Oh shit!
The alarm bells in my head started ringing and I knew exactly what he meant by that. I’m their dinner.
“Hey everyone.” The dad stood up from the chair and turned around to face the camera. “Today, you’ll be witnessing history!” He grabbed a kitchen knife from the table and held it up to the lens. “Guess who we got here today?” He turned back to face me and pointed the knife. “Lee Pulpis!” He was announcing it like he was on one of those old tv game show hosts that my mom would use to put it on. Back when we used to have a tv before we got robbed. “And we, the Kulkin family will be the ones to kill ‘em!” He looked devilishly at me. “Not only that, we’ll go one step beyond. We’re gonna eat him raw.”
“Hurry up, I’m hungry!” The wife nagged at him.
“Betsy you gotta wait, I need to make sure the shot is right. Nobody will believe us if we don’t have the proof.”
“Can I at least get a little scab?” She egged him on.
“Fine, only a sliver. No more than that.” He was adjusting the camera.
She got up from her chair and walked over to me, looking at me with vicious murderous intent. Like a predator stalking its prey. I started wiggling in my chair, hoping to get the knots loosened, but they were on tight.
Sam grabbed my neck and pulled up on it to get me to stop. I didn’t want to, but the chokehold he got me in was too strong, my body was basically shutting down as my nerves deactivated. I tried verbally protesting but it was null as she took her knife and grazed my skin on my right arm. Like gently caressing it as you would do to a baby.
“Don’t worry hun.” She said, “It’ll only hurt for a bit.”
She didn’t hold back as she sliced deep under my skin, giving me this huge shock of needle like pain that spiked through my body and forcibly jerked me up to stop it. Slowly trimming a long strip of my skin that ran to my wrist nearly all the way to my shoulder. All throughout I was screaming my lungs out in pain as it kept getting worse and worse, getting unbearable.
She then forcibly tugged the long strip off like a hangnail and that was the most painful wound that she inflicted on me. I watched horrified as she slowly dropped the flake of skin in her mouth and started chewing. The blood squirting out with each bite and the sound made me wanna gag and throw up. Gushing noises and the huge gulps she took to stomach down the piece of human flesh she digested.
Blood profusely leaked out from my arm and dribbled down, leaving small little dots of crimson on the tile floor. I was letting out deep breaths to cope with the stinging pain like a hundred bees, but it was pretty hard to keep a level head.
“That was so fucking tasty I want more.” She said as she rubbed her stomach.
“At least leave some for the rest of us.” The father stood there looking proud.
The mother still had blood in her mouth and decided to kiss her husband deeply, a very passionate one. The father licked all of the blood off her teeth and lips. French kissing and moist slapping of their tongues rubbing up next to each other made me want to vomit more.
“Tastes delicious honey.” He said as he broke the kiss up, licking the last bits of it off his lips. “Now, that was only an appetizer.” He started making his way towards me, lifting the knife up. He grabbed me directly on the gash in my arm, which burned like a fucking bitch.
Holding on to it tightly he slammed it into the table and held down my wrist. “Since this was already cut into, how about we just keep going.” He held the knife so that the tip was right on the base of my wrist.
“No!” I shouted out. “Don’t you fucking dare!” I tried pulling my arm back but they all held me down. There was nothing I could do as he lunged the knife into the air and prepared to strike it down.
A huge loud thump could be heard that shocked everybody. The father stopped his attack and looked towards the basement.
“What was that?” The wife asked.
“Don’t know, but I’ll check it out.” He handed her the knife. “Hold on cutting him for a sec, I want to take the second bite.”
“Fine, but be quick. I already want another piece.”
The father rushed over to get his rifle and headed to the basement door and swung it open. I heard the thunderous footsteps down the staircase then the sudden yelling that I could hear clearly.
“Where the fuck is she!?” He was in an absolute rage. It scared the wife enough that she ran after him, leaving me and Sam there.
I gritted my teeth and bit down on my lip to bear the pain. The guy was still yelling, but not as loudly. All I could hear was just muffled nothing, unintelligible to my ears. They left my arm untied and the wife left the knife on the table. There was only one problem though, Sam was watching me closely, not letting his gaze slip away for even one second.
My mind went racing to things to distract him with, because whatever’s going on down there is not enough. The father started ranting, and getting louder by the second, I could finally hear him again.
“Show yourself! You don’t want your friend to die now, do ya!?”
What the fuck was going on down there. I don’t know exactly what, but he’s threatening to kill all of them. Doesn’t matter who caused that to happen, I need to get down there this instant.
I ditched trying to sneak out of the restraints and took this opportunity to full force rip the knot from where my legs were tied down. Pressing my entire body weight on the chair, giving me stable ground to get me out of here. Sam wasn’t paying attention to me and was looking concerningly over at the basement, it was the perfect chance.
Grabbing the knife and swiftly cutting the restraint on my arm, getting to the ground on my feet and punching him in the back of the head. He was knocked to the tile, making him drop his rifle in front of him. I stomped on him and grabbed the rifle, blood still leaking out of my torn skin and onto the floor.
Sam panicked and screamed, “Mom! Dad!” None of them even heard what was going on upstairs. He realized this and hopped up and tried to tackle me, but I was faster. Smacking him in the face with the butt of the gun, stumbling to the floor, he had the wind knocked out of him. I stashed the knife into my pocket and hurried through the house.
I ran over to the basement door and flung it open, still hearing the shouting from the father. His voice was completely hoarse and scratchy. It’s like his throat was begging to get water from how dry it sounded. I tried to slowly go down the stairs to get the drop on him, while at the same time rushing to get there as quickly as possible. The situation was dire and I needed to get in there and stop it as fast as I could.
“I swear to god I will kill every last one of you, I won’t warn ya’ again! I’m not fucking around!” He kept going on with his tyrant.
I crouched down and turned the corner of the cellar. There were rows of shelves that were stocked with cardboard boxes and car parts. There were also guns that littered some of them, but they were decommissioned and scrapped. They lined up in little columns that connected into a pathway that divided the two. On the other side was a brightly shined flashlight that was pointing directly at my friends.
All of them were lined up in a row, chained to the wall with their hands leveraged in the air. Even William, with his bullet wound, was locked up. He was slumped down and was still passed out. They were all there except for one, Alice. She was nowhere to be seen, did she escape?
Still going on his rage-fueled rant I also noticed another thing. The wife wasn’t anywhere to be seen, even though I’m pretty sure she went down there after him. Didn’t matter at the moment, but I was concerned. Is she going to sneak up on me? No way right, she couldn’t have heard me coming over that nonstop outrage he’s been pouring out of his mouth.
Jesse looked behind the father and saw me creeping around the corner and her eyes widened with a mix of relief and shock. I got in a better position to get a clearer glimpse on him, and didn’t want a stray bullet hitting anybody else but him.
I aimed down the iron sight of it, lining up the shot with near perfect precision. He was swaying back and forth as he kept shouting, making him very hard to hit. Getting the pattern down, ready to shoot, I pulled down the trigger.
The exact instance I pressed down the trigger, the wife tackled me from behind and climbed on my back. Making the bullet go straight into the ground. The boom from the gun was deafening and echoed throughout the whole house.
My ears were ringing and I only heard muffled screaming. I lost my grip on the rifle and it dropped to the ground with a bang. The wife was hitting me over and over in the head as the father turned the flashlight and shined it into my face, blinding me. I was very disoriented like I’ve been hit with a flashbang. It was hard to understand what was exactly happening, but I just needed to get this woman off of me.
I elbowed the wife in the stomach, making her clamber to the ground. I pulled the kitchen knife out of my pocket, turned around and lunged at her. I was aiming to stab at her stomach but she leaned back and made the wound even worse for herself. Missing her chest and my arm flowing naturally through her next exposed part. The knife lodged up in her chin and speared all the way through to her skull, the tippy top of the blade sticking out. Letting go of the knife, her body flopped onto the floor as blood kept leaking out. The father stood there in shock as he saw his wife’s body hit the ground, the knife still stuck in her.
“I’ll fucking kill you!” He was in a blind rage, aiming the rifle at me and shooting. The bullet ricocheted off the metal outline of the shelves I hid behind. The bullet hitting it made a little spark as it bounced off. He shot several more rounds before having to reload, none of them even grazing me. I grabbed my own rifle off the ground and turned to shoot but stopped as soon as I saw what he was doing.
He grabbed Jesse and pulled her up in front of him, using her as a shield. She looked calm, but I knew she was freaking out. Holding her arms and yanking her around to keep her in place.
“Betsy!” He started to call out to her, holding on to the faintest of hopes that she was still alive. “Oh, Betsy.” He started to cry. “My sweet woman.”
I still had the rifle held firmly in my hand, as he hid behind Jesse. I was not giving in to his sadness, I feel no sympathy for him whatsoever. He tried to kill me and eat me alive, not to mention the skin that she peeled off of me only minutes ago.
“I”ll kill you! Gut your entrails out! Tear off every limb and eat all of you until you’re no more!” He went on.
I didn’t want to hear him anymore and wanted to shoot, but goddammit he’s making it more difficult than ever. If only there was a way to get him to let go. Looking down near their legs I realized that I could get a cheeky shot in. Her legs were still, being straight down the middle while he had his spread out.
Aiming down while he was still going on about the ways he’ll kill me and the things he’ll do to my body afterwards. Having a clear shot and angle, all there was left to do was shoot. This time my body stopped and I heard something running up behind me. It was Sam, and he was holding a knife as he charged directly at me.
Whipping the gun around I hit him again in the head and that sent him flying backwards, landing on the ground. The father noticed I was turned around and charged at me. Apparently he had no more bullets in that gun of his.
He successfully tackled me, sending me all the way back into Sam. Tumbling backwards I dropped the rifle again. I had my back against the wall as both of them got to their feet, both wielding knives. I quickly checked my pockets and realized I didn’t have mine, then remembering it was still stuck in the wife’s chin.
The rifle was a few feet away from my right foot. I was hesitant to lunge for it because that’ll bring my guard down. I needed to ward them off for now, and be really careful when fighting Sam. He looks to be of legal age but I can’t take that chance. Killing him could put me on the chopping block.
The father patted him on the back when he went and charged at me again. I think I got their plan down. Sam is going to distract me while his father gets my rifle. Narrowing it down was easy enough, but how the fuck do I stop them? I just need to knock him down again, take his knife and dodge the incoming bullet.
I’ve become pretty good at fighting recently but I’m not going to be fast enough to stop him from getting the gun. Once he has that it’s going to put everyone at risk. He was already in a complete hysteria, he’ll most likely shoot one of my friends. I’ll make sure that never happens, even if I have to stand in front of them to stop the bullet.
Sam taking his first few steps at me I shifted myself to the right, out of the way of his knife wielding hand. Lunging the blade at me with such force that it made a swishing sound in the air. Missing me entirely, it was going according to plan. I grabbed his arm and forced the knife out of his hand, and soundly landed in my palm. Pushing my free hand off his back to slam him into the wall. A natural instinct in me almost made me stab him, which I had to actively shut that course of action down immediately.
His head slammed into the wall and he started stumbling backwards towards me. At the same time I knew what the father was doing, aiming the rifle right at me. But, looking directly down the gun’s barrel filled me with such shock. I thought I would be fast enough so he wouldn’t have a clear shot on me from that distance. Left with little time to react, I took a play from his book.
Grabbing Sam’s shirt I pulled him directly in front of me. Hoping that this’ll delay his trigger pulling. But those hopes were soon shattered into useless fragments as he shot at me. The loud bang, followed by the immediate squish and a gush. Splatters of blood tainted my hair and face. Sam’s body went limp as it was knocked into me, plopping on the ground with a thud. The gasp and audible shuddering from the father was immediate, looking at what he had just done.
“Sam!” I heard him cry out in a heart breaking screech. “No! No! No! No!” He kept repeating in denial.
A little bit of my humanity kicked into me, making me feel sympathy for him. Pushing it down because I know what will happen if I let him get another shot. Taking charge I tackled him into one of the shelves making them fall over. Spilling gun and car parts everywhere as we landed on the ground, I was on top of him, holding the knife ready to strike down.
An unexpected kick hit me in my crotch, making me lose all of my focus and let him get the upper hand. He immediately slipped the knife from my firm grip and swiped at me. I was able to lunge back on my side to dodge it. He came swinging with a mighty blow to my face knocked me all the way back, hitting my head on the collapsed shelf.
He came up on top of me and with a swift and sudden motion, struck the knife down on me. I reacted faster than the blink of an eye, doing a clapping motion and grabbing his wrists to stop the blade from striking me.
Both of us were in a struggle, pushing back against the other. It all came down to who was the strongest and surprisingly it wasn’t me. He was pressing down hard with immense force that didn’t seem to fit him. Like he had a sudden boost of strength out of nowhere.
“I’ll fucking kill you!” He was so angry he was starting to spit, droplets of his saliva landing on my face. “You killed my family! We should’ve never picked your group up! I wish Runasi would’ve killed your dumb ass! He would be doing the world a huge favor, more than he already has!”
The voice, facial expressions, and body mannerisms all connected to a guy acting in full vengeance with nothing else on his mind, and he was winning. My grasp started to slip out from under me and my arms were getting sore. This is the true strength of someone who has lost everything and is fighting with all of his might. A man so void of purpose, still pushing forward just for the sake of living one more day. No matter how strong you are, you’re not breaking the spirit of someone like that. The blade was now mere inches away from my face and I couldn’t do anything more to stop it. This is it. Am I really going to die?
No!
I can’t! Alice, Jesse, Nancy, Fred, William! They can handle themselves, but they still need me. I’ve faced death many times, but this one I’m not going to let happen; I’m not dying to this piece of fucking shit. Out of everyone in the world he shouldn’t get the credit. Having all of their smiling faces in my mind gave me enough determination to finally grip down hard on the handle and start really pushing back. Lifting it back at him just a little.
Gritting my teeth and really putting my back into it making it go up a few more inches, but it was still not enough. He was still overpowering me. Any progress I made was immediately brought back down. Still determined, I pushed back harder than before, but it was all futile as he still had a hold on me. The blade was inching closer and closer until it was touching my nose.
During the struggle I heard some miniscule noises and a huge click that sounded like cocking a gun back. It sounded like it was coming from right behind me.
Then a loud deafening thunderous boom went off and a shell casing falling onto the floor made me realize that the father on top of me just got his brains blown out. A hole in his forehead leaked blood onto me as the knife went weightless. His body limped forward and fell on me. I shoved the body off me while trying to wipe the blood out of my eyes. I got on all fours and turned to face who had saved my life.
It was Alice, sitting on the ground with the rifle right by her. There was still smoke coming out of the barrel. It was clear to me that the kickback of the shot made her bumble to the floor.
I ran up to her and gave her a big hug, holding her tight as she sat there in petrified fear. Tears filled her eyes as they dribbled down her cheeks and onto my broad shoulders. I let go of the hug and grabbed her elbows.
“You ok?” I asked her.
“Y-Yeah.” She responded with a little sniffle.
“Thank god.” I hugged her again.
“I killed him.” She started pointing at the body.
“I know but you had to, there’s nothing wrong about that. It was either me or him.”
“I still killed him.”
“It’s ok, it’s ok. You saved my fucking life, that’s the best thing you can do. Don’t feel guilty, it's fine.” I kept squeezing her tightly, refusing to let go.
“I-I-I don’t know.”
Holding on to the hug for a few seconds longer to finally let go and untie all of the others. The chains were hard to get off, being tangled around in one huge knot that was adding immense pressure down on their wrists. It was so tightened that it left imprint marks on the outline of the cuff.
Nancy had to rotate her wrist to check if it was broken. Jesse hugged me as soon as I got the chain off. Fred just stood up and looked down at the ground. William was still passed out, and Nancy attended to his wound.
“I thought we were really dead back there.” Jesse said. “Thank god you saved us. I was really worried you wouldn’t push through.”
“No problem.” I responded, looking down at my injured arm.
She finally noticed my wound and gasped. “What the hell happened? Was that from the fight?”
“No. That crazy bitch tore off a piece of my skin and ate it right in front of me.”
“Gah! Fucking monsters.”
“They were planning to chop off my hand as well before there was that loud thump in the basement. What even was that?”
“Alice was able to slip out of the cuffs, he forgot to tighten hers. She snuck out but slipped and knocked into the shelf, which made one of those boxes fall down. She hid behind some stacked up crates in the corner after hearing the footsteps coming down the stairs. The guy kept screaming at us asking us where she was, but we all collectively decided that we wouldn’t spill anything. Even if that involved us losing our lives.”
“I’m glad everyone’s ok.”
“I’m glad you’re ok. Despite that gash.”
“Yeah, I should wrap it up.”
“I’ll do it if you like.”
“Sure.”
I hid my injury and turned to look over at Sam’s lifeless body. The pool of blood started to dry out on the ground. He didn’t deserve to die. It’s not his fault that he’s the way he is, it’s just sad. Getting your life taken away by the person who brought you into it.
“William’s wound is going to take a while to heal.” Nancy told us. “The bullet went right through his hand and wasn’t stuck in it. That’s the best outcome for him right now.”
“How long do you think it’ll take?” I asked.
“Maybe a few months at the least, it’s pretty bad. The bleeding stopped but it needs to casted up or else it’ll take even longer for his body to recover”
“Damn, do you know how to properly take care of it?”
“A little bit. Before this whole killing law dropped I was a doctor’s assistant in high school. I know a fair amount of medical knowledge.”
“Would you know how to care for this one?” I showed her my exposed skin.
“Ooo, yeah. When did you get this?”
I told her what I told Jesse.
“Jesus, these fucking psychopaths. Don’t worry, we’ll wrap it up and make sure you don’t get it infected.”
“Thanks.”
Fred was still standing there, lost in thought I suppose. He’s been like this ever since his outburst in the morning. At this moment I thought back to how Ian approached me. After my fight with Runasi Haruhiko, when I came back and didn’t want to speak to anybody. He was the first to come up to me and try to comfort me. Maybe I’ll do the same, I think he needs it right now.
“Hey you ok.” I said tapping his shoulder to get his attention. “You seem pretty out of it.”
He looked up at me with his dead eyes then looked back down to the ground.
“If you want to talk about it I’m here ok. We’re all here.”
“Lee.” He spoke up. “I’m going to be completely honest with you, I don’t need your help or advice.”
“Wow. I-I-I” I was kind of dumbfounded. I didn’t really expect him to say that in the most passive aggressive tone. “I don’t understand why?”
“It’s ok if you don’t. No one does.”
“But I want to, that’s why I’m here.”
“Look, you don’t need to think that you’re not good enough or shitty at helping people. It doesn’t have to do anything with that whatsoever. I’m tired of always relying on people to help me. No matter what I do it’s always going to be inferior to everyone else around me. I remember my dad said that to me and it got me thinking that everything he spouted out wasn’t always bullshit. Then, Ian sacrificing his life to be with his sister made me really see that. He didn’t deserve that, I should’ve died instead of him.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Shut up and let me finish!” He shouted and put the whole room in a hush. “I did nothing to deserve that sacrifice, nothing! It’s not like I want to be this goddamn useless piece of shit, but I just can’t get anywhere above that title. No matter how hard I try, you guys all just stay ahead of me. I can’t be in last anymore, and I can’t keep letting you help trash like me. From now on, I want all of you to never help me again. If I’m ever in a sticky situation don’t come over to aid me. Let me take care of myself.”
“Are you sure?”
“I wouldn’t be saying this if I didn’t mean it.”
I looked at him and thought about it. It’s good that he has this attitude but I don’t know if this is the correct way to lead himself on the right path. What if he gets killed and I just sit there and watch? I’m not going to let that happen.
“Fine.” I said. “I’ll abide by your rules.”
“Thank you.” He responded, lifting up his head and staring at the body. “What are we going to do about that?” He pointed at it.
“The best we can do is dispose of them. Unless you want to bury them.”
“Fuck that!” Jesse interjected. “They tried to kill us, let’s just toss their bodies into the woods for the animals to feast on.”
“Can we at least bury this one?” Alice was standing by Sam’s body.
“No Alice.”
“He was pretty young, he didn’t deserve this.”
“I don’t care how old he was, he tried to kill us. He’s the same as everyone else in this world.”
Alice looked down at the ground dejected and defeated.
“I’m not trying to be an asshole.” Jesse continued on after looking at Alice’s expression. “It’s just the way things are.”
“Whatever.” She said,
“Now let’s clean up, get these bodies out, and secure this place. We don’t know if they have any more friends or family.” She reached her arms down and clinged on to the father’s shoulder and started dragging his body up the stairs.
“I’ll help!” Fred jumped on the opportunity and went to aid Jesse.
“We better hurry this up.” Nancy came up to me. “I don’t want to look at these anymore. Let’s get this over with.” She grabbed the mom’s body and easily hauled it up the stairs. “Make sure to take William up into one of the bedrooms!” She yelled down before I heard the basement door slam behind her. Leaving me and Alice down here all by ourselves.
“Do you think he deserved it?” She asked me. “To die like that. At the hands of his own father.”
“No.” I said. “Not at all.”
“I thought so.”
She looked down at the body more.
“Do you think he’ll be in heaven? Alongside his parents?”
“I don’t know.”
“I hope so. I don’t think he was truly a bad person. Just a lost soul that was constantly forced to follow the actions of someone else. Growing up is really hard, even harder when you have the worst kind of parents.” She kneeled down and touched his hair. “Rest well.”
“Can you carry that on your own?”
“I think so.”
“If you need help just let me know.”
“Will do.”
She grabbed his arms and made it wrap around her shoulders. Carrying him on her back like a backpack, walking very slowly up the stairs. Picking William up by the stomach and hauling him over my back to bring upstairs. Getting one last glimpse at Alice before she went out of my vision. It was very notable to me, maybe not to the average person.
She’s changed.
I don’t know if that’ll be for the better.
Or the worse.145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK1qawQjaAl
