The House

Chapter 24 Don't Hurt Him/Her

Everything around me was hidden in shadows. There was a single light bulb on top of me that only let me see the straps on my wrists, stomach, and ankles that were tying me to a chair. I felt a sharp pain in my left arm and saw a needle stuck into it with an empty tube connected to something somewhere in the room. I desperately tried to set myself free, but my head was spinning too much and my eyes were barely adjusting to the dark when a light lit up a window to my right. At first I could only see yellow and brown and black blurs, but then I recognized what everything was.

In a small room were Valerie and our parents. They were looking at me through a large window in the wall with horrified expressions on their faces. Before I could say anything I heard a door opening and closing behind me, then some footsteps.

"So, you're awake," I sighed as I heard his voice. By now, no matter how disoriented I could be, I would always know who that voice belongs to. "Let's finish this, shall we?" I heard Nathan walking around me, to my left, when all of a sudden he turned on a light in front of me and I froze. It was Ryan, unconscious and tied to a chair like I was, needle and everything. Nathan was standing in front of him and began to slap his face. "Wake up, little brother."

Slowly, Ryan opened his eyes. When he saw me he took in a sharp breath and tried to set himself free.

When I looked at him even I tried to fight the belts tying me. We were both wearing a hospital gown and barefoot and our toes were so close yet far enough so we couldn't touch each other. I felt frustrated. I stopped fighting and Ryan eventually stopped too and, I don't know if it was conscious or not, but we both stretched our hands and toes in the hope to make contact.

"I'm sorry," I mouthed the words. I was sorry for so many things that I didn't know where to start.

Ryan sighed and moved his head left to right. "I'm sorry..."

"My God," Nathan made a puking sound. "This is worse than I imagined," he moved around us and towards the window to my right. He turned on another lightbulb and I saw a table with a small machine to my left. He walked towards us again, but not without giving my parents a wink first.

"Nathan, stop this," Ryan said.

Nathan smirked. "Oh, trust me, I will..." he then looked for something in his pocket and took out a pocket knife. Slowly, he cut a line on Ryan's right arm, just above the needle. Ryan winced and Nathan  approached me; he did the same to me.

The knife was extremely cold against my skin and it felt like he was cutting me deep into the bone but when I looked better at it I realized it was just a long, small, thin cut, like a paper cut.

I heard a bang coming from the window and saw my dad hitting his fists against the glass and yelling words I couldn't hear.

"So, here's the deal," Nathan put the knife away and continued. "My father and I are moving on to a... different stage in our program and that means that I need to get rid of one of you. Now, I would personally kill you both, but I received specific instructions from my father and I will not fail him." He pulled a chair from the shadows and sat down. "While you were still sleeping I injected you with an anticoagulant," he pointed at our cuts. "In normal circumstances those cuts would be unimportant, but now they're deadly, literally, so I suggest you do as I say or you'll bleed to death. That is if you don't die of a heart attack first, or you have a stroke, or your lungs fail you."

I looked at my cut, bleeding more than it should for such a small opening, and then I made the mistake to look at Ryan.

"We'll play an easy game," Nathan continued. "You can think of it as a 'Truth or Dare' with only Truths. The better your answer, the higher your chances of survival," He tapped the little machine to his right. "This machine has vitamin K, the only cure to your current condition, so the more I like your answer, the more vitamin K I'll inject in your system and the better you'll get. The other person, on the other hand..." He shrugged and laughed.