Cherry Ghost

Eight

The pain from the chains around her wrists and ankles had long since faded. She barely regained consciousness now, her mind no longer alert, any hope long since driven away. Her lips were so cracked that they were really just open sores and the metallic taste of dried blood was all that was left. Her eyelids had all but fused shut as all moisture had been absorbed into her frail body in a final desperate attempt to stave off complete de-hydration.

 She stirred briefly and strained to lift her head from her shoulder. Her body now so weak that this task alone caused her head to spin violently. She willed her body to pick up a sound. Any sound. Anything. Just something to connect her to the outside world. But nothing broke the absolute silence.

 Her head slumped back hard against her shoulder and as her chains settled for the final time she took one last ragged breath and her fight to survive was over.

However she had not been alone. Sitting cross-legged behind her naked body was a figure. Silent and unmoving. Watching and waiting, until it was time, until this moment.

Standing slowly and stretching to relieve cramped muscles, the watcher stooped slightly to retrieve a small package from a black back-pack that lay next to the body. The contents were bound securely in a dark green canvas that was tied shut with soft leather straps. As these were undone, two syringes, a pair of blue nitrile gloves and a couple of small vials were revealed. One was empty however the other held a cloudy semi-viscous liquid that filled about half of the vial.

With both knees positioned either side of the dead girls head, the first syringe was taken from the canvas and held carefully in a gloved hand. Holding the eyelids of her left eye open, the tip of the syringe effortlessly slid into the anterior chamber and through the middle of the iris. Meeting little resistance from the lens, the needle entered the deepest chamber. The translucent liquid was carefully drawn out. The watcher acutely aware that there should be no trace of this intrusion, therby avoiding its detection once the body had been discovered.

 Less than a minute later, the syringe was being emptied into the first vial, its new contents a long overdue addition to be stored with the others. Mementos of past conquests and salves to be used when the night terrors came.

 Piercing the cap of the second vial and drawing its contents into the cylinder took a few seconds. Pushing the tip of the syringe through the hole created by the earlier penetration and emptying the contents just a few more. The exact volume withdrawn had been carefully matched with an equal volume re-introduced.

 Satisfied that the eye was restored to its former size and shape, the syringes and vials were wrapped back in the green canvas and the leather straps re-tied. Fingers expertly forming the knots despite being gloved. Evidence of careful planning and hours of practise.

 All this took less than three minutes. No attempt to touch the body had been considered. Nor had any desire to take advantage of her nakedness been displayed. It was important that the body would be discovered without any visible abuse, save for the damage caused to her body by the chains. By her own desperate but ultimately futile attempts to break free.

 Checking once more that nothing had been left behind, the concealed door at the rear of the room opened and closed leaving the dead girl's body to be discovered when the time was right.