I landed head first after being thrown into the room. I gawked at the scene of terrors that lay in front of me.
In front of me was a still and lifeless body. The last of the body's blood puddled around the girl as it leaked from the multiple wounds in her stomach and neck. Her arms and legs lay bent sideways and backwards. Greasy and blood soaked blonde hair surrounded the girl's face. This girl had obviously been beaten, tortured, and brutally killed.
It pained me to admit, but this disheveled memory of a girl was my sister.
"No! Haley!" I screamed frantically, and crawled towards her body to check for an obviously dead pulse. I sobbed into her chest as her blood started to trickle around me. Looking into her eyes, I saw nothing. The eyes that once were so popular and funny, thrived around people and partied every night were now full of blank and eternal nothingness.
"Haley, come on." I started furiously shaking her body, ignoring what I truly knew. "Come on Haley, wake up." I stopped shaking her and moved instead to her face. I lifted her eyelids to reveal striking blue eyes. However much they pierced me, they held no life.
I started shaking my head. Slowly at first, but faster by the second. My breath caught in my throat and I couldn't help the tears stream from my eyes.
"Haley.." I bent over her body and cried into her chest. "No, please. Don't leave me." I gathered her in my arms and held her close, praying she would return.
Sobs racketed through my body. This was my sister, all I had left. We had been through so much together and had planned to go through so much more. I promised I would protect her, and provide for her. I promised myself she would get out of this deadbeat town someday. Now she was dead, and all those hopes were gone.
I couldn't help the steady stream of tears flowing from my eyes as I cried out desperately for Haley to come back.
"Haley! Please don't do this to me!" My cries for my sister to return grew louder and more desperate. I held her broken body in my arms, shaking her frantically. She couldn't be gone. If she were truly dead, I would have nothing left. Haley was the last of my family. What would I do without her sense of humor at home? What would my life revolve around, now that I wouldn't have to keep an eye on her? What did I have to live for?
As another shriek left my body, I sensed the men moving around me. Knowing my time with Haley was limited, I stared at her again through my tear soaked eyes. I combed her hair out of her face and wiped away what blood I could. I looked into her eyes, praying one last time she wasn't really dead.
"I'm so sorry." I whispered softly while burying my face in her hair.
Suddenly, I felt Haley being pulled from my grasp. I screamed at whatever force was pulling her away from me, not yet ready to let her go. I felt someone tearing me away from the grip I had on her, and I thrashed wildly trying to be rid of their grasp. Another cry escaped me when Haley left my arms forever.
Just as the sound left my mouth, a sharp pain hit the side of my head. Then everything went black.
***
Two men were talking in quiet voices around me.
"We will definitely get big bucks for this one. She's gorgeous and has no family left! Plus she's a fighter." One rough voice rang out.
A quieter voice answered, seemingly unsure. "I don't know. She seems a little unstable to me."
"Well, what do you expect? We just killed her sister." The louder voice responded again.
I focused as much as I could on their voices, but despite my best efforts they started to slur together. Instead of trying to make out what the voices were saying, I attempted to call out for my sister.
"Haley." I mumbled softly, not even sure if the words actually left my lips. "Hay.." I spoke louder, but was unable to finish the word before an excruciating throbbing came from my head. I moaned, trying to drown out the pain and get someone's attention. I needed to see if Haley was alright.
I heard the voices getting louder, signaling they were coming closer to me. My eyes felt like cinder blocks, and I tried unsuccessfully to open them. Suddenly, a sharp, needle-like pain hit my arm. I tried lifting my head as my world danced around me. I felt the world spinning and before I could make another sound, my head hit the concrete floor with a thud.
I awoke to harsh hands grabbing my arms and shaking me. Opening my eyes I saw the figure of a man in his thirties lingering over me. His messy brown hair hung loose on his head and forest green eyes pierced my blue ones. His rough hands shook me once more, making me sit up.
Groggily, I sat up and leaned against the hard wall behind me. The throbbing on the side of my head was worsening by the minute, and it took every ounce of energy to keep my eyes open. When my vision finally focused, I saw I was in a concrete room with two other men. There was a large red stain in the middle of the floor, it's crimson color standing out against the white concrete. On either side of the room we were in, there were two rectangle windows shining light and casting shadows.
As I took in everything before me, my vision started to dance once more. My eyes grew heavier and threatened to let the blackness of sleep engulf me. Before I could back out again, I felt something wet being thrown over me. It was freezing cold and snapped me back into reality, where I saw all the men in the room staring at me.
"Finally awake?" The one with the brown hair that woke me up, taunted me. "About time."
I gawked at the stranger, trying to understand if he was joking. "You knocked me out and drugged me. What do you expect?" My tone was dull and monotonous, reflecting what I felt. Inside I was barren and dead. I knew Haley was gone, the only thing left of her was the blood stain in front of me.
"Don't you talk back to me." The man's voice grew heated.
I lifted my eyes up to meet the man's, giving him a look that let him know I didn't care. I shook my head and kept quiet, having no desire to open my mouth anyway.
I watched the men before me begin to talk amongst each other. I didn't bother to try and listen to what they had to say. There was no point. There was no point to anything anymore. Haley and my parents were gone, and I had nothing to live for. Even if I got out of this mess, what would I go back to? A job I hated and school I couldn't afford. The only thing that kept me going in this life was the fact I needed to care for Haley. Now, she was gone, and there was no point.
Despite my best efforts, tears started to fill my eyes at the thought of Haley. "What have you done with her?" My voice suddenly rang out, surprising everyone in the room, including myself.
The men turned to look at me, malice now filling their expressions. I saw the one with brown hair roll his eyes, and turn away from me. The other shook his head slightly, then turned his back to me. I stared at the two men in shock, a spark of rage starting to ignite within me.
"What did you do with her?" I furiously shouted at the men. When they refused to acknowledge what I was saying, something snapped within me.
"You're both monsters. Haley didn't deserve to die. She was barely 16, with an entire life ahead of her. A life that you took away." Venom dripped from my lips as I spat the words at the men.
The man with the brown hair and forest green eyes spoke to me. He stayed standing across the room, but his overpowering frame made it seem like he was yelling in my ear.
"What did I say about talking back?" He growled, while starting to advance towards me. The other man stuck out his arm and stopped him, giving him a look of warning. He mumbled something I couldn't hear, then began to walk towards me. His long black hair and deep blue eyes accentuated his pale features.
"I think it's best if you listen to him, Samantha." I cringed when he said my name. "You should know, we've thought this through. Your family is dead, and you have no one left. Meaning, no one will come looking for you. It's perfect for us." The man was now kneeling in front of me. He drew closer and closer to me, lifting me up by my arm. As he made me stand, my vision danced again and the pounding in my head grew fiercer.
I was now standing before the man, trying with everything I had to stay standing. Despite my best efforts, my legs began to fail me and I fell into the man's arms.
He chuckled lightly as he caught me in his muscular arms. "You have no one, Samantha. No one will miss you. No one will come looking for you. That combined with your beautiful looks will price it out nicely."
As he said these things he drew nearer to me until he was barely a centimeter apart from my face. Without warning his dirty hands started to snake around my waist and pull me close to him.
"Let. Go. Of. Me." He now had me pushed up against a wall and had started to close any distance between us. His disgusting monstrous hands moved up my back. I shoved with all my might against him, to no avail. The arms that were caressing my back now, had been the same ones to torture and kill my sister just earlier today. At this moment, I wanted nothing more than to be as far away from this man as possible. I tried again in vain to shove him off me.
He chuckled, a deep throaty laugh. The kind that sends chills down your spine. The kind that gives you nightmares. "You have no power against me, silly girl." He brought his face next to mine once again and I glared into his dark blue eyes. They only held amusement.
"That's enough, Nate." A voice I recognized forcefully said.
The man- Nate let a smirk play on his lips and ran a hand through his short black hair as he laughed. "Just having a little fun, Derek."
Finally, Nate let me go. I looked up and standing in the doorway I was thrown through just a couple hours ago stood Haley's boyfriend- Derek. He stood there and studied me. I was breathing heavily from the rage bubbling up inside my body and my fists were clenched ready to attack him.
"Derek. You were behind this. You murdered my sister!"
"Yes, doll, I did." His eyes held no sorrow for what he had done. He just continued to stand in the doorway and study me.
"Well why?!" Tears were threatening to spill over my eyes but I held them back. I couldn't let them see me weak.
"It's simple really. We were going to let her go, just after we had a little fun of course." He mused. "One thing led to another, and my, was her blood just so delicious, and sadly we got carried away." A smirk was now playing on his lips.
Wait. What?
Did he say her blood was delicious?
I shook that thought aside. I was speechless and had no idea what was going on. I don't think I really wanted to know either. An idea played in the back of my mind but I quickly dismissed it as crazy. Those things don't exist. And if they did I was in big trouble.
"So what are you, some kind of cult that likes to drink helpless girls' blood?!" I was now buying time as a small escape plan formed in my mind.
"You could say something like that. Or you could say what we really are. I know you know it, Samantha." I hated the way he said my name.
I refused to say anything after that. It had dawned on me what they were but I decided to play dumb to keep them busy.
"Yeah, I know what you really are. A bunch of psychos who aren't going to get away with killing my sister!"
"Oh darling Samantha. I already have." He was now full out laughing at me.
I realized we were the only two in the room. I said nothing, only stared at the man who swore he loved my Haley. Seconds, minutes passed by with silence between us. My chances of escape were dwindling with each one that passed. I guess Derek eventually grew bored and he advanced towards me. I started to back against the wall and move slowly around the room as he followed. He must have been completely absorbed in my terror towards him, because eventually I reached the door.
When I reached the handle I opened it and flung myself through the door slamming it shut behind me. I was in the same long hallway I came in a couple hours ago. I sprinted down the steps and looked to my right to notice another hallway leading to more doors. I skidded on my heels and headed down that way hoping to lose Derek. However, as I rounded the corner the two men who I was originally with stepped in my way. To avoid hitting them head on I fell to one knee and turned around. I was sprinting the other direction once again when Derek appeared a couple feet in front of me. I was trapped. The two men advanced on me from behind and Derek's tall frame towered over me from the front. By now I was back at the steps leading to the room I had just been in.
Derek's shaggy blonde hair and black eyes came near me. He was utterly terrifying and I could tell he was pissed. Suddenly two arms grabbed my biceps and painfully squeezed them. Nate was cornering me once again back to Derek while the other man- I decided to name him Bob- stood and watched. After another 5 seconds Nate had me pushed into Derek's overpowering frame and I stumbled back onto the cold concrete floor. I tried to crawl backwards only to be met by Bob. The monster that was once my sister's boyfriend towered over me.
"You really shouldn't have done that, doll. Now I have to punish you." A dark smile played on his lips and his eyes held nothing but pure evil.