Chapter Eighteen
I spent that morning in the library, holding the keyring in my hands, and counting again and again through the keys.
Why had the door been unlocked, when I knew that I had locked it?
How did Vic arrive home at just the right time?
I had seen Matthew drive out earlier, books beneath his arm and a fixed look of weariness on his face. Why he was still pretending to be a medical student, given the death of his only patient, was a mystery to me. I was sure Vic knew well that he had been lying.
I walked into the basement, this time switching on the lights. I just didn’t care enough to keep my presence quiet. After all, I was going to marry Vic. Who had more of a right to explore the house than I did? Emboldened, I walked past the wine cellar, and straight to the door next to Matthew’s.
I stepped inside, and shut the door behind me. In the darkness, I felt on the wall for where the light switch was, my fingers finally meeting the plastic piece. I flicked the lights on, but this action must have switched on a bright red tinted bulb in the ceiling, because the entire room was flooded with a brutal, crimson light.
Everything that had once been in the room was gone. There were no empty cardboard boxes, no table in the corner and, of course, no human-sized cage.
However, the floor was covered in an inch or two of a clear liquid. I walked a little further into the room, ripples running from where my high heeled shoes disturbed the water’s surface, the small waves reflecting only the blood red of the light, and the blackness of my shadow.
There was no scent to the room, no smell to the water. I walked carefully to the far wall, taking in the red lit walls and floor. My senses were swamped by the half-blindness that comes from seeing everything in sight colored by this cruelly, singular shade.
As I was walking back to the door, one of my feet slipped out a little, causing me to land with a bare foot in the liquid. Though it was cold, I immediately felt as though my skin was being cooked.
I tried desperately to regain the protection of my shoe, but the pain when I lifted my foot was too great and I lost balance. I fell, and the right side of my body smacked against the flooded floor.
Any part of my skin which was submerged or splashed suddenly began burning, corroded by the strange liquid. I pulled myself up and ran for the exit, but found that somehow the door had become locked behind me.
The pain was white hot throughout my body, my very person being eaten away in increments. I slid to the floor and banged at the door with my fists, crying out for help.
The crimson of the room became unbearable, and every inch of my body was in excruciating pain. The door swung open and closed just as quickly. I looked up from the floor to see Vic standing over me. He was barefoot, standing in the flood, but seemingly unbothered by the caustic liquid.
He smiled, his visage sadistically red beneath the light.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
He glanced around at the flooded room, his eyebrow lifting a little.
I tried to speak, but my words were instantly absorbed by a flashing pain in my body.
“I think I know what you want,” he said.
He got down into the liquid with me. I could see the fluid soaking up his jeans, which appeared a cool burgundy in the red light. He grabbed my hips and drew them back, so that my ass was in his lap. My clothes were soaked through, and he peeled my skirt up from my body, and my panties down to my knees.
I cried out. It was as though the fabric had become fused to me, and he had casually stripped off layers of skin as he exposed my backside.
I heard him unzip his jeans, and enter me in a single thrust. I was on hands and knees in the fluid, and my skin continued burning. His driving cock grew faster, and I could feel a series of sobs dying in my throat. The skin had become loosened on my palms and, after a particularly rough thrust, I felt my hands slide slickly forward.
He took my shoulders, and pulled me up to my knees. It was then that I saw the skin of my palms hanging from my wrists. They seemed impossibly red beneath the light. Vic took my chin and turned my head upwards. It felt like a relief to be no longer able to see the destruction of my hands.
I felt my knees slide forward: another body part relieved of skin. I focused my attention on the feeling of Vic’s cock thrusting inside of me, trying to allow the act of sex to distract from the way the integrity of my skin was being eaten away by corrosive chemicals, before the skin fell free from my body completely.
The room now smelled of metal, and I could see a bloom of deepest crimson spreading from the place where we sat in the water, the sounds of Vic’s body against mine filling the room.
Finally, he came, in a series of thrusts that were harder and faster than anything I had experienced before. I felt his body hunch over my back as he withdrew. He kissed my neck, before pulling my soaked panties up from my knees, and tugging my skirt back down.
Vic stood over me, watching me kneel in the liquid. My clothing soaked and clung, fusing to what remained of my skin.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said.
He picked me up in his arms, and carried me into the basement hall. The air seemed frigid, and a chill ran through me as my wet clothes quickly cooled. Vic carried me up the stairs, and I leaned my head against his chest as I studied the rectangle of light at the top of the steps.