Mackenzie Wright (Part 4 of 4)

The bright lights created heat on his face. Opening his eyes carefully so as not to be blinded did little good. Surrounded in darkness with 4 posts in front of him, evenly spaced, and utter blackness beyond. The lights on the post were hot and the warmth in the room seemed to grow steadily. His head hurt with a dullness that begged for the kind of darkness beyond his field of vision. To his right was a brick wall and to the left a number of shelves with books on them. The rigging of lights too bright and too close to him to allow reading the title. But the books were either hard covers or magazines. The magazines were more or less jammed in between the hard covers. Where was he? A basement of course. The cord tying him to the chair far too tight to allow adequate circulation. His forearms are wrapped in it and his legs tied to a chair. The chair was bolted to the floor. His feet naked but the rest of his clothes were still on. He guessed that was a good sign. He'd been thinking of calling the person he felt might be in the blackness watching him in silence but better to get a plan together first. Think of what Eris his kidnapper wanted. Mackenzie was pretty sure he knew, at least in part. Taking in a few deep breaths and gathering up his regret Kenzie prepared to speak.

"Hello?" He waited. The lamps got hotter. His thirst started to take over, nudge in the back of his mind. Stomach grumbled too. Hungry. "Can anyone hear me?" Kenzie licked his lips and yelled out this time. "Hello." Sounding frustrated, out of control...desperate.

"What?" Her voice was strong and sharp. "Eris?" Kenzie said it as if he did not really know it was her. "What have you got to say for yourself?" If she could start this with one word question he could answer that way too, "Sorry." he offered. A five pound weight came sailing out of the darkness and struck him in the chest. Kenzie yelled out in pain. The thick throb that remained made it difficult to breathe deeply. The metal weight clattered to the stone floor. He didn't notice till later it was resting on his right foot, in part. "Holy God, lady." He gasped in air and started speaking again. "You could have killed me." In the blackness Kenzie thought he saw someone move. Seeing beyond the lamps took monumental effort. The lights felts sweltering now and his vision was blurring in and out. "You are a murderer, Mac." The sentence hit him harder than the iron weight. The words were spoken coldly. He remembered the accident...

Driving along blasted out of his mind, speeding and too tired to drive. He'd seen a girl on the road and then something happened. He missed the turn just a little and hit something. He'd been sure it was not a person. No, he was sure because he told himself it was not a person. Talked to his inner voice and even expressed it aloud when alone. But now Mac remembered the scream he heard. It was a woman along the edge of the road and then she simply wasn't in view any longer. Even after he got out and looked back. No one had been around. "I didn't see what I hit." He quested. Flying out of the darkness between two lamps came a shape. His collar bone felt burning hot and his right arm went mostly numb. The weight clattered behind him. This one thrown more forcefully. Tears came to his eyes. A moment later a third projectile slammed into his sternum. Mac began to cough and gag. The pain unreal, like nothing he ever felt. He saw it coming but could do nothing to stop it. Arms jerked to defend but were trapped in cords. He tried to push with his legs to get leverage, break free. Nothing worked. Moats of black filled his vision for nearly a minute. "I'll be back in half an hour." Mackenzie heard footsteps going upward and then a door open and close. The burning lamps kept Mac company. That and his pain.

During the space of what he believed was a half hour the lights wilted his lips and thirst became insistent. The hurting in his chest all but gone but sagging soreness set in. He also really needed to use the bathroom. The door opened and someone walked down stairs. Must be stairs? Mac perked up. "Hey, I need some water, let me go." A metal weapon tumbled out of no place and struck him in the head. The impact on his left cheek made him cry out. He sounded less like a man and more like a wounded child. Two more weights followed. One struck him in the belly and the other sailed past him but not before striking the lamp. The lamp wavered and fell. A cracking and pop was punctuated by hot glass at his feet. "God, listen...please." Blood taste in his mouth. Mac had bitten his lip. He could feel his face swelling. Other parts of his body throbbed too. Eris floated out of darkness and stepped over the ruined rigging. Glass crunched under her shoes as she approached. Just before Mac could say anything Eris slapped him. The sound echoed slightly in the room. His right jowl didn't hurt like the left and had it been his only complaint would be more loud. But just now the slap seemed almost dull compared to his other pains. "Do you even know what you did?" Eris spat the words at him. She was surrounded in a halo of light, still dressed in the clothes from the party. "Answer me." Eris punctuated the command with slap to the other side of his face. Pain welled up inside Mac. He could not keep from crying. Tears rushed down his face, mingling with sweat. He looked in her eyes for any bit of remorse and found none. He breathed quietly and tried to think of a way out of this.

Eris seemed content to let him take his time. Minutes passed. Then without warning she took a scalpel from a back pocket and jammed it into his left shoulder. Mac screamed. Eris withdrew the blade and inserted it slowly into a different area of the shoulder. Mac cried out again and when she took away the blade he began to sob. His head went down to his chest. "No, no, no, stop...please..." He kept saying in between his sobs. Mac tried to get composure but Eris would not allow it. As if seeing him start to regain his senses she punched him in the mouth. His head recoiled and Kenzie's eyes flashed wide. "Are you crazy lady?" Eris stopped a moment caught off guard but his rancor. "I drugged you and your friend, kidnapped you, imprisoned you and I'm torturing you as we speak, so yes." He blinked his eyes at her and tried to form words, say something. "Do you know what you took from me?" She wailed the words as she lifted up the blade and swung it at him. "I should cut you up." Blade dancing in air as Mac reached for something to say. Eris was young and this was all about the accident that early morning. Okay? That meant it was either her child or sister? For the first time Mackenzie realized...'I hit a person on the road and their dead.' "Oh, God." Mackenzie said. Eris stopped and looked into the watery, frightened eyes of her captive. "Oh, God what?" Unceremoniously, "I don't know." Eris' features tightened up and she took him by the shirt and started punching him in the face. He could not get away. Trying to duck his head did little good. Blood splattered his lips as she found new angles to strike him. His right eye nearly swelled shut as he kept taking hits in that area. Finally she stopped. The scalpel in her left hand the entire time had cut small marks in his chin as he tried to avoid punches. Eris gripped her weapon tighter, "Murdering bastard."

Mac broke down in earnest. He sobbed and said in a broken voice as spittle ran down his face and clear snot flowed into his mouth. "I'm sorry, sorry, I'm sorry. Oh God I didn't mean to do it. It was accident, I'm sorry Eris...I didn't mean to kill your sister!" Eris dropped the scalpel and with her left hand slapped Mac as hard an possible. "My sister, what the fuck?" She looked confused for a moment and then added, "My sister, you killed Warden." Mackenzie could only manage, "What?" Eris clarified, "My dog, Warden." Mackenzie suddenly looked up at her, stopped crying and and ire came to his face and voice. "Your dog, all this has been about a fucking dog, you crazy bitch." Eris slapped Mac across the face once more. Mac gritted his teeth then bared them at her. "Go to hell, for a dog, you go to hell." Eris said in a chill voice, "That is exactly what I'm going to do, go to hell for a dog. And so are you. Mac felt mortal fear creep in. He'd been afraid she might hurt him and badly but this was the first time he felt like he might die. "Warden was everything to me...that you screwed around on your friends and treat women like trash is all fine by me. I don't give a shit. If you lie and cheat Tag or your family or anyone in the world. All that means nothing to me. But Warden was my one true friend and I loved him and you took him away from me. You almost hit me that day. I rolled down the hill into the woods and by the time I climbed back up, you were gone and Warden lay dying. He died in my arms." Eris was out of breath by the time she yelled out all she had to say. She started again after taking in a huge breath. "Mac, when you die no one you love will hold you in their arms and watch the light go out of your eyes...it will be just you and me." Mac's eyes went wide and he tried to say something but all he cold think was how she said he was going to die.

Eris stared him in the eyes...fury met fear as she took the scalpel from the floor. She began to slash his chest with it. From left to right and right to left. She switched hands several times as the blade made small cuts in his flesh or deep nicks . Eris was not accurate but surely and slowly Mackenzie Wright was being cut to death. He screamed louder and louder. At first it was words but when she stopped to jam her fist, weapon in hand, into his belly several times it became non-sense sounds and sobbing. Then there was a noise. Men could be heard. "Drop the weapon..." Mac was sure he heard that said. A terribly loud blast went off twice. Blood splattered onto him and he barely noticed. Eris fell at his feet and made a moaning noise. A man in a dark uniform started cutting him loose with a pocket knife as another man drug away the woman then called for an ambulance. "Oh, are you police?" Mac said, exhausted. "Yes, son you are okay now, hang on the paramedics are on the way." The voice was strong and authoritative. It was also the last thing he remembered being said that night.

Two days later in the hospital Mackenzie was told he could go home in another few days. His closest friends had stopped by and he'd ended up with a great deal of flowers and teddy bears from the gals and get well cards from the guys. The doctors told him how lucky he was and how Tag gave him blood. Both men had the same rare blood type and Taggert was listed as a donor and gave blood often. Go figure. It helped to save his life. Of all his friends only Tag visited twice a day for his entire six day stay in the hospital. It seemed Tag really was his best friend. Mackenzie was grateful for Tag and also happy to be alive.

At night when no one was around and the sounds of the hospital goings on were muted and all he had to do was think about Eris and Warden, that he nearly died because he made such bad choices in his life. It made him sick. He'd learned his lesson. Don't take pills and drink and drive. He though about Eris being shot by the officers. She'd been taken to a larger hospital in the city. The last bit of information he got about her condition was Eris fell into a coma during surgery. He had visions of one day repaying that bitch for what she'd done to him. But for now it was just daydreams...he could never touch her inside a hospital. She deserved to have scars and be in pain just like him. Permanent scars on his body pissed him off at first but the Eris story, spun just a bit of course, earned him some pity and some guilt free pussy. Mackenzie also thought about how the neighbor Mr. Fline called the police about screaming and fighting going on. This had saved his life. After Mac got out of the hospital he thanked Mr. Fline personally and told him in his mind he was a hero. Mrs. Fline smiled and said Mr. Fline was a hero too. But when old man Fline was working it was his cock that was the hero in the Fline household on those nights...

The end