The Summer I Died: A Thriller (17 page)

Then for a few moments everything went silent. Tooth and I stopped fighting the chains, just listened. The raspy wheezing of Butch’s breath was all we heard, a scratchy sound like someone raking leaves.

Then faintly, Jamie spoke.
“
Please don’t. Oh God, please don’t.
”
I could hear her hyper
ventilating.
“
No. No, please!
”

Then she screamed.

I went wild. Tooth struggled with all his might but the chains held. Over the dog’s breathing, and our frantic attempt to free ourselves, Jamie’s high-pitched wail cut into my heart, stopped my breath like someone was stamping on my chest.

She just kept screaming and screaming. Butch was up and pawing at the door, licking his chops. I fought so hard my wrists began to bleed. Maybe thirty seconds went by before the door opened again and Skinny
Man came out carrying the hedge-
cutting shears and a mound of gore. I felt faint. I had no idea what part of my sister the
bloody
flesh belonged to, but I knew it was part of her. Tooth was trying to scream around the gag but he wasn’t making any sense. The sores around his mouth split
, dribbling more snot-colored pus
down the corners of his lips.

Skinny Man dropped the goop i
n the dog dish and removed
the shovel from the stove. I felt like I was watching it all through the large end of binoculars. It seemed so far away. The glowing shovel
,
bright red from the fire
,
left an afterimage in my retina when he went back in the other room.

I waited with baited breath and it wasn’t long before we heard the faint singe of skin followed by Jamie’s horrific cry. Then he returned, with that sedated look
people
g
et
after eating a big meal, and put the shovel back in the stove. He scooped up his clothes and went up the stairs. Before he did though, he set the clippers against the wall near the door, as if to remind us of our nightmare.

Despite the gag, I screamed for Jamie, annunciating as best I could.
“
Jamie? Jamie, please, talk to me, say something.
”
I sounded like a drunk
with a swollen tongue
.

We waited and listened. There was no response. Was she dead? Did that psycho just kill her? The moment was too much to bear and I threw up. The puke shot around the gag and ran down my shirt. I hadn’t eaten anything in a long time, so most of what came up was bile. The combination of piss and blood and puke collecting on the floor was so foul I figured the stench of the house alone might bring the police.

The boiler rumbled, the fire crackled, Tooth panted. I stared at the dry puddle of skin that had melted off Mystery Woman and tried not to think of anything.

I could tell you that time passed, but it didn’t so much pass as jump ahead to another point, everything in between just a black spot in my memory.

Until, finally, s
he spoke.

“
Mom,
”
she said.
He words were strained.
“
Mom. Dad. Please, somebody help me. Oh God, it hurts. It hurts.
”

“
Jamie.
”
Whispering her name in the dark
.
.
.
I’d never whispered like that before. You know, that kind of whisper where the words become an emotion. The kind of whisper that wakes something inside of you
.

I threw my head back and let my body shake; I don’t know why. I was just so happy she was alive it was more than I could bear.

Tooth and I exchanged determined looks
and
I knew what he was thinking, same as he knew what I was thinking. We had always shared the same brain more or less. We were thinking, there’s always a way out, you just have to find it. Neither
Batman nor the Silver Surfer were
going to save us. This was real life, and if we wanted out we had to do it ourselves. At that point, with myself
covered in regurgitated food, and Tooth swollen and burnt, a silent vow passed between us. No more waiting to die. We were going to escape. And if we died trying, then so be it.

As I leaned back listening to my sister cry, I realized for the first time how much she meant to me. All our fighting and name-calling meant nothing anymore. She was my sister, and I loved her, and if I had to die to save her I was prepared.

Near the stove, Butch chomped up the last of her flesh and licked his lips. He pawed the door open, slipped through, and with a grunt he went upstairs.

I turned back to Tooth and nodded a few times to let him know I was ready and able. I imagined myself with him, in California on the beach, watching the waves roll in. It was serene, and suddenly I felt okay about dying
—
not the pain part, just the part about not existing. Probably we would never see California, or the outside of this cellar ever again, but I felt okay.

I caught Tooth’s eyes and followed the motion of his
nodding
head.
It was his way of
telling me we had to talk so I started working at the gag. Barbed wire or no, we had to formulate a plan.

CHAPTER 15

We worked tirelessly to get the gags out of our mouths, until our jaws were damn near swollen. It was worse for Tooth, because every time he moved his jaw his burnt lips split and bled like
squashed
cockroaches. And the gags were tight; Skinny Man hadn’t been playing when he tied them. It took about a half hour of mandible work before we loosened them enough to converse coherently. We left them wrapped around our bottom lips so we could put them back in our mouths if we sensed trouble.

First thing I did was call out to Jamie, to see if she was okay. Her faint response was disheartening. She couldn’t tell it was me; I gue
ss she thought I was Skinny Man because
s
he kept begging me to let her go, saying she wouldn’t tell anyone. It was a familiar plea, and I realized how crazy it sounded when I put myself in our maniac’s shoes.

I shouted,
“
Jamie, it’s me, Roger. I’m in the next room. Can you move?
”

She just babbled and cried and told God she hurt. She was alive, but no help to us. I could only imagine what had been done to her. Every time I blinked I saw Butch licking his lips
—
i
t made me ill.

“
She doesn’t know it’s you. You’re just scaring her,
”
Tooth said.

“
Exactly why I want her to know it’s me.
”

“
She’s in shock, it won’t register. Worry about the chains first and then we’ll get Jamie.
”

“
These chains are welded tight,
”
I said as I yanked on them.
“
I can’t break ’
em. You make any progress?
”

“
No. Plus I can’t feel my leg anymore, feels like I’m floating on air.
”

“
Can you move your foot?
”

He shifted his foot just a little.
“
I guess, but I don’t feel myself doing it. We have to
stop
this guy.
”

“
I’m way ahead of you. But how, when he’s got us bound like this?
”

“
I think we’re going about this all wrong. The chains can’t be broken, and he ain’t going to let us out. He wants us tightly wrapped so he can
pick at us like leftover turkeys in a fridge. So let’s think about this in a different way. How can we
get him while we’re chained up?
”

We looked about the room, reevaluating what we had noticed earlier. Nothing had changed; it was the same dank cellar with a couple of future murder victims chained
to the wall. The shovel was in the stove, the hedge shears were against the wall near the table. The boiler still droned its incessant hum. The arm that had been on the ground near the dog dish was stripped bare and covered in dirt. But those few items made little difference toward escaping.

“
This is useless,
”
I said,
“
there’s nothing here to help us. He’s crazy but he’s not stupid. Look, he left those shears there to remind us of what he did to my sister. He knows these chains are foolproof and we can’t get out of them.
”

“
There’s got to be something. You read a lot of comics, what would someone in our position do to escape?
”

“
Fuck, Tooth, this is real. Nobody in a comic would be in this position unless it involved kryptonite chains or laser beams or some piece of science fiction. But this ain’t fiction. Not even the best writers could get a regular hero out of this.
”
I thought about Batman using his utility belt again. What would he do without it? He’d probably have to rely on Robin to save him or tricking his captor into setting him free. When it came to real life situations, comic writers weren’t all that imaginative.
“
They’d just write a rusty link into the chains and break it. But these fucking chains are like new. And the cuffs are sharp enough to cut us open.
”

“
What about the wall?’

I looked at the concrete behind me, leaned back against it. It was thick. I couldn’t be certain just how thick, but it was part of the foundation, and based on other foundations I’d seen, it had to be at least twelve inches. We weren’t going to break it, which is what I told Tooth.

He ignored me and tried to pull his hands through his handcuffs. He did it until it cut into his wrists and blood trickled down the chain. Finally, resignation settled across his face and he gave up and leaned back.
“
God, I’m tired,
”
he said.

So was I. The few minutes I’d been able to sleep had done nothing to revitalize me. And I ached as well. The chains were rubbing away the skin around my wrists, and I could feel blisters forming. My cut wrist stung every time it scraped
my bindings
. At least I wasn’t alone in that club.
It happened to Tooth as well
.

We thought silently for a bit, desperately inventing methods of escape that couldn’t come true
without Hollywood special effects or an act of God
. If only the chains would break. If only the plates could be pulled from the wall. If only someone would come by so we could yell to them. Anything.

Jamie was still crying. Mostly it was a low murmur, b
ut at times it was worse
. She would call for my mother or father, and that’s when I felt hopeless. I gave up thinking about escape and sort of floated out of my body, thinking about other things like how no one would ever know what happened to us.
How the dog would eat us and shit us out in a small hole in the yard.
How my parents would spend the rest of their lives hoping some day we’d walk in the front door saying,
“
Hi, sorry we were gone so long, just went sightseeing for a while, but we’re back now, what’s for dinner?
”
Then Jamie’s voice brought me back, because she said my name.

“
I’m here!
”
I shouted.

But she didn’t respond. She was just going out of her mind, calling out any name that was lodged in her subconscious. Tooth met my eyes and
then
looked away,
unsure
how to console me. If we got out of this, the therapy we would undergo would be unearthly.

“
I lied to you, Roger.
”

I didn’t know what he was talking about.
“
What do you mean?
About what?
”

“
I kind of dig your sister. I was going to try and fuck her when you went back to school. I’m sorry. I’m only human, and your sister is hot.
”

I was mad. I couldn’t believe he would do that to me.
I couldn’t believe he was even bringing it up right now.
“
You sonofabitch. Why do you have to screw every girl you see? She’s my sister.
”

“
It’s funny, you guys have been at each other’s throats for years, now all of a sudden you come back from school and you’re all Mr. Protective. Why the change? You really care about her, huh?
”

“
Yeah, I know, I never thought I’d see the day. I guess it’s because I’ve been at school. College guys only think of one thing.
”

“
Was it any different in high school?
”
he asked.