No Happily Ever After

Chapter 3

Theunfinished basement cavern Zoe stumbled into could only be describedas a torture chamber.

She stood frozen inher spot, mouth gaping, blood rushing to her head. Every fiber ofher being wanted to turn and run away screaming, but she could notmove. One thing was certain, this scene had never occurred in herdreams or imaginings.

The first thing shenoticed was in the center of the room. It was an archaic lookingwooden rack, suspended from the ceiling, and with restraints danglingat each of its four corners. At the top and bottom of it wererollers and cranks. Though she'd never seen such a thing before, itwas easy to tell that a person could be fixed to it and thenstretched and torn.

Next to the rackwas what appeared to be a medical examining table. Next to that wasa table set up with every imaginable variety of rusty metalinstruments. Scalpels, syringes, speculums, and a myriad of otheritems that appeared to come from a time long forgotten by modernscience. Worst of all, the table and instruments were all coveredwith dried blood.

Looming in onecorner was a large black box that was vaguely human shaped. It hungajar, and inside it was full of ugly, vicious looking spikes. Anypoor soul who had the misfortune of being shut inside would beimpaled hundreds of times, simultaneously over his or her entirebody. And judging by the blood on the spikes, she had no doubt thatsomebody had met that fate.

She noted a wallwhere dozens of horrific looking devices hung neatly. A chair withmetal spikes and that appeared to be electrified as well. Nooses andhand cuffs that dangled from the ceiling in various spots. Along theopposite wall were two small prison cells adjoining. There was noone in the cells, or in the horrid room, but the blood stainseverywhere revealed the awful truth. It may have been empty atpresent, but it was most definitely well used.

And then, the soundof a door opening upstairs and voices, snapped her from thenightmares of her mind, into the hell her reality had just become.

"I can'tbelieve we made the trip in just to have the game canceled," aman's voice complained.

Every muscle inZoe's body constricted. She spun and bolted backwards to hit thelight switch at the bottom of the steps she'd just descended. Onceagain, she stood shrouded in darkness.

Zoe shookuncontrollably, desperately clinging to any coherent thought. Shehad no idea just what sort of twisted hell on earth she'd gotteninto, but she knew she had to escape. And fast. Because her bootswere sitting right inside their back door. Soon, they'd know therewas someone in their home.

Zoe crept up thebasement steps and back into the pitch dark hallway.

"Mother! Ithink someone ate our soup!" she heard Benjamin Bar cry out.

She couldn'tbreathe as she tip toed down the hallway.

"Hey! Ben,did you break your chair and not say anything?" came hisfather's voice from dangerously close outside the door that had ledher to the very hallway where she stood. She began franticallyfeeling the walls, searching for another door. She stumbled when sheencountered an opening, and realized she'd found another stairway. This one led up. Oh so quietly, Zoe mounted the stairs. Just as shecame to the top of the stairs into another hallway, Mrs. Bar'salarmed voice rang out again.

"Someone's inthe house right now! Her boots are by the back door! Find her!"

The woman's voicewas urgent and angry.

Zoe began to soband she darted into the nearest room. She heard their footstepsclamoring below. They shouted to one another as they searched thedownstairs.

She found herselfinside a bedroom and she looked around not knowing just what to do. She hadn't even explored the entire ground floor and knew there wasno way she could go back downstairs and somehow slip past them. Hereyes landed on the window, showing the sparkling full moon outside.

Then, she heard thedistinct sound of rhythmic footsteps on the stairs.

They weren't on thestairway she'd just come up, so maybe they were far enough away togive her a precious few seconds head start. Without a secondthought, Zoe darted to the window, threw the lock, and slid it open.

And then shejumped.

***

Despite the blanketof snow that had formed, the ground was unforgiving. Her right legsnapped and she crumpled into the snow. She bit into her own hand tokeep herself from screaming.

Her consciousnesswaivered as the pain threatened to take over. Glancing down, she sawbone had torn through her flesh and her jeans.

But unfortunately,at that point, her broken leg was and her stocking feet in the snow,were the least of her troubles. She would move, or she would die. There was no doubt about it.

Zoe Locke somehowhauled herself off the ground. The woods were a mere ten feet fromwhere she'd landed. She hopped as fast as she could, dragging herbroken leg. The movement caused pain so sickening; she could almostfool her mind into not feeling it. She took to the trees.

Inside the forest,there was far less snow on the ground, as not much had been able tofind its way through the tree limbs. She tried to stick to snowlessground and head toward the road. Eventually, she heard them outside,still yelling to one another, but she'd managed to put some distancebetween herself and them whilst they'd searched their home.

Zoe kept moving. Their voices faded. They weren't following her.

Eventually she madeit to the road. She blubbered incoherently. Her functioning footwas bitterly cold and she knew soon she'd lose sensation and beunable to walk anymore. However, the cold also served to lessen thepain of her broken leg. So, on she went.

She stayed in thetrees close to the road and kept proceeding back toward town. Sheprayed for a car to happen by, but also feared the Bar's perhapstaking to the road in their car to seek out their escaped intruder. So, she remained hidden. And quickly, her strength and speeddiminished.

Then, she sawheadlights. And, a spotlight.

Zoe dropped to theground and watched. The car approached slowly and when it finallypassed, her heart exalted to see that it was a police cruiser.

With the last bitof will Zoe could muster, she scrambled on her hands and knees. Shecrashed out of the trees onto the snowy road.

"STOP!"she screamed, crying wretchedly. "PLEASE! STOP!"

She dropped herselfup on her knees and waved her arms.

The lights of thecruiser washed her in bright red. And then she collapsed, stone coldunconscious in the snow.