Flesh Factory: An Extreme Horror Novel (8 page)

“Please, don’t make me touch the door,” she said when they had stopped. “If I touch the door, the demons will find a way in. Oh God, please don’t make me go into that room…”

She gasped and ducked when a black shadow whooshed over her head, bringing with it a gust of freezing cold air. She knew, that if she touched the door then the black shaped would flow through her and into the room. Once in the room they would take on their true shapes, and then Hope knew that she would surely go mad. It was not a human-being’s place to look upon the demons, she knew. It would make Frank, James and June in their wicker-baskets seem like an illustration in a children’s story.

“Get in,” Mick said, pushing open the door.

CHAPTER TEN

Hope lurched inside the third room of the tour. She screamed and covered her face, fully expecting the bad shapes to flow through her body and materialise before her…

To her relief, nothing happened. In fact, the shadows hadn’t even followed them into the room. They were safe in this room, for the time being at least. Relaxing a little bit, she forced herself to look.

This one was small like the other two, with the same tiled floor and white-washed walls. In this room, however, was a bed.

And on it lay Rohan. He was asleep, or unconscious and wore nothing but a pair of black boxer-shorts. He lay on his back, looking angelic beneath the harsh lighting, his blonde hair shining. His wrists were handcuffed to the metal headboard and he slept on peacefully, looking as innocent as a child.

The bed was a regulation hospital bed with no sheets. On top of the mattress was a wraparound plastic cover.

So the blood can be easily cleaned up
...

The horror of the shadows waiting for her outside temporarily forgotten, she stared helplessly at Rohan.

“What will happen to him?” she asked.

“You are going to kill him.”

Hope stared at her captor in confusion. Surely she had heard wrong, surely he didn’t mean that…

“No,” she said, putting her hands to her ears. She thought of running out through the door but then the shadows would get her.

“Hope? Hope!” he shouted.

Effortlessly he prised her hands away from her ears and without warning, he brought his mouth down on hers. She was so surprised she didn’t resist and didn’t even flinch when his tongue fleetingly and delicately touched hers. Just as quick the kiss was over and he was pressing something cold and hard into her hand. When she looked down, she saw it was a knife.

A fleeting fantasy of driving the knife into his guts played out in her mind, then instantly vanishing again.

Kill him no I can’t kill him if I kill him the shadows will get me I have to kill him
…

“Hope?” Mick said, cutting through her jangled thoughts. “If you even
think
about sticking that knife in me, you will be subjected to punishments that you couldn’t even conjure up in your worst nightmares. Even if you did stab me, and in the unlikely event you did manage to kill me, there are other employees of mine in the house that will see to it that your punishment is severe.”

Hope trembled before him, confused and very, very lost. Before she could even think of what to do, he was gone.

Like earlier out in the big room, he seemed to move in the blink of an eye. The door slammed shut and the hatch rolled across with a final sounding
clack
.

He’s the devil oh yes the devil the king of the shadows on the wall…

No! It’s the drugs yes the drugs the LSD...

Stop!

She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, reigning in the crazed thoughts, forcing her mind to blank out. A part of her was aware that she was losing it, yet she was powerless to bring to a halt the sensation of sinking.

She had no idea how long she just stood there, watching the gentle rise and fall of Rohan’s chest.

“Hope!” a loud yet tinny voice boomed in the confined space. “You have to kill him, you’re not coming out until you do.”

“What the,” she gasped, spinning violently round on the spot like a demented ballerina.

“Above you, Hope. I’m watching you.”

Sure enough, when she looked up, a wall-mounted camera stared down at her from the corner of the ceiling. She waited for Mick to say something more, but all she could hear was Rohan’s soft snoring.

The knife shook in her hand.
Maybe I could do it while he’s asleep. Just slit his throat, he’ll never know...

The knife slipped out of her sweaty hand and clattered to the floor. How could she even think such a thing? What was wrong with her? She was sick in the head.

I’m on drugs. It’s not my fault.

“Hope? Is that you? Where are we? What’s going on?”

Shit, he’s awake oh God what am I going to do I can’t kill him I can’t do that I’ll kill him yes I’ll kill him
…

Her stomach lurched and cramped, but there was nothing left in her apart from bile and she forced it back down again until the sensation passed.

“Hope? Can you un-cuff me?”

“No Rohan, I can’t. I don’t have the key. Mick has the key.”

To her surprise, Rohan burst into tears. It wasn’t with compassion that she gazed down at him, it was with something nearer disgust. What the fuck was
he
crying for?

Probably because he knows he’s going to die. Because he knows you’re going to kill him
…

“No,” she gasped, sliding her back down against the wall until her rump hit the icy-cold floor. She mashed her face into her knees, wishing with all her might that her nightmare would just bloody end.

“Hope, you have to try and slide the cuffs off the headboard. Maybe we can find a way out of here.”

At least he had stopped crying, she was thankful for that small mercy. Slowly, she raised her head and peered at him through the tangle of her hair.

“And why should I even
try
to help you, Rohan? You beat me You
hurt
me.”

“I didn’t want to do it, I
had
to. I had to make them think that everything was normal. Come on, Hope, you know I was trying to rescue you. And I would’ve done, if you hadn’t have gone and ruined it. Why would you do that?”

“For my brother! If I fuck this up, he dies.”

“And now we’re
all
going to die. Congratulations,” he said bitterly.

“No, Rohan, it’s
you
that’s going to die.”

“Come on, Hope,
please
. At least try and untie me.”

He struggled against the handcuffs, his body writhing and his teeth clenched. Hope impassively watched him until finally he was still.

“Fuck you,” she said quietly.

He lay there panting on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

“I meant what I said in the dungeon. You’re the only woman I’ve ever cared about. That night you stepped into my car, I was in love with you, pure and simple.”

Suddenly Hope was angry; she was angrier than she had ever been in her life. Maybe not at Rohan, maybe not even at Mick, she was just crazy
angry
. All her life she had tried her best, always tried to do the right thing. And where had that got her? Exactly fucking
nowhere
, was where.

“Mick wants me to kill you,” Hope said calmly when all she wanted to do was shout and rave at him. “You heard the man, I’m not coming out this room until I do.”

“Then let’s stay in this room. Let’s wait it out.”

“Wait it out? Wait it OUT? What the fuck good would that do? You have to die, Rohan. You have to fucking die. If I don’t kill you, I’m going to end up like Frank. Or fucking Sara. Jesus Christ, I just want this shit to
end
.”

“Hope? Are you on something? Your pupils are like, massive.”

As quickly as it had arrived, the anger disappeared, leaving great sorrow in its wake. Tears welled up in her eyes, blurring her vision.

“I don’t want to see the shadows, Rohan. If they come in here, they’re going to hurt us, you’re going to wish I’d killed you…”

Her words abruptly died when a loud, whining noise filled the room. It was ear-drum splitting and instinctively her hands flew up to her ears. Rohan thrashed his head and howled in pain. Mick’s voice followed over the speaker:

“You have to kill him, Hope. Do it quickly, for your own sake. The quicker you kill him, the better I will treat you. If you take too long do it, I’ll put you in the basket room.”

Then all was quiet again.

“What’s the basket room?” Rohan asked.

“Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

“Fuck it. Kill me. You’re right, there’s no way out. I’ve had enough. I was thinking about doing it myself, anyway. That’s why I had the gun in the first place.”

Hope eyed the knife she had dropped on the floor. It would be so easy just to draw the sharp edge across his jugular…

“Shut up,” she said, hugging her knees tight to her breasts.

“I mean it, Hope. I’m so sick of my life, I’m so sick of being
me
. Meeting you and loving you has been the only good thing that’s ever happened to me. You made me feel again. I didn’t think I was capable of it, but then along came you.”

“I feel awful,” she said, not wanting to talk about killing him anymore.

Besides, the truth was she did feel awful, the room was swimming and if she saw those shadows again she didn’t know what she would do.

“Come and give me a cuddle.”

She looked at him blankly. “What?”

“Come and lie on my shoulder. Please? I need to feel you. I’m not thinking about sex, or hurting you, or any of that stuff. I just want to be close to you.”

She eyed him suspiciously. It couldn’t be a trick, his hands were cuffed, there was nothing he could do to hurt her.

Without further thought, she went to him and lay down beside him with her head in the crook of his arm. His heart was noisy and beat rapidly against her ear, but she welcomed the comfort of his body against hers.

“What drugs did he make you take, Hope?”

“LSD,” she murmured against his smooth chest.

“Don’t start panicking, you’ll bring on a bad trip. And whatever you think you see, these
shadows
you’re talking about, just remember they’re not real. Say it after me
, they’re not real
.”

Hope ignored him. Now she was lying down, the room was spinning even more. The light-headedness was getting stronger and she fought to keep her thoughts grounded.

“Why has Mick chosen me? And what’s going on here? Do you know?”

“Yeah, I’ve got a fair idea. Mick is into some pretty crazy shit, you know, devil worship and stuff.”

Yes, the shadows on the walls
…

Yes it all made perfect sense to her now, that was why the demons were here looking for a way in to this world, because Mick had
summoned
them.

“Devil worship,” she repeated hazily. God, her limbs felt like lead, her thoughts so sluggish.

“But it’s not real, Hope. You’re tripping, fuck, I should never put shit like that in your head while you’re tripping. Mick’s crazy. The Factory is his business, but
this
is his passion. He’s a Satanist, he takes the spoils from The Factory and he brings them here.”

“That’s why the demons are here.”

“You have to stop with this devil shit, Hope, you hear me? There’s no such thing as demons.”

“I saw them. They’re coming for us.”

“Stop it.”

Abruptly, she sat up. “This is all so fucked up.  I can’t do it. You hear me?” she shouted up at the camera. “I can’t do it.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, the swirling black shadows were back, dancing in the corner of her eye. She jumped to her feet, the adrenalin pumping.

“Hope, what are you doing?”

“They’re here.”

“Who’s here?”

“The demons. Can’t you see them?”

“There’s no one here, Hope, please, sit back down…”

You have to kill him, Hope
, a velvety voice whispered in her mind.
Take the knife and stab him. If you don’t we’ll come and we’ll eat you both…

“Nooo,” she cried, clutching her face in her hands.

Kill him, or we will do it for you, and then we’ll do you.

The shadows lurched fully into her line of vision, dancing on the opposite wall.

“Leave me alone.”

“You’re tripping, Hope, you have to snap out of it.”

Except it wasn’t Rohan speaking anymore because Rohan had turned into a six foot worm. In her mind, the shadows laughed. He looked so repulsive writhing on the bed, his body just one, long, bulging, fleshy tube. Only his face remained at the head of the monstrous
thing
, his neck and shoulders swallowed up by the worm body.

The handcuffs dangled empty off the headboard and she eyed them in a panic.

Oh God, he’s going to roll off the bed and slither towards me. He’s going to eat me
...

She bent down and picked up the knife and in a second she was on him.

“God forgive me,” she said, bringing the knife down to roughly where she thought his heart might be as he no longer had a neck for her to slit.