Charlotte Closed Her Eyes

Each drip slowly eroded the last vestiges of sanity Charlotte possessed. Secured at the wrists and ankles with leather straps, she lay there, watching and waiting. She couldn't even turn her head because her hair was nailed to the table so tightly she thought it would pull loose from her scalp. The only option she had was to close her eyes, but she couldn't do that.

Her sister was suspended above her by meat hooks through her arms, legs and the skin on her back. Her hair was tied in a knot over another hook to hold her head up. Her fear-stricken gaze was locked with Charlottes. Charlotte couldn't close her eyes until her sister shut hers.

The sisters could not talk with their lips sewn shut, so they spoke to each other with their eyes. Charlotte watched the light dim in her sister's green gaze. She knew a person could not last long after losing so much blood.

Unwillingly, she thought back to the moment she woke up and saw the man slice her sister open, reach inside and pull the baby out. She knew he had waited for her to wake up because the bastard smiled right before cutting her sister open. She thought sheer terror was the only thing that kept her sister from passing out.

The squeak of a rusty hinge from the man opening the door snapped Charlotte back to the present in time to hear her sister release a heavy sigh and shut her eyes. As the man pressed the blade of his knife against her stomach, one last tear fell from her sister's lashes and dripped onto Charlotte's cheek. Offering a silent prayer, Charlotte closed her eyes.