“Help me,” whispers a young woman’s voice. In the dim light peering through drapes of an isolated open window, a shadowy figure stands vigilant and watches her from outside, quietly and almost expectantly. She is bound, both hands together above her head with duct tape at her wrists to the bed frame, and have become raw and sore from her previous attempts to free herself. Her body, bruised and naked, is barely covered by a thin white sheet that is stained with blood and sweat.



“Please…” she pleads. Her crisp blue eyes glisten in the darkness of the room as the sunlight steals a glance upon her face. The dry wind and heat blow gently into the room. She cannot see any features of this being that has been watching her for some time, and it has refused to speak a single syllable since it arrived when she first awoke today.



She looks around the small room, which is not much larger than a makeshift tool shed, as she had done so many times since she found herself captive three days ago. Desperately searching for something that would help her escape from her torturers that had left her in this position she discovers a simple rusted nail protruding from the wooden wall above her bed. Every attempt to reach it fails. There is no slack with this tape and her bruised wrists ache with every exertion.



Tears begin to well up as she looks again at the figure towards the window.



“Why won’t you help me?” she screams, but no response is made nor any movement seen by the presence. She becomes infuriated and screams at the top of her lungs as she had done so many times, “Help me! Somebody…Can anybody hear me?”



A sound of a car engine in the distance halts her cries. Could it be that her captors have returned?



There is a silence followed by the heavy sounds of two truck doors slamming coupled with sound of drunken laughter and howling. They have returned. The girl screams, “No!”



Fear grows inside. She knows what they will do to her. They have done so repeatedly since they abducted her and bound her, and each time has grown worse and more violent. She pleads to the figure at the window in panicked whispers. Still, there is no response from it.



From her view to the window, she sees the same vile men walk past the figure standing in front of the window as if there was no one there. Her momentary confusion at what she just saw is replaced by fear as her captors open the door and mockingly yell, “Honey, we’re home!”



They both beam their sick yellow smiles at her and stagger towards her to the bed.



She begins to whimper and recoils away from them as far as she can although her efforts are minimal with her restraints preventing any progress to do so. She glances at the window and sees the figure still there, in the same position, watching her. The two men see her desperation and they begin to feel familiar warmth grow within.



They jump on top of the helpless woman and begin to enter her with forceful hands. She screams at them to stop and pleads for them to leave her alone. One man instead beats her to silence her screams while the other continues to violate her. She is dizzy from the abuse and her gaze drifts towards the window again where she sees the same figure standing there…motionless and quiet, oblivious to what is happening to her. She becomes limp and unresponsive to their repetitive abuse, and simply stares blankly towards the figure at the window which remains in the same position idly watching the entire horrific scene. She only receives a few minutes of relief as they take turns to congratulate themselves and alternate feeding their sick hunger upon her until the sky begins to turn dark. Fatigued and beaten, ravaged and broken, she blacks out after enduring four straight hours of this torture.



They continue on for several hours afterward, not caring that she is unconscious. Yet still, the figure stands at the window, silently and continuously watching.



.. ..



The woman wakes up. It is morning and she finds the tiny room empty. It appears that her captors have left her alone, again. The pain she feels is immeasurable. She looks down upon her body and sees that one of her legs is bent abnormally, bruises and bite marks cover her entire body, and the vision on her left eye is completely obstructed by the swelling from repeated blows to her head. She looks weakly at the window and sees the figure still standing there.



She wants to scream but the deep inhale of breath to do so causes extreme agony in her ribs. She feels anger and confusion but is too weak to display any other emotion than helplessness. She cries, “Why can’t I just die? I can’t take this anymore,” and she closes her eyes, praying silently for death as the pain swells with every breath she takes.



The figure stands next to her bed now with an outstretched hand towards her face. It gently moves the brown strands of blood soaked hair away from her face. She opens her eyes and begins to cry as she realizes who this being was that had been standing at the window for so long, and has just now come to her side.



“Please!” she whispers between her tears. “Please, don’t. Please,” her eyes wide with fear.



Then there is absolute quiet…



She is dead.



The figure is gone.







The distant low hum of the familiar truck begins to rise. It is the two captors driving wildly in the dirt road laughing heartily and swerving towards the small makeshift shack in the middle of an abandoned farm. A clumsy wave of one of their hands switches on the radio. It is the local news:



“Authorities are still in search of a local woman that has been missing for four days. Police have been following leads and the town has been coordinating a search team in the nearby…excuse me, just in. It appears that the family has just released vital information regarding this woman. If anyone has any information on her whereabouts, please contact the police department right away. It has just been announced that she is a carrier of the AIDs virus and is in serious need of her medication.”



The passenger shuts off the radio and begins shaking his head.



“No, no- they aren’t talkin’ about…no,” and he hits his hands against his head in desperation. The driver looks at his companion and then looks up to the roof of his truck. He thinks to himself about his wife and kids at home. He thinks to himself about how he had just made love to his wife the night before. He thinks to himself about how just this morning, he had bandaged his daughter’s scraped knee and noticed his hands had dried blood from the girl they had bound in the shack.



The two men stop the car and the dust settles around them. They look at each other and their smug smiles no longer cover their faces. The look ahead towards the shack where they know now, the girl they have been raping and beating repeatedly for the past four days, is this same girl they described on the radio.



They begin to drive away from the shack as fast as they can, wildly thinking they can outrun the sins of what they had done and hopefully outrace the virus spreading itself throughout their bodies.



The driver intently looks ahead, only once quickly glancing at the rearview mirror to see the shack disappearing in the horizon, when he notices something in the mirror. He adjusts it with his free hand and is alarmed to see that in bed of his truck, there is a shadowy being sitting quietly as the dust fills the air around it. This being was the same that one the girl had seen so many times outside the window during the last days before her death and it was now sitting motionless and resolute in her captors’ truck. The driver rubs his eyes in disbelief and looks again at the rearview mirror hoping he was just seeing things in his mind, but there it was, still staring right back at him through the mirror…quietly and almost expectantly. He takes a regretful breath. He knows what it is.



It is Death.

Man...that's just......powerful, man.....seriously....

Wow that was awful but yet makes you want to know more!!

lol just putting lines as i go !

Brilliantly titled

powerful, sad,,,,Awesome