Escape

Julia~

He said three more.

Three!

But Julia had lost count somewhere between the screams and the clinks of teeth on concrete. Her mouth throbbed with an agony that eclipsed everything else – her wrists, her legs, her pride. All of it drowned under the searing pulse that radiated from her jaw.

Blood seeped thick and hot, dribbling down her chin, sticky against her skin. She couldn’t even close her mouth properly anymore; the gaps felt the opening of a cave.

The sharp steel scraped again, finding purchase against another tooth. A muffled, broken sound rose from her throat. “N–no… you— you said…”

Her words weren't clear because of her missing teeth, but the man seemed to understand every broken word she said.

The man chuckled, slow and deliberate, as if savoring her confusion.

“Oh, Julia,” he crooned, brushing the tool almost playfully against her bleeding gum. “Did you really think I’d stop at three? I never said which three.”

Her stomach lurched. Rage mixed with the fear clawing at h