by "Splatter" Joe Solmo

            Jessica woke up to a strange sensation, she couldn’t move. Her head turned left and right, but she couldn’t look down. She looked around the room and didn’t recognize a thing. There was just one light in the twenty foot square room. The floor lamp illuminated a white tile wall reminiscent of a hospital room.  A cream coloredflower pot sat next to the lamp with what Jessica thought looked like a small palm tree about three feet tall.

            Jessica noticed there was no noise at all, not even an electrical hum. Growing up in the city she never knew a time as silent as this. She was definitely not home. She tried to move, but it was like her muscles weren’t responding. The thought frightened her. She turned her head the other way, away from the light, her dirty blond hair whipping over her face. She exhaled trying to blow it out of her eyes. Only darkness lay on that side of the room, and the notion of the far wall.

            She craned her neck up and down as far as possible, but couldn’t see her body in the dim light. There was nothing else she could do but look at the palm tree near the lamp. She wondered how the thing could grow in the darkness. “It must be fake,” she whispered and was surprised at the sound of her voice. It was raspy, worn, like she had been screaming. She hadn’t heard her voice like that since she used to go to heavy metal concerts as a teen before she met John.

            Where was John? Probably still at work at the lab. He worked for a large pharmaceutical company developing new non-addictive painkillers. They had been married close to seven years now. It wasn’t like it was in the beginning, but few things were. She didn’t hate him, but they grew apart as the years went by.

            John spent long hours at the lab, sometimes not getting home until Jessica was already in bed. She was miserable while waiting for him, eating the leftovers she had saved for him. She started to drink a little more, until it became a nightly thing. First it was just at home, then she started to go out, seeking some kind of human contact. John didn’t want her working, he wanted the traditional housewife, but it was so dreadfully boring to her.

            It was once she went out that she met Greg. He worked in financial and had a great sense of humor. The first time he bought her a drink her mouth muscles and ribs were sore the next day from laughing so hard at their conversation.

            She felt bad for what she did, but she also justified it to herself saying John didn’t make time for her. Even when he was home he would sit in his study with a whisky on the rocks and his laptop, working on something.

            She heard a voice from behind her, muffled. She couldn’t make out the words. She heard a door open and a rectangle of light splashed on the wall in front of her. She tried to turn her head towards the door, but couldn’t bend that far.

            The voices had stopped when the door opened. She heard the click of shoes on the floor behind her as someone approached. She could hear a weird breathing sound that reminded her of Darth Vader. Visions of the famous villain filled her imagination.

            “Who’s there?” she asked, eyes wide.

            “You’re awake,” came a muffled voice from behind. “Interesting.”

            “Subject is conscious sometime between two and a half and three hours after administration. Paralysis seems to be holding below the sternocleidomastoid and the trapezius neck muscles. Vocal chords not affected,” the voice said.

            “Where am I?” she asked as panic started to set in. Something seemed just wrong. If this was a hospital why wasn’t the room lit better? Why was the man’s voice muffled?

            “Suggest nerve testing immediately while drug is the strongest,” the muffled voice said, either ignoring her or possibly not hearing her question. She heard the man’s footsteps retreating into the distance and then the light from the door disappeared as he shut the door.

            “NO! WAIT!” she yelled and started to cough. Her raspy throat was sore. There was only silence. A tear left her eye. “Wait,” she sobbed in the darkness, the only sound left.

            What the hell is going on, she asked herself. Where the hell was she? What drugs did they administer to her? She tried to wiggle her toes, or her fingers, or anything.  She trashed her head back in forth, as if that would make the rest of her muscles remember how to move. More tears streaked down her cheeks and her vision blurred.

            A minute later she heard the door behind her open. There was a squeak as someone pushed a cart with an ungreased wheel into the room. The cart just entered her field of vision but she still couldn’t see a person. The cart was stainless steel, with two shelves. She couldn’t see what was on the top one, but the bottom held a biohazard bucket, latex gloves and two I.V. bags of something.

            “Please, help me,” she said weakly. She heard a woman exclaim. She must have startled her. “Miss, please. I don’t belong here,” she said a little more strongly.

            “You didn’t tell me she could talk,” the woman whispered.

            “It was unexpected,” came the muffled male voice from earlier.

            “Doctor, why are you still wearing the Hazmat suit? I thought you said everything was ok,” the female voice said.

            “It is, nurse, relax. Prepare the needles,” he said.

            Jessica started crying again. “Please someone talk to me!” she said.

            “She isn’t supposed to be able to react! I can’t do this,” the nurse said.

            “You will do your job. You are a goddamn professional,” the male voice said angrily. Jessica flinched as she heard something clang on the stainless steel cart. She felt a gloved hand grab her head to hold it down. She felt a sharp pain in her neck and she knew they injected her with something.

            “Wha…” she started to say then she felt her mouth grow numb. It hung loosely open and she couldn’t close it. OH GOD, she thought as she tried to move her head back and forth to no avail. Terror sunk into her psyche as she realized she was now totally paralyzed.

            “It should have taken effect now,” the nurse said.

            Jessica saw movement on the dark side of the room. She could still move her eyes and turned them as a figure approached the side of the bed. A person stood over her in a Hazmat suit, she assumed it was the doctor she heard talking to the nurse.

            Suddenly she was facing the potted palm tree. She heard the smack on her face, the pain of which sent more tears from her eyes. Her head was moved back in position so she was staring at the ceiling. Her view was filled with the man.

            “Subject fully paralyzed from second dose. Ocular lacrimation suggests subject still feels pain. Commence nerve testing. Nurse hand me the reflex hammer,” he said.

            The doctor swung the hammer a few times, she felt it every time it struck. First the right knee, then the left. Each time her leg would kick out involuntarily. The doctor tried each knee again. “Fascinating,” he said. “Moving to stage two.”

            Jessica screamed as she felt that hammer come down on her leg mid-shin. Pain exploded up her leg, like electricity. Tears welled up again and she wondered if she would run out of tears eventually.

            “That will be all, nurse,” he said. “Quiet now Jessica,” the doctor said placing his hand over her mouth, closing it easily as the nurses footfalls faded away. She mumbled against it, but couldn’t control her jaw.

            “I bet your wondering how I know your name. Let me show you something,” the man said and pulled his hand back. He unclipped the helmet and mask he wore and pulled it over his head. “Too bad your face is numb, I would love to see the expression on it, darling,” he said.

            It’s John? She thought. How was that possible? Why would he do this to her. Is this what he did every day in the lab, torture women on a table? Her husband of seven years tested his drugs on humans. This wasn’t the John that she knew, not at all. He maybe distant, but he wasn’t a sadist. Was he?

            “I want you to know who is causing you this pain, Jess. You see I have known about Greg for some time. It hurt me, inside. I am returning that, only with psychical pain. What you did cut me deeply,” he said as he raised a scalpel into her view.

            Jessica tried to scream, she could make noise, but not particular sounds. She tried to ask why, but all that came out was an incoherent noise.

            “What’s that dear? I can’t quit make that out,” he said lowering the scalpel down on the table. “You see now, I was working on a painkiller, most of which block pain receptors, but ours somehow did the opposite. We increased the pain a person feels, but a side effect of which makes the patient unable to move. We tried to market it as a sedative, but the FDA wouldn’t have it. We were ready to test the drug and they tried to shut us down. That’s when your brilliant husband came up with a solution to two problems. I needed a human subject to test my drug on, and I needed to punish you for being unfaithful for the last eighteen months,” he said and punched her in the nose.

            Jessica felt something in her nose crack. Blood poured out and down her face. John raised his fist up and showed her the blood on it. He licked it off with a smile. “I dreamed of doing that for a while now. That was extremely…satisfying.”

            John held up a pair of scissors in her field of view then lowered them. He cut her shirt and bra off, violently pulling the clothing out from under her and showed her what he had done. “Is this how Greg liked you?” he asked with a sneer and left her sight.

            “Plee…” she said. The numbness in her jaw was starting to fade, but she still couldn’t move anything below her neck.

            “Oh, what’s that dear?” he said from somewhere behind her.

            “P…please,” Jessica managed to say.

            “You know you’re right, Jessica. I should just stop now. Nothing bad could come of that. You wouldn’t run to the police, right?” John said returning to view. He had a pair of forceps in his hand. He opened and closed them a few times for emphasis.

            “What are you going to do?” she asked looking up at her deranged husband.

            “I’m going to make you scream, my dear,” he said and smiled. He reached down with the forceps and Jessica felt them grip down on her left breast. He pinched the flesh hard and she yelled out. “Yes, just like that.”

            “I won’t tell anyone, I won’t fight the divorce, you can have everything!” she said, her voice getting stronger.

            “Of course you won’t dear. Let me guess, Greg will take care of you?” he released the forceps grip on her, and traced the tool around her breast’s shape. “I always liked your breasts, so perky,” he said. “What does Greg think?”

            “I…I don’t know,” she whimpered.

            “You should ask him sometime. Well that would be impossible actually. You see, you will never leave this room, Jess. Never. Oh and I already killed Greg. I regret it was more primal and not methodical. I let myself get carried away,” he said as he began to cut her pants off of her. Jess’s eyes followed him as he walked around her removing all her clothes. She felt the cold breeze from the air conditioning striking her naked flesh and she began to get goosebumps. If only she could shiver.

            Once again John held up the forceps, this time winking at her. “Shall we continue the experiment?” he asked.

            “No,” she said.

            “Sorry, it was rhetorical,” he said and clamped down on her nipple, hard. He squeezed as hard as he could and she screamed out. “Yes, yes, scream!” he said. “It’s amazing! No pain reflex, but you can feel, can’t you. You feel everything. Does the betrayal hurt, my darling? It certainly hurt me!”

            John pulled the forceps off of her, giving her a moment of respite. She breathed hard from the pain. He watched her, for a second pity crossed his face, before the anger returned. “You know, I really did love you,” he said as he threw the forceps behind him. They clanked on the tile lab floor.

            He leaned over her looking on the shelf of the cart for a new tool. Jess tried to struggle, praying she could sit up and bite him or attack him. It was her only chance. John had gone insane, she saw that, and she was going to die.

            “FUCK!” she yelled in frustration. Her head turned to the right a little and she gained a glimmer of hope. It was nowhere close enough to fight back, but it was a start. She just had to hang in there.

            “Such a potty mouth. You know what pottys are for? How could you, you never gave me a child,” he said as he climbed up onto the table standing over her in a pair of green scrubs and a white lab coat.  “It’s to get rid of bodily fluids,” he said and pulled his penis out.

            A hot stream of urine rained down on Jessica’s face. She closed her eyes and shut her mouth as best as she could and tried to turn away as she heard John laugh. “Sorry dear, I had asparagus for lunch,” he said as his stream stopped. Already the piss was puddling under her hair, she could feel it on her scalp and wetting her hair.

            Jessica gagged a little at the sensation. She was suddenly afraid she would choke on her own vomit, unable to turn her head far enough.

            “You’re gag reflex has always been shit, Jess,” John said jumping down from the table she was laying on. He grabbed something off the table and held it up. The one light in the far corner of the room near the plant glinted off the blade of the scalpel. Jess couldn’t really make it out, the piss still on her face.

            John padded her face with a piece of her shirt he had cut off. “I want you to see everything I do to you,” he said and walked behind her. Suddenly the room was filled with white light, the hum of the fluorescent bulbs above her came to life.

            John returned into her view and draped a leather strap over her. “I have to strap you in for the next part,” he explained. He stood behind her, and she heard something squeaking. Her feet were being lowered towards the floor. She felt her body shift from gravity, and her husband’s cooling piss run down to the floor, but she still couldn’t move. When she was close to vertical John stepped into view again. He grabbed the edge of the table she was strapped to and spun it towards where the lamp and plant were. The wall behind had a floor to ceiling mirror about ten feet wide.

            Jessica could finally see herself. She was completely naked and strapped down. Her dirty blond hair soaked with urine, ran down almost to her bruised breast. Was that blood on her nipple? She noted that her pale skin looked almost ghostly white in the fluorescent light. She turned her focus to John standing next to her, also looking in the mirror. He had a smug look on his face as he examined his handiwork.

            “We always made a cute couple, that’s what our friends always said. How sad they will be when I tell them you ran off with an ex-boyfriend from high school,” he said.

            Jessica noticed the glint off the metal in his hand and her heart began to race. He gripped that scalpel so hard his knuckles were white. She saw that hand shaking minutely with anger. “Please, John. If you ever loved me, just let me go,” she said.

            “Why did you have to do it?” John said, with a hint of sadness in his voice. “Why did you have to go and cheat on me? Haven’t’ I given you everything you ever wanted? A large house in a good neighborhood, dinner parties, money to spend?” he said.

            “You…you were never there,” she said, a tear streaking down her cheek. “You were always working.”

            “Are you going to stand there and say I drove you into arms? Did I stand behind you holding your legs apart and run you straight into his dick?” John said as his anger grew. “Only thing I drove was this scalpel into your flesh.”

            John stabbed Jessica in the stomach, warm blood squirting onto the back of his hand as she screamed. “Relax, it’s not that deep,” he said and twisted the blade ninety degrees. “I think it’s time we start the next phase,” he said as he pulled the scalpel out of her and dropped it to the floor.

            Jessica looked on in horror as her blood ran down her bare flesh like a crimson ribbon running down her leg. John grabbed her right leg and pulled it out of the strap until her foot was up by her knee, her leg spread. He used a tie-down strap around her ankle to hold her leg in that position.

            “What are you going to do?” Jessica asked.

            “I have been waiting a while for this. I have had this planned for a long time. I didn’t have all the right equipment, I had to order some. Remember that UPS package that came yesterday? It was this,” John said and held a speculum up.

            “No…no…you can’t,” she said.

            “Sounds like my reaction when I learned of Greg,” John said and spit on the plastic cylinder shaped pair of blades. He ran the end of it down her naked body, slowly. “This will go easier if you open wide. You know, like you did for Greg,” he said.

            John slid the speculum inside her roughly, causing Jessica to cry out in pain. “You haven’t felt anything yet, baby,” he said and giggled. Jessica watched him walk over to the stainless steel cart and pick up a rubber mallet.

            “You fucking monster!” she yelled at him.

            “You may feel some discomfort,” he said and slammed the mallet into the end of the speculum, driving it inside of her.

            Jessica went blind from the pain. Her entire world was replaced with only pain. She was helpless on the table, if only she could close her legs, or even writhe in pain. Even that might take some of the edge off, but she was denied movement from whatever drug he gave her.

            “Rammed it right in there like Greg did, eh,” John said and yanked the speculum out without warning. Jessica could barely catch her breath between screams and wished that she would just pass out or die. Whatever it took to get relief from the pain.

            Even with her blurred vision she could see the larger amount of blood flowing down her thigh. She wondered if John did permanent damage. 

            “John. Please. I am your wife,” she pleaded between sobs.

            “Save it, Jessica. Save it for someone who has something left to live for. You destroyed our marriage! Now I destroy you,” he said. “Oh look, the forceps!” John bent down and grabbed the surgical tool off the floor.

            Jess fantasized about kicking him in the side of the head. What she wouldn’t give for that! She would sell her soul for a way out. He stood up and wiped the forceps off on his white lab coat.

            “It’s sterile enough. Enough for some labial torsion,” he said and reach down with them gripping on her labia and twisting. He began to tug occasionally as he twisted as well. Jessica screamed and he used his free hand to put it over her mouth.

            “Jess, you have always been kind of a jabber jaw, but please, it’s rude. I am talking. You will miss all the clever things I have to say,” John whispered. She tried to bite his hand, but he kept it out of her mouth.

            He tugged hard on her labia and held it out as far as he could. “Can you see that in the mirror, darling? It looks like taffy. You love taffy, or maybe bubblegum, I could see that. Are you fucking Bazooka Joe as well?” he asked. “How about I rip you off a piece.”

            She licked his hand and he drew it back. He never liked her licking him. “You’re a sick son of a bitch!” she said. She turned her head away from him in revulsion and was surprised it moved. She tried to wiggle her toes, but still nothing.

            “Now honey, don’t get yourself worked up,” he said and released her labia. She sighed in relief as the level of pain started to decline.

            “Please John. You are obviously hurt, and I am sorry. Please you have hurt me, we are even now,” she said.

            “You’re sorry? All I wanted was an apology. Let me take these straps off,” John said and started to unbuckle her. Her fingers started to tingle with the anticipation. She instinctively curled them into a fist to work out the pins and needles.

            Oh my god! She thought. I can move my fingers. She watched as John worked his way up her naked body, undoing the straps. When he unlatched the top one she fell onto her face on the blood covered floor.

            “Ha! You’re not going anywhere, you’re paralyzed, I almost forgot,” John said and kicked her in the ribs. “Did you really think I would let you go, you dumb bitch!”

            The force of the blow made Jessica skid in the blood on the floor and she turned over onto her back. Her hand fell on something hard on the floor. She wrapped her still tingling fingers around the object as John walked back over to the cart. He bend down and picked up a metal tray with a black cloth hiding whatever was on it.

            “Jessica, I think I’m getting carried away again. I almost forgot the best part. I shouldn’t have pulled the speculum out yet,” he said and bent down in front of her, placing the tray on the floor.

            “I figure since you are so horny you had to cheat on me, I would get you a sex toy,” he said and pulled the cloth from the tray revealing a severed penis. “Does it look familiar? It should. It’s the cock you ran to when you felt lonely instead of talking to me,” John said.

            “No…” she said sobbing as she moved her fingers behind her back out of John’s sight. She felt a sharp pain and realized what she had, the scalpel!

            “Oh yes,” he said and lifted it off the table. He rubbed the severed penis in her face. “Don’t believe me, do a taste test,” he said and tried to jam it into her mouth, but she clamped her lips tight and wouldn’t let him. He gave up after a few seconds. John rose to his feet. “Suit yourself,” he said and threw it at her, striking her in the breast.

            John went back to the cart and started to whistle as he looked though the various utensils on the top shelf, picking them up one at a time, and putting them down when rejecting them for his next torture.

            Jessica tried to move her legs, but they weren’t reacting. She could move her arms slowly though. She watched her husband look for a tool to torture her with and knew if he saw the scalpel in her hand she was done. She tried to use her elbows to position herself to strike when he returned.

            She looked on in horror as he held up a bone saw and considered it. He turned it over in his hand and ran his finger over the small circular blade. “I think this will do,” he said and flicked the switch on the side of the machine, bringing the small electric motor to life.

            John got down on his knees and looked into Jessica’s eyes. “You were always dieting. I can help you lose a few pounds, I will start with your legs,” he said and maneuvered into position. He straddled her legs, his back to her, and she tried to move her abdominals. They were sluggish, but did respond. She started to sit up on her elbows.

            A sharp pain bit into her ankle on her left leg. The saw cut into her like a knife through butter. She screamed and fell back onto the floor. Now that she could move her upper body she found it hard not to thrash around, giving it away she could move. She placed her left hand into her mouth and bit down hard to distract herself from the pain.

            “How’s that baby? That’s probably two or three pounds right there,” John said over his shoulder as he took the saw away. He tossed her severed foot behind him and it fell onto her naked chest.

            Jessica looked at the bone sticking out of her own foot with horror. All the meat exposed to the air gave her such a sense of wrongness, and she began to dry heave. “Are you getting a kick out of this?” John asked with a laugh. That bastard was enjoying himself.

            Jessica managed to get into an upright position and gripped the scalpel tight as she studied his back trying to figure the best place to stab him. John must have felt her move, or something because he climbed off of her and turned around. He saw the scalpel in her hand and threw the bone saw at her face, cutting into her cheek. She fell backwards, dropping the scalpel to grab the saw.

            John kicked the scalpel, and her last hope away and wrestled the saw out of her hands after unplugging it. “So the drug is wearing off, eh,” he said standing over her. “I guess all good things must come to an end.”

            Jessica watched as she tried to catch her breath and assess the saw wound in her cheek. He walked past the cart this time towards the door. He paused there for a moment before turning back to her.

            “Remember, you brought this on yourself,” he said.

            “Go fuck yourself, John,” she said as she used her arms to pull herself over by the potted plant.

            “I have to admit, all this foreplay has done it for me,” he said and opened the glass case next to the door. He removed the axe from its holder and hefted it looking at her.

            “Do it. FUCKING DO IT!” she yelled at him.

            “I wanted you to suffer. Suffer like I did, but you wouldn’t care if I cheated on you. You understand I had to make it a psychical hurt, don’t you? It was the only way. I didn’t want this, you forced my hand,” John said approaching her.

            “Shut up and kill me you piece of shit,” she said between sobs, she was feeling a little dizzy now, it must have been from all the blood she had lost.

            “No need for name calling,” John said and walked around the cart towards her. He slipped in the puddle of vaginal blood he created with the speculum and fell striking his head on the hard tile floor.

            “Ha! You asshole!” Jess called out. John lay still on the floor.

            “John?” she asked, but still he didn’t move. She looked at the axe lying next to him on the floor. He must have knocked himself out, she thought.

            She grabbed her uninjured leg and tried to shake it, as if to wake it up. She fell onto her side and used her arms to move herself towards the axe. She reached the axe, never taking her eyes off her deranged husband.

            She could see John’s chest raising and lowering slowly. He was still alive, she thought with disappointment. She got herself into a sitting position with the axe across her lap. She wasn’t sure if she could swing the axe hard enough to kill him from this position.

            She turned the axe over in her hands. The backside of the blade looked like she could use it like a pick. She started to pull herself over towards the stainless steel cart full of surgical implements.

            Using her hands he gripped the top and started to pull herself up. She hoped when she was in an upright position she could put her weight on her one good leg. About halfway up she fell back to the ground, landing on her knees and making the cart fall over on its side with a crash. The loss of blood was getting to her, making her weak.

            John moaned and turned his head, but his eyes were still closed. She slid herself closer to her husband. She grabbed the axe in both hands and swung down hard, missing him and hitting the tile floor. John moaned again.

            “Shit,” she said and dragged the axe back into her lap. She raised it again and swung down as hard as she could. The pointed end of the axe made contact with John this time.

            Two inches of the point sunk into John’s neck. A gurgling sound erupted from his throat. The force of the blow had made Jess fall over, and she struggled to get back up to her knees. She grabbed the smooth wooden handle of the fire axe and pulled it towards her, making John’s head shake in an awkward way.

            “You son of a bitch,” she said and pulled up, removing the axe from his neck. The gaping wound in his neck was filling with blood. A choking sound escaped his lips and he started to shake as his eyes opened.

            Jess swung again, this time the point sunk into John’s left eye sinking in as far as it could. The sickening crunch that followed made Jessica finally throw up. John stopped moving on the floor and Jess watched the blood leave John.

            Jess found some of her clothing scraps on the floor, and made a makeshift tourniquet for her leg. She yanked the axe from her husband’s face and used it to prop herself up. Her good leg was tingly now, and she knew the drug was wearing off. She made her way to the door, slowly. She opened the door and limped into a light hallway, where she fell onto the ground. A woman rushed over to her.

            “Oh my god what the fuck,” the woman exclaimed.

            “John. He tried to kill me,” Jess said. The woman looked into the room and screamed at the carnage within. The nurse bent down and helped Jessica to her feet.

            “You’re safe now, honey. He can’t hurt you anymore,” the nurse said patting her on the shoulder as they made their way towards the nurse’s station.

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