Zoe blinked in surprise. The man was gone. Had he really been in the room before or had she finally lost it, and her mind had snapped and thrown her firmly into the realm of hallucinations?
It was possible.
Three days. That’s how long she’d been here. And in all that time he hadn’t given her anything to eat or drink. At first, the hunger had been a distraction, then it shifted from discomfort to a gnawing pain as it felt like her starved stomach was eating itself. The thirst had been constant and had become so all-consuming that it was soon all she thought about. The combination of starvation and dehydration made it completely possible that her brain had just checked out.
Perhaps that was for the best. If she had plunged into a shock-addled fog, then perhaps it would make what would happen easier. Maybe she wouldn’t even realize what was happening. Maybe she would just slip quietly away into oblivion.
Right about now that sounded perfect. She was going to die either way and waiting for it to happen made her all tense and anxious. Zoe let her eyes fall closed. She was tired, exhausted really, she hadn’t slept since he brought her here. She’d fought any urges to shut her mind down. She’d wanted to remain awake so she could take advantage of any opportunity to escape that had presented itself.
She was just dozing off when she heard footsteps.
The man was back.
Was he going to drown her? She was in a bath after all. Shoot or stab her maybe, and he’d thought the bath would make the cleanup easier.
Whatever. Warm, comforting darkness was tugging at the corners of her mind, and she willingly gave in to it. She didn’t want to suffer anymore, if she was going to die, she just wanted it over and done with as quickly and painlessly as possible.
Zoe was just sliding into unconscious when something sloshed, and then a burning agony saturated her lower body.
Her eyes popped open, her body jerked, and she screamed.
Boiling water was cascading down on her.
She shrieked and began to thrash about, trying to evade the water and fling herself from the bath. Of course both were impossible. She was chained to the tub, she couldn’t get out, and there was no place to put her body where the water couldn’t reach her.
The pain was unlike anything she had ever experienced.
It was excruciating.
The water was so hot it still bubbled, steam poured off it, clogging her mouth and nose.
Tears streamed down her face, and she tried to maneuver her feet up and out of the bath. Somehow, she managed it. She hooked her knees over the tub’s edge, holding her bottom up and gripping the side of the tub behind her with her hands so she didn’t fall back in. Finally, she was out of the water, but the pain didn’t diminish. Frantically she shook her legs, trying fruitlessly to shake the boiling water off her, but it had already seeped into her skin, which had turned bright red and was already blistering.
Zoe was convulsing in pain and shock. Why was he doing this to her? She didn’t even know him. She’d never done anything to him, he had no reason to hate her enough to do this.
She began to sob and wriggled herself from side to side, she may be out of the water, but the steam was still scalding hot and irritated her already burned backside. Why couldn’t he just have shot her in the head, or the heart, or something that would have killed her instantly? Why was he intent on torturing her? How long did it take to boil someone alive anyway?
Her sobs turned to pleas as the man reentered the room, carrying a large pot of boiling water. “No, no,” she begged. She couldn’t take any more of this.
The man merely set the pot down and gave her a shove. Balanced precariously as she was, he easily knocked her back into the bath, and she nearly blacked out from the pain. Part of her wished she would.
But she didn’t.
She remained conscious as he poured more burning water into the tub.
It quickly filled up past her hips, creeping up her stomach.
Zoe writhed and shrieked and sobbed.
The searing steam was clogging her throat, making it difficult to breathe. She felt like she was being roasted alive.
While she was still desperate to escape the tub’s blistering heat, her movements had become clumsy and uncoordinated.
Her heart raced like it was about to beat its way right out of her chest.
Blackness closed in on her.
Her pain crescendoed.