She wanted to scream, a shrill noise that would fill the corridor of this damned hospital and attract whatever attention it reached. Even though part of her believed that someone would come rushing to her aid should she cry for it- there was a horrible sinking stone in her stomach that whispered maliciously into her ear. She was never going to get out of here- whether it be dead or alive. The tales she had heard were all mysteriously linked. Those who went in, never came back out again.

Her lips parted, drying like the baron wastelands of the desert, but before she could let any noise out, the man’s thick hand clamped over her mouth.
“Don’t you dare fucking scream- no one is going to hear you anyway” he hissed into her ear, making sure that his words were just enough to strike fear into the very depths of her heart before he removed his hand. She hadn’t even been able to see his face yet, the very thought of being kidnapped and vulnerable to a complete stranger terrified her.

Where had that fearless officer exterior that she wore like a badge disappeared to? Since when had one little pathetic excuse for a man become responsible for her own self defence?
But still, she couldn’t bring herself to move- not even to try and struggle herself away. Having now faced three men, all of whom were threats to her safety and possibly to her health, she was not going to take her chances with this particular man.

He chuckled sinisterly into her ear, his hot breath swirling around her skin as though it were cigarette smoke blowing out from between his pursed lips. He appeared to be a man of extremely few words and as he burst into sadistic laughter, she found herself being dragged helplessly towards the hospital room he had fought so hard to get out of. Her mind was screaming at her body to move, to kick and scratch for all it was worth. But somehow, she ignored the nagging voices inside of her and let her powerless body be pulled away by this mad man.

The room itself was much like the others. Its walls were painted a white wash that hurt your eyes should you have chosen to stare at it too long. It was completely empty, devoid of human life bar the man who had captured her and Jess, who was praying to whichever God was sat on his soapbox listening to rescue her. What was quite strange was the way the man seemed to be moving her through the room. Every so often, he would turn her violently one way and then another, as though he were avoiding something. Or someone.

Jess would often hear about people who saw others standing in the room with them, and each time she allowed herself to think about it, she would shiver in fear. If one day she turned around and saw the figure of another human standing beside her, she would jump out of her skin. How on earth did these people put up with such consistent torture? Suddenly, the man pushed her down onto the floor, into a grubby corner of the hospital room that looked as though it was a nesting place for creatures that scurried through the halls.

Swallowing, she finally allowed herself to glance up at her captor as his hands clenched around her wrists, preventing her from punching him. His dark brown eyes had the spiral of madness coursing through them like the blood in her veins; his hair was dark and shaggy. The very poster child for such mental disease that he had floating around his brain. Though like the others he wore the white uniform that made his skin tint a horrible greenish colour- his was torn. Long thin strips of broken material hung around his legs and his arms, a large hole in the middle of his shirt showing off a pale chest littered with violent images.

Terrified, she held his gaze for as long as she could, watching as the smile that had coated his face melted away like ice beneath the sun. His hand ran up her arm like a spider, fingers crawling like the prickly legs of an insect. Beyond all understanding, he cupped her face tenderly, staring down at her as though she were his lover, or even his little sister. Her body relaxed, hoping that he would keep the calm sense around rather than spiral into an attack.
But as with all things, they had to end before someone got hurt.

Suddenly, he roared out and back handed her so hard, she hit the floor with a sickening thud. Without waiting to see if he was alright, the man, Johnny as he had declared himself when he’d pressed a knife to her neck, ran over to the other side of the room and fell to his knees, screaming as he covered his ears.

The screams were much unlike the ones that she heard from Zacky as he had outlined his fantasy of raping and murdering her younger self. They did not replicate the angered roars that Jimmy had let escape from his lips as he’d begged her to help him with his mission to murder the final traitor. It was nothing like Matt’s childish laughter, the begging that she would not hurt him and would not leave him. These were screams of helplessness and of fear- ones that she herself would have uttered had she not been so petrified by the man on the other side of the room.

“I did it for you Master, I did everything you asked! There is nothing more that I can do to show you how much…I am not worthy Master!” he shrieked, bowing down to the wall as though it were something to be adored and kissed by millions. Finding it safe to move now that his eyes were elsewhere, Jess began to slowly move her crumpled body into a slightly more comfortable position, watching the man with a newfound interest. His hands clawed at the plaster on the walls, begging silently for something. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he pressed his palms together, almost as though he were praying for someone to have mercy on him.

“Master, please. She is only a girl- she is of no use to you! Please, don’t do it…don’t hurt me, NO!” he shrieked, his voice becoming more panicked and fearful by the moment. Suddenly, he was launched off of the floor and held up against the wall by an invisible force, his feet halfway from the ground. His face was turning red as he struggled for oxygen, clutching around his neck for something that wasn’t even there. Jess gasped, slapping her hand across her mouth as she tried to assess the situation calmly.

There must have been something going on- no one could hover above the ground and lose their ability to breathe by accident. Something rather paranormal had to be going on with this man, something that she would do all that she could to stop. The man moved again, being thrown onto the floor from the great height at which he’d been suspended. He was thrown heavily onto the floor, where his arms broke his fall and with a sickening crack of the bone, he screamed in agony. Jess wanted to help, she wanted to jump up and wrestle this evil spirit away from him, but she could not move.

Her body wouldn’t go anywhere near him as he suffered. It was only then that she realised what the problem was with her captor. To him, the room must have been full of people, torturing him, taunting him. The ‘Master’ he seemed to be trying to please must have been the voice in his head, his subconscious turned sour. He curled up into a foetal position, begging loudly for the voices to stop, to cease the anger they were taking out on him. And all that Jess could do was watch for fear of getting hurt herself- no help whatsoever to this poor man.

Suddenly, the room fell silent.

The man lain out in the middle of it lay out still on the concrete floor, his body now free from whatever had been possessing it previously. Slowly, he moved with the elegance of some sort of dancer. He pulled himself up into a sitting position and brushed down his clothing of the dust that had been on the floor, taking a few large gulps of air to fully restore the oxygen to his body.

Jess watched curiously from the side of the room, wondering if now that he was stable, if she was able to move and get a little bit of a story out of him. If he was the one who had people talking to him, perhaps he could be some use to how the fire started. Maybe it was the voices in his head that had told him to start the fire- and this strange little man had been the culprit all along. Her foot stretched out, slowly soothing the ache that had built up in her leg as she had been sat. He did not turn around, not even to check that she was still inside of the room. But the moment that she began to pull herself to her feet, stretching out her limbs, and walked towards him, his mouth opened once again.

“Get back on the fucking floor!” he screamed without even looking at her and with a gasp of shock, she fell to her feet, knowing full well that he had control over her. A few deep breaths were able to calm her shredded nerves and by the time he had turned around to face her, she was terrified of what he was going to do next. But instead of the craze she had seen in him before, his eyes were replaced with a pair of soulless orbs, almost as though the colour had drained right of them in front of her.

His smile faltered as he stood up and held out a hand to her, helping to her feet once again. She didn’t want to trust him at all, but something about the way he smiled and the protective nature of his hand made her feel…safe. It was something she had sorely taken for granted- especially now that she was trapped in this hell.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you. They are persistent, and Master would not leave until I’d done what he asked. Just to find you…” he trailed off as his hand never hers, using it as some sort of comfort until Jess found the courage to pry it away and out of her grasp.

“May I ask…what happened to you? Why are you here?” she murmured to him, hoping that he wouldn’t scream and beat her again- she didn’t have the courage or the energy to fight back against him. He sighed and nodded softly, helping her down into a sitting position before he began to speak, eyes darting around the room as though he were on the lookout for something. Could the shadows and voices he was so scared of be in the room right this second, listening to them?

“My name is Johnny. I began life like everyone else, in the care of my parents. Though I would use the word ‘care’ very loosely. All they would do was leave me to my own devices, even when I was too young to understand why I was alone. They would go out and night and return in the early hours of the morning, giggling drunkenly to each other. They would make love in the same room as me, while I hid beneath the blankets of my bed and pretended that I was somewhere else- somewhere where people cared about me. And that was when Master came to me”

“M-Master?”

“One night, while my parents were painting the town, he appeared right in front of me. He held me in his arms and cherished me like his own. Throughout the night, he would tell me how precious I was, how loved I was by him. And as each night passed, I began to feel a little less lonely. But the voices grew, more and more of them began to appear, as though I couldn’t even control my own imagination anymore” his voice grew manic at the idea of confronting his past yet again, and though she knew it would be trouble, she placed her hand on his and waited for the storm to pass.

She had dealt with much worse than people like Johnny at the station before- if anything, this was a breath of fresh air.

“They got violent. They stopped loving me. By then it was too late- they were trapped inside of my brain for good. The only thing that would make them come alive was whatever substance I could get my hands on- whatever would make me see them a little clearer. One day…it just became too clear. I was trapped with them for life. They controlled my every move, my every thought. It was though they were baying for blood and I was the murderer to do their dirty work” he murmured to himself, his mouth twisting into a crazed smile as he did so. Jess folded her knees up to her chest, feeling more exposed than ever before.

Despite the fact that he had been the one to reveal such close secrets about himself, it was as though he had dived into her soul and ripped out all of her innermost secrets to show off to his imaginary friends. She had to leave; she needed to get out of here before he carried out the task these freaks had obviously set him- to get rid of Jess once and for all. Suddenly, his mood changed again. His eyes darkened and he reached out, gripping her hair tightly in his fists and pushing her face down onto his lap.

The fabric of his pants muffled her yelp and with a sudden jolt of fear, Jess felt him begin to pet her. His fingers tangled through her hair, one hand keeping her firmly in place as he whispered soothing words. This must have been what it was like for him and this creep ‘Master’ that had kept him so loved throughout his childhood. She began to struggle, begging to be released from his heavy grip when suddenly, he ripped her head up and stared at her, the anger filling his expression. It was almost as though Jimmy had just broken through the walls and was pinning her down, ready to let out the vengeance he had kept blocked up for years on her.

“Don’t you dare run away from me!” he screamed, and she barely saw his fist rising before it had collided with her face and everything went dark.

By the time she came to, she was free. Gingerly, she moved her limbs around to make sure that nothing was tied down or bound together by the freak she had let herself be kidnapped by. Rubbing her eyes, Jess sat up and tried desperately to ignore the throbbing in her temples. Johnny must have punched her hard if he had knocked her out cold. It only took one glance at the room to realise that she was no longer with him. She was somewhere new- a place that she had never seen before. Darkness surrounded her, like she was lost in a never ending pit of black matter. It all seemed to be quite peculiar, but it was enough to make her fear for her life yet again.

And suddenly, something moved.

Her eyes darted over to where the sound had come from, hoping that Johnny hadn’t been watching her sleep from the corner of the room when suddenly, a light flickered on. A single solitary bulb swung on a piece of rope, revealing a figure sat right in front of her. His knees were pressed close to his chest and when he looked up, she gasped. His skin was pale and sickly, eyes sunken and wide. Even when they did not move, his hands shook violently and as she took a closer look, she could see that his arms were covered in bruises and scratches, much like Zacky’s.

A mop of greasy black hair lay ontop of his head and when he noticed that she was staring, he held out his hand for her. Not a word had fallen from his thin lips in their brief moment of silence, and as she glanced down at the band he wore bound to his wrist.
Brian Haner, it announced.

Raped.