My Name is Stab

Chapter Six - Of Death And Birth

For about a week, the gang carried on wandering aimlessly over the remote hills of the northern Pennines. Theodora didn't really know or care where or how long. She deliberately tuned out from what was going on around her, sinking into her own little world of silent, starving misery. More than once, she didn't notice that everyone else was stopping and so she bumped into the next man in the line. That would earn her a vicious elbow or a cruel grope.

Her only real human contact was with her sister. They were not allowed to speak but a simple shared glance towards the end of yet another impossible day gave a tiny bit of hope and strength whilst cuddling together at night meant much more than just physical warmth.

That evening, the gang had found a house where they could spend the night, a deserted farmhouse. As usual, the girls had their hands and feet tied with their hands behind their backs. Then they were shoved into a corner of the kitchen and ignored. At least, this time, their hands and feet weren't tied together... being hogtied like that meant that you were bent painfully backwards and your sleep was torn apart by impossible bouts of cramp.

The house was horrible. It had lost half its roof and everything was soaking wet and stank. There were even mushrooms growing out of the wooden floorboards. When Theo tried to rest her head on an old carpet roll, stinking water came oozing out of it like a sponge. But it was still better than sleeping outside with no sleeping bag in the cold, damp autumn weather.

She was vaguely aware that a small group had gone off on a side trip and when they appeared that night, they were carrying bottles of wine and stuff and were obviously pleased with themselves.

"Party!" The men started shouting when they saw the bottles. "Party! Party! Party!"

They began drinking almost immediately and before long things were getting really loud and frightening.

One of the men came over and grabbed Jennifer. He pulled her to her feet and started kissing her... sex type kissing with tongues and everything... and she must have been too frightened to try and make him stop. Then another grabbed at her and, because her feet were tied together, she started to fall. But another one caught her and started rubbing his hands over her breasts. She tried to protest at that but someone else started kissing her at the same time and her hands were tied so she just couldn't do anything about it.

"Give her here," Deemo suddenly said. He wasn't particularly loud but the way he said it grabbed everyone's attention.

They shoved Jennifer across the room to him, hand to hand, with her twisting and spinning on her bound feet. He grabbed her by a handful of hair then, sitting down on a chair, he trapped her legs between his and pulled down on her hair so she was arched backwards over one of his legs. It must have been a horribly painful position because her hands were still tied behind her back.

"I've still not dealt with this bitch for biting me!" he explained to his crowd of eager spectators.

Theodora could only watch in frozen horror as he drew his knife and started slicing through her poor sister's clothes. He was doing it deliberately slowly, obviously enjoying Jennifer's terror.

Then he used the blade to fold her clothes back so her stomach and breasts were completely exposed.

He pulled her up so she was forced to look him in the face from a distance of a couple of inches. "No bitch bites me!" he yelled and flecks of spit splashed into her face. "Never!"

Then he yanked her back down and slowly ran his tongue over her stomach and then ran it up to one of her breasts. When he got there, he bit the nipple so hard that he drew blood. She screamed and thrashed in pain but with her hands tied and, trapped as she was by her hair and his legs, she was utterly helpless. Deemo's spectators laughed and joked appreciatively.

"More?" he asked them.

"More is always better!" they chanted back to him as if it was all some sort of impossibly twisted joke.

He moved his head back and forth between her two breasts, gesturing with his teeth as if he was deciding which one to go for next...

Then another bite... and another soul destroying scream.

"More?"

"More is always better!"

Theodora realised that she was screaming too, begging them to stop. Suddenly Sarge was there and he slapped her viciously across the face. She was flung backwards and couldn't stop her head from smashing into the wall because her hands were tied.

"Shut up, bitch," he said. His voice sounded almost bored.

"Do it to me!" she managed to gasp through the fogginess of the slap and the blow to her head. "Not to her! Not Jennifer!"

"Don't worry," he said with a vicious leer. He knelt across her hips and shoved his hands up inside her t-shirt, squeezing cruelly at her breasts. "Your turn is going to come." A hand slipped inside her jeans and pinched her painfully between her legs causing her to gasp with pain.

Then he slapped her again.

When the fogginess of that slap had cleared, Jennifer's ropes had been untied. Some of the men were holding her by her arms and legs and parading her round the room at head height. There was a lot of blood flowing down one of her breasts, dripping onto the floor. Theodora could only stare as the other men started to cut and tear off pieces of Jenifer's clothes until she was completely naked. She already knew that the two of them were going to be raped and killed but this mindless, senseless cruelty was much more than she could cope with.

She was only vaguely aware that she, too, was screaming as the men started rubbing their hands over her sister's body. One man put his head between her legs and looked as if he was... licking her. There were hands groping her... everywhere and fingers and tongues sticking into her... everywhere.

Sarge came back over to Theodora and slapped her again but she just couldn't stop herself and, even after he had gagged her, she carried on fighting and struggling.

At last Deemo got fed up with all her fuss and kicked her until she knew nothing more about it.

When she woke the next morning, Theodora felt an impossible, desperate emptiness. Her ribs and head still hurt, of course, but, worse than that, was knowing that she was utterly alone. Everyone she loved and cared about was gone. She felt dead inside. An unspeakable, unbearable hollowness.

For several hours, she just lay there, unmoving. The gang didn't seem to be in the mood for an early start after their party.

At first she decided to give up. There was just no point in carrying on, now everyone she cared about was dead.

But then she remembered pretty much the last words she had said to her sister - a promise to keep going - and a single word bubbled up inside her. It gave her the energy... the spirit... to keep going in spite of the unimaginably horrible things they had done to her family.

The word was: 'Revenge'.

That day, they cooked up a big batch of stew and most of them gathered around to watch as they offered her a big bowlful... and they were all pretty shocked when she silently took it and started to eat.

She had to fight against the almost overwhelming urge to be sick as she chewed and swallowed that first piece of meat but Jennifer was right. She needed that food.

And, as she ate, she battled to control not just her stomach but her face. She refused to let them see that a piece of her was dying with every piece of her sister's flesh she ate.

"Do you like your sister, then?" one of them asked, making the people watching her laugh.

Theodora returned his look with a steady stare. "Jennifer told me I should eat her," she said. "That's the sort of person she was. Loving and practical." She continued to meet the man's eye until he started to feel uncomfortable and stepped away. Then she returned her attention to the bowl and, as she impassively ate, the rest of the group drifted away too.

She was dying inside but she refused to let it show.

It was only a tiny victory.

But it was her first victory.