No. It can’t be.
Tears fall from my eyes as my chest shakes with a sob I can’t let out. I look at him, pleading for him to relent. To stop what he’d doing. He smirks, closing the door behind him before he walks over to me, falling down on his haunches.
He looks at me, watching me with wonder. “Yeah,” he starts, his fingers swiping tendrils of my hair behind my ear, and it takes everything in me not to wince, hoping not to aggravate him. “I can see why Trace is so fond of your fear.” His voice grates against my brain, I can hear the menace in it. And his touch feels like sludge, like death.
“Maybe it’s time you and I play a little game of our own. What do you say, Sunshine?”
30
OLIVIA
“Congratulations. You are still alive. Most people are so ungrateful to be alive. But not you. Not anymore.” — Jigsaw, Saw (2004)
My spine tingles with something unlike anything I've ever felt before. I want to run, I need to scream, but I can't. I’m stuck, trapped. It’s not like the dreams, but it feels like a nightmare. I watch as Jensen lifts himself in front of me. I can sense an entire shift in his demeanor. Like Jekyll and Hyde.
The person in front of me is not the man I’ve known all these years. The man I let myself get close to.
Jensen watches me and I can feel the hatred pouring from his eyes. He hates me, my pulse shatters in my neck when I realize that I might actually die tonight.
Alli starts to cry, or maybe she's been crying and I've just drowned her out under the thunder of my own heart. So this is who she was talking about. This is who instructed her to . . . what? What did he make her do besides dragging in Sage.
“Pl- please don’t do this to us,” she begs.
Jensen turns to her, the annoyance clear as day on his face.
"Oh, shut the fuck up, cunt. Stop having a fucking pity party for yourself. You only did what I asked because you thought it would save yourself from your guilt. But you said what you said, Alli. And you did what you did. And you deserve to be punished for it." My body stiffens when I hear the nature of his words, the tone of voice and the way he looks at her. It’s evidence that he’s gone crazy, that he’s changed.
But Alli doesn’t stop crying. Instead, her cries get louder and I try to warn her, try to get her attention somehow but with my hands bound and my mouth taped shut it’s no help. I can’t do anything but watch as Jen pulls a gun from his waist and doesn’t hesitate, shooting it right into Alli’s side.
I jump in horror, gasping as she falls to the floor. The sounds of both the bullet and the thud of her body dropping make my stomach sick. I don’t even hear her scream because the muffled sound of my bloodcurdling cry fills my ears like thunder, dry heaving against the tape on my mouth.
“Shh, shh. It’s okay, Liv. It’s okay,” Jensen coos, rushing to me and running his fingers over my cheek. “She just wouldn’t shut up, you know?” His voice haunts me. Nothing about it is comforting or relaxing. Nothing about it is familiar. But I don’t want to piss him off. I don’t know what he’s capable of doing, what he’s already done and why he wants me?
And then it hits me. The memory of when I first kissed him. The way he found me. The moment he must have witnessed. He had to have seen it. It’s why he was so calm. I blacked out when he found me, when he comforted me. He took advantage of that. And after all this time,he knew.
I let my body sag against the chair, feeling helpless as his finger drags against my skin.
“You know now, don’t you, Sunshine? You remember.” I want to scream. I want to ask him why. Why is he doing this?
I look over at Alli who lies next to the others. I can’t do anything, say anything, as I watch my friend bleed out on the floor. She groans in agony, holding her stomach where he shot her and I try to stay calm, but nothing about this situation warrants calm. He's crazy, he's fucking crazy and I don't even really understand why.
Jensen stands up and I panic; nervous he’s going to shoot me next. He points his gun at me and I freeze, tears falling relentlessly down my face as I hear his voice twist from this feign calmness to a threatening and unforgiving tone.
“Now, you’re going to fucking listen, okay, Liv? I’m going to talk and I don’t want you to make fucking sound or I’ll shoot your pretty little face, got it?”
His warning terrifies me, hearing the tone in his voice like nothing I’ve ever known. I nod frantically, eager to show him that I’ll cooperate. I hold completely still. Jensen walks over to the old T.V that sits on top of a dresser nearby and he picks up the VHS next to it, sliding it into the VCR. He grabs the remote, gun still pointed at me and flicks the T.V on.
“I have the best birthday present for you, Liv. I know how much you love scary movies, Liv. So let’s watch a new one, shall we? This one is called,The Assholes That Killed the Girl I Loved.”
I shiver as he steps aside, standing right next to me with the gun at my head. But then he shifts and I onlydare to watch him from my periphery as he reaches for Sage and forces him to sit up next to me, leaning him against the bed behind us. He rips off his blindfold and Sage groans, looking at me with fear in his eyes. But there’s something else there. Hope, like he thinks we’re going to be okay.
Then Jensen grabs Alli, doing the same thing, sitting her up right next to Sage. She cries, her breathing hoarse as he moves her. There’s so much blood that it makes me sick.
He kicks Broden, who doesn’t move. I've known he’s dead, but something sour forms in my throat when I realize just how fucking real this is.
“Shame he doesn’t get to see his starring role. He’s pretty much the reason we have a story to begin with,” Jensen says before returning to my side. And then, the movie begins.
The T.V displays a static video, and I have to squint my eyes through the burn of my tears to get a better look.
