Trip To The Inferno [OLD VERSION]

Part 10

I woke up with a massive headache and couldn't keep a groan from escaping my lips. My mind was drowsy and felt heavy like a rock.

I tried to open my eyes, but they were glued shut. Did I want to see where I am anyway?

With that thought panic seeped through me as my mind filled me with details of the kidnapping. I was suddenly fully aware of my arms and legs tied down, according to my stiff spine, to a table and my mouth gagged with some kind of rough cloth. My eyes finally shot open and with strained breaths I looked around.

Just like I felt, I was tied to a table with my wrists and ankles tied by ropes. I, in general, was in a tent that was made out of animal skin with small blood vessels running across the skin, making thread like patterns. Wooden beams from the corners rose up and met in the middle, stretched the skin, so that it became smooth and hard with time.

I moved my head to the right and saw another table with what looked like to be a chemistry lab of sorts. There were different size cups in weird forms, a mortar and pestle and some, I hope, non human ingredients. Next to the table were baskets made out grass, different size boxes and all of them were filled with one kind of ingredient, making it sorted out and neat.

I turned to the left and saw five pelts put on the ground with heaps of hay underneath it. Next to some were rags that were drenched in something red and I could only guess that it was blood. Next to every pelt stood a bucket - either for relieving one self or for throwing up. Maybe both.

From my surrounding it looked like I was in some kind of doctor's tent.

I finalised my looking around with glancing down to myself and was not amused of what I saw. My shirt was nowhere to be found and I was tied down in star position, my stomach exposed. I was glad that my undies were still on my body.

I moved my arms to see if I could weaken ropes a little bit, but my skin only bruised and I groaned from burning sensation. Next, I moved my mouth, but felt cloth move at the back of my head, indicating that it was wrapped around, so that it would be pushed between my teeth.

My situation made me panic even more and I felt tears sting my eyes. A small mumbled sniffle escaped my gagged mouth and I closed my eyes. I knew it was where I'll die. Most likely I will be ripped open, my organs will be pulled out and eaten while my bones crushed in that stone mortar and pestle on the table.

A tear escaped my shut eyes and I felt it run down my temple. Suddenly, my guts told me to open my eyes and I listened it to it.

A short muffled scream left me as I pushed my head back into a table, not that it did anything. Just a mere centimeters away from my face was another face belonging to an aged woman. She was looking at me as if she could drill a hole in the middle of my forehead. Her face was wrinkled and she had tattoos around her eyes. It covered her whole eyelids in dark green colour and made a swirling pattern horizontally to the temples. She had her hair pulled up into a messy bun with a decoration on the side made out of small, I hope animal, bones and twigs.

How did she come in here without a sound?!

My breathing rate increased and I watched her wide eyed. She shot up and I was able to see other two women. Both of them were young, maybe in mid twenties, and in their head were the same decorations except a lot smaller and less detailed. The old woman wore a baggy dress entirely made out of dark furs with 3/4 sleeves. Young women, on the other hand, wore thick brown leather tops with darker brown fur skirts and exposed their bellybuttons.

Old woman took a grey animal claw. I couldn't make out if it was a real one or made from bone. The old woman placed its tip on the end of my lungs and slowly began tracing it down. At the same time she moved her head really slowly as if she had neck pain while watching me all the time. My breathing caught itself in the throat and when I felt a claw trace down my stomach, it clench inwards from a ticklishly scary sensation. She stoped by my guts, the very spot where I began feeling my gut feelings in different situations. Old woman's gaze traveled from my face to the spot, lingered there for a moment, and then down to my legs. She moved the claw and began tracing up my thigh. Once she began closing in to my private area, I felt my legs automatically close themselves. Well, tried because they barely moved since they were tied down. Thankfully, it made the woman pull the claw away from me altogether.

I watched her hum and turn to the other two. She began speaking in weird language, with low and rough words. Both women nod and one of them slipped out of the tent while the other one walked by my legs. She pulled a knife out and my breath stuck in my throat, but just in a minute I felt one of my legs break free. The woman worked around me and soon I was able to sit up.

I lifted my body and throwing my legs over the edge, I sat up on the table. With one quick look around, I realized that I was alone in this room. Straining my ear, I heard muffled words coming from behind the skin to my right and looking closely, managed to make out an entrance of sorts.

Finally, my mind registered my situation and gave me a choice:

Run or stay?