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Upon regaining consciousness, the first thing Ashley became aware of was how her face was throbbing. She pin-pointed the pain to her left eye, and then groaned as the memories of what had happened began to break through the fog that was only just beginning to clear from her mind.
‘Ash? Ash!’
Chris! That was Chris’s voice. Relief stabbed her chest at the sound. He was still alive; they were still together.
Ashley lifted her head and opened her eyes as best as she could. One was bruised and swollen to the point where she could barely see out of it. She doubted that the bulb hanging above them helped – it’s light was too bright in contrast to the darkness around them.
‘Oh, Jesus, Ash… what did he do to you?’
‘I think he hit me…’ Ashley said weakly.
‘Shit! I’m gonna murder his fucking face off.’ Chris looked all around the room in attempt to catch sight of the psycho that had put them there in the first place.
‘What is this?’ Ashley’s voice broke on a sob that she was unable to contain. It was too much. Was it not enough that she had almost been torn apart by that saw-blade in the shed? Recalling that moment, the one where her life had literally been resting in Chris’s hands, she sobbed again.
‘Oh, Chris…’
‘This is him. This is the fucker who killed Josh.’ Chris said.
‘Oh my god, no!’ Ashley wailed, ‘Oh God, Chris!’
For the second time in the space of only a few hours, panic took over. Its grip was icy and she couldn’t get enough breath into her lungs. She had cheated death once tonight. It wasn’t possible to be lucky enough to escape it again.
‘You murdering piece of shit! You monster!’ Chris screamed his frustration out to an empty room and tried fruitlessly to tear away the strap that had one of his wrists bound to the chair.
‘Look around!’ Ashley wasn’t entirely sure if she was making any sort of coherent sense anymore, ‘We’re gonna die, Chris! I don’t think I’m ready to die!’
‘No one is going to die.’ He sounded relatively calm given the situation they were in, and Ashley knew it was because of the hysteria that had been creeping into her own voice. He wanted her to stay calm too. Her heart ached painfully at the thought. There he was, facing their demise with an air of fearlessness and confidence that put Ashley to shame, and it was all for her. He was so good to her, too good, and she’d never had the courage to tell him how much she appreciated it; how much she appreciated him.
‘I wish I could tell you… It’s just not fair!’
The realization of how much time they had wasted crushed her now that there was no time left. A strangled cry of frustration tore through clenched teeth as she stamped her foot and tugged pointlessly at her own bound wrist.
‘What?’ Chris asked in confusion, ‘Tell me what?’
‘It’s too late,’ Ashley looked at him helplessly, tortured by thinking that it could be the last time she’d get to do so, ‘What’s the point, Chris?’
‘Stop it! Just… say.’ Chris was smart. There was no alarm on his face, no confusion in his voice anymore. He knew exactly what it was she wanted to tell him, and after all… what was left to lose? They would both be dead in minutes. There would never be another chance for it.
‘We’ve always talked around it, and now, I mean, we’ve wasted everything!’
Chris stopped her then, and his voice was surprisingly soft, ‘Ashley… none of it was wasted.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Every second that I spent with you was the only thing I ever wanted to do with my time.’ Chris’s façade slipped and his voice wavered. In that moment, he was more vulnerable and open than Ashley had ever seen him. It only brought on a fresh round of tears, more sobs that were beginning to hurt her stomach.
‘What are you saying, Chris?’
‘I’m sorry,’ Chris dropped his gaze to the table that sat between them, ‘I should’ve told you how I felt.’
‘Chris…’ Ashley’s heart squeezed at his words, but that small spark of joy was quickly squashed. Reality was swift to consume her again, hitting so hard and fast that her head bowed with the weight of it. Why had it needed to come to this, a literal life or death situation, for them to admit how much they truly cared for each other?
‘Ashley, I swear when we get out of this – ’
Whatever Chris had been away to say next was cut short as the saw-blades directly above each of their heads suddenly ripped to life and began their slow descent. Chris’s cry of “Oh, god!” and Ashley’s scream of terror was barely audible as the bare, concrete walls amplified the metallic screeching of the blades.
‘No! Help, Chris!’ Ashley sobbed desperately.
‘Ashley, I’ll get you out of this! I won’t let you die!’ There was no confidence left in the way Chris spoke, but Ashley didn’t blame him, nor did she think any less of him. What could he do for her, really?
Ashley made the mistake of glancing up, right at the machine that would soon cut straight through her, and screamed again. No sooner had she done so did a new voice speak out over the noise of the blades. It was loud and echoing and sickeningly familiar.
‘Hello, my special little subjects.’
‘Aw, shit!’
‘I’m so scared, Chris.’ Ashley's lip quivered.
‘Don’t be scared – ’
Again, Chris was cut off. This time, by the psycho.
‘Oh, you should be, Ash, because here’s the twist. Chris has made one fatal choice already today, and now he must make another. Chris, you can take that gun in front of you and shoot Ashley, or you can shoot yourself. Whoever is left can live. The choice is yours.’
Ashley’s face was screwed up and she continued to shake her head back and forth weakly. It had been different before, but there was only two of them here. He didn’t get to decide between her life and someone else’s. It was hers or his. Which did he value more? It was a decision Ashley herself wasn’t entirely sure she would be able make. There was the fleeting thought that fear would fuel the selfishness within her and she would make the choice to save herself. Her heart dropped right down into her stomach when she realized that that was the choice Chris might make too. After all, he had the power to do so. He had the chance to walk out of this room. Why shouldn’t he take it?
Chris was shooting at the machine above them, but it was to no avail. They didn’t stop. He only achieved in blowing out the light bulb and plunging them into darkness. Ashley’s breathing kicked up a notch and she gripped the arms of the chair she was in until her nails made tiny little grooves in the wood.
The psycho’s laugh rang through the room mockingly.
‘Don’t be so silly, Chris.’
It seemed to be a trigger of some sorts. Chris looked at Ashley through the gloom, his features hardening in determination, and then he turned the gun on himself.
Ashley gasped when he pressed it to his jaw and her heart began to pound even faster, to the point where she was sure it would burst right out of her rib cage. Seeing how easily Chris was laying down his life for her was a shock to the system and something powerful came over her.
‘Wait, stop!’ Ashley’s voice sounded stronger and steadier than it had since she’d woken up there, ‘You can’t do it, Chris. It should be me.’
Chris hesitated and, instead of feeling insulted or betrayed, Ashley felt hope. She spoke quickly, letting the words flow out of her without even thinking, ‘You chose to save me before, let me choose this time. Let me choose to save you. If I do one last thing in my life, let me do this! Chris, please...’
Slowly, reluctantly, Chris moved the gun away from his face and held it up towards Ashley. She stared down the barrel and suddenly, the courage she had felt before disappeared. Disbelief rocked through her that he really had pointed the gun at her. She choked on a sob and softly said, ‘No,’ but she wasn’t sure if Chris had heard her. Hysteria was bubbling in her chest again, threatening to leak out of her in violent bursts of shrieks and sobs and wild thrashing against her restraint, but then the image of Chris surviving came to mind. Chris walking away from this, Chris alive, Chris escaping, going home to his family…
Ashley moved her gaze from the gun to the face of the person holding it. They say everyone has that one person they’d take a bullet for, even if that person was the one behind the trigger. She never thought it was meant literally. Death scared her, and this wasn't the way she wanted to go, not here, not so soon. No, she wasn't ready to die. But if it was the only way for Chris to live, then so be it.
‘I can’t decide. I can’t decide!’ Chris sounded so tortured, and it made her wince.
Ashley then made the decision to close her eyes. The saw’s sounded louder and the danger seemed a lot more real now she couldn’t see anything, but she didn’t want to see that agonized look on Chris’s face any longer, and she definitely didn’t want to watch those blades come any closer.
Trusting that Chris would just make up his fucking mind and listen to her, Ashley held her breath and waited for the shot to come that would throw her into eternal darkness. It never came. Her eyes flew open again to see that Chris had laid the gun back down onto the table. It didn’t sink in at first that instead of choosing to shoot her, he had chosen to die with her because her eyes were open again and those saws were mere inches away from slicing them apart and this was the end for them.
Another scream ripped from Ashley’s chest as she threw herself forward in one last attempt to get away, but then… they stopped. Just like that, the saw-blades stopped and slowly began rising upwards again.
Neither Ashley nor Chris dared to move. Was this part of the psycho’s plan? Make them believe they were safe, only to drop those saws on them when they were least expecting it?
Ashley peeked up at Chris through her lashes and saw that he was sitting hunched over, very still, as she was. He was breathing heavily, and Ashley knew she should have felt some sort of anger towards him, some sort of bitterness that he hadn’t just gone through with firing that bullet into his brain at the first chance he got to save her. But he had been willing to die a bloody, painful, brutal death instead of making the choice to force one of them to live without the other. That spoke volumes to her. And now… now look what had happened! The blades had stopped! And both of them were still here, still alive, still together. Not safe, not yet. But alive; together. For now, even if only for a few more moments, that was enough.