“Not bad,” the Rev admitted, “but, which one do you think would apply to us?”

“Insanity,” I said without hesitation.

The Rev chuckled and said, “I thought you would say something like that, but honestly no matter what you would’ve said, you would’ve been wrong because the correct answer has not been mentioned yet.”

“What else could possibly explain you sick freaks? Insanity has to be the only answer, it–.”

The Rev cut me off, “How do you sleep at night?”

I had a puzzled expression on my face as I asked, “W-what are you talking about?”

He shrugged, “I just want to know how someone who drove 5 perfectly normal people to commit murder would feel.”

I laughed slightly, “Oh, please don’t tell me you’re trying to blame me for your killings.”

“This isn’t a joke. You provoked us to do the unthinkable. At first, we thought we’d try it out on our girlfriends, so we could perfect our technique for you. But then we started having so much fun with it that we began killing more and more. And then you decided to try and run away from us all the way to Utah. We were going to come after you right there and then, but Syn was assured that you’d come back to California someday, and oh look – here you are.”

“Why would you have to ‘perfect the technique’ for me?”

“Oh, because you were going to be the star of the show. Syn loved you so much, and he was sure you felt the same. So when he heard rumors that you would either leave him or be moving, he lost it and announced he was going to kill you just so that you’d be stuck here with us forever. He wanted the perfect death for you.”

“But I didn’t do anything – he decided to make that choice on his own!” I said, raising my voice a little as some guilt began to sink in. What if I did turn them into sick murderers?

“Yes, he chose that out of his love for you. If you could’ve just stayed put and avoided moving and breaking up with him, who knows? Maybe you two would still be together, our other girlfriends would still be living and none of us would’ve killed. I guess I should say thank you for giving us the motivation to kill. You caused us to kill all those people! It’s all your fault!”

“NO!” I shouted, covering my ears. I was not responsible for this. There was no way what he’s saying is true.

However, his words began to sink in and replay over and over in my mind thank you for giving us the motivation to kill. I thought back to the first couple of months during the summer when Brian and I dated. They were actually one of the best times of my life. I really did love Brian and I knew he loved me…is Jimmy right? If he didn’t hear that I was moving, would he have just stayed happy and would we have had a perfectly normal life together?

These guys that are doing this to me and Randi all used to be my friends – Brian was my boyfriend, Jimmy was my neighbor and best friend, Matt was who I went to for advice, Zacky would always put me in a better mood, and Johnny was my little buddy. I thought that they were all so amazing, and I was also close friends with their girlfriends as well.

As the memories and questions flooded my mind, I could feel the tears begin to flood down my face. “H-how could I have let this happen? Everything was so perfect and now I ruined and destroyed everyone’s lives,” I cried.

As the sobs racked my body, the cuffs began to dig into the skin once again creating a fresh pool of blood. To be honest, I almost didn’t even care anymore; I felt worthless – it actually began to feel as though I deserved the pain.

Through my blurry vision, I saw a small look of compassion crawl across Jimmy’s face. “Here,” he said as he reached inside his pocket pulling out a key, “let me get you down from there.” He carefully unlocked each cuff and removed the spikes from my skin, trying to avoid maximum bloodshed.

“Now, you promise not to run away, right?” he asked, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. My tears were almost nonexistent now and I was just left with the sniffles. I nodded my head and thanked him. I never would have expected him to show any compassion…

All of the sudden, Jimmy was sitting right in front of me and he wrapped his arms around me into a very surprising hug. “I’m sorry we have to put you through all this pain. Sometimes, I just wish we could go back to how things used to be. I mean, we used to be neighbors and best friends!”

“I know Jimmy, and I want you to know that I feel like complete shit for doing this to you guys. I don’t know how I’ll be able to live with myself.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I forgive you and I know that Johnny and Zacky do too, but it will take a very long time before Brian and Matt can accept your apology.”

“Do you think I’ll have enough time left, so maybe I can apologize and then I won’t have to…die?”

“It’s hard to say, I mean those two in particular have been set on finishing you off the minute you left the state. It’s gonna take a lot of work.”

“Jimmy, please – I know I might deserve it, but I don’t want to die! I’m scared.”

“I understand, and I wish there was something I could do to help you out. Do you want me to take care of those?” he asked pointing to the multiple deep holes planted into my wrist. I nodded my head in response.

Jimmy treated my wounds and wrapped layers of bandages around the wounds as well. He eventually got me out of my morbid ‘I’m gonna die soon’ mood by bringing up a bunch of crazy memories from when we first met all the way through high school. “Remember when I put that hot pink dye in your shampoo and you came out of the shower with freaking hot pink hair?” Jimmy laughed.

I rolled my eyes, “Yeah, but even though I was pissed off, it still did look pretty sweet. Haha and then I retaliated by freeing the snails from the beach and/or the pet store and unleashing them in your room.”

“Dude! Those snails were the best. I kept at least 20 of them, and named them all. My mom wasn’t too thrilled with it, but that was seriously amazing.”

We continued talking about stuff like that for another hour, before Matt started shouting Jimmy’s name. “Alright, I’m gonna have to leave in a minute, but I’ve got a few things to say first. We are going to let your friend go pretty soon, just so you know. Second, I hate to say this, but we’re not going to let you go and there’s a 98% chance that you will die here and it will be painful. If you really want to ‘escape,’ then maybe you should consider suicide or something…it’ll be painless and you’d be free.”

I took in everything he said, and it was all slightly shocking. “O-ok, thanks for that Jimmy and it was nice to see Jimmy again, instead of the Rev.”

He smiled, “Just for you. But, promise me you won’t tell anyone about what we talked about and how I was nice to you. If you keep that promise, then I’ll try my best to protect you.” I smiled and waved as he ran out of the room locking it behind.

Suicide. That was an option that I never considered, nor wanted to consider. But Jimmy may have a point. Now, it seems to be my only possibility…but I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.