I kept my eyes on Sarah as she ran away from me, her footsteps crunching on broken branches and dried leaves. I kept watching her until I couldn’t tell the difference between her and the trees in the distance. Her footsteps and the broken tree branches eventually faded and merged with the sounds of cars speeding across Dartford Crossing.

I bit my lip, doing my best to stave off the tears welling up inside me. I didn’t want to cry in front of the man that had made my life hell. At least, that was the thought in my mind but I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing.

“Come on, Will… You don’t need to cry,” the Oni-Masked Guy said, in a soothing voice.

Hearing the voice made me lash out. It felt like he was mocking me, mocking my pain and belittling everything that he had done to me so far. I was on my feet before I knew what I was doing.

“Fuck you!” I shouted, “Fuck you and… and your fucking mask and your… Fuck!”

Anyone who was walking by would have thought I was crazy. I’m not particularly tall. I’m average, short air and about a few sandwiches away from being declared fat by gym-lovers. Still, I was filled with rage and adrenaline and a thought wormed its way into my mind.

“Will..?” Oni-Masked Guy’s voice said in a warning tone.

I stalked towards the fucking laptop and lifted it off the chair and over my head. I could hear my instincts screaming at me to do what I should have done the moment I saw it.

“Don’t…” was the last thing I heard from the device before it came crashing to the flow.

The screen cracked and the hinge of the laptop bent. I stamped on it, screaming expletives that meshed together into an incoherent mess of tears and rage and frustration. I must have been particularly wrathful because I remember switching from stamping to jumping on the broken mess on the floor.

It wasn’t until a small piece of the remains of the laptop nicked me on the cheek that I stopped. And at once, all the adrenaline, rage and frustration drained out of me like a leaky bottle. All that was left was pain.

I looked at the direction Sarah ran and made to follow her when I heard a crunching sound behind me. I turned, my fists rising to defend myself when my vision went white and then black.

---

My eyes opened to blurred vision and confusion. I felt a pain on my temple that sharpened my vision even as I exclaimed from the sudden nature of it. I saw white and streaks of colour but it eventually dimmed, revealing where I was. And the pain I was feeling evaporated instantly, with a heavy dose of fear replacing it.

I was in the small room from the video.

The small room that began the whole fucking journey. I was sitting on the chair where my mother or her doppelganger or whatever had sat when the masked guy slit her neck. There was a single light bulb hanging above me. From the corner of my eye, I could see the high tiny window above me on the wall.

Opposite me was a door, the single exit to the room. Next to the door were platforms that looked like hospital tables or coffins, it was hard to say. The light hanging over me was unnaturally bright and it made everything else seem more enshrouded in the dark.

My hands were tied behind the chair as were my feet. The bindings were tight, like serial killer tight which, I guess, made sense at the time. I mean, after everything that he had done so far, it was the rational choice to make in the grand scheme of things.

There was a heavy stench in the air. One that felt familiar and yet, I couldn’t quite place where I had experienced something similar. It was an oppressive stench and it wasn’t until the door opened and the masked guy entered, wearing a butcher’s apron, that I knew what the stench was.

I gagged and bent my head, as nausea assailed me. I could feel bile rising in my throat but I had to swallow it back down to avoid puking all over myself.

My kidnapper walked in with an extra seat, placing it in front of me before sitting on it and facing me. He sat as he did in the video, his palms on his thighs and his back straight. He was sitting in a way that made it seem like he was looking straight ahead at me. Being that close to it, the Oni-mask terrified me much more.

Red and black paint, marking eyes, an angry frown and eyes that seemed to burn with malice. Fear and nausea mixed into something I don’t know how to name but it made me shiver uncontrollably.

My mouth tasted bitter, my tummy was unsettled and it only made the feeling of vomiting intensify.

“What do you want?” I ask, doing my best to ignore the sourness in my mouth.

The Oni-masked man got to his feet and produced a bottle of water that I hadn’t seen him holding before. He walked to my side and tilted my chair backwards. The vertigo of it, with me being tied up, was immense and I could feel my heartbeat accelerate in anticipation.

Instead, the man put the bottle of water close to my mouth and when I opened it, reluctantly, he poured some for me until I shut my mouth for fear of being drowned. At once, he tilted the chair forward so that I faced the floor. Then he spoke in a surprisingly smooth and soothing voice.

“Don’t swallow. Wash out the taste from your mouth and then we’ll talk,” he said.

I obeyed, emptying the contents of my mouth onto the stone floor. I spat the remaining contents before the masked man repeated the action once more. As he placed me back down, he returned to his seat and sat in his weird position once more. It was then I noticed that the bottle of water was gone. Just gone.

“What do you want from me? Why are you doing this to me? Please? My mother? What did you do to Sarah? Where is she?” I said, barely stopping to catch my breath.

He raised a hand and I stopped mid-sentence.

“William. Before I can answer your questions, I have to ask you mine. You have to answer and then we can talk,” he said.

I stared at him incredulously. How dare he? You know… But, I didn’t say anything. I just stared.

“You are William Bingham, yes? Born on the fifth of April, 1985?” he asked.

I nodded nervously, not trusting myself to answer.

“I need you to speak, Will,” he said and the single light bulb overhead reflected over a knife that was now suddenly in his hand.

“Yes,” I said, my voice hoarse.

“And you have a scar on your lower back, close to your right hip? As well as a scar underneath your left foot from an injury when you were younger?” he asked again.

I frowned at that. Oddly specific information about me. But with everything else that had happened leading to the moment, I didn’t bother myself with worrying over it. In that moment, when the knife had flashed in his hands, I had resigned myself to death.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Good.”

And with that, the man seemed to visibly relax, letting out a sigh. There was a nervous chuckle and then soft laughter and I watched as the mask slipped a little bit, exposing auburn hair and pale skin.

“I was afraid that I was going to have to kill you there,” the Oni-Masked guy said.

“W-what?” I said, confused at what was happening.

“It’s okay, Will. I will explain. That is why you’re here after all. I will explain why your life has been turned upside down and why it’s going to get worse.”