Prey

'2 of 2 sequels to my original 'Prey''

Sophia’s eyes fluttered open. Bleary. Blurred. Bruised. She cannot recall the past day. She notices her bare feet tied up with duct tape, sitting on a dirty floor with puddles of water, which came from leaks in the ceiling. She had nothing but her underwear on. Sophia took a sharp intake of breath in realisation of what scenario she was in. She held her breath, mouth ajar and tears cascading down her face. She couldn’t exhale. Sophia began squirming closer to the wall. Short but frequent squeals escaped her mouth each time she moved. She exhaled with such force, she could feel an asthma attack coming on.

“No, no, no, no, no…” She croaked. She ducked her head. There was a low buzzing blue light coming from the right of her. Nothing else existed in the room. She felt exposed. Her hands were tied behind her back.

A sudden clatter came behind a wall in front of her and she realised it was a door. Her body froze, she dare breathe. Tears turned to ice just for a split second from anticipation, which was floating in the air. Her ribs ached with fear and incontrollable trembling took over. More noise came from behind the door and then silence. She breathed shakily in hope it was over. But the large metallic lab door swung open moderately fast. Benedict walked in wearing a lab coat.

She instantly started squirming and moving closer to the corner of the room whilst in the midst between crying and screaming. He moved closer to her, leaving the door open behind him, which she noticed. He knelt down in front of her and paused. His smile had a hidden factor. The aging lines on his face seemed deeper than before. But he was still rather attractive, but over time she had become more terrified of him. Looks sometimes cannot deceive the monster within someone.

“Morning, my love.” He sighed. “Haven’t had the best of weeks have we? You know how this is going to end don’t you Sophia. After that Houdini stunt you attempted yesterday, hm?” She noticed he had a taser in his left hand, which frightened her somewhat. She fumbled around to be sat on her knees. She looked at him with a stirring look and edged closer.

“Benedict.” She seductively executed. “I won’t do it again, let’s just stay together.” She whispered leaning into him. He almost believed her looking into her convincing distinguishing blue eyes. But instead thrust the taser into her hip leaving electric pulses raging through her abdomen which made her jolt with shock, lasting a few seconds and released. She fell backwards onto the wall still twitching slightly from the after effect.

“Don’t whore your way out of this...” He growled in her face, almost touching noses. “You betrayed me.” Grabbed her chin tightly and kissed her on the lips despite her attempts to avoid him. Benedict stood up again walking away from her.

“I want you to meet my friend.” He said clicking his fingers. Her eyes opened wide as to what he meant. She experienced cold sweats. He looked back at her. His stare was so intense, dark rings seemed to form around his eyes.

Rushed feet patted across the floor from outside the door. There was something odd about the footsteps. She counted the rhythm, 1 2, 1 2, 1 2. Far to quick and obscure for a man. A shadow of a small mammal was apparent on the floor, to then see a silhouette of a large chimpanzee crouching by the door in obvious distress. He was whimpering in pain or agony. He was tied to a leash and another man followed shortly after. Gary stood there holding the lead of the chimpanzee. Gary chuckled darkly as he let the lead slack and the chimpanzee hurdled close to her, which made her scream. Sophia’s heart was in her mouth.

The low blue light revealed the chimpanzee had been shaven, with no fur the chimpanzee almost looked like an alien. The chimpanzee had been painted red and his eyes were crazed. Obviously suffering from starvation.

“This is Demon.” Benedict introduced. He was so pleased with this greeting. “Let’s call this an experiment, rather than a punishment. I want to see if Beauty can overcome the Beast.”

She whimpered in the corner, feeling nauseated. Tears trickled down her face. Any starving animal will exceed their instinct. In a matter of time, she was going to be the only source of food in the room. Not unless she killed it first.

“Now, I won’t be unfair to you Sophia you had been good up till recently, I will set your legs free… but that is all.” He informed her and bent down to cut the rope around her ankles. In that instant she kicked him in the throat causing him to fall backwards and moan in pain.

“Fuck you!” She spat with anguish. The chimpanzee bounced up and down at the commotion. This could be her chance. The door stared at Sophia still open and she leapt to her feet, weak at the knees, stumbling a tiny bit but bolted past the chimpanzee and Gary who tried to grab her with a spare hand but missed. There were headlights blazing above her, she just followed them. Low growls of men shouting roared through the corridor. Also the screams of a primate. She came to a stop, the path continued left or right but no forward. Sophia turned back and saw the body of Benedict easing his way out the door, so she immediately sprinted left. Her feet ached from running bare foot, she was freezing and her hands were still tied.

The hallway seemed to stretch for a while but had a slight curve to the right. Fast and heavy footsteps of shoes bounced around her ears. Suddenly a stutter of curses echoed from Gary and then the rage of monkey about to attack. Gary then choked with shouting and pain, almost gurgling in his cries and fell to the ground, still chocking and spluttering, the sound echoed through the corridor walls leaving a tense eerie sensation in the air. A chimpanzee’s cries were drawing closer to Sophia. The pitter-patter of his feet was close and she pulled herself to the wall to move out the way in hope he wouldn’t attack. But the chimpanzee did not even acknowledge her. They were both victims, both kinds of prey. Blood dripped from his blunt teeth as he ran past her.

For some reason she did not hear any more running footsteps. Sophia paused in fear. She turned this into a hunt. Never had she expected to be held in this situation. To be running from death. Waiting for what could be a gruesome ending. Yet there she was pacing about, in a maze not knowing what waits round the corner. She sped off in hope she might make it out alive and reached a sharp left and to her dismay, surprise and resentment she bumped into Benedict. He grabbed her forcefully around her forearms and held her still. Sophia wailed with irritation and lost hope.

Benedict looked at her with annoyance and with a heavy breath. He motioned her to look at the ground with his eyes and head, with a slight smirk. She looked down and saw her old office pen lying there.

“Isn't it funny, it's like déjà vu?” He jeered and dragged her into the darkness.