I woke up cold. I wasn’t sure where I was. I had slept a dreamless sleep. I thought maybe I went to sleep drunk again, waking up in an alleyway. I looked around for someone to ask. My hands were numb, they were too heavy. I couldn’t lift them. I could smell the urine, the waste in the alley.
“He…” I tried to call to someone. My voice trailed off. I lost air in my lungs to talk.
“Yeah, you’re going to have a real trouble trying to talk right now, bro.” Felipe said.
I struggled to move again, I looked down. My eyes were clouded, the surrounding dark was swallowing up my vision. My arm was aching, begging to be scratched, to be touched. I tried to move it, but it was too heavy. No, it wasn’t heavy, it was tied up. I could see the rope tight around the arm. I looked around, seeing the pieces of the room. It was covered in a dark, dripping evil-looking liquid. I could hear drops distantly as I looked up in front of me. I saw the dark outline of Felipe. I knew his stance well. We had been buddies for a long time. Had been.
Suddenly my eyes ached as there was flash of light, the tink-tink flitter of cold, penetrating lights of that sick green color from fluorescent lights invaded my vision. I could see clear, I could see the room. The entire place was covered in a white tile. The dark liquid on the walls was dark red, thick against the walls. There was a distant sink, dripping. I was tied to a pole. The pole was wet.
“Other have been where you are now. They haven’t usually been quite so calm, to be honest. However, I don’t know if that mean you are braver than most, or more stupid than most.” Felipe had a smirk on his face.
I pushed against the tight bonds of the rope that was covering my mouth. I tried to speak. All I could do was continue to salivate, feeling it drip down my chin. I tried to move my arm involuntarily, feeling it burn with an itch.
“Yeah, man. That poison ivy. It’s nasty shit.” Felipe said. He pulled up his sleeve, exposing a slightly pink skin, with pockmarked scars running up his arm.
“Honestly, when I put her there, I didn’t realize that it was either. But to my defense, I also did it at night so…”
He started pacing around the place, slowly. He seemed to be surrounding himself with his attention everywhere, paying attention to what he was experiencing. He was loving this.
“She was a hooker. A nasty one, too. But, damn she gave me an opportunity I never would’ve had otherwise. I mean…all the girls I have to abduct from their homes, she just landed right in my car. Voluntarily, bro!” He said, smacking his hands together. I could see excitement, happiness, passion in his face.
“And you had to go falling into the mud, man. Of all the girls you found, you found her. I knew you saw her when you were over there. I could tell from your reaction. When I saw the rash, I knew. But I had to see what you were going to do.”
He was pacing back and forth over a counter, next to the dripping sink. I heard the plink, plink, plink of the water still. Echoing in my ears. I could feel the tears dripping down my cheeks in spite of myself. I was desperate to get out. He wouldn’t kill me, would he?
“And so, here we are man. I’m going to need to put you exactly where all my other girls are. In that same creek, in that same mud, with that same scream.”
I struggled, I tried to get away. I wanted to get away. I cried. Felipe pulled down my gag. I let out a scream, a yell. Anything. He walked swiftly, but gracefully. His eyes full of pleasure and comfort. I let out the same yell I saw in her, in the girl in the mud. The same scream of desperate help. As Felipe plunged the knife deep into my neck.