Echo

“Come on boy, I’m jis jiving with ya. When the time comes, she’s all yours. I’ll even keep Kelly off a her for ya. You know I’m jis after the kid’s gold coin ya say he’s got in the house. I’m jis waitin’ for the right time. Now shut yer mouth and let’s have some fun till then.”
    Slapping Tomas up alongside the head, he moved back to the table to monitor how far along Kelly was.
    He could see she made nice progress. Her work truly was a talent, her results artwork. How many people could make these savage cuts without the victim bleeding to death? She collected all of her trophies in a wooden bowl and took them upstairs. Armoni knew what she planned, but it would have to wait for tomorrow. He felt exhausted; all that fancy detective work he undertook the last few days.
    He wondered what those three over on Lily Pond Road were up to. Well, he would find out soon enough. If he couldn’t discover it on his own, he would let Kelly employ her favorite knife, after he had his own fun with the stuck up bitch first. He laughed to himself, thinking of his promise to Tomas. Oh well, he would make it up to him. Or not, he cackled to himself, climbing up the stairs, Tomas following close behind.
    ###
    Katie’s body flamed with pain. So did her throat. She must get something to drink, her discomfort acute. And she was faint from hunger. She just lay there on the table, suffering. She tried to think about her mother and her father. They must be frantic with worry. Tears trickled down her face as she thought of how she must have disappointed them. Her pain screamed for her attention. She wondered what time it was. As much as she needed her captors to feed her, she knew their presence would mean more pain. She tried to distract herself and failed. She tried to doze. The pain took over again. It was a vicious circle. No matter what she thought about, she felt only the pain.
    Finally. Was someone stirring overhead? She heard pots and pans. Dare she hope? In passing, she realized they hadn’t beaten her completely down, yet. Would that time come? Would they let her go home? Was she ready to die? No. She just wanted to eat and have the pain stop. The kitchen door cracked open. She heard steps descending down the stairs. She could smell food! Opening her eyes, she saw Kelly standing over her, a frying pan in her hands.
    “I have something for you to eat. I am going to lift your head and feed you.”
    “Can’t you unlock my hand?” Katie whispered painfully. Kelly ignored the question and spooned the food in, occasionally giving her a sip of water. Katie tried to place the flavor of the food, but gave up. Who cares? She was just grateful to Kelly for feeding her. She noticed a very bad smell of feces. Remembering the cutout in the table she realized what it was for. It was her; her own feces. She felt her stomach rebel. She tried to keep it down but up it came. Kelly furiously pounded the side of the table with the frying pan.
    “Oh, you don’t like my cooking? You have no one to blame but yourself.” And she dumped the rest of the food on Katie’s face. “What, you don’t like toe jam?” Laughing loudly, she picked up one of Katie’s arms showing her the end of her hand. She dropped the arm and picked up her leg. A leg that was taped but clearly missing its toes just like her hand was missing her fingers. Not comprehending, Katie’s face remained blank. Kelly picked up some of the food on Katie’s neck with the spoon and pretended to munch on it, making sloppy noises. As Katie’s face showed a slow dawning of horror, Kelly scampered up the staircase to the sound of more vomiting and choking.
    The days pasted in a haze of pain. Katie didn’t suffer through any more rapes. The smell in the basement became so unbearable, they left her alone most of the time. Thank God for that. She suspected her fingers and toes were infected. She couldn’t feel anything from the waist down but she could feel the swollen state of her hands, the pain excruciating. They gave her water once a day. No food. She could tell she had lost massive amounts of weight. She finally admitted to herself that they wanted her to die; just a matter of time.
    One day, Tomas came into the basement with something in his hand. He reached up to the cage hanging over her table and dropped something in. She idly wondered if he was feeding something. Occasionally she would look up and see the cage in motion. But it wasn’t enough to hold her