The majority of the blood splattered across the walls was closest to the bed. It dripped vibrant red, like strange warning markers left behind to remind Gina that her situation was much worse now than before—much worse than being drugged and raped just a few hours prior.

Gina wondered how long she’d been lying here like an abused dog. The return of her horrific memories, though fragmented and distorted, held no recollection of this brutality. It was apparent that someone had died violently, probably while she lay unconscious and left for dead.

Gina pulled hard on the handcuffs, needing desperately to be free of this hellish room where so much evil had occurred. She cried out in frustration as the cuffs held her. She started to entertain darker thoughts that fed her mania to get loose at any cost. After seeing the blood, she understood that her captors were capable of anything. Perhaps the only reason she was still alive was so they could return when she awoke and… she shuddered at the unspoken possibilities. Perhaps when they were finished, they would roll her up in some cheap carpet and discard her body in a nearby landfill or dumpster. Or… maybe they would just keep fucking her lifeless corpse until she simply fell apart, splitting her in two like some rotting wishbone and then slicing her up for trophies.

She regretted every horror movie she’d ever seen.

Gina yanked on the cuffs again and again, succeeding only in lacerating her wrists further. She didn’t know what was worse: the thought of further torment or waiting endlessly for it to come while feeling so helpless to do anything about it.

She gave up on the cuffs and rolled painfully on her back. Her legs were unresponsive to her commands.

How damaged am I? She considered that a loaded question. Are my legs… broken? Side effects of the drugs?

Gina managed to twist around with her upper body strength until her head rested at the foot of the bed, her legs still next to useless. Attempting to sit up, she turned too far to the right and rolled off the edge of the bed. Unable to brace her fall with her arms, she struck the carpet hard with her stomach, knocking the wind out of herself.

“Mother fucker!” she hissed, trying to breathe.

She heard a loud pounding sound from somewhere in the house, the sound carried through the open bedroom door just past the foot of the bed. Gina shook at the unexpected sound.

Fuck! They’re still here!

Perhaps they heard her trying to get free and were now taunting her from the next room. At any moment, they would return, cocks extended like baseball bats, ready to tear her apart again.

Fucking home run time.

Gina lost control of her bladder, as she pissed on the carpet. The urine burned her tore-up lower region; the hot fluid stung her chaffed inner thighs. She began to sob uncontrollably from the pain as her humiliation reached a new low.

Good, you dumb bitch! Maybe they’ll not want to fuck your piss-filled cunt now. Maybe they’ll just cut you open for the crows after one sniff of your rotting crotch!

Gina loathed herself completely in that moment. She was bordering hysterical as she looked repeatedly toward the open doorway, waiting for the sound of hurried feet and trouser zippers flying open. “Some fucking goddess you are now.”

You’re nothing but a frightened little girl dressed up in a whore’s costume, pissing all over yourself! A fucking blow-up doll replacement with a few more holes to rip at! This is what you get for stripping, for making yourself a piece of meat for all Mankind to drool over!

The banging sounds continued from down the hall, each one causing her to shake more violently.

She continued to pull on the cuffs, not caring that she was mutilating her own wrists.

Please, God, get me out of this… please.

That was when the pounding stopped.

Not now! Not fucking now!

Gina tried to move her legs again. The pain below was excruciating as she felt the extent of the damage her rapists’ had caused. She forced herself not to scream, pounding her head on the carpet to fight the pain.

At least you know you’re still alive, you worthless bitch! Now start acting like something other than a victim and move! Move! MOVE!!!

She heard labored footsteps coming from down the hallway. Though the bedroom was carpeted, it sounded like the hallway was hardwood, as each step creaked on approach.

Gina looked around for an escape route, a hiding place, a weapon, but there was nothing. She looked for a closet—anything!—but the bedroom was scarce of furniture except for a small dresser and a night stand. There was a single window, but she doubted she could reach it in time. She doubted if she would ever walk right again.

Under the bed, girl! That’s all you’ve got.

The idea seemed desperate and pointless. Surely, they would find her there, but that was better than remaining out in the open for one more second. Let them drag her out first, maybe she could fight them off for a moment before they tore her in half.

The footsteps were close now. It sounded like someone was dragging his feet and moving very slowly down the hall.

Gina tried to get to her knees but fell on her chin instead.

Fuck!

At the last instant she rolled beneath the bed just as a pair of large, blood-stained bare feet stopped at the open doorway.

She rolled to her side, stopping beneath the center of the bed. She looked over her shoulder toward the door, saw those feet, and quickly looked away. Gina closed her eyes and tried not to breathe, praying to become invisible. She fought like hell to remain still, trying to control the involuntary shaking that attempted to betray her.

She remained this way for an eternity.

Whoever was in the doorway came no farther. He just stood there as if this were a game to see who would make the first move.

Gina could hear him—hear his heavy breathing. It sounded like someone just returning from a ten-mile run.

After five long minutes, Gina opened her eyes and risked rolling to her other side to ease the pain in her cramping hip. She turned and met the horrified gaze of a half-eaten corpse staring back at her from the other side of the bed. Gina willed herself not to scream and to keep from throwing up.

The mutilated corpse was missing its jawbone and half its face looked like someone had bitten it clean off. There was just enough left of that torn up face for Gina to recognize him. It was one of her rapists, the reluctant first one who had wanted nothing to do with it, but raped her anyway. His last expression of extreme horror and disbelief was permanently frozen on his dead face.

Oh, fuck! Who did this?!

Her answer entered the bedroom. Gina could see a large shadow slipping beneath the bed as the man approached the foot board. Her heart exploded in her ears. She was afraid he would hear it.

The labored breathing continued, making Gina grateful she couldn’t see the source of those sounds, just those large, bloody feet.

She dared a second look over her shoulder and froze. The man’s left foot was so close. Gina could kiss his ugly big toe. She noticed that several toes on that foot looked smashed. Toe nails were bent back or completely torn off. Whoever this was, he had been kicking something with his bare feet, either not caring or unaware of the damage he’d done to himself. It looked like something done in a fit of anger and that immediately reminded her of one man.

It’s Gerald! her mind screamed. He’s the one who put me in those cuffs after he threw out the others. He’s the son-of-a-bitch who tore me up… he wouldn’t stop… even when I begged him… She shook the thoughts away as the images of her humiliation returned in flashes she was not ready to accept right now. Gerald had violated her in a way no man ever had. He was the true rapist, the one who fucked her until all that pride and arrogance bled out from between her legs, drilling into her with all his anger and hatred towards women until nothing remained but a hollowed out whore.

She stopped an irrational urge to bite his big toe off, knowing damn well that it wasn’t what she really wanted to bite off. Just the thought of having that beast so close to her again after what he’d done to her—Gina never wanted to kill anyone before, until now.

Those two feet suddenly moved, causing Gina to flinch and scoot back as far as she could.

He moved around the bed, toward the corpse side, and halted again. More breathing.

She could see his hairy calves now, just as bloody as his feet.

What the hell has he been doing? He’s covered in blood.

And for the first time since waking up, Gina thought about Tony.

Oh, Christ! What if Gerald’s done something to him?

There was so much blood.

Could that be Tony’s blood?

She refused to consider it any further. Then, a strange thought surfaced:

There’s a man in the fire!

Just then, Gerald reached down and grabbed the legs of the corpse. For a moment, Gina had her chance to attack his manhood as Gerald’s bloody penis hung into view. She cringed from it as her lower half remembered. His nakedness only confirmed her worst fears if he caught her now.

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Why isn’t he wearing clothes? What kind of sick fuck is this?

Gerald let loose a bone-chilling growl as he grabbed the remains of the body and dragged it out into the hall, leaving a blood trail across the carpet. Something fell from the body and landed a foot from Gina’s head.

It was a badly mangled hand.

She waited until Gerald was all the way down the hall, listening to the sounds of the body banging against the walls, and then she threw up in the blood-saturated carpet the corpse had been lying in.

She couldn’t shake the last disturbing image of Gerald, completely naked and covered in thick blood like it was syrup, dragging what was left of that body out into the hall… and then the severed hand.

There was something wrong with him, more so than the obvious: rapist, murderer, God knew what else. He seemed somehow less a man—more animal than man.

Gina was immediately reminded of Malcolm and the other house guests down on the beach.

No, that was different, she thought. They were pretending to be animals.

Gerald was not pretending.

From down the hall, Gina heard the pounding again.

She forced herself to look at the hand. It was clenched into a fist with something small and metallic sticking out between two disfigured fingers.

At first she thought it was a ring, but after a closer look she realized it was a handcuff key.

Thank you, God!

She crawled toward the hand until she felt those cold, lifeless digits behind her back. She pulled the key loose and tried to calm her shaking hands so she could feel her way to the holes in the cuffs. She found one and turned it. The cuff fell loose. She nearly cried out with joy when her arms gave way and she pulled them back around her front. She quickly removed the second cuff.

With her arms free, Gina pulled herself out from under the bed and began rubbing her legs, trying to restore some circulation.

After several terrifying minutes, she started to feel them again. She moved her legs sluggishly, using her arms to pull herself up against the bed until at last she was standing.

A breeze from the open window struck her pale flesh. She covered her breasts with her arms, feeling more conscious of her nakedness, now that she was upright.

Gina was relieved to find her discarded bath robe tossed into a corner of the room. She moved slowly toward it, bent over like an eighty-year-old woman, and grabbed it. She put it on, hiding the whore parts of her anatomy.

“They’ve done enough damage,” she said with finality.

Gina hobbled toward the window, paying for every step. The pain was excruciating.

All she wanted to do was get outside. She could die after that.

She stopped as an alarm went off within. She looked toward the open door and thought of Tony.

Are you just going to leave him here? Remember, they drugged him, too!

Of course. That explained why Tony was nowhere around to stop what had happened to her. If memory served correctly, she hadn’t seen him since dinner.

Gina looked toward the window again. She could fit easily. Freedom was just moments away. Every part of her tortured soul and body wanted out of that hell house. God only knew what Gerald would do to her if he came back and found her. She would rather cut her own wrists than be raped by that thing again. She was trembling beneath her robe and wanted desperately to be outside where the darkness could swallow her up and she’d be hidden forever from the horrors of this beach house.

It took all she had left to stop herself from diving out the window.

Go ahead, whore. Go ahead and add cowardice to your list of humiliations tonight. That’s what you are if you leave Tony behind in the hands of that fucking madman in the next room. You’re the only reason Tony’s in this mess to begin with. That’s right, just let that fucker steal the rest… why not just rip out your heart and give it to him as well. If he kills Tony because you jumped out of this fucking window and ran… you’re nothing… fucking nothing!

Gina turned from the window. She really had no choice. She had to find Tony.

The pounding continued from down the hall.

She forced herself to approach the doorway, being mindful not to step into the trail of blood. She peered around the corner, down a dimly lit hallway.

It was becoming easier for her to walk, still painful, but much easier. Gina could tell that Gerald was somewhere at the other end of the hall. There was another room just ten paces ahead of her, to the right. The door was closed.

Tony could be in there.

Gerald continued to pound from somewhere. Gina decided to chance it and head for the next room.

I hope it’s not locked.

Remembering the creaking hardwood floor, Gina timed her steps with Gerald’s pounding. It took two agonizing minutes to reach the door. She turned the knob. It was unlocked.

She waited, afraid of what she might find on the other side.

Tears began to stream down her face as the initial shock and horror could no longer hold her emotions at bay.

“Keep it together, girl,” she whispered to herself. “He’s probably not even in here.” She turned the knob.

The door squealed loudly as she opened it on an empty bedroom. It was a mirror of the room where she’d been violated.

The pounding stopped.

Fuck me!

She stared in horror at the fresh mattress which mocked, Hello, sexy girl. Ready for round two?

“NO!” Gina nearly yelled, backing into the hallway and striking the wall.

There was a loud growl from down the hallway. Gerald was coming.

She could still see the mattress—hear it. He’s coming, sexy girl. Gerald’s still got plenty of wood left for you. Come on in and play ‘whore’ some more!

“NO! NO! NO!” She did scream this time.

In a panic, she started toward the end of the hall.

Gerald came into view. The dim hallway hid his features in shadow.

Gerald’s chest rose and fell from breathing so hard. In his left hand, he held the head of the corpse. It looked like a spine was still attached to it.

“Oh fuck! FUCK!” Gina backed down the hallway, her legs betraying her as she fell on her ass. She crawled backward like a trapped crab until she met the wall at the other end of the hall. To her left was the open doorway to her bloody rape room.

The bath robe had climbed up to her waist leaving her tore up vagina in plain view of her rapist.

Gerald let out a vicious snarl. In Gina’s mind it was a rapist’s laughter.

“Oh… FUCK NO!” She desperately pulled down the robe as if covering up would keep this maniac from violating her again.

Gerald was on the move. He stormed down the hallway, tossing the head over his shoulder. When he reached the other open doorway, the light from the bedroom revealed the monster who was once Gerald Schuler.

He was filthy from dirt and sand and covered from head to toe in dark, thick blood; the most recent dripping down his chin and chest. Every vein in his body bulged at the surface of his skin. He looked like he would burst a blood vessel at any moment. His eyes were a fierce yellow blaze, blocking out the white of former humanity.

Gina screamed until she lost her voice and started coughing.

He’s not human anymore! What the hell is it?!

Gina glanced only once more at the bloody room. No, she refused to go back in there. Never again. She was convinced that she was going to die in the next few moments, but she was determined to die outside of that room. She pulled in her legs, prepared to buck like a wild donkey, extending her arms and using the narrow hallway walls for support. She could see his bloody member, fully erect, a roadmap of veins bulging out like some alien monstrosity. She intended to strike there first, kicking hard until Gerald had nothing left to fuck her with. If she died after that… so be it.

He descended upon her, growling viciously. Gina kicked fiercely, focused only on destroying his ability to rape her. She kicked repeatedly like a wild woman.

This brought Gerald immediately to his knees as he looked down at his broken package, as if discovering it for the first time, and then dismissed it entirely. He was not interested in sex any longer. It was her neck he was after. He barred his bloody teeth and went in for her face.

Gina was too late in registering his intent as she desperately clawed at his face. He grabbed her arms, opened his mouth wide and went in to bite her throat.

She turned away before she could faint, understanding that Gerald intended to… eat her? Her terrified mind was not able to grasp such a thing but was unable to watch as those hideous teeth tore into her flesh.

Her face and hair were immediately covered in blood and chunks of burned flesh. Gina could no longer hear her own screams as a loud ringing sound in her ears drowned out the audio of her end.

It wasn’t until she regained consciousness that she understood that the blood was not her own.

When the handgun fired, the bullet drove the back of Gerald’s head out the front of his shattered skull.

~~~