I put my hands on Lisa’s shoulders and looked her in the eye.“We’ll knock on the door four times when we come back. If anyone else comes through that door, you bash the hell out of them. You understand?”She let her eyes drift down toward the metal pipe in her hand that I had just given her and nodded. “Yeah, I will.”We were standing next to the door leading out of the barn. After four long days the chains and shackles had finally come off. I was hungry and tired, and very afraid. But I was also casually optimistic. The only person we had to deal with now was Carla, and she was a whole lot smaller than Hank. There were also three of us, and we had the element of surprise on our side.“What will you do when you find her?” Lisa asked, still staring at the metal pipe.“I’ll rip her fucking head off, and shove it up her ass,” Henry said from beside me in a voice that was filled with hatred. “Then I’ll get out the chainsaw and cut her into tiny pieces and feed her to the dog.”Lisa jerked her head up and looked at him, mouth agape.“Now let’s all just calm the fuck down,” I said, and gave Henry a stern look.“I know we’re all on edge, and believe me, there’s nothing that would give me more pleasure than putting a bullet in that bitch’s brain. But we have to keep cool. If we just barge in there and try to take her out, we could mess things up quite badly, and it might just be Carla that sorts us out. There are definitely weapons in that house.”Henry bit down on his lower lip, closed his eyes momentarily and nodded.I put a hand up to my face and started rubbing it, and wished that getting rid of the chains had been the end of our nightmare, and that we didn’t have to face yet another threat.“Henry and I will make our way over to the house and try to incapacitate Carla,” I said.“How are you going to do that?” Lisa shifted her gaze between the two of us. “You said it yourself, you don’t have any weapons and she’s armed to the teeth.”“We’ll think of something,” I said, trying to sound confident, but feeling anything but.Carla would be easy to overpower in an ordinary fight, but the odds always shifted when there were weapons involved. And right now we were walking into a potential deadly situation with our eyes shut. Carla would have no qualms about killing us if it came to it. Henry and I would be extremely lucky if we managed to take her out. I took a deep breath and tried not to think about it.“Are you ready man?” I asked Henry, as I put a hand on the rusty door handle and started pulling the door toward me.He closed his eyes for a few moments, put a clenched fist up to his mouth and nodded.“Let’s do this,” he said.***It was pitch black outside, and there was a cold breeze sweeping across the open ground between the barn and the ramshackle house. I had hoped to see a light on in one of the windows, which would have helped us to pinpoint Carla’s exact location, but the house was just as dark as its surroundings. And for all I knew, she could be looking straight at us from one of those dark windows, preparing for our arrival.I could sense Henry walking up next to me.“Maybe she’s gone to bed?”“Maybe,” I replied, but not placing too much confidence in my own words.“You know, that’s what happens to these meth heads,” Henry continued. “They binge on their drugs and stay up for a week at a time, then they crash and burn and spend the next couple of days in snoozeland.I gritted my teeth and took a look around me, but wasn’t able to see much due to the lack of light. Even Henry’s face was hard to make out, and he was standing less than a foot away.“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” I said, and focused on the almost invisible black contour about sixty yards away that was the house.“Ok, let’s get over there and see what we can find out,” I said and began moving forward.We were about a quarter of the way over, when I heard something hit the ground and heard Henry swearing under his breath.I stopped dead in my track and turned around, but saw only darkness.“What’s wrong?” I whispered.“I fucking tripped on something.”“Are you okay?”“Yeah, I guess so.”I could hear him getting up and walk up next to me, and was about to tell him to keep moving when the dog started barking somewhere behind the house. It was a deep, loud bark that we had heard regularly during our stay in the barn.I uttered a low curse, and in my mind’s eye saw our chances of taking Carla out of the game going down the drain.“Fuck! That dog is bound to wake her up,” Henry said. “What the hell do we do now?”I slammed my fist against my thigh and felt the desperation start to pour over me. Would Carla step out of the house and investigate what had set the dog off? If she did, and if she turned on the lights, she was bound to see us. Fuck!I fought off the urge not to panic, turn around and bolt for the forest that surrounded the place.“Maybe she’ll think it’s Hank coming back from the barn,” I said after a few seconds had passed. “He would normally return to the house around this time.”I could hear Henry breathing heavily to my left.“It’s possible I guess,” he replied cautiously. “I guess we keep moving.”The dog continued to bark, and I knew the odds of Carla not checking up on it would dwindle the longer it kept yapping.We ran the last twenty yards over to the house and pushed our backs up against the wall, and waited. But we were unable to hear anything that would indicate that Carla was about to exit the house. It was as dark and quiet as it had been when we snuck out of the barn.I leaned over and whispered in Henry’s ear that we needed to check the windows. He nodded and began moving toward the one on the left, while I started walking toward the one on the right.When I got there, I had to stand on my toes to look inside, but all I could see was a wall of darkness. I turned around and started making my way back toward the entrance door, and a few moments later, I could hear Henry approaching from the other side.“Did you see anything?” I whispered.“No nothing. It’s too dark.”I took a deep breath, and tried to prepare myself mentally for what we had to do next. I was praying that Carla wasn’t waiting for us in there in the darkness, preparing to finish the job that Hank had started.“Ok, let’s get this over and done with,” I said and placed a hand on the handle on the screen door and gently pulled it toward me. Then I twisted the knob of the solid oak door and began pushing it inward, holding my breath as I did so. The hinges on the heavy door immediately started wailing in protest, and I winced.“For fuck’s sakes, be quiet,” Henry hissed from behind me. “There’s no need to announce our arrival.”I chose not to respond, and instead slipped inside the house. I took a few steps forward, hearing my heart echoing inside my skull. My mouth was as dry as sand, and I could taste the fear on the tip of my tongue.I stopped and listened, my body shaking uncontrollably, but all I could hear was the dog barking and Henry’s almost inaudible footsteps behind me. I forced myself to take long, deep breaths, but it didn’t seem to help.Then the smell hit me, and I subconsciously started breathing through my mouth. The house reeked of urine and mold and god knows what else. I pushed out the few lungfuls of air that I had already inhaled when we stepped inside the house, hoping to rid them of the horrible odor. And as I did so, I could feel my eyes starting to itch. Jesus, what the fuck had they been doing in here?Breathing through my mouth seemed to help, and staying in there immediately became more bearable. And I found myself wondering what the source of the foul smell was, and guessed that it had to be the dog. They must have allowed it to roam around the house and pee and shit wherever it felt like. But then I remembered that both Carla and Hank were heavy drug users, and figured that it could just as easily have been one of them pissing and shitting all over the place.I heard Henry pulling the door shut behind us, the hinges once again letting out their high pitched wail. Then moments later, I sensed him beside me, his breath coming in and out of his mouth in quick short bursts.I assumed he was just as scared as I was, probably even seeing Carla in his mind’s eye about to pull the trigger of some ghastly looking weapon and blow our brains out.But if she had us in our sights, she had decided not to do away with us just yet. I focused on my breathing again, and told myself not to let my imagination run riot. If she had heard us coming, and if she was armed, she would have turned on the lights so she could get a clear look at us. Besides, she had no reason to suspect that we had overpowered and killed Hank. But despite the logic of my reasoning, the nervousness would not leave me alone. If only there had been a faint light source in there instead of all of this darkness.I had hoped that my eyes would have adjusted to the lack of light by now, but I was still unable to see my own hand when I lifted it up in front of my face. Perhaps a few more minutes would help.I could feel Henry place a hand on my shoulder and move his mouth up to my ear.“We have to turn on the lights,” he whispered. “It’s impossible to see anything in here, and if she’s expecting Hank back, it’s not going to matter one way or the other. He would have turned on the lights when he walked through that door.”“But what if she’s awake and suspects that something’s wrong? What if she has a gun?”“Well, if that’s the case, there ain’t nothing that we can do to stop her. She’ll make mincemeat out of us before we even realize what has hit us. But we are not going to be able to get to her the way things are at the moment. It’s the only sensible thing to do Tim.”I put my hand up to my face and rubbed it, and tried to come up with a strategy. And had to concede that Henry had a valid point. Waltzing around in an unfamiliar house in complete darkness, attempting to locate a psychopath that wouldn’t think twice about killing us was probably not the smartest thing to do. If one of us crashed into the furniture, she would know that something was wrong and have time to prepare herself.We also needed something to protect ourselves with, and we weren’t going to find anything in this darkness.“OK. There has to be a light switch here somewhere,” I said.I could hear Henry turning and walking back toward the door, and hear the soft scratching noises his fingers made as they were trying to locate the switch. Then a few moments later the fingers stopped moving and there was a low clicking noise, but the darkness remained.I heard a few more clicks, and then he was back at my side again.“Either there’s a power outage, the bulb is blown, or the house just isn’t connected to the grid.”It took me a few seconds to realize that there was a fourth possible explanation for the lack of light, and it sent shivers up and down my spine. It was quite possible that Carla had suspected that something was wrong, and turned off the main breaker switch. And if that was the case, she was more than likely waiting for us somewhere inside that house. The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that this last scenario was the most plausible one. The house was definitely connected to the electrical grid, or at least had its own power source, because there was a working light out in the barn.“We need to move away from the door,” I whispered and started moving to the right, and could sense Henry following along beside me. I was about to tell him of my fears that Carla might have cut the power when the shot all of a sudden rang out.It was extremely loud and sounded like an explosion going off right in front of my face, and the shock of the unexpected event sent my adrenaline level into overdrive. I could see a muzzle flash from the corner of my eye, only a couple of yards away, and I threw myself down on the floor. Then I began crawling furiously further into the house. I could hear Henry swearing loudly from a few yards away, and there was a loud crash as he walked into something.I was too scared to worry about what had happened to him, and kept dragging myself across the floor. A few moments later, I reached a wall and sat up with my back against it, facing the direction where I thought the crazy bitch had been hiding. Then a sinister thought entered my mind and I swallowed hard, had I been hit?I couldn’t feel any pain, apart from slightly sore arms from when I had thrown myself down on the floor. That of course didn’t mean that the bullet had missed me. Adrenaline is a powerful anesthetic, and it was possible that I wouldn’t feel any pain until the levels dropped back to normal, which by the look of things wouldn’t be anytime soon.I quickly patted my upper body with my hands, but I couldn’t feel any blood. Maybe the psycho bitch had aimed wide? I wanted to ask Henry if he’d been hit, but I didn’t dare to, as it would have given away my position.My ears were still ringing from the shot, but I thought I could hear footsteps coming toward me. I immediately threw myself down on the floor again and started crawling away parallel to the wall. I had no idea what lay ahead of me, but I knew I had to keep moving. Staying in the same spot was a bad idea.I managed to cover a few yards, before the second shot rang out, and judging by the sound, the bullet must have hit the wall that I was leaning against a few seconds earlier.I continued dragging myself forward, my heart literally wedged in my throat. I wanted to scream out at the top of my lungs, but I was too terrified to produce even the tiniest of sounds.Then I heard something crash into a wall, followed by Henry’s loud shouting.“Take that you fucking cunt!”This was followed by three more quick shots.I reached another wall. This one running perpendicular to the one I had been crawling along, and I veered right and continued dragging myself forward until I arrived at a door opening. I slid through it as fast as I could, then jumped up on my feet and moved away from it.Another two shots followed in rapid succession, and then there was complete silence. My hand was shaking badly as I placed it on the wall and continued deeper into the room, hoping desperately that there was an exit I could slip out of and get as far away from this place as possible. I would make my way back to the barn, get Lisa and run into the forest.I cursed myself for my idiotic recklessness and for my complete disregard of the dangers that entering the house unarmed represented. I should never have suggested it. We should have gone into the forest straight away when we had the opportunity to do so.I kept moving forward slowly, and felt my hand hitting something. I stopped, and after a few moments realized that my hand was touching a countertop. I immediately felt a tiny spark of hope and started to reconsider my options.If I could find a knife, then maybe I could stay put and try to stab Carla? A knife would obviously be no match for a gun, at least not in broad daylight, but it was pitch black in here, and if I snuck back to the wall opening and waited for her, then maybe, just maybe I could surprise her.I began making my way down along the countertop, carefully searching the surface for a knife, while at the same time trying to figure out if remaining in the house really was the right thing to do. My gut feeling told me that it was, and when I found the knife a few seconds later, I had made up my mind. I would stay put and finish off the psycho bitch.I wrapped my hand around the plastic hilt and carefully poked the tip of the knife with the index finger of my left hand. It was reasonably sharp, and it should be able to get the job done.Then two more shots rang out, and I automatically ducked down. This was followed by some more commotion, before Henry’s voice boomed out.“You call that shooting you fucking skank? That was miles off. But don’t worry; we’ll get you when you’ve used up all your ammo, bitch.”This insult was answered with another shot, followed by more laughter from Henry.Hearing his voice and knowing that he was alive filled me with an immense relief. Thank God he was alright. Together we could get Carla and exact some justice. Justice for Stephen, Graham and David, who had been taken away from us, not to mention Lisa who’d had to endure what no woman should ever have to endure.I got back up, and just as I was about to return to the door opening, a thought entered my mind. I kept moving further into the kitchen, and soon thereafter I stopped and let my hands wander over the surface that I had been looking for. I uttered an almost inaudible yes and punched the air when I discovered that it indeed was a gas cooker.I grabbed one of the dials and could hear the light, hissing sound of the gas being released into the room. Then I hit the ignition button, and watched as the gas came alive with a bluish yellow hue. I turned the dial all the way to the left, and when I turned around, I was able to make out the contour of the kitchen. It was nothing like having a flashlight, but it was good enough for my purposes. Then I quickly returned to the door opening, where I took up position on the right hand side, ready to drive the knife into Carla the second she stepped inside.The sound of another shot rang out, and I jumped and almost dropped the knife. The shot seemed to be coming from somewhere a lot closer than the previous ones, and I had to use all of my willpower to remain where I was. And I was able to keep it together until I heard the horrible screams a few seconds later. They were coming from Henry. Carla must have finally hit him. The realization sent my pulse into overdrive, and I found it difficult to breathe. I wanted to shout out and ask if he was okay, but I knew I couldn’t. Another loud bang filled the house, and then the screaming stopped and I felt I was only moments away from having a full mental breakdown.The fact that the screaming had ended so abruptly could only mean one thing, and I could see myself facing the same fate within the next few minutes. The hand holding the knife was shaking so badly that I had to steady it with my other hand. I could see myself running out of the kitchen, hoping to find an exit and getting away, but I didn’t trust my legs. How long would it take for Carla to find me in the kitchen? Not very long at all, given that I had turned on the gas. She would have no problem seeing the glow of the flame. I thought about walking back to the stove and turning it off, and just try to stab her in the dark, but I was too paralyzed to make a decision. It was like I was having one of those bad dreams where someone was chasing me and my legs just refused to move. My debilitating fear had physically anchored me to the floor.Then I heard something that filled me with a fear unlike anything else I have ever experienced. I heard a starter cord being pulled. One time, two times, three times and then the chainsaw roared to life.“Oh, my fucking God,” I muttered to myself and felt the nausea hit me like a buckshot. There was no way I would be able to take Carla down when she was armed with the saw. The blade was at least two and a half feet long, and the kitchen knife only measured nine inches from top to bottom.I could hear her revving the engine, and I could tell she was coming toward the kitchen. I couldn’t stay where I was, I had to get away. I gathered all my strength and managed to push myself away from the wall, and ran over to the door opening on the other side, aided by the faint light from the stove. Beyond it was what I assumed to be the living room. But there was no way of telling, it was just too dark in there.I stopped briefly and began feeling around with my hands, hoping to find a way out of the house. I followed the wall around the room until I arrived at one of the windows. The noise from the chainsaw was getting louder by the second, and I suspected Carla had already made it into the kitchen.I acted on pure instinct. I lifted the knife and swung it backwards and brought the butt of the hilt hard against the glass. It shattered immediately, and I could hear the pieces fall down to the ground over the noise of the chainsaw.I took a step back and was about to kick out the remaining shards that I assumed was still there with my foot, when I got an idea. There was no time to think it through though. Carla would have heard the commotion, and would be there within the next few seconds.I quickly stepped away from the window, hoping I wouldn’t crash into anything that would give away my ploy. Then I carefully stuck my foot out and made sure I had a clear path, and managed to make it over to the far wall by the time Carla entered the room. I could hear her moving over to the window, poking at the remaining glass in the frame with the saw.I stood absolutely still, my back pushed up against the wall. My heart was pounding madly in my chest, and I felt completely helpless. If Carla didn’t take the bait, I would be dead within the next sixty seconds. I closed my eyes and wished with all my heart that the evil bitch would turn around and head out to the backyard. But the sound of the chainsaw singing its horrifying tune told me that she was still there.Come on, get the fuck out of here bitch, I kept telling myself. Just take your fucking saw and leave.Then after about half a minute, I could hear her step away from the window and turn toward me. Was she able to sense the fear I was exuding? Could she sense that her victim was still there within easy reach?I exhaled as slowly as I could, clutching the kitchen knife in my right hand. If she came for me, I would only get one chance to plunge the knife into her. After that the saw would begin to cut into my flesh.Another thirty seconds must have passed, and the only thing I could think about was the chainsaw and Carla starting to walk toward me, ready to cut me to pieces. I pressed my eyes shut even tighter, and steeled myself for the inevitable. Would I freeze up when the moment arrived, or would I be able to act valiantly and at least try to stab her?Then I heard her starting to move again, and I raised the arm holding the knife. Please God let me succeed, I prayed as I slowly pushed myself out from the wall. Then I stopped, because I realized that Carla wasn’t moving in my direction. She was going back out into the kitchen again. I took a step back and stood absolutely still, and stood there until I was sure that she had left the room. Then I felt the relief wash over me. I wasn’t going to meet my maker just yet. I had just dodged a bullet.I started walking back toward the kitchen when I heard the chainsaw out in the hallway, and for a brief moment I was wondering if Henry was lying there dead on the floor. Would she eventually return to cut up his body too? The thought made me shudder, and I tried to brush the sinister images aside.By now the sound of the chainsaw had started to dissipate, and I realized she must have left the house. I quickly made my way over to the hallway. Then when I heard the idling of the chainsaw drift in from the back of the house, and Carla telling the dog to shut up, I rushed out of the entrance door and began running back toward the barn.***I could still hear the faint drone of the saw when I hammered the flat of my fist against the door.“It’s me Tim,” I said before pushing the door open and stepping into the light.“What happened?” Lisa said, as she quickly closed the door behind me, her eyes moving erratically around in her sockets. “I heard gunshots and the chainsaw. Did you get her?”“No,” I said and shook my head.“She was waiting for us when we arrived. She killed Henry. I was extremely lucky to get out of there in one piece.”Lisa took a step back and covered her mouth with both hands.“Listen, I don’t have time to tell you what happened. We need to find something we can use to defend ourselves with. It won’t be long before she’ll come out to the barn.”I moved away from the door and started walking toward the section where Carla used to cook her meth. I didn’t know what I was looking for, only that I needed to find something, anything that could give me an edge.“Tim! She’s coming. I can hear the chainsaw and the dog.”I turned and saw Lisa’s ashen face looking at me with pure terror.“What the hell do we do?”I felt the same debilitating sensation that had overwhelmed me inside the house return, but did my best to keep it at bay. I had to keep a cool head, or else we’d both die.I quickly scanned Carla’s workbench, found an empty measuring jar and grabbed it.“Find somewhere to hide quick,” I said, and watched Lisa run over to the corner, where she hid under the tarp covering an old tractor. When she stopped moving, I put the item that might just help me take down Carla in my back pocket. Then I grabbed the pitchfork that was leaning up against the bench, and threw the measuring jar at the light bulb attached to the exposed timber beam a few yards away. I managed to hit it on the first attempt and everything went black.“Lie still, and don’t move a muscle,” I said to Lisa. Then I began moving away from the workbench.***The door was kicked open half a minute later, and the noise from the chainsaw filled the room. Then moments later I heard Carla speak for the first time that evening.“If you think a broken light bulb is going to save you, you must be on cloud nine, fuckface.”Her voice was piercing and had a slight tremor, which indicated that she probably knew that Hank was dead. And I was able to see her quite clearly in my mind. A ravaged face affected by years of drug abuse, a wild look in her eyes and spit flying out of her mouth. A rage that had no doubt been exacerbated when she realized that we weren’t just going to roll over and die. I was also able to picture the chainsaw she was holding, and which she was sweeping aggressively back and forth.I felt some relief at not hearing the dog. Why hadn’t she brought it along? Had she left it in the backyard? If she had, she must have thought that it would be an extremely easy task to finish the two of us off. It would have been a whole lot easier for her if the mutt was there. But for some strange reason she hadn’t made that connection.She was revving the chainsaw wildly as she was moving further into the barn. But without a light it would be difficult for her to locate us. The barn wasn’t that big, but it was bigger than the house, and it had an open layout. And it would be much harder for her to find us in here than in the house.My heart was pumping the blood through my veins at record speed, and I tried not to think about all the things that could go wrong. Tried not to think about the razor sharp chain ripping into my flesh, and the inevitable blood spray that would follow.I could sense that she was getting closer, but I was convinced that she couldn’t see me. The darkness was just as much an impediment for her as it was for me.I moved away from her, mentally picturing the layout of the place and did my utmost to avoid any obstacles. Luckily the sound of the chainsaw muffled my footsteps, which would make it harder for her to pinpoint my position.My plan was to corner her, if possible, then distract her with the item I had found on the workbench and take her out.I could tell that she was getting closer to the bench, and I knew I had to strike soon. I was behind her now, I was pretty sure of that, which meant that I had managed to get her between myself and the workbench.I stopped, closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I quickly went through the plan in my head. There could be no mistakes. I had to execute it flawlessly.I opened my eyes again, grabbed the item sticking out of my back pocket and took a few more steps in her direction. She could be no more than six or seven yards in front of me. I knew I could cover that distance in about a second, at most a second and a half. It should give me enough time, and especially if she was facing in the opposite direction.I knelt down, placed the flashlight on the floor and turned it on. Then I jumped back up again, holding the pitchfork with both hands and began charging her, while screaming from the top of my lungs.It should have been so easy and straight forward. I just had to run as fast as my legs would carry me and thrust the sharp tines of the pitchfork into her belly. Everything was perfect. The beam of the flashlight was shining straight at her, and her only reaction was a slight turn of the head. I would have been able to plant the gardening tool deep inside her back before she’d even had the opportunity to turn the chainsaw in my direction, and thus put an end to our ordeal.But I tripped and landed on my face before I was able to reach her. Then as I raised my head up from the floor, I could see the pitchfork sliding across the concrete surface and coming to a stop right in front of her feet. And by that stage, she had turned all the way around.I felt the blood rush from my head, and gaped at her when she put a foot next to my intended murder weapon and kicked it aside. Then an evil grin spread across her lips when she realized that it was game over for me.“So you thought you were going to get me with that thing, did you?” She spat the words out, the tremor in her voice still there.“Well it didn’t work out now, did it? And now you are going to die shitface.”Then she began walking toward me, and I knew this was it. There weren’t going to be any more chances. This time I had come to the end of the line, and the thing that was going to send me along to the next world was going to be excruciatingly painful. There would be no quick and easy death. I would die in agony.I threw myself over onto my back and began kicking myself away from her. The fear I was experiencing was paralyzing. I wasn’t even able to stand up and try to run away. The only thing I could focus on was the chain of the saw spinning around the metal blade. Soon those spikes would rip into me. And above the noise of the engine, I could hear Carla’s evil laughter.She was moving slowly, as if she wanted to savor the moment and enjoy my fear for as long as possible. She would watch me crawl across the floor until I ran out of space, and then she would bring the saw down on me.When she arrived at the flashlight, she spun it around so the beam hit my eyes, and all I could see was a black shape following a few yards behind me.The rough concrete scrapped against my shoulders, arms and body, but I was too frightened to pay any attention to it. Then eventually my head bumped up against the exterior wall, and I knew I had hit the end of the rope. I quickly pulled myself up into a sitting position, and remembered thinking what a cruel world this was. I had done absolutely nothing to deserve this. I had done nothing to Carla and Hank to warrant such a treatment.I lifted my arms up in front of me, and tried to ward off the saw that was less than a yard away from me now.“Prepare to die pretty boy,” Carla said from behind it, and increased the revolutions as she started to lower the blade.I closed my eyes and prepared for the inevitable, thinking about all the things I’d never gotten around to doing. Thinking about my family, the people I’d leave behind that would have no idea about what had happened to me. The tears were rolling down my cheeks in steady streams, and I was hyperventilating. This was the end, soon I would be no more.Then just as the blade was about to cut into me, I heard a boing, as if someone was striking something against a hollow tube. This was followed by a clang when the chainsaw hit the ground, which again was followed by a decrease in revolutions as Carla’s hand came off the throttle.I shot open my eyes and saw Lisa standing in front of me. In her hand was the metal pipe that Hank had used to beat us with. I quickly lowered my gaze and saw Carla lying motionless next to the chainsaw. I let out an unintelligible sound and pushed myself sideways away from it. Then I sat where I was for almost a full minute, crying my eyes out, before I got back up on my feet.***We left the property shortly before dawn. We found the keys to the Crown Vic parked next to the house in Hank’s pocket. It was the car that had brought us there, and it was the car that we would leave the place in.The three hours between taking Carla out and leaving in Hank’s car were spent searching the house. We used the flashlight to locate the fuse box and were able to turn on the power again. I had been correct, Carla had heard us coming and promptly cut the power to make it harder for us.We found Henry in the hallway, and as I already knew, he was dead. He had two big holes in his thigh and one in the chest, and he had been cut in half with the chainsaw. He was on his back staring up at the ceiling, and in a weird way he looked peaceful. We found a blanket on one of the couches in the living room, and before we placed it over him, Lisa leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. Then she placed her fingers on his eyelids and closed his eyes.Other than that we didn’t find that much. I had expected to see the remains of our dead friends, but they were nowhere to be seen. Nor did we find a working phone so we could contact the local authorities.Before we left, we returned to the barn where Carla was lying gagged and chained on the floor. I looked down at the chainsaw lying next to her and wondered if I should fire it up and give her some of her own medicine.Lisa must have sensed what I was thinking and placed a hand on my shoulder, and shook her head. Then she went over to where the pitchfork was lying, picked it up and told me to roll Carla over onto her back.I did what she asked me to do, and we both stared into Carla’s desperate eyes that pleaded with us to show her some mercy. Lisa was standing with a leg on either side of Carla’s hips, while I was pinning her shoulders to the ground. I lifted my gaze, gave Lisa a quick nod and turned away. Then a few seconds later, I heard a loud groan and felt Carla jerk and twist her upper body as the pitchfork plunged into her midsection.Before we left the barn, we removed the chain and the gag from Carla’s dead body and got into the Crown Vic. Then we drove down the narrow dirt road until we hit the two lane a mile further along.Our nightmare was finally over. via /r/scaredshitless https://ift.tt/3oKvOJM
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