Numbers
CHAPTER 1
‘Ironic how the only certainty in life is death, don’t you think?’ The man’s voice was calm.
‘Please… you don’t have to do this.’ The man on the floor’s voice was strangled by tears and blood. He was shivering and his arms were stretched above his head. He was chained by his wrists to the brick wall.
The dark basement room had been transformed into dungeon, heavy metal shackles on all four walls. A sickening smell of urine lingered in the air and there was a large wooden box in the corner, placed there by the attacker. The room was sound and escape proof. Once locked inside, there was no way out unless someone let you out.
‘It doesn’t matter how rich you are, what you’ve gained, who you know or what hopes you have. In the end the same thing will happen to all of us. We’ll all die.’
‘Please, no.’
‘What matters is how we die.’
The man coughed blood and spit flying from his mouth.
‘Some people die naturally as they reach the end of their natural lives.’ The man laughed. ‘Some people suffer for years with incurable diseases, fighting every second to add just a few more to their lives.’
‘I… I’m not rich. I don’t have much. But whatever you want from me you can have.’
‘Shhhhh’ The attacker replied. ‘I don’t want your money. If you know what you’re doing then the pain of death could drag on for days or weeks even… did you know that?’ he asked.
Until then, the chained man hadn’t noticed the small gun in his attacker’s hand.
‘And I really know what I’m doing. Let me demonstrate.’ He stepped on the bone coming out of the victim’s fractured ankle, bent over and quickly fired a nail into the man’s right knee. An intense torrent of pain shot up the victim’s leg and sucked the air out of his lungs, blurring his vision for several seconds. The attacker grabbed hold of one of the nails and pushed it with just enough force to shatter bone and the victim let out a cry of pain. A wave of nausea rushed over the victim as he began to black out. The attacker slapped him a few times to stop him from slipping away.
‘Stay with me,’ he whispered. ‘I want you to enjoy every moment of this. There’s more to come.’
‘Why… Why are you doing this?’
‘Why?’ The man smiled and licked his cracked lips. ‘I’ll show you why.’ From his pocket he pulled a photograph and held it inches away from the chained man’s face. The man’s eyes rested in confusion on the picture for several seconds. ‘I don’t understand. What…?’ He froze. ‘Oh my god!’
The tormentor moved closer and whispered into the bleeding mans right ear. ‘Guess what,’ he glanced at the wooden box in the corner, ‘I know what scares you to death’
CHAPTER 2
Hunter Temple was having dinner with his wife Alicia when he got the call.
‘Hunter we need you to get over here right away. There’s been another murder and this time it’s serious.’
Hunter apologized to Alicia, put on his jacket and walked outside into the chilly Essex weather. He was about to climb into his car when he heard a noise. He looked down and realized that he had stepped on quite a big spider. He smiled when he thought about how scared Alice would be of it, climbed into his car and drove to Tilbury. When he entered the house, he was handed gloves and overalls. He was also handed a face mask. He walked into the basement and pushed his long, dark hair out of his darker eyes. The first thing to hit him was the smell. It was putrid and he just about managed to stop himself from puking. The scene of the basement was just too much to bear. In front of hunter was a man. The only way that Hunter knew that was because of the large frame of the man. There was a dog’s head stuck onto the man’s torso, his legs were broken, one of which had a large nail in it. The strange thing was a large number two on the victim’s back.
