"Jamie,” Aurora shook her gently, “come on, wake up.” 

   

  “What?” Jamie’s voice was groggy.  Jamie didn’t look so good, being as pale as she was with the dim lighting in the room from the ceiling, a light bulb hung down in the cold stone room. 

   Aurora had no knowledge of the time that had passed since they were kidnapped, and in a room with no windows, no sunlight; Aurora could not keep track of the days, of the time; so it felt like forever.  

    At first Shane hadn’t laid a hand on Aurora until three days ago, and it was always the one who goes by Shane that came, dragging her out of the room while she fought, then tying her to a chair; slowly breaking her down, torturing her before chaining her down to a bed, having his way.

    He enjoyed it when she fought so she stopped fighting. She pissed him off because of that. Four of her fingers were broken and a few of her toes had been crushed under his foot.

   Not to mention how many of her fingernails he pulled off with pliers; she tried so hard not to beg him to stop, and not letting herself to scream. 

 

    Her fingers had dried blood all over them. Aurora also had a broken nose and bruises matching Jamie. 

    The two men were just toying and playing with them, until they get both and decide to kill them both later.

     She didn’t want to stick around and let that happened; though she had stopped fighting him when he came to get her. 

   

“I have a plan for us to escape.” 

 

    Jamie sat up slowly, “Really?” Aurora nodded. “Yes, I do.” Aurora spoke with her back to the camera so that couldn’t read her lips and what she was saying. It wasn’t probably the best plan but a plan nonetheless. 

   Aurora wasn’t some genius mastermind, unfortunately. Aurora whispered the plan to Jamie. They nodded to each other and waited.

Kyle always came down first.  

The heavy door swung open, Kyle headed straight to grab Jamie.

  

    Aurora lunged as Jamie threw a blanket over the camera in the corner and distracted him, and Aurora jumped onto his back with her arms around his neck, strangling him.

Aurora didn’t see the knife. 

 

  Fuck. He had jammed a knife into her leg. She wanted to hold onto him but the pain was sudden so she ended up letting go; falling to the floor. 

  “You bitch! We should have killed you in the beginning.” Kyle’s hand swung across her face. 

    Aurora didn’t speak, just breathed through the pain, glaring at him and looking to Jamie who was huddled in the corner. 

   Aurora’s head snapped up as Shane walked through the doorway. Out of the two, he felt worse to her, a bottomless pit was all you saw staring into his black eyes.

  Kyle the psycho was infatuated with Jamie. 

    Aurora ripped the knife from her leg and stabbed Kyle in the stomach. He yelped and cursed in pain kicking Aurora down. 

 “Move,” Shane ordered Kyle. “Man, we should have killed her from the start. Bitch is a pain in the ass.” Kyle whined, holding his hand to his stomach. 

  Shane whacked the back of Kyle’s head. “Shut up, stop talking; you’re being a nuisance.” Shane turned his black hole gaze back at her and smiled.

  “She’s interesting.” Chills shot down her spine.

 “I-We hadn’t planned on that little bitch bringing someone with her, however, it worked out well I think. You’re feisty and interesting to study.” That creepy smile was still on his face, Shane lifted a hand to caress Aurora’s, and she turned away from him. 

  

   “I knew sooner or later you would try something, and Kyle is an idiot so of course he didn’t think of that. But he did wound my new little pet, poor thing.” He shook his head, as if what a shame. 

  Aurora flinched when he pulled out a gun from the back of his pants. Jamie was huddled in the corner trying to disappear.

   Aurora crawled toward her, and Shane stood back and watched as Aurora tried to shield Jamie.

    She stopped herself from flinching when Shane pressed the cool metal to her forehead, “No!” Jamie wailed and shoved Aurora to the side.

  Aurora tried to stand, protesting in a shout, “No, don’t!” 

    It was too late. The bullet went dead-center through Jamie’s skull and out the back as blood spattered on the wall behind her.

   Aurora cried out, falling to her knees. She stared at her best friend, while Jamie body slumped do the floor, eyes forever open and filled with terror. 

     Aurora stared in shock, and she could feel the scream building up, she wanted to explode. She kept a tight lid, squeezing her eyes closed, barely holding the tears at bay and the fury in her was enough to engulf an entire city into flames, she wanted to gauge Shane’s eyes out and pin him to the wall by his fingertips with nails, and torture him; even that would not be enough to subdue her rage. 

   “What the hell, man? She was mine.” Kyle shouted. Shane rolled his eyes, lifting the gun back up with a chilling smile; pressing his finger on the trigger, and shot Kyle in the head. 

“Ah. It’s just the two of us now,” Shane smiled. 

  “You shot your own partner?!” Aurora shouted. “Partner?” he snorted, “I never saw that imbecile as a partner, more like a lost puppy. He was nothing to me from the beginning.” He shrugged. 

 

   Aurora lunged at Shane, kneeing the asshole in the balls and took off running through the door, up a set of stairs to try and escape. 

  “I was going to take my time but I’ve changed my mind!” Shane shouted after her but she didn’t turn back after running up the stairs and going for the front door of the house.

   Shane came up from behind, grabbing her and throwing her to the side.

“Oh and where do you think you’re going?”   

   “Away from you, you sick sociopath bastard.” She spat, slowly standing back on her feet. He laughed as if it were the funniest thing ever said in the world. 

“My, my; looks like I found myself a keeper, maybe I won’t kill you and let you stay with me? How’s that sound?” 

 

“I would rather die.”

    

    He frowned, fake disappointment on his face, “Oh, is that so? What a shame.” He sighed. “Oh well.” She threw herself at him before he could the lift the gun. 

     They fell to the floor in a struggle, he whacked her face hard to the side, and she fell back, trying to quickly crawl away. He was quick on her, yanking her up roughly by the hair. 

   “Even if you did escape; your dead anyway. We’re surrounded by nothing but trees and hills for a good few miles, more than an hour away, and with how much blood you’ve lost from your leg you won’t make it that far.” He spoke again in her ear, throwing her down, holding her hands above her head; taking her clothes off.  

     Aurora lay still when he leaned in close, relaxing her limbs, as he was trying to capture her lips and force his tongue into her mouth; she let him, head turned to the side and far down the hallway before her was an axe that hung on the wall. 

    The exit, the door to the outside, was on the other side of her, the way out of this hellish home of his. 

    Her mind made up; she bit down hard on his tongue-hard enough to draw blood, and the blood flowed into both of their mouths.

    Shane jerked away angrily and she head butted him, and she used that moment to twist her body to the side bringing up a leg to knee him in the balls for the second time.

    She spat out the bit of his blood that was in her mouth, and crawled out of his hold, kicking him in the face. 

     She scrambled to her feet, and Aurora glanced over her shoulder as Shane reached out to grab her, his face in a dark scowl while one of his hands wiped the blood from his mouth. 

    This time she gritted her teeth and slammed the back of her head into his, swinging her arm up as she twisted away, slamming her elbow into the right side of his temple.

  He fell to the floor and she ran down the hall. 

 “Fuck.” He snapped. “I think I am going to kill you after all.” 

     He was behind her-but she was already there, and grabbed the axe, twisting around with her arms swinging and hitting him hard with the flat side of the axe; grip tight so it wouldn’t swing out of her hands.  

   He landed on his back, staring up in shock, Aurora stood over him. 

 

   “Rot in hell, you bastard!” She lifted her arms high and swung down. Blood sprayed.  The expression on his face, in his final moments, would be the last one he would ever make.

#

 She used her shirt to make a tourniquet around her wounded leg to staunch the bleeding; pausing after she had started to walk away and glanced back, and vowed, "I'll come back for you." 

No one answered. No one would. 

   

   A lone tear slid down Aurora's cheek, one last time. 

    She would come back for her friend.

   She had died inside and she rose back up just as the phoenix in myths and legends did once it died; being reborn, rising from the ashes. 

   And her story; far from over- had just begun.