It was hard to sleep. Hard to get comfortable with the searing pain in his back, and the thick shock collar on his neck. Rene managed to doze briefly when he curled up on his left side in the fetal position. He had barely begun to dream when he heard unmistakable screams. The man was torturing Khal again. Rene could hear him clear as day down the hallway. 

Rene sat up, listening tensely, certain that at any moment he was going to hear one final scream of pain from Khal and then nothing. The thought made him sick to his stomach. He nearly hurled in the bucket that his captor had left behind, but he managed to hold back. 

Rene looked around the room for anything he might be able to use as a weapon. Anything within reach. There was nothing. All items on the wall were too far away for him to reach without the collar going off, and since the next shocks would likely kill him, it didn’t make sense to chance it. He eyed the bucket, and considered how it might be useful in a pinch. 

There was an extended scream from Khal, one which caused Rene to flinch from the clear agony his friend was in. He heard murmurs, pleadings, then the unmistakable sound of boots, and something being dragged. Rene backed toward the wall, wincing as his tattoo brushed against the hard concrete, just as the door opened. He watched in shock as the killer walked into the room, dragging a bloody and beaten Khal into the room.  

The killer dumped Khal on the bed, and headed back out of the room, slamming the door behind him. 

“Khal! Khal!” Rene gasped, grabbing his friend’s hand and placing a hand tenderly on Khal’s bruised face. “You’re alive. Jesus, what has he done to you?”

Khal slowly opened his eyes and looked up at Rene. Through the obvious pain in his face, he managed a small smile.

“Khal, hey. Stay with me, okay? We’re gonna think of something. We’re gonna get out of this, together.”

Khal slowly sat up and looked around the room. He shook his head. 

“No.” Khal breathed. “No, this is what he did with the last guy, when I was first here. He’s brought me in here to finish me off.”

“What do you mean?” Rene asked. 

Khal gestured to the ropes and chains on the ceiling beam. Rene felt his mouth go dry. 

“We’re together now.” Rene said. “We’ll think of something. We can fight him.” 

“He’s too strong.” Khal said, brushing his fingers over his own shock collar. Rene looked Khal over. His shirt, a white t-shirt like Rene’s, was covered in blood. There was a specific stain on his back, which Rene suspected was a tattoo, just like his. There were marks up and down his arms. It looked like he’d been hit with a whip of some sort. He had a black eye and a fat lip. It looked like he’d gone several rounds with a boxer well above his weight class. 

“We can’t give up. I won’t give up.” Rene said. He’d been so close to giving up so many times since he’d gotten there, but now that Khal was next to him, it felt like they had a chance, that together they could fight this monster. 

“You don’t understand. He’s too strong. I tried to fight him before, to stop him from killing that young man, but he just shocked me until I passed out. When I came to, he was dead. He was dead, and I could only watch as his body was dragged away to who knows where.”

Tears were leaking from Khal’s eyes. Rene leaned over and brushed them away. 

“It wasn’t your fault.” Rene said. “His death was not your fault.”

Khal looked at him, and a recognition came over his face, like he was truly seeing Rene for the first time there. 

“Why did he come after you?” Khal asked. “What happened?”

“When he grabbed you, I ran after you.” Rene said. “But I wasn’t fast enough. I went on the news, and I told them everything. I searched for days for the van he took you in. Then, he grabbed me from the library. He was too fast. Too strong. Too well prepared. He ki-he killed Frank.”

“You shouldn’t have done that.” Khal shook his head. “You shouldn’t have provoked him like that. I never wanted anything to happen to you.”

“Well, I’m here now, and we’re going to figure something out.” Rene said, feeling an ache at Khal’s words. “I’m not going to let him kill you.”

“You’re not going to have much of a choice.” Khal insisted. 

“No.” Rene squeezed Khal’s hand. “Don’t think like that. Don’t give up yet. We need to work together.”

Khal closed his eyes and laid down on the bed. It was clear that his heart wasn’t in it. Seeing him give up so completely was harder than anything else Rene had been forced to endure there yet. The reality of dying now, of watching his friend die, was too much to bear. 

Rene leaned back against the wall again, wincing audibly when his tattoo stung. Khal glanced at him through his good eye. 

“He gave you a tattoo, didn’t he?” Khal asked. 

Rene nodded. 

“Is it the Ankh?” Khal asked. 

Rene hadn’t actually bothered to look at his tattoo yet. He’d felt nothing but shame and humiliation at being marked. What the mark was hadn’t really mattered to him. Khal sat up again, turned his back toward Rene, and lifted his shirt. Sure enough, there was a blue ankh there on his lower right back. If Rene was being perfectly honest, it was an incredible tattoo, intimately detailed with markings and colors he’d never seen in a tattoo before. 

“I’ve shown you mine, now you show me yours.” Khal said with a sad smile. Rene slowly turned and lifted his shirt. Khal gently touched the skin around the freshly tattooed area. There was something so soothing about his fingers. 

“You’ve got the ankh too. I suppose our captor must have a strange obsession with the Egyptians and eternal life.” Khal said. 

“Hard to have eternal life when you’re murdered and tossed in a river.” Rene pointed out. 

“Maybe he feels by marking us he’s keeping our souls for himself. Or whatever twisted sadists think, you know?” Khal said. 

Rene nodded. He was thinking fast, trying to remember what he’d read about Egypt in the past. 

“Did he mark the other man? Do you remember?” Rene asked. 

Khal frowned, clearly trying to think back, “I’m not sure. He was covered in blood, but I was too panicked to pay attention.”

“If it’s all part of his ritual, then maybe we can throw it off somehow, force him to change tactics. Distract him until we can fight b-” Rene collapsed on the bed mid sentence as volts of electricity shot into his throat. He screamed and jerked for several seconds, vaguely aware of the door opening while electric pain coursed through him. Then, as suddenly as it had started, the pain ceased, and he was lying on the bed gasping for breath as Khal was violently wrenched up and dropped on his stomach with a grunt.

The man placed a knee in the middle of Khal’s back to keep him pinned down as he used a key to remove his electric collar. 

“No!” Khal screamed, and Rene realized that this was what Khal had witnessed when the young man had been killed before. 

“Wait!” Rene begged, grabbing at Khal’s hand as the shock collar was tossed aside and his friend was dragged over to the beam. The man pulled down a rope and fastened it over Khal’s neck in one swift motion. In an instant, Khal was being dragged up by his neck in the noose.

Khal kicked and choked, fighting to draw breath. His good eye was bulging, his toes just brushing the floor as he struggled. 

“Please!” Rene screamed. “Please don’t kill him!”

The man smiled at Rene as he slowly pulled the noose higher. Now Khal’s feet couldn’t touch the floor at all. 

“Stop it!” Rene begged. “Please don’t do this!”

Rene cast about for something, anything that could help him out right now. He saw Khal’s collar on the floor with the key in it. He briefly thought about grabbing it and trying to free himself, but he knew that in the time he took to do that, he would be shocked unconscious, just like Khal was. In fact, the man was probably counting on him trying it. 

Rene looked at Khal’s face, at his skin turning bluish, at his gasps for air. He would do anything for his friend right now, anything to give him a chance. 

“Kill me instead!” Rene shouted. “Take my life instead! Please!”

The killer hesitated, looking at Rene thoughtfully, then he dropped the rope, and Khal went crashing to the ground. A moment later, Khal was drawing in ragged breaths as the man crossed the room and crouched down next to Rene. 

“No one’s offered that before.” The man said. “A life exchange. I like it when we can mix things up.”

“No.” Khal whispered harshly through his damaged throat. “Rene, no.”

Rene swallowed. He’d already made his decision. He couldn’t sit by and watch the life slowly drain from Khal. He had to do whatever he could to stop it. Even if it meant never getting home to Emory again. 

He closed his eyes and pictured his daughter. He wanted to remember her clearly before whatever happened next. Bracing himself, he put everything else out of his mind except for her. Little Emory, with her cute dresses, her adorable quips, and her knowledge beyond her years. His precious baby. 

Any moment, he expected to be whisked across the room, to feel the life smothered out of him, but the moment never came. He opened his eyes to see the man dragging Khal over to the bed, and fastening his collar back on him. 

The man turned around to pick up something. The remote for the collars. He’d somehow dropped it. Suddenly, remembering the dream he’d had about Adam, Rene kicked out, buckling the man’s knees and sending him collapsing backwards on the bed. Rene wrapped his arm around the man’s throat, and began to choke, with all of the strength he could muster. The man fought and struggled to move away, but he didn’t have the remote, and Rene’s grip was too tight. 

Rene hung on with everything he had, knowing that if he let go then this was it. It would all be over. The man squirmed and wiggled and pulled at Rene’s arm, but he was already slowing down. After a few more moments, his arms slumped to his sides. Rene continued to hold on, not daring to believe the man was really out. 

He happened to glance over at Khal, who was staring at him wide-eyed. Khal hovered a hand over the man’s mouth then shook his head. 

“He’s gone.” Khal said. “He’s dead.”

Rene finally released his captor and lay back on the mattress, taking in several shaky breaths while he processed what he’d just done. 

There was the sound of jingling keys as Khal searched the man. A moment later, Khal had crawled around their captor’s body and was carefully removing the collar from Rene’s neck. He handed Rene the key, and Rene did the same for him. 

“I can’t believe it.” Khal said, his voice raspy. “You did it. You saved us. How did you know to do that?”

“A dream I had.” Rene knew it sounded silly saying it out loud, but it was the truth. 

Khal said nothing as he searched around their captor’s pockets and found more keys. He then stood up, with some effort, and put out a hand for Rene. 

Rene slowly extricated himself from underneath the man’s body. He got onto his knees, and took Khal’s hand to pull himself up to a standing position. His whole body was on fire, but he was sure it was nothing to how Khal felt. Holding hands, not daring to let go of one another, they limped down the dark hallway. Rene found a light-switch, and the dim incandescent bulb lit their way as they made their way out. 

There was an open door as they went, and Rene glanced in to see another mattress, this one far more splattered with blood. He glanced at Khal, who was pointedly not looking at the room. They reached the end of the hallway to find a locked door. Khal released Rene’s hand as he went through the ring of keys, trying each one individually until he found one that opened the door, which led to stairs.

Khal slumped as they started to make their way upstairs. Rene pulled Khal’s arm over his shoulder and did his best to assist him in climbing up the stairs. It seemed to take forever. They finally reached the top and opened the door to find sunshine streaming into a very fancy looking house. It wasn’t at all what Rene had been expecting. There were crystal chandeliers, intricate wallpaper in every room, and expensive looking pieces of art placed throughout. Rene guided Khal into the nearest chair, which happened to be next to the kitchen table, then ran around looking for a phone. 

He was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon a landline. Without hesitation, he dialed 9-1-1, and hurried back over to support Khal, who had slumped over the table, thoroughly exhausted. 

“9-1-1, where is the location of your emergency.”

“I don’t know where we are.” Rene said. “I need you to find it through this phone. My friend and I were kidnapped by the serial killer, but we’re alive. We made it out alive. He’s in bad shape. We need an ambulance. The killer is dead, I think. Please, we need assistance immediately.”

“You’re with the serial killer?” The dispatcher asked. 

“We’re at his house. Or the house he’s been using. Please, send someone as soon as possible.” Rene begged. 

“We have police and EMTs on the way sir. Please remain on the line until they get there.”

“I will.” Rene said. He placed the phone on speaker and set it on the table as he took Khal’s hand. Khal, who was resting his head on his other arm, turned to smile at Rene. 

“Thank you for saving my life.” Khal muttered, slowly managing to sit up, though he looked pretty wobbly. 

“You saved my life first.” Rene said. “I was just returning the favor.”

“What you did was so brave, so incredible. No one else has ever done that for me. No one else would ever have been willing to lay down their life like that for me. Thank you.”

“Hey, save your energy, okay? They’re going to be here soon to take us to the hospital. Do you want some water?”

“Sir, I wouldn’t suggest giving him water before you’re seen at the hospital.” The dispatcher interjected. 

“I guess that’s a no on the water.” Khal said. He squeezed Rene’s hand in his as they heard the sirens of the EMTs and police approaching the house. 

Chapter 17 https://storiesfrommontana.com/2023/05/14/writing-challenge-2023-chapter-17-respite-and-a-rascal/