The Renfield Syndrome Ch. 03

David felt paralyzed, more helpless than he had ever been in his life and consumed by dread. He tried to battle down his own fear and pain, tried to think some way out of this. He saw none. David was fucked. He lay still and breathed deep, using some of his old anti-anxiety techniques to try to calm his mind, though he never imagined he might use such skills in a situation as dire as this.

There was a series of sharp turns and then the vehicle slowed and passed over what felt like speed bumps, then sped up again though not as fast. More sharp turns followed, and David could tell the vehicle was descending as they went. At last, he was jerked forward as the tires screeched on the pavement and they came to a shuddering stop. Moments later heavy hands were laid on him and he was hauled up from where he lay and forced out of the vehicle to stand on the pavement on shaky legs.

"Hey lover," came the woman's voice from right in front of him. "Hi, my names Chelsea, nicetameecha. Allow me to introduce you to someone!" Suddenly what felt like cold metal was pressed brutally hard to his forehead. "This is Sparky, he's my 357 Magnum. He likes to turn brains into slushies, but I'm trying to convince him it's more fun to blow a guy's balls off." The pressure was removed from his forehead and jabbed sickeningly into his testicles, and he tried not to grunt in pain. "And when I say off, I mean GONE, sugarface. So don't make Sparky mad, okay?" He was jabbed once more painfully in the groin and then the presence was gone and the one identified as Belial placed a huge meaty hand on David's shackles behind his back.

"We're going for a little walk now, cuck," he growled, jerking upward on the handcuffs and sending searing pain searing into David's shoulders. He could tell Belial towered over him, a true giant of a man, and David was forced to walk blind, his eyes still taped shut and the smell of burlap in his nostrils from a bag over his head. It was an agonizing trip, and every stumble or slight misstep got him another jab in the balls from "Sparky" and another vicious yank on his bound hands, forcing his arms into a paralyzingly painful configuration. In this way he was manhandled across the pavement, into what he blindly identified as an elevator that traveled downwards, and then out again.

Though he couldn't see and could barely think, David was still trying to form a mental map of his route in case he got an opportunity to come back this way. Out of the elevator, left, straight, through a door, right... It quickly proved to be a hopeless endeavor, they were passing through a labyrinth of passages, and he was quickly lost. After an interminable amount of time, he was pushed through a door so fiercely he lost his balance and crashed painfully to the hard floor punishing both head and his knees, unable to catch himself due to the shackles. Without a second to catch his breath or orient himself, Belial jerked him into a kneeling position. At long last the smothering bag was pulled off his head and the duct tape was torn painfully from his eyes. For a moment he still couldn't see, and he blinked hard trying to clear his vision.

The chamber he was in was long and low and dark, lit by fires burning in oil barrels scattered around a larger central blaze. The walls were cracked and crumbling mosaics of exposed pipes and wire, and there were no windows. The air reeked of urine and excrement and unwashed bodies, and from where David knelt, he could see multiple people clustered about the room. The flickering light from the fires revealed their features to be almost universally dirty and unkempt, some wearing cast-off rags, some completely naked. Their faces were sallow and sunken, and many sported visible signs of disease. They were men and women, some young, some old, some ancient, with matted hair and nails like claws and rotted teeth bared at him like animals. He drew every eye in the room as they appraised him hungrily like a pack of dogs might contemplate a morsel being presented to them.

Suddenly another figure was forced into position beside him, and David saw it was Aaron, unbound but kneeling in submission anyway. Their mutual captor was a massive brute, a mountain of a man with a fierce black beard and eyes that were full of felonious glee as he gave the much smaller Aaron a brutal open hand slap that almost knocked him sprawling.

Suddenly something struck David on top of the head hard enough that he saw stars, and then he found himself staring straight down the barrel of the biggest hand-cannon he had ever seen in his life. From this angle it looked like a black soulless eye. The owner was a small, thin woman wearing sloppily applied greasepaint and a clown nose who smiled as she pressed the gun point blank into his left eye socket. And when she smiled, it was almost literally ear to ear as her mouth had been slit open in great jagged twin gashes across her cheeks, deeply crusted with clotting blood. "Stay, puppy dog", she commanded making her threat entirely clear. Her wounds gaped creating a horrible rictus as she spoke, exposing far too many teeth that were filed to points.

David stayed, there was little else he could do. He had no idea what they intended for him, but he was filled with dread as the tattered people began to draw toward him, reaching out to pinch him here and there, licking cracked lips and drooling over broken teeth. A naked, rapier thin man of unfathomable age drew close, his hand straying down between his legs where he started masturbating frantically as he groped David's chest and shoulders, squeezing his muscles with grunts of pleasure. A flabby, obese woman clad only in torn panties crawled toward him on all fours, pressing in close and sniffing him, inspecting him like an animal would. Then she put out her scabrous tongue and licked a slime trail up the side of his face from jaw to forehead, smacking her lips at the taste. Hands began to come in from all sides, pinching and pulling at his clothes, his skin, his hair, anything they could reach. Someone tried to force their fingers into his mouth and he clamped down tight to deny them access. His shirt was torn open to bare his torso for countless groping hands including one that wandered south to take a painful death grip on his balls. David struggled but they were on him at every side, drooling and growling, baring their teeth like dogs preparing for a feast, their live prey surrounded and helpless. And still there was Chelsea and Sparky watching over him with great mirth on the girl's tattered face.

Then as if in answer to an unspoken command, the wretched looking people drew away from him, forming a circle of open space, close enough to pounce but out of immediate reach. David could see their eyes shining in the dim light, full of hunger or lust or some horrible combination of both. There was a moment where David feared they were simply going to fall on him and tear him apart with their bare hands, but instead the circle in front of him parted, revealing someone who looked startlingly out of place to say the least.

It was a woman, tall and shapely with a lush mane of raven-dark hair spilling nearly to her waist. She was dressed in a short-skirted leather dress that looked ready for the dance floor of a trendy nightclub, not whatever filthy basement they were in with these snarling people. Her long, muscular legs were bared and high heels added inches to her already statuesque figure. The others in the room seemed to shrink before her as they looked at the newcomer with awe, some going so far as to prostrate themselves and stretch forward to kiss and lick her feet. She ignored them all and stepped toward David. She gave a brief and imperious look and then seemed to disregard him entirely, turning all her attention to Aaron as he knelt beside him.

"Aaron," her lush voice addressed the terrified looking man. "I'm very disappointed, I simply don't know what to do with you anymore." Her voice was as if she were admonishing a child. "Have I not already given you more than one chance?"

"Please, Mistress, I don't know what you've heard! I don't know what they told you, but I would never betray you! I swear, Lucas and I..."

"Yes, I know all about Lucas," her tone was sorrowful. "I'm terribly hurt that you involved my Lucas in this. I daresay that you've tried to turn him against me. He seems to care more for you than me now." She nibbled one red lacquered fingernail and looked thoughtfully into the darkness for a moment.

"No, I would never..."

"Hush Aaron, you know that you can't lie to me. You belong to me and I to you. We can never lie to each other, and it hurts my heart that you would try. It's bad enough that you would want to leave me after everything I've given you. After everything I've given you ALL. Why, Aaron, why would you leave me?"

"I... I didn't mean... I didn't know..." the young man sputtered, a mixture of fear and sorrow in his voice. "Please, I never tried to turn Lucas against you!" He spat this in a rush. The woman gazed down at him with a thoughtful expression though her eyes were piercing. "I didn't! I didn't, I swear, I was just scared!"

"You're telling the truth, and that saddens me even more. Because it means my Lucas has already turned against me. You were both going to leave me, together." Aaron opened his mouth to protest, then awkwardly thought better of it. "The lovers run away together with the gifts I've given you, with the piece of me that I've given you, to live your lives somewhere away. How ingrateful of both of you. Have I not always provided you with everything you could possibly want? Were you really so dissatisfied here with me that you would break my heart like this?"

"Please don't hurt Lucas!" Aaron begged, suddenly changing direction. "Please, it's my fault, not his. Have mercy on him... on us. I'm so sorry, Mistress, I'm so so sorry, and I know if Lucas was here, he'd..."

"Oh, why he is here," the woman said delightedly. "We've been having a wonderful conversation and he told me everything. Didn't you, my love?" She made a sweeping gesture with her arm and the small mob of sickly vagrants parted again until they could see the wall of the low chamber a few steps behind her. David looked and felt his stomach lurch and drop.

There was a naked, dark-skinned man crucified there, pierced and stuck to the crumbling concrete wall. Enormous 10-penny nails secured him at wrist and ankle, elbow and knee, hip and shoulder, plunged cruelly through the raw flesh and impaling him like a bug on the crumbling concrete. More nails were driven into his chest and abdomen and one protruded from the hollow of his throat. David thought he had to be dead, but then he raised his eyes and David could see his mouth had been sewn shut with what looked like wire.

"LUCAS!" Aaron yelled and attempted to lunge forward, but the brute Belial seized him and easily forced him back down to the floor, his meaty fingers digging into the pressure points in the much smaller man's shoulders. "Lucas..." Aaron cried again, this time full of sorrow and despair. The man nailed to the wall opened his swollen eyes as far as he could to try to return his gaze.

"Now you can see that I'm left with a conundrum here," the woman said. "I need a way to teach you both to never try to betray my trust again. I'm afraid I must be very stern here. Wouldn't you agree that an example must be made, Aaron?"

"Please, Mistress..."

"Yes, an example. I simply can't tolerate betrayal like yours any longer. I'm very sorry Aaron, but you two have brought this on yourselves. Listen my children, all of you!" An excited murmur went through the crowd as every face raised itself to her as if to bask in her glory. "As always, I provide for you. I see to your every need and give you the precious gift of life itself and ask only for your love in return. And tonight, once again I bring you meat." She cast her gaze to the man on his knees before her and said, "Aaron will satisfy your appetite tonight. He is yours, I am finished with him."

At the command the crucified man howled through his wired lips and began to thrash and pull against the nails that held him causing gouts of fresh blood to add to what was already covering him. The beast called Belial gave a great bellow of laughter, seized Aaron and flung him backwards to the floor. Aaron screamed and tried to squirm away, but the huge man was on him in a heartbeat, crushing him to the floor with his bulk. He reached down to his belt and drew forth a heavy bladed knife, almost a meat cleaver, and raised it over his head with one hand while pinning Aaron's arm with the other. "I been waitin' for this, you little faggot bitch! Come and get it, kiddies! Who wants ladyfingers?" Without a pause he brought the cutting implement down on Aaron's left hand fully severing his fingers and half his thumb with a gout of red. As Aaron howled, Belial grabbed up the loose fingers and threw these first bits of meat to the gathered street people. The lucky catchers snatched at them and set to chewing the meat off the bloody bone with filed teeth as Belial once again raised his cleaver, this time bringing it down on Aaron's wrist. It cut clean through in a single stroke and his hand also was thrown to the masses where it was fought over and devoured. It took Belial the butcher two strokes to chop through Aaron's elbow, and three to get through the thick joint at his shoulder. Then the mob converged on the two mercifully blocking them from view as Belial continued his bloody work.

David tore his eyes away and shot a look at the slit-mouthed clown-girl. She still had Sparky in hand and half pointed at him, but her attention was drawn by the gruesome show. She gave a hoot of excitement and approval causing her cheeks to gape wide open, and David took his chance, deciding in that instant that if he were to die here tonight, he would much rather it be via the woman's huge gun than Belial's cleaver. There wasn't much he could do with his arms handcuffed behind him, but adrenaline and survival instinct proved a hell of a motivator. He forced himself out of his kneeling position into a crouch, and then propelled himself forward with all his might to drive his shoulder into the short and slender woman's midsection.

It was like hitting a brick wall. The woman took barely a step backward, though David was larger by half and had connected with significant force. Rather he almost bounced off her and was rewarded for his efforts with a downward strike on the back of the head followed by a pistol-whip across the face that nearly broke his jaw. Lights exploded behind his eyes and blackness swam into the periphery of David's vision, narrowing his field of view to a pinprick. He prayed he was about to pass out, unconsciousness seemed the only escape he had left. Alas it was not to be, and he collapsed back to the floor flopping like a landed fish. Blood poured from his mouth and pooled on the dark concrete he lay on, and the small hard object in his mouth was one of his own teeth which he promptly spat out. Defeated like never in his life, David remained face down on the floor. If he had earned a mercy killing from Sparky, he didn't want to see it coming.

For a moment he just lay there, his ears full of the cacophony caused by Aaron's butchering and the resulting feast. He was still screaming, Belial liked to take his time. David wondered what it might feel like to have Belial's cleaver chopping him apart and this thought at last gave him the strength to roll over onto his back, where he glared up at the clown girl and her giant handgun suddenly furious. He was angry at his own helplessness as much as those who had put him in this situation. He was handcuffed and unarmed and outnumbered, and David was sick and tired of being bullied and abused.

"You want to shoot me? Fucking SHOOT ME!" he demanded. "Come on, I've had a lousy fucking day! I'm ready, what are you fucking waiting for? Do it! C'MON BITCH, DO IT! Fuck this life, I don't care anymore! I'M NOT SCARED OF YOU, SO SHOOT ME YOU CRAZY BITCH!" He struggled back to his knees and then to his feet, his fury and desperation unlocking a reserve of strength in his aching body. He abruptly inhaled and spit a mouthful of blood at her. His aim was true and the gory loogie hit her in the face, oozing down the red plastic clown nose she wore. Her eyes flashed and she drew a bead on him, and David found himself not wanting to close his eyes anymore. Far better a bullet to the head than dismemberment alive, and David figured if his time was up, he wasn't going to go out on his fucking knees for once in his miserable life.

Then clown-girl was gently pushed aside, and David met a pair of beautiful, sparkling violet eyes. They belonged to the tall, raven-haired woman who was appraising him with that same thoughtful look she had given Aaron before ordering his dismemberment. David met her eyes defiantly and for a long moment neither moved. Then a look came over her as if something terribly amusing had just occurred and the corners of her full red lips turned upward in silent mirth.

"And what would your name be?" she inquired as casually as if they were sitting in a coffee shop and not in a filthy basement deep in cannibal country.

"Fuck your mother," was David's belligerent response.

"Come on, come on, when I ask you a question I expect to be answered. Don't play shy, silly boy."

"Fuck your GRANDmother!" David's traitorous hands were shaking again, but this time in righteous fury. He was delighted to discover all his fear had evaporated, leaving rage in its place. He glared at the dark woman as she regarded him coolly in return, her eyebrows arched in surprise and approval.

"Very well. You may call me Angelique. These are my people, and you were brought here tonight for a specific purpose as I'm sure you've deduced." She stepped toward David and put an arm about his shoulders, urging him with surprising strength to turn around. His gorge rose once he got a good hard look at what was left of Aaron.

There wasn't much. Aaron was nothing but a torso and head that bobbled around on his neck, as his eyes rolled madly, and his mouth gaped in an agonized scream. How he could NOT be dead of shock and blood loss was beyond David's comprehension, but he clung to life even as he had been expertly disassembled and parted out, his flesh carried back to the fires where it was being roasted. The horde of filthy people was devouring him as Aaron watched, and it was clear that Belial the master butcher was taking great sadistic joy in his handiwork.

"Would you like to tell me your name now?" The woman Angelique asked lightly.

"David". He was astounded at how steady his own voice was.

"Hello David, it's lovely to make your proper acquaintance. As you can see, I have faced a great betrayal and lost one of my sweetest lovers tonight. I might lose another."

She turned him again, this time toward the crucified man on the wall who was still fighting vainly to pull himself free of the multitude of huge nails that pierced bone and muscle. He had torn his own mouth free of the wire holding it shut, rendering it a gory hole as he howled his protests, his eyes locked on Aaron's suffering with tears streaming down his face.

"I haven't decided what do to with him yet. But now we must decide what to do with you David, and I'm afraid you don't get much time. Tell something, David, and I want it to be the truth now. Do you think I'm beautiful, David? Do you like me?"

For a second, he calculated how best to respond. Cursing had kept him alive so far, but he realized whatever tightrope he was walking was razor thin. His continued survival depended on what he said and did right now. So, he answered her truthfully as he could. "You're very beautiful and I don't like you at all, you're a monster."