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  “I told you Marit couldn't be trusted,” Jennifer replied, making her way to the center of the room and staring into the girl's terrified eyes. “I told you last time, after Karen, she doesn't have it in her. She was always the weak link.”

  “At least she lured her friend over here for us,” Joe pointed out. “She's been useful.”

  Again Marit tried to speak, but she stopped when she saw the smile on Jennifer's face.

  “Are you done yet?” Jennifer asked, turning to watch as Joe worked on the chains. After a moment she turned and glanced at Dan as he filmed them from the doorway. “Don't get my face in shot too much,” she told him. “I don't care how many filters and masks you're gonna use on the video before it's released, I don't like it.”

  “Why would I even want you in the shot?” he replied dismissively. “No-one wants to look at some frigid little princess with her clothes on, not when there are two main events ready to start up.”

  Rolling her eyes, Jennifer turned to see that Joe had finished with Anna, who was now securely chained to the chair with her head dropping down.

  “I say we get started as soon as we're ready,” Joe said, stepping back to admire his work so far. “Why wait? I want us to be a good way through by the time Cole shows up.”

  “No mistakes this time,” Jennifer muttered, before turning first to him and then to Daniel, who'd been joined in the doorway by Christian. “I'm serious. Remember when Karen managed to get away and we thought for a couple of hours that we were totally screwed? My father isn't around anymore to pick her up and bring her back to us, so I want this whole damn thing to go according to plan without a single mistake. No cutting corners, no getting sloppy, no leaving things where they shouldn't be left, no -”

  “You don't have to lecture us,” Joe said, interrupting her as he headed to the doorway. “I'm going to get my gear.”

  “The bitch broke my projector,” Daniel muttered, with his camera still trained on Anna's unconscious face. “Do you guys have any idea how much I'm out on that thing?”

  “You'll be able to afford all the projectors you want,” Jennifer replied with a smile, kneeling in front of Marit's trembling body and staring into her eyes. She paused for a moment, before reaching forward and starting to loosen the gag covering the girl's mouth. “You know,” she continued, “I think you're going to be extra fun. I never liked you, not even -”

  Marit began screaming as the gag fell away. Jennifer winced slightly, as Marit tugged on her chains and cried out for help at the top of her voice.

  “You of all people should know that no-one's coming to the rescue,” Jennifer said calmly. “Remember how Karen Lund screamed three years ago? No-one came for her, did they?” Getting to her feet, she turned and headed over to join the others in the doorway. “Okay,” she announced, “it's showtime.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Slowly, with no hint of urgency, Anna's eyes began to flicker slightly. They were still shut, but there was just enough movement to disturb the dust on her lashes and to show that she was starting to wake up.

  Finally the heavy lids began to move, revealing her eyes beneath.

  Just a couple of inches away, the camera's black lens stared straight back at her.

  “Well that's about time,” a female voice said, echoing slightly from the darkness. “I was starting to worry she'd suffered some kind of spontaneous brain damage.”

  Anna's eyes remained fixed on the camera for a moment, her pupils slowly getting wider as she tried to get used to the low light. She paused for a moment, before her lips parted and a faint clicking sound came from deep down in her throat. Still she stared into the lens, before finally she began to lift her head, looking beyond the camera and seeing several figures watching from the darkness.

  “Look at the confusion,” Jennifer continued, with a hint of great anticipation in her voice. “Look at the shock. Her brain's struggling to process all the inputs, she still can't quite believe that this is really happening.”

  Behind the chair, Anna's hands twisted slightly, pulling on the chains.

  “Wakey wakey,” Jennifer said, stepping closer and snapping her fingers just inches from Anna's face. “Time to wake up, you fucking dumb-ass bitch. I hope you're ready for your close-ups, because you're going to get a lot of them.” Moving her fingers down onto Anna's lips, she smiled. “It's okay,” she continued, “you were knocked unconscious a few hours ago, so you're probably feeling a little hazy right now. We haven't given you any drugs, though, not since last night when we slipped something into your beer to finally get your legs parted. Frigid cow. Right now, though, there's nothing in your system to numb your senses. Let's just wait a few seconds until your brain kicks back in and -”

  Suddenly Anna turned, looking around the room with an expression of disbelief. She pulled harder on the chains around her wrists, and then she looked down and saw her own naked body with several more restraints holding her tight against the chair.

  “That's right,” Jennifer said, as Daniel pulled back to get a wider shot. “Time to -”

  “Help me!” Anna screamed, desperately trying to get up from the chair. “Somebody help me!”

  ***

  “This is one of my favorites,” Jennifer explained, as Daniel filmed Anna sobbing on the chair. “It's a nice way to get warmed up.”

  With that, she cracked a whip across Anna's chest, causing her to cry out in pain as her skin was split open.

  ***

  “What was the most painful thing you ever experienced before tonight?” Jennifer asked, as Daniel moved around behind Anna with the camera still aimed at her. “Try to think back.”

  “Please let me go,” Anna stammered, with tears streaming down her face and blood still dribbling from wounds on her shoulders and chest. “Please, you have to let me go...”

  “We don't have to do anything,” Jennifer replied calmly, looking at the razor blade in the palm of her right hand. “You can scream all you like, Anna, but no-one's going to come and help you. We're so far from civilization out here, there's not a chance in hell that anyone will stumble close enough to the cabin to hear you.” Smiling, she reached out and flicked Anna's right nipple.

  “Please!” Anna screamed, her voice hoarse and dry after screaming for so many hours. Her bottom lip was trembling and after a moment she began to let out a series of deep, guttural sobs that seemed to take over her entire body. “Why are you doing this to me?”

  “For money,” Jennifer explained, making her way behind the chair as Daniel moved to the front, with the camera zooming in to get a better shot of Anna's tears. “Why does anyone do anything these days?”

  “No,” Anna whimpered, “please, you can't, please...”

  Jennifer knelt behind her, smiling as she held the razor blade out for Anna to see. “In a moment,” she explained, “I'm going to use this to carefully slice off your right nipple.”

  “No,” Anna sobbed, staring in horror at the blade as it glinted in the low light. “You can't, you can't...”

  “And then,” Anna continued, reaching down and picking up a power drill, which she revved several times next to Anna's ear, “I'm going to drill holes in your bones so I can...” She smiled. “Well, I'll explain that to you a little later.” She set the drill back down, before holding the razor blade in front of Anna's terrified, tear-filled eyes. “Razor first, drill later.”

  ***

  As Anna's anguished screams continued to ring out from the basement, Joe and Christian sat silently on the porch, watching the campfire as it burned under the night sky.

  Raising a beer bottle to his lips, Joe took a swig, his eyes fixed on the flames. Anna's screams faltered briefly, as if she was exhausted, before the sound of a power drill began and the screams returned, more desperate than before.

  ***

  As Anna leaned forward in the silent basement, blood began dripping from her trembling lips.

  Nearby, Jennifer's footsteps could be heard heading over to the fa
r side of the room, as Daniel knelt to get a better shot of Anna's face.

  “You've been quiet for a while now,” Jennifer said as she took her time examining the tools on the table. She held up a chisel, followed by a set of pincers and finally a saw. “I hope you're not flagging already, Anna. We did promise Mr. Cole that you'd be better than the Lund girl. Not that I'm complaining about her, of course. As an introduction to this sort of thing, she was the perfect victim, she clung to life with so much passion and anger. She even managed to slip away for a few hours.”

  She turned the saw over, spotting her own reflection in the metal.

  “That's what ruined my father,” she continued. “He was weak, in many ways. A cop, obviously, and at his funeral everyone went on and on about what a good man he'd been. But something just broke in his soul when he realized what Joe and I had gotten involved with. He should have arrested us, of course, but we managed to make him see reason. How can a man arrest his own children? Hell, when Karen escaped, Pappa even went and got her for us and brought her right back here. So useful.” She turned to Anna. “I think he just couldn't process the truth about us. Sometimes, a person's mind just breaks, and there's no way back. They're permanently fucked. Six months later he was dead. Suicide. I guess he couldn't handle the guilt, or the knowledge of what his children were capable of doing to another human being. I'm sure he agonized over the whole nature versus nurture question.”

  She made her way back across the room, holding the saw up for Anna to see.

  “I suppose I helped him on his way, though,” she explained. “I made sure his loaded rifle was always close by during those long evenings when I kept refilling his whiskey glass, feeding into his despair, letting the horror grow until there was only one way for him to escape. I think Joe believes I actually killed Pappa, but that's not true at all. I probably would have done, eventually, because the guilt was getting to him and I was worried he'd do something stupid. Fortunately, he tidied himself away first, albeit with a little prompting. I guess Joe and I must have inherited our guts and steeliness from Mamma's side of the family, 'cause Pappa was a goddamn pussy in the end.”

  She paused for a moment, before setting the saw aside and kneeling in front of Anna.

  “Why so quiet?” she asked. “Are you already in shock? Is your mind broken?”

  She waited, staring into Anna's tear-filled eyes.

  “You don't scream enough for my liking,” she continued. “I can fix that, of course, but first I think our audience at home would like to see something a little more psychological.” Turning, she headed to the door and slipped out of the room, leaving Anna sobbing on the chair as Daniel continued to film. On a nearby monitor, silent images of the previous few days were being shown. Anna watched covert shots of herself sitting at the campfire and laughing, and talking with Marit at the lake, and showering, and having sex with Joe, and making food in the kitchen, and several other scenes. It was as if every moment had been filmed after she'd arrived at the cabin. There were even a few shots from the car ride, and one of her being greeted at the airport.

  A moment later there was a faint bumping sound from nearby, followed by the sound of wood being scraped against wood, and finally Jennifer returned dragging Marit still bound to a chair.

  “No,” Anna whispered, shocked as she saw that not only was her friend alive, but that she was badly hurt with burns and cuts all over her body.

  “So here's the bitch who lured you here in the first place,” Jennifer said with a grin, turning the chair around and positioning it directly in front of Anna so that the two girls' knees were touching. “Unfortunately she let herself get freaked out, and now she's on the wrong side of the camera.”

  “No!” Anna shouted, trying to lunge forward but held back by chains.

  “I'm sorry,” Marit whispered, with tears running down her face. “Please don't do this anymore. Please let me die.”

  “Tell Anna how you invited her to Norway purely so she could be our next victim?” Jennifer said with a smile, placing her hands on the girl's bare shoulders. “Tell her how you were only too willing to let this happen until you suddenly got spooked by imagined ghosts at the window.”

  “No,” Anna whispered, stunned as she stared at Marit, “we're friends, you're my friend, tell me she's lying.” She waited, but slowly a sense of pure, cold fury began to rise through her chest. “Tell me she's lying!” she screamed, once again trying to lean forward and this time managing to shift her chair a few inches. “She's lying!”

  “I'm so sorry,” Marit sobbed. She added something else, but she was crying too much now for any of the words to be clear.

  “Well this is cute,” Jennifer said with a grin, as she held up one of the razor blades she'd used earlier. Next to her, Daniel got into position, filming a wide shot.

  “I'm sorry,” Marit whimpered, her whole body convulsing now. “I'm so sorry...”

  “Sorry's never enough, though, is it?” Jennifer asked, keeping her gaze fixed firmly on Anna. “Sorry doesn't count. What's needed is cold, hard revenge.”

  With that, she turned and slashed the blade across Marit's right eye.

  ***

  There were two screams rising up from the basement now, filling the clearing with such horror that the leaves on the nearest trees seemed to twitch in response.

  As Joe continued to peel the label from his beer bottle, Christian got to his feet and made his way to the treeline before stopping and pacing back toward the cabin. After a moment, however, he stopped and stared at the building as the screams continued. He told himself it was just jumpiness, maybe even guilt, but he couldn't shake the feeling that the empty windows were staring back at him.

  Chapter Twelve

  “I'm thinking we'll be out of here tomorrow,” Jennifer muttered, still cleaning herself up after sex with Christian. “I mean, there's only so long those two bitches can hold up for, right?”

  She tossed some paper into the trash before turning to see that Christian was already getting dressed. She watched him for a moment, admiring his muscles while Anna's screams continued to ring out from the basement two floors below.

  “You okay?” she asked finally.

  He glanced at her. “Huh? Yeah, I'm fine.”

  “Thinking about what we're gonna do with all that money?” she continued, smiling as she made her way over and sat next to him on the bed. “You are gonna pay your student loan off first, aren't you? Please tell me you'll prioritize important things, responsible things, before you start thinking about going crazy.”

  He nodded, while muttering something under his breath.

  “We can afford to get into the housing market,” she pointed out. “There are so many nice apartments around, and I just think this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change our futures. I mean, it's not like we want to keep doing this kind of thing forever, is it? Karen Lund was practice, and now Anna and Marit are the main event. With the money we get from -”

  “Whatever,” he replied, interrupting her as he got to his feet and headed to the door. “I just want to get it done and get out of here.”

  “She's certainly got a pair of lungs on her,” Jennifer continued. “I was worried she wouldn't be much of a screamer, but she's really started to make some noise.” She paused, listening to the sound of Anna's agony drifting through the cabin. “I think, to be honest, I'll be glad when this is over. It's been fun for a while, but I think you'd have to be a whole different kind of person to be able to put up with all the screaming for long. Much better to do what we're doing, and just draw a line under it when we leave, and then never think about it again.”

  Christian nodded, but as he reached the door he stopped and glanced back at her. “And you can do that?”

  “Sure. Why?”

  He paused, as if he was worried about replying.

  “I've honestly never thought much about Karen Lund since it all happened,” she continued, getting to her feet and going over to join him. “You need
to develop the mental fortitude that lets you separate different memories and emotions. I know you can do it, Christian, you're more than smart enough. I wouldn't be dating you if this hot body was your only asset. It's like Cole was saying last time, you need to separate your feelings from your thought processes. That's how he's been so successful, he always manages to make decisions based on logical points, even when he's operating in a messy, emotional world.”

  “How much do you actually know about this Cole guy anyway?”

  “I know he's smarter than anyone I've ever met,” she replied, with a faint smile. “I know he's built, like, this huge underground empire that's made him a very rich man, and I know he's done that by always basing his decisions on logic and order. They say he's been involved in the production of these videos for a couple of decades now, and he's really got the market cornered when it comes to the internet. How else would he be able to pay us so much for what we're doing here? Cole's a goddamn miracle. We should all try to be more like him.”

  “And you're sure we can trust him?”

  “This is your first time,” she continued. “I get it, you're uncertain about a few things. I wish you'd been with us for the Karen Lund tape, because that was a real eye-opener. Slowly watching the human body breaking down, watching as its soul withers away leaving just the wretched meat behind, twitching whenever it's prodded. I remember looking into Karen's eyes and wondering whether she was still in there, or whether her meat machine was simply reacting mindlessly to pain. I never quite worked that out, although I think there was a little dribble of consciousness at the very end, as she died.” She paused for a moment, as if she was replaying the moment in her mind. “It must be harder for you, though, being the only one here who hasn't done something like this before.”