Whack! Whack! There was that sound again. It sounded like someone was chopping wood, but that couldn't be possible...this was in the middle of New York City. If you were lucky enough to have a tree on your block you certainly wouldn't allow it to be chopped down!
Laura tried following the sound, walking further back into her apartment towards the bedroom. She had a little balcony that opened over a small, quaint courtyard....as she slid open the door to go out the sound abruptly stopped. Oh, well, she thought I'm probably being too nosy anyway. She took a moment to enjoy the beauty of that small place, it had a small fountain in it's center, paving stones lined the ground. Wonderful plants cascaded over one another in a tumultuous riot of color. It was a perfect place to sit and read or just gather your thoughts on a bright sunny day.
Oops, I'm letting the time fly away and I still have a lot to do today, thought Laura. She had recently met a new neighbor, Robert, and they had each been a bit taken with each other. Tonight was to be the first time that they "officially" dated. She wanted to look perfect. Laura must have laid out ten different ensembles before she could decide on the right one. Laura was an attractive girl, most men would do a double take when she walked down the street. She stood at 5'5" in stocking feet, weighed in at 120 lbs. dripping wet, all her curves were in the right places and she never lacked male attention. She finally decided on a simple little black dress, accented with a touch of silver in the belt. The three inch designer heels helped complete the picture quite nicely. Yeah, she thought as she looked in the mirror..."Yes, indeed, Robert your world is about to be rocked."
Robert had told her that he had found the quaintest Italian Restaurant in the Village called Vittorio's. He said the food was out of this world and that they did this special dish with a huge wheel of parmigiana cheese, running hot pasta around it....he raved about it. So, of course, Laura had not eaten anything all day figuring the calories at this meal would do her in anyway.
"Wow, you look beautiful tonight" Robert said as her arrived.
"Thank you, sir, you also look handsome." Laura replied.
Neither Laura nor Robert owned a vehicle, it proved too costly to do so in the city what with parking fees and such. So they used a taxi to get to the restaurant, it only took about fifteen minutes to get there, weaving in and out of traffic, the cabby was a pro.
The outside of Vittorio's looked quite simple, just kind of a storefront really. You could see the bar running the length of the entry room. What astounded Laura was the artwork on the walls opposite the bar. They were beautiful paintings of various European cities and they appeared to be done in some kind of relief. As Laura walked closer to the paintings, she was taken by surprise, they were actually composed of various types of pasta. The artist had used them as a base to bring his pictures alive in a 3-D manner, then applied his paint over the pasta. It was amazing.
Robert was calling her attention to one painting in particular of a waterfront scene showing a quaint Italian village setting in the background. The scene was so captivating that Laura became entranced with the painting wanting to commit to memory every portion of it. So much so, that she did not hear an older gentlemen and Robert walk up beside her..not until Robert started to speak.
"Laura, this is Vittorio. he is the owner of this restaurant, Vittorio said "..I see that you are admiring my paintings."
Laura turned and told him that his paintings were lovely, with that he took her on a little walking tour of the restaurant. As it turned out, the other dinning area also was filled with marvelous renditions of his very beautiful artwork. Laura was just amazed at the amount of work and time that must of gone into the artwork, just magnificent.
She and Robert were seated at a lovely table with a view of the courtyard. The service staff were wonderful, and the food was beyond compare. Especially that wheel of parmigiana and pasta...to die for!
The night progressed, moving along quite nicely in Laura's mind. Robert seemed to be the real article, not fake or pushy - someone she would really like to get to know even better. Without willing it to happen, she started to fantasize a bit imagining the two of them together, locked in the eternal embrace of ying and yang. She involuntarily shuddered, giving her head a slight shake which caused her long blonde hair to flip over her shoulder in a very provocative way. Robert just grinned at her.
The evening was coming to an end, Robert had hailed a cab they were headed back to their condo's. Yet, Laura did not want the night to end. How could she extend it without him thinking that she was easy? Just as she was about to offer coffee, Robert asked if she would like to see his apartment and his art collection. Whew! Laura thought that got her off the hook...and she surely would take him up on the offer.
Robert's apartment was across the courtyard from hers and one floor down. She discovered that his apartment was a little larger than hers, having a couple more feet of room in the kitchen area. He kept a very neat place, she was impressed and told him so. Robert just smiled and said..."Yes, I like to keep things neat, I cannot abide messy things".
He also had a huge collection of books, it almost looked like he could start a library himself. Laura walked over to the nearest bookshelf and began reading some of the titles.
Life After Death, Light In The Hereafter, Death Is Easy, Do We Have A Soul?, Is Reincarnation True, Reborn In Another Body, Egyptian Book Of The Dead, Truth About Dracula and on and on it went all highly weird books. Oh, no...he was too good to be true..thought Laura.
Robert came back into the living room with coffee for them, he said..
"I noticed you were looking at my books."
"Yes, I found some of the titles to be a little daunting, are you into the occult?" asked Laura.
"Oh, I just like to keep myself abreast of different views, your coffee is ready for you, hope it's not too hot....said Robert.
Laura went over to the couch and proceeded to add some milk and sweet/low to the coffee cup. She started to drink it, telling Robert that the coffee tasted really good. "What kind of roast is this one, a special brand?" she asked.
Robert waited for her to drink a bit more before he responded..."You could say that, it is a very special blend, I actually had to barter with the devil to get it."
Laura wasn't sure she was hearing him right..."Barter with the devil??" Her head was feeling woozy and she didn't think she heard him right.
Robert had a large grin on his face. "Poor trusting Laura. You never saw this coming did you? You were much too easy, I really like a little bit more of a challenge." Laura looked up at him, tried to speak and to her horror found she could not speak nor move. She had lost control of herself.
Robert stood over her. He reached down and removed the cup from her hand. Then he reached into his pocket and brought out a folding knife with which he proceeds to cut her clothes off with. All the while he was telling her that she would be his for the next few days at least up until Halloween night and that then he had a special plan for her. She was powerless to stop him from doing anything to her, she was scared to death.
Robert picked her up and carried her over to the bedroom, but he did not stop there. He entered another doorway that looked like a closet but it wasn't, it entered another room, evidently a secret room. The room appeared to be padded, so she suspected that it was soundproof...yelling would do no good. So many horrible thoughts were going through her mind, why was he doing this, was he going to rape her, torture her, kill her?
Robert carried her over to a bed in the corner of the room and proceeded to chain her wrist to the bed frame. How could she of been so wrong about this man? Laura swore to God that if she was able to live through this she would never, ever get involved with someone she really didn't know again. Robert started talking again...
"Poor little Laura, trusting Laura. You know that sound that you heard, the thump, thump, thump like someone chopping something? Well, I knew what it was, of course I couldn't share that with you at the time. It was your predecessor unfortunately I had to cut her up into pieces to dispose of her body neatly. I had hoped that she would of lasted until Halloween, but she bled out too quickly." he said with a sneer.
Oh lord, please help me get away from this evil man...Laura prayed within her own mind. Slowly she could feel some of the drug wearing off, but she did not want him to know it was happening so she kept totally still.
"Since you can't do anything about it, I might as well tell you my plans for you...it's three days till All Hallows Eve....I practice the old magic. The magic that binds one's soul to the all powerful one, he will grant me eternal life as long as I give him a "good" soul on the high holidays. I have to prepare you to go to him and meet him in all his glory. You are to be a bride to Satan that is your fate." Robert stated so matter of fact.
Laura was recoiling in horror at the madness of this man. He had to be absolutely insane to think he could deal with the devil. She was not overly religious, actually sort of a back sliding Methodist attending church on holidays, weddings and funerals. When she was much younger she loved church, loved learning the bible and hearing the sermons on Sundays when she attended with her Mom. Lord, she wanted her Mother now.
Robert was talking again, "You see my dear it is necessary for you to go to him without any fear in your heart, with full acceptance of your fate. That is what takes so long with all of you, you only accept him to escape the pain that I am going to inflict on you. Unfortunately, my methods are a bit crude, a rip here, a tear there....I just don't want you to bleed out too quickly like the other bitch did."
Robert stood up and walked over and opened a cabinet drawer, pulling out sharp instruments...seeing that Laura involuntarily gasped. Immediately, Robert came back to her and grabbed a handful of hair bending her head back...leering into her face...."Oh, so you've come around a bit faster than the others! That just means I can start sooner dear. This is no fun unless you scream." said Robert.
He had a short whip in his hand and he started to hit her on the balls of her feet. Laura started crying out in pain. He turned her over and whipped her buttocks until they were stripped and bleeding a bit. Laura realized that Robert was getting excited by the blood letting. She hoped he would not rape her too.
Robert stopped for a while, he sat on the edge of the bed running his hands over her body, caressing her breasts which were betraying her by going rigid. He laughed as he squeezed them between his fingers rather roughly...."See, lovely Laura, your body wants this....maybe you like it rough?" With that he proceeded to complete her degradation forcing her legs apart as he cruelly entered her. At that point she wanted to die, to be anywhere, any place away from him. She thought she would go mad.
Robert finally finished, climbed off of her and said "Well, that was fun. We will have to do that again and other variations of it...for now go to sleep...I'm not going to use you up that fast like the last one. We will continue this tomorrow. Now I'm going to lengthen the chain so that you can reach the toilet area, please do clean yourself up I cannot abide a mess!" He loosened the chain and left the room.
Laura crumbled into tears. She could not see a way out, she was sure she would die. She managed to limp over to the little bath area, finding clean towels she started to use cold water to clean the blood from her body. She performed her toilet as if by rote, mesmerized by the horror that she felt. She found a white sheet that she wrapped around herself wanting to make it a cocoon into which she could just disappear. Well, I have to save myself, I can't wait for a knight in shinning armor to show up at this nut's door...she thought to herself.
She walked the parameter of the room, seeing how far the chain would stretch. He had positioned the bed far enough away from the cabinets so that she could not reach them...she needed about four feet more to reach the drawers that held the knives. She sat down on the bed and surveyed everything in the room. So far nothing that she saw was going to be of much use to reach that drawer! Her attention was drawn back to the toilet area and there it was....a broom and a mop. If she could tie them together she might have a chance of getting that drawer open. Laurafound a towel that was thinner than the others, with it she tried to tie the broom and mop together. It fell apart three times, but on the fourth she was able to reach the drawer handle...by stretching herself as far as she could she managed to get enough leverage on the broom handle to force open the drawer.
Now the problem was to lift one of the knives out of the drawer, she once again scoured the room trying to find anything that would be of help. Robert had an old pair of work boots against the one wall by the bathroom...the laces! She removed the laces and tied them in a loop fashion at the end of the broom stick. Her Dad had always said she was a good fisherman, now she needed to prove it. She tried over and over to get the loop around one of the handles inside the drawer, finally on what seemed like the twentieth time, she snagged one of the large butcher knives. She gingerly raised it out of the drawer, letting it fall to the fall still snagged by the shoe lace.....dragging over to her. Oh, God help me please, she kept praying as she worked.
Laura hid the knife under the mattress on the left hand side, knowing that Robert had been coming at her only on the right side of the bed. She rushed to close the drawer, did so rather quickly. Then she untied the broom and mop placing them back where they came from. She put the towels neatly back too, also fixing the boots back to their original state. Laura wanted nothing to alert Robert to the fact that she now had a weapon of her own. She had no idea what time it was, or how much time was left before he would come back in to torture her again. It was a very uneasy sleep that overcame her.
Part Two...
