Murderer

Chapter 14: Ryan

I woke up to the same old basement, chained up to the support beam. My ribs were a lot more visible now. Sometimes he doesn't feed me, and when does, it's in small amounts. He wants me to hang on to dear life, the little food he gives me is why I'm alive right now. The starving feeling was constant, and whenever he feels like hurting me, it adds on a lot more suffering. It's harder for me to hold on. But I'm not going to give up, I know people are out there looking for me, especially Brendon. I wanted to be alive for him.

I dozed off for a bit, only to be startled awake by the slamming of the door. I figured it would just be him feeding me today, but I was wrong. No food was visible in his hand.

"Please, no..." I coughed, weakly. I started tearing up in fear of the pain to come.

The man grabbed onto the chair, letting the wooden legs scratch against the cold stone floor, making a loud and disturbing creaking sound. A shiver went down my spine from the noise, I hated it.

"Don't cry kid. Not yet. I have some news." He raised his voice, "but don't get too calm, because it's not good news for me."

I've been through so much pain while being trapped in this man's basement, but the amount of terror and fear that I felt always gets worse. I know someday I'll meet my doom...if they don't find me in time.

"At first I heard on the news that they presumed you were dead. I was like, oh, good. Now they will just be searching mindlessly outside for your bones, and they'll never find them! Poor parents, their little precious kid is missing forever!" He started laughing at the thought of my parents crying over not being able to find out what happened to me. He stopped mid-laugh.

"That was a perfect situation for me, you see. Then your little friend just had to go and try to drown himself in the pond. That's when everything went downhill for me. Now they are saying on the news that you were last seen at the pond. The kid must have finally told them about your secret hideout, and where you were really last seen. This is bad for me...and you know it." He said grimly, harshly poking me in the chest with the tip of his boot.

I gasped at the thought of Brendon trying to kill himself. I was in disbelief. Brendon was such a happy person, I couldn't imagine him wanting to die because he didn't have me. I was on the verge of tears at the thought of it. Then I thought about what the man had said. I did know what this meant. They can be suspicious of him now. There is really hope for me. I couldn't help but look up at him and smile, I knew he was going to hurt me but I wanted to show that he was going to get caught, and he knew it.

"Wipe that smile off your face. You're making a decision kid, I have to throw them off my tracks. Here's the deal, you either get one of your fingers chopped off or I kidnap your little friend so he can join the party. Your choice." His raspy voice was delivering the scariest decision I would ever have to make.

I knew losing my finger was going to be brutal. I would have to live the rest of my life without that finger. I would be deformed. It would also make it harder for me to write lyrics. But it's the choice I had to go with, I would never want Brendon in my situation. I would go through all the pain this man could give me to stop him from hurting Brendon. He deserves a normal life, without fear. He shouldn't have to question if he is going to die every time he wakes up like I do. I don't want him to feel the pain that I feel. I knew what I had to do.

"Take my finger, and never lay your dirty hands on my friend." I bitterly told him.

He laughed at my statement. "Look, there's nothing you can do to stop me from touching your suicidal friend. But I am a man of my word. So I won't touch him. For now."

He grabbed a dirty towel and shoved it in my mouth, taping over it so I couldn't scream. He pushed my right hand flat on the ground, and I could feel the crisp and frosty floor under my fingertips. I closed my eyes, waiting for misery. It came, and I couldn't help from opening my eyes when it happened, the agony was too much. I saw my detached ring finger on the ground, all limp and bloody. The notch in my hand where the finger once was leaked blood onto the ground, creating a whole puddle around my hand as he held it down. He shoved a towel in between the fingers, onto the hole, forcing pressure to stop the bleeding. The torment was too much for my frail body, and I blacked out.

I opened my eyes. I first saw that my hand was all bandaged up. Then it hit me that I didn't have a ring finger on my right hand. I started having a panic attack as I heard him snicker and hold something up to my face. It took me a minute to focus on it until I concluded that it was my finger in a small jar.

"Thanks for the finger, kid." He grinned, proud of what he had done. When I knew he was gone, I started crying. My tears were dripping on my bandaged hand that was in my lap, but I didn't care.