Chapter 7

The familiar herbs began to take effect as Violet went through her routine of deep breathing to absorb them into her bloodstream quicker. She used the emotions she tapped into for fuel; there was no time for weakness. The sounds beneath had completely subsided, which made it more difficult for Violet to maneuver in this space. It was a good thing there was light, but still she was not certain of the acoustics and it was too early to clue in the perpetrators to her presence. Violet began to survey the room for what could be turned into a weapon. She lay on her back and scooted underneath the cot, as she suspected it was made up of intersecting wooden beams. The longer beams that ran the length of the cot were secured into both ends. She tested each one to see if there were any in a weakened state. She also had to figure out which beam could be removed without collapsing the cot. She found the beam, it was not as loose as she would hope, but with the right position she could kick it loose. On her first attempt it did not budge at all. There was very little space to create a lot of momentum and force but she would have to keep trying. Strangely enough, instead of getting weaker, she was getting stronger.

Positioning herself cattycorner to the beam and pulling her head from underneath the cot, she was able to grab the leg of another piece of furniture. She tested the piece that she was using to balance her upper body weight and it did not move. Holding on with both arms over her head and angling right where the beam connected at a ninety-degree angle, she was able to kick it loose. It fell on her legs, one end still connected. She kept tugging at it and moving it back and forth to loosen it from the other side. Eventually she worked it loose. All this activity with minimal noise made Violet work up a sweat. Her forehead and nose were covered in beads. Streams of wetness were rolling down between her breast and mid-back. The smell of her clothes, damp and sour was permeating the space around her.

In the corner there was an old piece of equipment, upon a closer look it was an antique sewing station cemented into the floor. This was just what she needed, something that would not move against which she could mold the beam. The station had plenty of rusted edges. With slow methodic movements, shaving off wood with each stroke, she filed one edge of the beam into a perfect point.

She heard the bark of a dog and began to remember the instructions her trusted caretaker recounted before submerging into the darkness below. She counted the seconds, again the dog barked. This was the sign, she was going to have to keep track of the seconds closely now. She put the belongings she used back in her bag, blew out all the candles in the chandelier except three and then positioned herself. She expected that her caretaker would be arriving soon. As she continued to survey the room memorizing each detail, she found rope similar to the material of the ladder.

It seemed like an hour, but only ten minutes had passed, Violet crawled over to the door being careful to follow the rug patterns. She moved over the three latches as instructed and waited. Violet was careful to be where she could see who ascended before they saw her. This is taking longer than planned she thought to herself; finally she heard activity. Her heart began to race but she was steady, she had given herself ample time and her eyes were fully adjusted to the dim lighting. The door was slowly rising; if you did not focus it was almost hard to tell that it was actually lifting.

The voice made a slight hissing sound and she knew it was her caretaker. Violet crawled close enough to push the rope ladder down. The familiar stranger emerged from below and quickly closed and re-latched the opening.
“Where is the other woman, why did you leave her?” Violet whispered, not allowing her caretaker time to get her bearings.
“How did you know there was someone else?” responded the stranger in hushed tones. “What are you doing up and at it, you really should lie down.”
“I’m fine, answer me now,” replied Violet in a stern manner that commanded a response.
“She’s in the servant quarters beneath, lower than the main floor. Never has made it up here, too feeble. Plus, he doesn’t want us fraternizing out of his sight. When he’s away she’s locked below. I have to provide for her needs prior to that time and he’s always in earshot.” After a brief pause, “now you haven’t answered me, how did ya know there was someone else, I mean ‘nother woman below?”
“Listen,” this time Violet grabbed the woman’s chin and forced her gaze right into her eyes, “I have no time to explain, you asked me to trust you earlier now you’ve got to trust me.” “I need you to tell me in concise terms how many people and rooms there are below; where the closest exit is, how we get to the other woman, what lies outside this building.” After a pause she started again, “you were trying to help me, but now all three of us are in danger that much we can agree on. The one thing we have to our advantage is that the evil beneath us has no idea I am here. We need to make a move and we need to make it soon. Do you understand me?”

The woman was startled and hopeful at the same time. A part of her believed this was the answer to her prayers for so many nights. When she first saw Violet she knew there was something special about her and a reason she wanted to help her. There was some selfish part of her that knew Violet could help her too.
“Call me Kaye, I don’t know the other one’s real name but I call her Rose. She had one in her hair the first day he brought her here and it stuck for me.”

Kaye described in great detail the layout of the house and who was still inside. She kept pausing as though she could hear the evil one making a move, as though she could see what he was doing. Violet reassured her several times to keep going. As Kaye painted the picture, Violet’s brain was the canvas holding on to each brushstroke. She could clearly see the structure tucked well into the woods, each window was boarded shut. The floors were all cement and the furniture wood, old big sturdy furniture that could cause splinters. There was a wood burning stove, lots of chains hanging from the wall; it looked like a cellar or a torture den. In fact, this part of the house was sub-terrain; there was a long corridor that led to the ground level. The lighting came from lanterns hanging in random spots. There were small corridors leading to various rooms and dead-ends. The placed reeked of dampness and mustiness, the air was thick.

There were two other men fallen out in drunkenness, they were tall but thin and very dirty. They were if various states of nakedness. There he was, a brut of a man, with his bald hairy belly rising and falling with each snore. His beard was long and various parts were stuck together because of Rose’s sex secretions that he smeared over himself. He was barefoot with only some unbuttoned trousers on exposing his pubic hairline and nastiness. He reeked of alcohol. In his hand was a small hacksaw with blood on the edge, just enough to color the edge of blade, but not more. That too belonged to Rose, the blood from him pressing the blade against her back anytime she pulled away from the others ravishing her.

“I’m scared I cannot do this,” protested Kaye.
“If you don’t listen to me you will die, because either he will kill you or I will be forced too. You brought me to this hell hole and I am not going to rot here playing twisted sicko games with some sato-masochist bastard. You will do as I told you; exactly as I told you and you will do it now.”

Kaye started hyper-ventilating, her trusting eyes glazed over like ice, she didn’t know who she feared more, this woman before her or the man that tormented her for years. She knew his evil; she knew how to avoid his most brutal attacks. But this woman, there was something disconnected about her, something unnatural that Kaye had no time to figure out.

Kaye approached the opening that kept them safe from the evil and she moved over latches with great hesitation. She looked at Violet as if to ask are you sure? Lifting the door with the steadiness of a surgeon, she dropped most of the rope ladder saving just a little in her hand. She twisted the rope around her left wrist and took some steps downward. Suddenly she moaned in great agony as though the pain was too intense for a yell. Just as she knew the evil heard her. “What is going on, how dare you fools rattle me?” He stumbled out the room, rubbing his eyes to focus with one hand, dropping the saw he was holding up his pants with the other. “Oh it’s you Kaye; you want a beating waking me up from such a good rest? What are you doing you blind, one-sided hag? That left eye finally giving out on you?” He stumbled toward her clearing his throat and spit a loogy on her.

From above Kaye could hear the voice sternly whisper “do it again, now!”
She moaned and stepped off the ladder hanging by just her wrist tangled in the rope. He grabbed at her trying to hoist her body onto the rope ladder and looking up at her wrist to see which way to turn her loose. Violet quickly swung her upper body down through the latch and with the force of all three women’s emotions she drove the beam now spear through his eye into his brain. He couldn’t even scream before Violet was churning the stick ensuring she wrapped his mind around it-literally. Kaye gasped as she pried herself from him and quickly got her feet planted back on the rope. Violet was still hanging out of the door suspending the hulk of a man like a harpooned animal; he was her puppet only standing because she held the spear that was lodged into his head. Kaye climbed back up and maneuvered around Violet. She could feel her own confidence growing. She passed Violet the rope shaped into a noose; it was lowered over the corpse’s head and tightened until there was no more give. Violet dislodged the spear allowing the stream of blood to flow from the back of his head.

Slowly they hoisted the body up pulling the rope until his feet were off the ground. Each pull became more strained as the dead weight seemed as if it would tear the head from the body. When he was close enough they were able to grab beneath his arms and pull his weight up until his upper torso cleared the opening. The hard part was over. Violet and Kaye each lay out on the floor taking deep deliberate breaths. Their adrenaline was pumping and hearts racing. The lifeless flesh was the first sign that they were one step closer to their freedom. Kaye crawled over to the carcass and hawked up a loogy spitting it on his face, she had tears falling from her eyes. Her emotions did not cloud her logic; she quickly patted down the pockets and found the key. “I’ve got it; this is to Rose’s door. I’m ready, two more to go …”