When I woke back up from whatever I assumed Rainey had dosed me with, my head felt like it was sandwiched between twin two-by-fours. I blinked my eyes rapidly, attempting to build up some moisture behind their lids and focus on where I was. It wasn’t until I attempted to stand up that I understood how serious my situation had become.
The second I felt my wrists, ankles, and chest trying to pull free from the chair I was bound to, my wavering consciousness practically collided with the reality of my dire circumstances.
While the room was mostly dark, I could see slivers of light shining from somewhere behind me. As I fought to pull my extremities free, tearing my flesh against the course, leather straps in the process, I felt my chest tighten all the more when I noticed I wasn’t alone.
“James!?” I said, far louder than intended, as I was still unsure if my captors were nearby.
Seeing his bruised, swollen and bloody face hanging limp where he sat, bound in the same manner as I, I feared the worst.
“Goddamnit, James, wake up!”
I was still trying to keep my voice low, but with the panic fueling my thundering heartbeat, that was no simple task. When my best friend began to stir, slowly shifting his body, I felt my lungs deflate from the grateful sigh.
“Denny? What’s…what’s going on?” he said, lifting his head, his bones crackling as he straightened his posture, “what!? What the hell, man!? What’s…”
“Shhh! Keep your voice down. Just cool it, man. We gotta figure a way outta here.”
“What is this?” he asked, darting his head around, wincing at the likely pulsing pain of his half-shut, swollen eye, and bruised jaw.”
“Do you remember anything? How you got here? Who kicked your ass?”
“Shit…I dunno, man. I was at home…no. No, someone was inside. I went to the kitchen and something hit me. Knocked me out cold, I think. That’s all I remember before…oh God!”
When dim lights flickered to life above our heads, I started fighting harder to break free, but the straps were so tight, I couldn’t even hope to get loose. I could tell that James was of the same mindset as me when a door creaked from behind, the glow from the other room casting elongated shadows across the floor.
“Calm down, honey,” Rainey said as she strolled around the chairs we were bound to, the waiter from the restaurant coming around the other side, “you’re gonna hurt yourself.”
“Let us go, you crazy bitch!”
“Watch your damn mouth!” the tall man said, slugging me across the jaw.
“Cool it, Ricky,” the psychotic woman said, laying a hand on his shoulder as he reared back for a second swing, “don’t mess up that pretty face too much.”
He just growled as he backed up, taking his place by her side. Though I hadn’t paid much attention to his appearance at the restaurant, I could now make out a certain similarity between my two captors. The same dark complexion, black hair, and large, emerald eyes.
He was a good half a foot taller than her, even with the heels she was wearing, but twice as wide. Though he was still dressed in that white shirt, tie, and black vest, I could see the muscles bulging beneath the fabric. Of course, given how hard he hit, it was no surprise that he now seemed a veritable beast of a guy, rather than the friendly and almost awkward waiter he was playing the part of.
“You sure this is the guy?” he said, his words lined with hatred, “he looks weak; feeble, even.”
“Oh yeah. He’s the one, for sure,” the pretty brunette said, her unblinking eyes cutting right through mine.
“What the hell is this, Rainey!? What are…”
“What did she see in this asshole?” the big guy said, completely ignoring my words.
“He is kinda cute,” Rainey said, “she was always a sucker for the cute ones.”
“Who’re they talking about, man?” James asked, still battling against his own straps.
“How the hell should I know? They’re batshit; these two. How the…”
Another swat from that wide fist stuck a fork in my attempts to rationalize the actions of the crazy people of the world; something that left my already thumping head spinning. This hit felt twice as hard as the last, my eyes crossing from the impact.
“Son of a bitch!” James spat, “let me loose and I’ll show you a real ass-kicking!”
The laughter that erupted from the duet of lunatics revealed more of their shared madness. The anguished and hate-filled expressions transformed into something I can only describe as maniacal; their wide eyes and gaping mouths drooling as they cackled, slapping their knees while gagging from the howling chuckles.
“That was good…you’re funny,” the large man said, wiping tears from his eyes.
James glanced over at me, his expression matching the bewildered look on my face. It wasn’t until this point that I just knew we were going to die here. These two were not remotely of sound mind; something that assured me they would not be simply letting us loose after a few well-aimed sucker punches.
No, they were on a mission. There would be no abort code freeing us from this, even if my partner in crime wasn’t trussed up next to me.
“Just let us go,” I begged, my eyes welling up with the reality setting in.
“Yeah, we didn’t do anything!” James added, his voice croaking, “we won’t tell anyone about this. Just let…”
I was as shocked as my friend as Rainey’s laughter suddenly stopped cold, her hand moving so quickly as she struck his face, neither of us saw it coming.
“YOU DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!?” she screamed, the veins visibly pulsing at her temples as her eyes widened so much, I thought they might spring free of their sockets any second, “YOU THINK YOU’RE INNOCENT!? DO YOU REALLY HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT YOU TOOK FROM ME!?”
I was stunned; frozen in place, even if I had the ability to move anything but my head. The rage-filled expressions confronting us were paralyzing to look at. We all just stared at each other in intense silence for what felt like minutes, though the passage of time was not exactly something my erratic thoughts could comprehend at that moment.
Rainey was breathing so heavily while her dead stare was locked with that of my closest friend, while I cut my eyes between the three whose company I was forced to share. The bulky man wore a cold expression as he blinked from me to James, back and forth like a pensive pendulum. Strangely, his calmer demeanor was just as terrifying as his companions’ more hunched and almost feral posture.
When she moved in, slapping my friend again, following with another strike, and yet another, back to back, over and over, I almost tipped my chair to the floor in my attempt to reach him.
“STOP!” I yelled, her hands still swatting back to back.
Blood spurted from the mouth and nostrils of my closest friend, spraying across me and to the floor. Left, right, left, right, the hate-fueled palms attacked his face, his lips attempting to utter words in between, only succeeding in muffled yelps at best.
“Please, just stop,” I whined, praying that my more sympathetic tone would warrant some manner of compassion.
“That’s enough, Rain,” the man said, lightly gripping her left wrist as she reared back for the umpteenth time.
For the briefest moment, her rabid gaze met his stern eyes, to which he tilted his head in a questioning way. Her rage faltered. Her expression softened. She wrapped her fingers around his, taking a step back from the bloody mess she had made.
Though she did no more slap James, the sheer volume and strength behind her attacks left both of his eyes swollen shut, his nose bent to one side, spewing blood, and his lips puffy and split. He was still trying to form words, but only gargles and muffled coughs were breaching his mouth.
“James?” I said, tears streaming down my face, “please be okay, man. We’re gonna get outta there, I promise! Somehow, we’ll…”
“No,” Rainey said, tidying her hair, “you won’t.”
“You really don’t know, do you?” the man said, “you really don’t know what you did…what you took from us?”
“I…I don’t! I don’t know either of you! I’ve never seen you before…I…”
“No,” the mad woman said, “but can you really say we don’t look even a little familiar?”
“Huh? How can…”
I felt my words catch in my throat when the big guy pulled his wallet from his back pocket, fishing a picture from within. I instantly recognized the girl in the image, who most certainly reassembled what I now assumed to be her siblings.
“Do you even remember her name?” Rainey asked, visibly trembling from head to toe.
I just nodded, praying to God that this would be enough.
“Say it!”
“Um…Lu…Lucy,” I said, my confidence faltering.
“Try again,” she said, reaching behind her back, pulling a long, thin, serrated blade.
“I…I don’t…please don’t do this…”
“SAY IT!” she screamed, pointing the dragger at my friend.
“Oh, God! Please don’t! I’m begging…”
“FUCKING SAY IT!”
“Christ! Le…oh God…Lenore?”
James and I screamed in unison as she drove the tip of the knife into his upper thigh, spilling crimson down his leg in an instant.
“STOP THIS! FOR GOD’S SAKE!”
“SAY IT!!”
“I DON’T REMEMBER! OKAY!?”
As she pressed the edge of the blade against my still whimpering friend’s midsection, his leg gushing blood to the concrete floor, I knew she wouldn’t listen to reason, but I had to try. I could feel the thundering in my chest practically bouncing the fabric of my shirt like a kid on a trampoline, my guts churning from the thought of what may happen next if I couldn’t come up with something to make this stop.
“Look, this is on me, not him, okay? Please don’t hurt him anymore! Whatever you need to do, do it to me! Just, please…just let him go, I’m begging you!”
The light reflecting from the silvery blade flickered on the soft illumination from above and beyond, panning across me as her arm dropped back to her side.
“I don’t remember her name, and I’m so sorry for that. I’m an asshole; a piece of shit womanizer. I get that, but that’s on me, not him. I know…I know I humiliated her, and I would be more than happy to make it up to her in any way she sees fit, but…”
“She’s dead,” the man said, his voice quivering, “can you make that up to her?”
I swear I felt my heart stop at those words. My thoughts were all over the place. Yes, I made a fool out of myself and her, just to get away, that night, but it was one date! How can I be held responsible for this after spending, what, a few hours in her company?
As much as I attempted to convince my lips to utter these very words, I was stunned by this revelation, as well as everything else this night had shown me. Finally, after regaining my ability to speak, I asked the question that still haunts me.
“How…how did she die?”
“She killed herself,” Rainey said, holding up the blade still dripping my friend’s blood, “with this.”
“Oh, my God! Why? Why would she do that? Why did…”
The knuckles of the waiter put a quick end to my words, leaving my head spinning once again.
“Because of you…because of what you did to her,” he said, wiping my blood on his shirt.
“Me? We just met for the first time that night! I mean, we’d been texting for a while, but we were just having fun! How can I..?”
“She was a fragile girl,” Rainey said, her eyes glistening, “she always had been. You weren’t the first to leave her high and dry, but you were the last. She was so humiliated when she got home, I couldn’t even hope to calm her down…”
She rubbed her eyes, trying to sniff back the tears. Her brother put his arm around her, attempting to console her, but his tears only fueled hers.
“She ran off to her room, but I tried to follow. She yelled at me to leave her alone, so I hoped she just needed a little time…time to let it roll off her shoulders. It wasn’t the first time some heartless bastard had left her in tears, so I thought…I thought she would be alright after a while. When I went to check on her a little while later…it…”
The floodgates opened, transforming the confident and rage-filled woman into a sobbing, wailing child before me. I felt my chest burn from what she told me, as well as the sight of my captors spilling tears upon one another.
Yes, her sister was a bit of an odd one; way more unsettlingly enthusiastic than she had seemed over text, but I would never wish this on anyone. When James responded to the first stage of our abort plan, she pretty much guilted me into sticking around.
Everything inside me begged me to get going, but she seemed so broken when I told her I had to go; that there was an emergency and I had to get to the hospital. I thought she was just being dramatic, practically bursting into tears when I said I had to go. When I caved and decided to stick it out, she was even more clingy than before.
It was maybe thirty or forty minutes later when James showed up at the bar, as I had not sent the all-clear text. We acted out our ridiculous scene, turning every eye to us, but I didn’t fully pay attention to my date, only played my part to run away like an insecure teenager.
I can see it now; that image I had not registered at the time. The sight of that poor girl looking so crushed by what we were doing. When I turned to give one last look before I darted out of there, I could tell that she could see through our pathetic performance; that she understood I went to such lengths just to get away from her.
Can you imagine what that would do to someone, even one who wasn’t already a little disturbed?
“I’m so sorry,” I said, my eyes refusing to meet theirs as I spoke genuinely for the first time since I met the beautiful girl with the raven hair, “I swear I never meant to hurt her…to hurt Lacey.”
I can’t say when it was that I remembered her name, but it caught the attention of the crying siblings before me.
“I’ll accept whatever you need to do; whatever you see as fit punishment. I’ve spent so long thinking about only myself, I never took the…”
The gunshot that echoed through the room, almost deafening me, took a second to fully register. Again, I felt frozen, mentally checking myself for wounds, when I looked up to see which direction the revolver was trained.
I felt my eyes trace the waiter’s shoulder to his wrist, to the hammer of the pistol, to its smoking barrel. When my gaze followed that course over to the gaping hole in the forehead of my closest friend in this world, the shock would not so much as allow me to scream out.
“Now you can feel what we felt…” the man said.
“What it feels like to lose someone you love,” his sister finished.
No more words were spoken after that. No further punishment was given. No more hateful looks staring down at me. When the needle pierced my arm, I continued to just glare at the leaking corpse of my dearest friend, his vacant gaze being the last thing I saw as my consciousness drifted into darkness.
When I awoke in my bed, it took me some time to put together everything that had occurred, along with how much time had passed since I left my home. Discovering that three days had gone by since I left out for that ill-fated date, I wasted little time in reaching out to the police.
They would find no proof of the existence of Rainey Barnes, nor her siblings, for that matter. The restaurant doesn’t even have any records of someone fitting the description of the waiter who served us that night. Witnesses recall overhearing some awkward conversation, a waiter helping an apparently drunk guest and his humiliated girlfriend out to their car, but nothing that would hold up in court.
There wasn’t even any luck tracking down the guy who hooked us up in the first place. Apparently, he had been working under an assumed identity, having quit his job the day of the fourteenth. Whether he may have been another sibling or someone else entirely, I’ll likely never know.
Upon inspecting the house I spent just as much time at as my own, they would find it empty; its owner having seemingly vacated over the past few days. James didn’t have much in the way of family; neither did I, for that matter. Perhaps that’s why we grew so close over the years. There was nobody to reach out to, nobody who may know where he may have gone. Nothing.
The facts being as they were, all the police could do was file a missing persons report. Whether anyone believes me or not, I know what happened on Valentine’s day last year. While I’ve considered looking for the duo who ripped my life in two, I feel there’s no sense in it.
What’s done is done. I told them I would accept their punishment for my actions, and perhaps they simply called my bluff on that. At the end of the day, it’s like they say: all’s fair in love and war. I suppose it’s only right that I finally end up on the losing side of that argument. That was probably long overdue, all things considered.