Flesh Factory: An Extreme Horror Novel by Sam West Page B

regulation hospital bed with no sheets. On top of the mattress was a wraparound plastic cover.
    So the blood can be easily cleaned up ...
    The horror of the shadows waiting for her outside temporarily forgotten, she stared helplessly at Rohan.
    “What will happen to him?” she asked.
    “You are going to kill him.”
    Hope stared at her captor in confusion. Surely she had heard wrong, surely he didn’t mean that…
    “No,” she said, putting her hands to her ears. She thought of running out through the door but then the shadows would get her.
    “Hope? Hope!” he shouted.
    Effortlessly he prised her hands away from her ears and without warning, he brought his mouth down on hers. She was so surprised she didn’t resist and didn’t even flinch when his tongue fleetingly and delicately touched hers. Just as quick the kiss was over and he was pressing something cold and hard into her hand. When she looked down, she saw it was a knife.
    A fleeting fantasy of driving the knife into his guts played out in her mind, then instantly vanishing again.
    Kill him no I can’t kill him if I kill him the shadows will get me I have to kill him …
    “Hope?” Mick said, cutting through her jangled thoughts. “If you even think about sticking that knife in me, you will be subjected to punishments that you couldn’t even conjure up in your worst nightmares. Even if you did stab me, and in the unlikely event you did manage to kill me, there are other employees of mine in the house that will see to it that your punishment is severe.”
    Hope trembled before him, confused and very, very lost. Before she could even think of what to do, he was gone.
    Like earlier out in the big room, he seemed to move in the blink of an eye. The door slammed shut and the hatch rolled across with a final sounding clack .
    He’s the devil oh yes the devil the king of the shadows on the wall…
    No! It’s the drugs yes the drugs the LSD...
    Stop!
    She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, reigning in the crazed thoughts, forcing her mind to blank out. A part of her was aware that she was losing it, yet she was powerless to bring to a halt the sensation of sinking.
    She had no idea how long she just stood there, watching the gentle rise and fall of Rohan’s chest.
    “Hope!” a loud yet tinny voice boomed in the confined space. “You have to kill him, you’re not coming out until you do.”
    “What the,” she gasped, spinning violently round on the spot like a demented ballerina.
    “Above you, Hope. I’m watching you.”
    Sure enough, when she looked up, a wall-mounted camera stared down at her from the corner of the ceiling. She waited for Mick to say something more, but all she could hear was Rohan’s soft snoring.
    The knife shook in her hand. Maybe I could do it while he’s asleep. Just slit his throat, he’ll never know...
    The knife slipped out of her sweaty hand and clattered to the floor. How could she even think such a thing? What was wrong with her? She was sick in the head.
    I’m on drugs. It’s not my fault.
    “Hope? Is that you? Where are we? What’s going on?”
    Shit, he’s awake oh God what am I going to do I can’t kill him I can’t do that I’ll kill him yes I’ll kill him …
    Her stomach lurched and cramped, but there was nothing left in her apart from bile and she forced it back down again until the sensation passed.
    “Hope? Can you un-cuff me?”
    “No Rohan, I can’t. I don’t have the key. Mick has the key.”
    To her surprise, Rohan burst into tears. It wasn’t with compassion that she gazed down at him, it was with something nearer disgust. What the fuck was he crying for?
    Probably because he knows he’s going to die. Because he knows you’re going to kill him …
    “No,” she gasped, sliding her back down against the wall until her rump hit the icy-cold floor. She mashed her face into her knees, wishing with all her might that her nightmare would just bloody end.
    “Hope, you have to try and slide the