Hero

TW : Graphic Violence, Torture.

In an abandoned barn in the middle of nowhere

Sam wakes up to find himself tied and gagged. With a bleeding knee. Suddenly the pain shots up, and he lets out a muffled scream. His captor is sitting in front of him, quiet, without moving. As if he’s a statue. Besides his captor, there seems to be no one around. There’s a faint sound of a metal chain clanking and strong wind coming from outside. The wind is cold as if it just rained.

Sam looks around for a way out. But it’s too dark. He can’t even make out the face of the man sitting in front of him. Sam tries to remember how he ended up here, but the pain is too distracting. He is having trouble recollecting how he got here. The pain and fear are hindering any coherent thought.

The man in front of him slowly stood up and walked towards him. He picked up a screwdriver and looked at Sam. In an instant, the screwdriver goes through Sam’s arm. Sam’s arm tightened. He lets out a muffled scream and starts crying.

He removes Sam’s gag, walks away, and sits across him.

Sam feels as if he could finally breathe. He looks up to his captor.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Well, that’s the question, isn’t it?

“You want to know my motive? Then answer me.”

“Do you know who I am?”

“No”

The man looks disappointed, even slightly irritated. He takes a deep sigh.

“Do you remember that book?”

“What book?”

“Icarus”

Sam could feel the blood in his body freeze. Horrors from a decade ago came rushing back to him. He doesn’t want to believe it.

“No, It can’t be.”

The man smiles as if he expected Sam to react this way. He stood up and picked a butcher’s knife.

Sam knew what was about to happen next. He prayed to God to save him, but no one was going to save him today.

“What’s the date today ?”

“May 5th,” Sam answers, a bit confused.

“10 years ago, on this very day, you killed someone I loved.”
The man says and looks at Sam’s ring finger. The wedding ring still hasn’t lost its shine. Sam must’ve gotten married recently. In a swift stroke, the ring finger comes flying off.

“Does that ring any bell?”

Sam screams

“I want you to say it.”

“ADMIT IT!” He shouted.

“Confess to my friend’s murder!”

As the pain fades, Sam begins to recollect the events that would lead him to this fate.

10 years ago, he worked for a publishing company. They were working with a young writer. His book had a lot of potentials to be adapted into a movie. The studios were fighting for the movie rights. Sam and his publishing company knew this was a lucrative deal, and they were pressuring the writer. The young writer, however, was an idealist and refused to budge. He was a fan of JD Salinger’s work, and just like Salinger, he stubbornly refused to sell the movie rights.

So one night Sam, the writer’s lawyer, and his girlfriend conspired to murder him. They laced his drink and then drowned him in his pool. They altered his will. The girlfriend sold the rights for a heavy amount. His book became a hit movie, and the three murderers became rich. However, Sam always felt that someday there would be a reckoning.

Today was that day.

“I wasn’t the only one there that night,” Sam said, in a feeble attempt to discourage his captor from hurting him more.

“I know.”

“Then why are you targeting me?”

“Because I’ve already taken care of that scum lawyer and the greedy bitch”

“I never talked to them, but I need to talk to you.”

“I want you to understand why I did this,” The man said wiping the blood off the knife. He had picked up Sam’s finger and removed the ring from it. He threw the finger in one container and the ring in another.

“I did it for my friend,” The man said, and his voice cracked.

“He was my only friend, and he would tell me stories. Reality always seemed too boring to me. In real life, I was never a hero. But in his stories? I would always imagine myself as one.”

“You. Took. That. Away. From. Me.” The man’s eyes had murder in them.

Sam knew he wasn’t returning alive from this place. There was no hope for him, yet he struggled.

“You’ll be caught, you’ll leave behind some evidence. You’ll be dead too.” Sam tried to provoke him.

The man looked at Sam, almost surprised.

“Oh? Is that so? The man chuckled. I’ll get caught? Like you got caught by the police. Don’t kid yourself, the police still think my friend’s death was an accident.” The man said, a certain frustration in his tone.

“You’re not the only one who knows how to erase evidence” The man picked up a plier and put it in Sam’s mouth. He grabbed one of Sam’s teeth and removed it by force. Sam screamed and then fell unconscious.

When Sam woke up, the rain had stopped, and the room was dimly lit from moonlight. He could see his captor. His captor was tall and lean. He was wearing a bloody shirt with folded sleeves, and he had a gun on the table near him. He had pale skin.

As he came closer, Sam saw his bright blue eyes. They were cold and dead. As if the man felt no emotion.

“Once I kill you, I’ll remove your teeth. Then I’ll shave your hair. I’ll slice your body into 6 pieces, and then I’ll feed you to the pigs that I’ve been starving for 3 days. It would take them about 8 minutes to eat all the pieces, and by tomorrow you’ll be pig manure.” The man said in a way that seemed as if he was almost proud of his plan.

“No one will ever know where you went.”

Sam gave up any tether of hope he was holding on to.

“Do it, kill me. You fucking sadist. End this”

“Answer a question first.”

“What” Sam couldn’t take any more mind games now.

“Do you think I am a hero?”

“What are you-

Before Sam could answer, the plier was once again in Sam’s mouth. He knew what was about to happen, and in an instant, his molar was out of his mouth. It felt as if his jaw would shatter from the pain, but he powered through.

“Do you think I am a hero?” The man repeated himself.

“No.,” Sam said. He wasn’t afraid to die anymore, and he didn’t think that his body could feel any more pain. He was almost numb.

“No?” The man shouted. A wave of anger in his voice

For the first time, the man showed some emotions.

“NO,” Sam said firmly, looking in his captor’s dead eyes that were now filled with rage.

The man looked away and started talking.

“What more do I need to do to be a hero? You don’t say it. The lawyer didn’t say it. Even that bitch won’t admit it. 3 people have died, but none of them can admit that I am a hero.”

“3? I am still alive.”

“I wasn’t talking about you.”

The man started talking before Sam could ask his question. “10 years ago, I went to my friend’s place and found him almost drowned in the pool. I got him out and performed CPR, He told me what you guys did. He wanted to go to the police, but I suggested that we should take the law into our own hands. I mean, c’mon when did the system give anyone justice? If we took revenge, it would be just like a story where the hero takes revenge on the villains. Both he and I could’ve been heroes. But he called me crazy. He said I was too obsessed with the idea of a hero. He said that he’s thankful that I came in time and saved him, but I should go home now.”

“And then it struck me,” The man said as he slowly reached out to pick up the knife.

“If I hadn’t gone there, my friend would’ve died. Then I would have a perfect revenge story, So I grabbed him by his hair. He was still shaken from nearly drowning a minute ago. So it was quite easy. I forced him inside the water, he tried to break free but he couldn’t. It was important that he died, don’t you see !? That was the perfect start of this story that started 10 years ago. I was the hero taking revenge on my friend’s murder. I am a hero.” The man said and laughed.

Sam felt his mouth run dry. He felt as if he couldn’t breathe. Nothing made sense to him anymore.

“I’ll ask you again,” The man said, standing closer to Sam with a knife to his throat.

“Do you think I am a hero?”