Sweet Torture- Chapter 5

I didn't like this chapter that much when I first wrote it, but now I kind of like it.. ha I am so weird.. anyways, enjoy! =)

CHAPTER 5

“Every once in a while, he’ll come into town and people’ll start disappearing. Everyone is too scared to do anything about it anymore; he has killed a few of us in broad daylight to prove his power, so we stay scared of him.” I blinked slowly, feeling as if I had just come out of a dream. I had been living with Valentine during this time and never even knew what had transpired. I remember now there was a time when he had been gone at night more than usual, but it never crossed my mind that he had found a lover; besides he was usually more into boys than girls; the proof in his blood room. What an interesting story that bartender had just told me, and I told him so. “Why don’t you guys just… I don’t know, gang up on him? Go to his place during the day and kill him? Chop off his head or something?” I saw the scared look in the bartender’s eyes at the very thought of this town standing up for themselves.

             “We have no idea how powerful this monster is, and we are a simple town and we don’t want any more problems than we already have. We might as well let him do his thing. What he did to Elianore… he could turn any one of us into one of his monsters and no one wants that. Valentine doesn’t seem to be picky, so everyone tries to stay out of his notice so he will leave them alone and hopefully just go for the bums. I know that sounds harsh, but if you were us, wouldn’t you think the same thing??” I shrugged then shook my head as I stood up; I couldn’t believe these people were so scared of him. I knew how powerful he was, however, so what they did was smart so they could stay alive. “Well thanks for the story my friend. At least now I know what I’m up against.” I finished the last of my beer and walked out of the bar. As I left, I heard the bartender tell the guy next to him, “That guy is crazy. We’ll probably never see him alive again. He is going to his death and he doesn’t even believe us.”

I heard the disappointment in his voice, but once again I pretended not to hear. The story kept running through my mind and I didn’t think I needed to hear anything from anyone else. My hotel was my destination now, wanting to get used to my surroundings. This wasn’t the best place, but it was a place I would stay for a while, as long as the people got used to me and didn’t notice that I only came out at night. I got to my room, and instead of coming with a plan, immediately fell asleep. Apparently being on the run is a tiring life.

            I woke up with fear in my mind, my dream of Valentine burning the bar down and killing everyone inside still haunting me. A shudder ran through me as I woke up, the burning smell not quite leaving my nose. I stretched and got out of bed, figured that I could go to the bar again and see if anyone else had any stories. I looked out my window and saw that the sun was setting, so it would be safe for me to leave the room. As soon as I stepped outside, the burning smell became ever more intense. It was like someone had shoved my face directly into a fire. I started choking on the smell, stumbling out of the doorway of the hotel. I saw a huge fireball coming from the bar I had been at the past two nights in a row. I started to run towards the bar, hoping that the people had at least been spared, that the dream wasn’t completely true. When I got there, I could still hear screaming from inside the fireball. I saw that the door had been barricaded and I could see the bartender’s hand trying to get free. His hand was scratching the wood even as his fleshed burned off and dripped to the ground. The scratching was driving nails into my brain but finally, as all the flesh dripped off and it was just the skeleton, the scratching stopped. The hand dropped the bartended finally dead. He had burned as he tried to escape, his hand the only thing that felt freedom. As I stood there, stunned, not sure what I could do, the screaming slowly got quieter and quieter, and then finally stopped. Everyone was dead. The smell of burning flesh engulfed me and as I began backing away from the smell, I heard his laughter in my head.

            “This is just the beginning, Drake…”  I felt Valentine in my head like a huge weight pressing down on my. My head felt like it was going to split in two. I was too weak to even think of fighting him and Elianore slipped my mind, his pressure not letting me think of anything else. I couldn’t stand him, I couldn’t stand what had just happened. All I wanted to do was get away and all I could think of to do was run; run away from Tamrack, into the trees, get as far away from there as possible so more people wouldn’t die because of me.