Chapter Twenty Four
As Kimberley slowly came to, her blurred vision started clearing, making her face a more gruesome scene every time she blinked. "Ah, just in time.." Said a sinister sounding voice. It was a voice that Kim only knew too well. "Josh?" She mumbled, still trying to make sense of her surroundings. "I thought you'd never wake up." He spoke quietly and calmly. Kim tried to get her sight working properly, but the light shining straight into her eyes wasn't helping much. She couldn't see Josh's figure anywhere in the room and the echo in the tiny bunker didn't give much away either. "What's going on..?" Kim slowly moaned as she started realizing that her hands were tied above her head and she didn't have a stable ground to support her feet on. Josh huffed. "What's going on?" He said, "What's going on is that I have you tied up in a tiny dark room accompanied by an endless supply of tools." He spoke, his tone sounding almost amused. Hearing that cleared Kim's head within a second. She opened her eyes and for the first time, she was able to take a proper look at the room around her. Josh wasn't lying, there was an endless supply of tools surrounding her. Everything from hand held electric saws and wires of all sorts to massive scalpel-sharp hunting knives. She still couldn't locate Josh, which meant that he could only be in one place - Behind her. Kimberley quickly got a painful confirmation of her fears and she felt a sharp pain across her back. "Aahh." She yelled in pain. She felt Josh grab her hair and pull her head back abruptly. "That sounded even better than it did all those times I imagined it in my head." He chuckled as he whispered into Kimberley's ear before sending another wave of pain towards Kim, this time, across her legs.
As he kept chuckling, he walked in front of Kim to face her. "That's it. That's the look I was aiming for." He grinned as he saw a look of immense pain mixed with crippling terror in his victim's eyes. Kim looked down and saw Josh holding a fine chain in his hand. Kim realized that the red substance covering the metal chain was her blood. She hadn't even realized that the two blows she had received had ripped through her clothes and her skin. She couldn't tell how much she was bleeding. She didn't know whether the damp she felt on her back came from her blood or her sweat. "You don't have to do this." She spoke as she took a deep breath. "Aw, see I was hoping that you'd ask me WHY I'm doing this... But I guess you already got that figured out in that smart little head of yours. After all, there can't really be any other motive for someone to be doing something like this." Josh replied, balancing his emotions between anger and the joy of seeing his prey in that state. "Josh, I understand that what happened hurt you. And I can't imagine what you must feel..." The woman started. "NO, YOU REALLY CAN'T IMAGINE WHAT I FEEL." He screamed, interrupting Kim. He unleashed another ferocious blow, this time, to Kim's side. The girl squealed in pain once again. "So, why are you torturing me. Why not just finish me off here and now?" Kim asked after catching her breath. Josh walked right up to Kim, leaning his face close to hers, their foreheads nearly touching. "Because I want you to bear the pain and the scars that I do. Even if it is for only a little while before I kill you." He spoke, clutching Kim's neck. "Let me show you something." He said in an arrogant tone as she shoved the woman away from his grasp, making her swing back and forth slowly. He threw the chain to the ground and took off his jacket. "This is what you need to look like in order for me to have any sense of justice." He continued speaking as he unbuttoned his shirt, revealing his very toned and muscular body. It had definitely changed since the last time Kim saw it. Josh had always been on good terms with his fitness, but he had never sported a six pack or any of his other bulging muscles before. He slowly turned around and let the shirt slide off his back and arms, revealing a maze of fine-cut scars all along his back. Kimberley was horrified by what she saw. "Who did this to you?!" Her voice breaking in desperation of the sight she was faced with. "YOU!" Josh screamed as he threw his shirt across the room in anger and rushed towards Kim. He grabbed her hair again and bent back Kim's head. "You did." He said again, slightly calmer. It wasn't until now that Kimberley could see the deep scars on Josh's wrists that she didn't notice earlier. The man leaned closed, nearly close enough to kiss Kimberley's neck. "That night, when you called me while squirming in your guilt, I was taken to hospital. Ironically, I tried to end myself because I hadn't heard anything about Cheryl. Too bad your call was about an hour too late." He explained while his voice filled with agony and rage. It was all coming back to Kimberley now. The woman picking up the phone that night, it must have been a doctor. As she took another look at Josh's wrists, she realized that the clear-cut image of the nightmare she had back in the hotel was staring right at her. The pictures of Josh standing in the middle of the room with blood running down his wrists, covered in sweat with a bewildered look in his eyes. She had seen that nightmare for a reason.
