She sat in a couch that was perched on the edge of acliff looking at the sky as the clouds slowly lumbered on their way. She usedone hand and tried to shade her eyes from the sun and then kept her gaze on acloud that resembled a dog that seemed to be smiling at her.
"Stella"
She jumped in the couch looking behind her to findnothing. Stella tilted her head and turned back in the chair to resume her cloudgazing.
"Stella!"
Spinning in the couch, Stella again sees nothing apartfrom the meadow that followed the precipice from the cliff she was carefullyperched on. Stella leaned back in the couch, looked up and realized that allthe clouds were gone.
"Dammit" Stella swore to herself and sat forward onthe couch "Why am I here though?"
"Stella!"
Stella spun in the couch again frustrated and noticedthat someone was standing off in the distance and appeared to be slowly walkingtoward her.
"Who are you?" Stella spun herself so that she wouldbe kneeling in the couch facing the visitor
"Why didn't you want me?"
Stella jumped at the sound of the voice to notice thatthe silhouette of the person had appeared right beside her in the red tatteredcouch that she was in.
"Excuse me?" Stella moved to the corner of the couchaway from the silhouetted figure that now sat in the couch 3 feet from her."Who and what are you?" Stella had one foot hanging out of the couch gettingready to jump out of the couch just to be on the safer side.
"I wouldn't recommend you do that" the figure smiledat her showing off thirty-two pearly white teeth in a mouth that seems to befloating in a void that had taken the shape of a human "Would hate to seesomething bad happen to you"
Stella looked below her dangling foot to realize thatthe plateau she was on cloud gazing from had disappeared and left the couch toperform a balancing act on the summit of what appeared to be a cone made out ofmetal.
"What the hell is going on?" Stella pulled her legback into the couch and tucked it underneath her and pushed herself as far backinto the couch as she was able to.
"You haven't answered the question" the figure seemedto have crossed its legs and the head faced Stella as two eyes formed. Stellafound herself looking into 2 Dark Brown eyes and then found herself recallingthe first question the figure had asked her.
"David?" Stella's head tilted to the right as shefocused on the now materialized face of the figure.
"Hi Stella" David smiled at her "You still haven'tanswered my question"
Stella looked into David's eyes and sighed "I did wantyou". She looked at the sky and smiled "You were my best and I still want you.You just haven't fought hard enough for me"
"That's good to know" David smiled as he got up andstood in mid-air stretching. "It's time for you to go now"
"What?"
David walked to the tattered red couch that Stella wasseated on smiled "Promise me one thing, you'll never give up one me" Placinghis foot on the couch David pushed until the couch began its free fall to theground.
***
John pulled the car into an alley way and stepped outinto the dark ensuring that he had caused no eyes to wander his way. He openedthe trunk of his car and removed a bag of Concrete Nails, a reel of copperwiring, surgical gloves, and a box of tools that he had lying around in thetrunk. John tapped his pocket ensuring that his light blue Taser was stillthere and then closed the trunk.
"Damn" John placed his toys on the ground and wentback to the car "forgot the last tool" John smiled as he pulled out a pair ofrusty chipped hedge clippers. John closed the trunk once more and then smiledto himself and picked up the rest of his belongings and made his way into theabandoned building. Inside the burnt out building the stench of waste wasoverbearing and the air was musty. The ceiling of the floor the John had stagedfor his session had obvious burn scars along with a hole that was about 5 feetin diameter and allowed you to see the chipped ceramic tile roof that gave youmomentary glimpses to the night sky through the randomly placed holes.
John stood at the makeshift doorway to the room thathe deemed an Ex-Lobby. In the corner to the right lying on the ground a figureshifted a few times then stopped. John moved over to the figure and shone alight revealing a drowsy Stella.
"Hi there" John smiled at her as the thoughts of theproject danced within his mind.
"Where am I?" Stella tried sitting up on the floor butgave up and tried to catch her breath.
"John?"
"Glad to see you're not blind" John pulled up a chairthat had been placed there before and sat on it in front of Stella and placedhis toys on the ground beside him. "You've been out for a while so I was a bitworried"
John stood and took out of another dark corner in thebuilding a Mobile Table. John set up the table and turned to Stella and smiled."There's no need to worry, this'll be fun. I'll love every minute of it" Johntook his toys off of the ground and placed the bag on his char and then out ofa bag that he had carried, he spread a sheet on the table and then walked overto Stella.
"John let me go. Just let me go and I won't tellanyone what you've done" Stella had rolled onto her back and was now looking upat John as he stood over her.
"You're not seeing the larger picture dear" Johnkneeled beside Stella and rand his fingers through her hair "What a waste"
John gagged Stella, stood and carried his bag of toolsfrom the chair to the table that he had assembled previously.
"As grim as your position may seem" John turned toStella "You're actually doing a lot of good right now. With your death Davidwill be just where I need him and then I will finally be able to perfect my artwith his own death"
John took out the Copper Wires from his bag and laidthem on the table in a circle so that the copper wiring filled the entiresurface of the table. He looked around the abandoned building and found a sheetof Zinc leaning against a wall in another room and brought it to the table.
"God, this stinks"
John walked over to where Stella laid watching him andstooped beside her "Darling, I need to borrow your shirt".
John removed a knife from his waist and held ontoStella's shirt as she thrashed about managing nothing but a muffled scream.
"Stop!" John swung the butt of the knife hittingStella in the temple. He sat down shaking his head as he released a sigh "I'msorry, I don't want to hurt you I really don't but I need you and thus this hasto happen. If you're going to blame anyone, blame David."
John got back on his knees and gripped her blouse "Nowplease behave, it will be over soon enough"
John took Stella's blouse and used it to rub the mudand debris from the Zinc that he had found within the abandoned building.Lifting the Zinc, John placed it flatly on the Copper Wiring that he had coiledout on the table. John then went out to his car and took out a 50ft Cable thatwas stripped at both ends. He tied one end of the Cable around one of the endsof the Copper Wire, and then the tied the other end of the Copper Wire to asmall hole that was in the Zinc that he had placed on the table.
He turned, faced Stella and smiled. "It's your time toshine my beautiful" He walked towards Stella as her muffled cries grew louderwith each step. John stood above Stella and saw fear spread itself in her eyes,her breathing grew louder and you could hear it slightly echo within thebuilding.
John smiled within himself as excitement began totickle his stomach, he began to feel a craving rise within himself to see hisnew plaything plead and beg as he disemboweled her. John exhaled and composedhimself, grabbing Stella by the feet John dragged her kicking and screamingacross the floor of the abandoned building to the table.
***
Half dressed in a Black Lace Brassiere and her BlackJeans Shorts, Stella watched as John created a Home-Made Hotplate from a sheetof Zinc Metal and Copper Wiring. She lay on the ground as the realization ofthe situation crept into the forefront of her consciousness causing tears tocreep from her eyes. Stella felt pressure within her chest as she remindedherself to breathe and then started to cry once more. She took deep breathes inattempt to calm herself and tried to think through the situation trying to comeup with a way that would allow her to escape or at least allow her to cry outfor help so that someone would hear.
Time seemed to creep slowly as Stella fought the urgeto give up.
"It's your time to shine my beautiful"
Stella looked at John and realized that he hadapparently completed his set up of the contraption and had now turned hissights to her. Stella's heart sank, no one would save her.
"I'm goingto die at the hands of an egotistical maniac who lurked in burnt out buildings"Stella thought to herself and tears began to uncontrollably flow from hereyes. She couldn't help herself from thrashing about and making as much noiseas she could in a desperate futile attempt to get help. John grabbed her feetand began dragging her across the floor and she fought even harder. Johndropped her feet to the floor walked to her side and bent down to pick her up.As hard and fast as she could Stella snapped her head forward hitting John inthe face and heard something snap. Dazed she lowered her head back to theground. After blinking a few times her eyes seemed to refocus and saw John sittinga few feet away from her with his eyes closed and his hand holding the bridgeof his nose. Stella's head ached from the blow as she started shuffling tosomehow get on her feet, only to feel a hand clasp her shoulder and a cold deepvoice utter in her ear:
"You broke my nose"
Stella felt her body being thrown back to the groundand then felt a sharp pain in her torso as John stepped hard on her chest.Stella could feel her rib break under the pressure and muffled a scream as shecurled into a ball. With all the pain in her body and the racing thoughtswithin her mind, Stella could not ignore the chill that ran down her spine asshe heard John in her ear.
"You're going to regret doing that. I am going toenjoy making your final moments your very own personal hell"
