Danger in the Countryside

I walked home the usual way after a night out: on an isolated country road, which led to a forest. It was pitch black but I was not afraid. The area was safe.

Suddenly, a hand came out of nowhere and clamped my mouth. I felt myself being lifted into the air and bundled into a minivan. Before I could even catch a glimpse of my abductors, several hands held me down and a band was tied over my eyes. There was the screech of tyres and the van sped off.

The journey was quiet but long. The van drove through several road turnings, so that I did not know where I was. When we arrived at our destination, the same number of hands virtually pushed me out of the van and a hand clamped me on each side, dragging me towards a house. I heard a key turn into the lock. I was shoved through a corridor then virtually thrown onto the floor of a room.

Someone grabbed a chair and tied my hands and feet to it in a tight knot. I tried to struggle, but a boot clamped hard onto my foot.

"Stay still," said a gruff, male voice.

The blindfold was abruptly torn from my face. There were seven men in the room, all hard-faced, glaring at me with hate. I had never seen them before.

"You are the daughter of David Fielding, the oil magnate," the original man said. "Don't try to deny it because I know."

How on earth did he know?

"I will set you free on one condition: You will kill one of us every hour. If not, you will lose a finger per person that you do not kill, but not a thumb and if all seven of us are still alive at dawn, you will also lose your head. Literally, do you understand?"

I stared at them, as if they had gone insane. I had never heard such a proposition before. I had never even hurt anyone, let alone tried to kill them.

He indicated the clock on the wall.

"Eleven o'clock. Your time starts now."

He untied me and gave me a knife. I wanted to run out, away from this crazy place but I did not dare. There were seven of them and he seemed deadly serious.

I took the knife with trembling hands. One of them led me to the leader, as if afraid that I would try to escape. Then held me in a way that forbade any escape. I began stabbing the leader. I stabbed and stabbed, until he lay in a pool of blood and died. The others just looked impassively, as if the sight of a person being stabbed to death in front of them was nothing. Then, hour by hour, I did the same to all the others, until there was just me left in the room. The room was bathed in blood. My legs trembling, I walked out of the place without even turning back.