Ugly Beautiful (13 page)

'She's here.' Haley whispered, but too softly for Jason's ears to pick up. She closed her eyes tightly shut as if for the very last time, before lying in a complete motionless silence.

'Haley? HALEY? Fuck this. I'm getting you out of here right now.'

Jason got off his knees and with a great, newfound strength, he pulled Haley up as much as he could manage. Once more she felt like a led weight beneath him. Haley reopened her eyes which were almost normal again. She let out a long shallow release of breath that sounded more like a hissing gas leak. Suddenly Jason found it easier to lift her back up onto her knees. He put his arms firmly around her waist and helped her back up onto her feet again. Haley's eyes were half closed. She seemed to be in some kind of groggy daze as if waking up from a long and deep sleep.

'Haley? Haley? Are you okay? Are you still with me?'

Haley puked out a mouthful of blood. The majority of which caught Jason off guard and landed upon his shirt and trouser's.

'Jesus Christ.' said Jason disgusted, yet trying his best to remain calm. He managed to seat Haley back down upon the old chair again, crouching down so that he was still eye level with her. He placed his hands firmly upon her lap.

'Haley. Speak to me. Can you speak? I need to know that you're doing okay in there?'

Haley coughed, spluttering a little more blood.

'What happened... to me?' said Haley sounding both drowsy and distant.

'I don't know have a fucking clue what happened to you.' continued Jason, his voice filled with great concern.

'I think you might've had some kind of stroke or seizure, I'm not sure. I'm so scared and confused right now. But I'm taking you away from here, right this second, okay.'

Haley coughed. A trickle of blood escaped from the side her mouth. It slithered down her chin. Jason wiped the blood away with his finger.

'Could you... Could you get me some water please?' Haley asked weakly.

'I need to get you to the car.' Jason said impatiently.

'Please?' Insisted Haley. 'Just some water. My mouth is so dry. Then we can go, I promise.'

'All right.' Jason sighed. 'But I'll need to find something to put it in first.'

Jason headed reluctantly back into the kitchen. Haley watched him leave but with a strange, distant look. Inside the kitchen Jason quickly raided through every single one of the kitchen cupboards and draws until he found a stash of old dusty cups. He filled one up with water from the cold tap, then hurried back into the living room.

He froze.

Haley was gone. She had disappeared from the living room entirely. The old chair where he had left her sat empty. A very confused Jason glanced dartingly all around the dark, eerie living room. There was no sign of Haley's presence.

'What the fuck?' said Jason. Frantically he called Haley's name again and again. He Placed the cup of water down upon the old chair and quickly made his way into the hallway. He continued to call Haley's name. Still there was no reply. Jason opened the half closed front door and stepped into the daylight. He peered all around the outside of the farmhouse. From left to right all he could see were deserted fields, a lonely front parking area and his empty car. There was no sign of Haley out there or anyone for that matter. Jason turned back inside the farmhouse. He stood completely still in the hallway and remained there in utter silence for quite some time. Carefully he listened for any sign of the vanished Haley, but there was nothing to hear. Not even a creak nor a squeak. Only the sound of his own erratic thumping heartbeat filled his ears.

Then suddenly there it was… a noise. It was like the slightest of creaks, followed by another on the next floor up, directly above him, then it stopped. Jason called Haley's name and waited. When there was no reply he turned to the old wooden staircase and glanced nervously up at the steep steps leading up there. Upstairs appeared to be in less darkness than downstairs due to some of the un-boarded windows around the second floor of the house, freely letting in much more light. So there was just enough to see all the way up to the top of the creepy staircase.

Jason mounted the steps very, very cautiously. He yelled Haley's name once again… there was no reply. Jason continued to mount the stairs, one by one, until finally he reached the last few steps. His eyes gradually adjusted to the dim light on the first floor landing.

'What the fuck is going on here?' said Jason, his heart beating wildly and anxiously inside his chest. He reached the second last step at the very top of the staircase. There he stood, frozen still, for a long, agonising few moments. Waiting, just waiting for another noise, another creak… anything.

All around him an air of murky silence engulfed his ear drums. He was about to call Haley's name again... when...

SMACK!

Jason felt a violent, ferocious crack in the face, from a large rusty metal spade. It smacked him right across his jaw and sent him flying backwards, tumbling down the steep sloping staircase behind him and back towards the ground floor. When he landed hard at the very bottom of the staircase, he fell flat out into an unconscious, crumpled heap, right beside the open front door.

CHAPTER eleven

A chilling silence filled the air. The unconscious seated figure of Jason was surrounded by darkness, all except for a small naked ceiling light dangling menacingly over his head without its protective shade. The dark room Jason found himself inside seemed to resemble a large, stone walled, underground cellar, but the light above him was so disorientating that it was hard to make anything out too clearly, without the light blinding his vision.

From out of nowhere, the slim figure of a blonde woman, wearing a tight black vest, black combat trousers and boots, crept menacingly from the pitch black shadows and softly approached the unconscious Jason. She took a moment to caress his bruised and bloodied face and cheeks, working her fingers gently downwards until she reached the stubble underneath his chin. Jason stirred from his unconsciousness. He groaned as the pain from his recent fall quickly engulfed his nervous system, breaking out in agonising waves all around his bruised and battered body. He opened his weary eyes to find himself seated and strapped securely to a hard wooden chair. He was bound at the wrists by a pair of tight rusty old handcuffs while his chest and mid section were tied hard to the chair with a thick rope and a thin steely wire.

'Haley? Is that you?' said Jason wearily in a dream like trance. The blonde girl stroked at Jason's hair as if running her hands through the long soft fur of a pet dog.

'What...? What happened to me?' continued Jason. 'Where the hell are we? What's going on?'

The blonde girl put her finger delicately against Jason's lips and shushed him. She then leaned forward in an almost sexual and provocative manner. She kissed his forehead, then his cheeks, then his nose and then his chin. Finally she kissed him very softly upon his dry, blood stained lips.

'What's going on here?' said Jason still dazed and greatly confused. The girl rubbed her hands up and down the sides of his upper body, then all the way down to the bottom of his legs. Jason rocked his head from right to left, then in a slow circular motion, trying to wake himself up even more.

'What's going on? What are you doing?' continued Jason, still struggling to focus on the figure in front of him. He was so dazed and disorientated by the bright light above his head and the shining darkness all around him, that he struggled to make out the features of the blonde girl. He could just about make out that her hair was possibly blonde. And brief glimpses of her dark face only revealed dried blood stains or possibly dirt or a combination of both.

The woman, without making a sound, disappeared from Jason's sight just as swiftly as she'd entered it. Jason closed his eyes. There was a long, drawn out silence, which was soon abruptly shattered by a loud series of banging thuds. Like the sound of someone hammering large nails into a solid wooden floor, somewhere. Jason stirred, opening his eyes wide. He tossed his head back and fourth, desperately trying to snap himself out from his sleepy daze, as a new, dull at first, then more vibrantly vicious pain introduced itself to his body - His naked feet to be exact.

Jason became fully alert and filled with a terrifying fearful dread that something very bad was happening to him. He forced his attention down towards the dimly lit ground only to see the darkened figure of the strange blonde woman, resting on her knees with her head bent. She was casually hammering thick long rusty nails right into the fleshy pulp roof of Jason's bare bony feet and all the way through to the solid wooden floor beneath them. It took a few weary moments for the realisation of the situation to explode its way through every entire millimetre of Jason's body.

The excruciating pain of the long sharp nails entering the tip of his skin, then exploding through the flesh and bone of his feet and finally bursting out through the soles, hit him in a breathtaking wave of hurt. Jason struggled frantically, yet he could barely move or even wiggle any parts of his rope bound body against the large wooden chair. Even the chair itself was heavily secured. It's legs embedded into the wooden floor with steel frames to prevent any movement.

'Jesus Christ. Jesus fucking Christ! PLEASE...please stop this, please... STOP! What the hell are you doing to me? ARRGGHHHH! STOP! PLEASE. I beg you, please, please I beg you.' cried Jason.

His cries fell upon deaf ears. The woman continued to hammer the long rusty nails deep inside Jason's feet. Nail after nail, until there were finally five nails embedded into each foot.

'PLEASE. JUST STOP! PLEASE, PLEASE, JESUS CHRIST, PLEASE FUCKING STOOOOOP!'

The woman stopped. She stood to her feet wearing a sadistic smile. After an agonisingly long second she spoke out in a deep, aggressive, gravelled tone.

'Stop. Please just stop. Please just stop!' The woman cried, taunting and mimicking Jason's own voice. Jason's face was a picture of pain and anguish. With tears in his eyes he stared awkwardly up at the woman for the first time. The light was still blinding, yet he could just about make out half of her dirty blood stained face, which was mostly covered by her untidy and tangled curly blonde locks. For another brief moment he caught a small part of her sadistic, mischievous grin. The woman, still with hammer in hand, stared curiously back at him. Another anxious pause engulfed Jason. Then she jumped on top of his lap and straddled him like an exotic lap dancer. Jason could only look on petrified at what the strange, psychotic woman had in store for him next. Again, she amused herself by stroking roughly at his hair.

'What... the fuck... is going on?' Jason gasped. His tone full of the utmost desperation. The woman exploded in a fit of rage, shoving Jason's head back with one hand while attempting to force the claw end of the hammer into his mouth with the other. He struggled wildly to fight back with his face and mouth, but the woman only pushed the claw end of the hammer further past his teeth and down into the base of his throat.

Jason choked, as his tongue rammed further into the back of his mouth. He was suffocating. Only after another long and excruciating few seconds did the woman eventually take the hammer out from Jason's mouth and dismounted from his lap. Jason took a second to get his breath back. He coughed and spluttered out spits of blood and the taste of rusty old metal. More blood trickled from behind his lips and down his chin. Meanwhile the crazy blonde woman stood in a calm, eerie silence, caressing her blood stained hammer.

'JESUS FUCKING CHRIST.' Jason screamed, exploding in a rage of fury. 'WHO ARE YOU? WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?' 'WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? WHY?' Jason demanded. 'WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT FROM ME?'

The woman giggled menacingly and casually backed away from him. Eventually she disappeared into the darkness from whence she came. There was another long and tense drawn out silence. The only sound heard in the cellar was from Jason's heavy breathing and thumping heartbeat. He tried desperately to regain his composure while making darting glances into the blinding darkness, looking for a glimpse or any kind of movement from the psychotic lunatic. But she was nowhere to be seen.

'...Please…' Jason begged, restraining himself as best he could from freaking out again. '…Talk to me? Why won't you talk to me? Please, tell me what...'

Before Jason could finish that sentence the woman burst out from the dark shadows beside him this time, in another psychotic rage. Again she jumped aggressively onto his lap and forced the hammer deep and violently into his mouth, but only for a second. Then as quickly as she'd appeared from the darkness she dismounted his lap and backed away once more, almost child like, giggling away into the surrounding shadows. Jason screamed an emotional, terrifying roar of frustration.