Route 3.1 – Open the door with axe

You just want to get out of here as quickly as possible. Maybe the murderer is not in the house at the moment and even if he were – you are now armed and can defend yourself. You tell yourself it will be okay and take courage, yet you have to suppress the trembling of your fear. Your survival instinct gives you an adrenaline rush and you grip the handle of the axe tightly and lift it towards the wooden door to gain momentum. Then you smash it down as powerfully as you can and with a deafening bang it hits the wooden panels of the room’s partition. A few splinters of wood fly past you, causing small cuts to your face. You ignore it and take another swing. The girl behind you seems to panic and she starts screaming. This makes you even more nervous and you notice sweat covering your body. Suddenly you hear footsteps and an amused voice. “Oh, looks like one of my sheep is trying to escape. Bad sheep.” Damn! The noise you made with your axe seems to have attracted the killer. Just as your arms descend with the tool for another blow, a clicking sound is heard and the door opens. Your blow misses and you almost hit your own leg with the momentum. Struggling to keep your balance, you take a step forward, looking down. You see black shoes in front of you, stained with blood splatter. Panicking, you gasp and look up at the male body standing just a few steps away. He is dressed in a noble suit, dark red stains adorning the black fabric. His face is hidden by a creepily painted wolf mask. As your eyes meet, he raises his hand. “Boo!” For a brief moment, you stand rooted to the spot, frozen with fear, and before you can react, a ball of water conjured by your counterpart hits your chest. The magic is so strong that it takes your breath away and throws you backwards. After a short hover, one of your feet hits the edge of one of the steps of the small staircase and you crumple before falling backwards and landing with your back and the back of your head on the hard floor. You lose your breath again and almost blacken your eyes. The man in the wolf mask strides leisurely down the stairs and laughs as you slowly catch your breath. You notice that you have dropped your axe in the fall and straighten up to spy it with your eyes. As soon as you find it, you want to get up, but your foot hurts as you try and twists away, causing you to fall down again. You must have sprained your ankle when you landed so badly on the step. Panicking and with your face contorted in pain, you crawl towards the axe. You need it to defend yourself! “Oh no, no, we won’t do that. You, little sheep, could hurt yourself with it. We wouldn’t want that to happen. Hehe.” The psychopath’s voice has a creepy tone as he uses magic again to wash the axe away from you with water. All hope leaves you as soon as the tool is out of reach and you turn to face your captor. He crouches in front of you and stares at you. Although he is wearing a mask, you know he is smiling. Then he stands up again and claps his hands. “Well, let’s get to work.” You watch him walk to the tool table, unable to stand up. Your eyes begin to water and despair overcomes you. Clinging to life, you begin to crawl towards the exit, but it is not three seconds before the man in the mask is standing over you, wrapping a wire around your neck. You grab it and try with difficulty to loosen the silver metal, which only ends up pulling in it tighter. Your breath is cut off as the killer pulls you backwards. “Bad sheep must be punished…” In the middle of the room he lets go of you and you catch your breath as he ties your hands above your head. Psychologically at the end of your tether, you wonder what he is going to do with you and hope for a miracle that will save you in the end. But you have the crushing feeling that none will happen. The man walks past you and starts whistling a song happily. You look after him. He moves towards a chain mechanism on the wall and pulls a little on a chain, whereupon one of the hooks on the ceiling lowers. He returns to you and ties your bound hands around the hook, then pulls you up by the mechanism until your feet no longer touch the floor. You squirm back and forth, but quickly let it go, as with each movement you make the wire around your hands cuts more into the flesh. You close your eyes and moan in pain. When you open them again, the man in the wolf mask is standing in front of you, holding a scalpel. “First of all, we will start by stripping you of your wool. It must be very very heavy for you, isn’t it?” Wool?! What wool?! He doesn’t mean… The murderer laughs and puts the sharp utensil on your right arm, a little below the wire. He begins to laugh hysterically and presses the sharp blade into your skin, cutting around your wrist. You groan under the stinging pain and feel warm fluid flowing down your arms. Blood. You can no longer hold back your tears and they roll down your cheeks. You realise that this could really be the end of you and you start begging for your life. “Please, I’ll do anything, please let me go, I don’t want to die!” The man moves to your left side and puts the scalpel to your wrist there too, then whispers in your ear. “Oh, but rest assured that it will be a while before I release you to your death. Why don’t you enjoy your precious remaining time with me, I guarantee you a once-in-a-lifetime experience, something not everyone gets to experience. Consider yourself lucky… Have fun with this… impactful experience. Haha!” This man is completely insane! Again he cuts around your hands, then he does the same on your ankles. Meanwhile, you just squint your eyes and hope it will be over quickly. But what follows would not even occur in your worst nightmares. The man in the suit cuts along the side of your arms, up to your chest and down your legs. Mumbling something incomprehensible, he tears the rag you are dressed in. You now hang helplessly before him, naked. What the…? Irritated, you look after the olive-coloured rag and ask yourself what this action was for when you get your answer. You feel the scalpel on your neck as it slowly makes its way through your flesh to your belly. And then he begins to separate your skin from your flesh and pull it off. His grip is firm and he tears powerfully. You have never felt such burning pain and can no longer suppress your screams. Hysterical and deafeningly loud they sound in the small room, outdoing the girl’s cries of fear. “No! Stop it!” But the man only laughs louder and, in good humour, continues to tear your skin off, ignoring your suffering. Every inch. Your arms, your legs, your back, your chest, everything. You almost fainted a few times under the intense pain, but the killer always noticed and beat you awake. You don’t know how long this went on, but it seems like an eternity before he finally let go of you. Your whole body is burning, blood is dripping to the floor and you see your skin lying on the floor next to you. Your skin! You are too weak to scream by now, but your horror spreads through your eyes. You are aware that you cannot survive without skin and as much as you are bleeding, you suspect that you would soon bleed to death. You know that this is your certain end. It is only a matter of time. You resign yourself and accept your fate as you make a request of the man. Your throat hurts from screaming out loud and you taste blood, your voice low and raspy. “Please… kill me at last… I beg you… kill me…” You are afraid of dying, but there is no way out and you want to finally be put out of your misery and not suffer any more. The psychopath comes closer to you and seems excited. “Wonderful! That’s exactly what I want to hear! But I’m afraid you’ll have to be patient, little sheep, we’re not finished yet.” Dumbfounded, you stare at him, tears streaming down your face, burning on your fleshy chest, and he comes closer and closer. You slowly shake your head with wide, horrified eyes and he nods. “Oh yes.” Then he places the scalpel against your forehead. You feel a cut and blood flows into your eyes, colouring your vision red. Then he begins to peel your skin again and your agonised screams ring out once more. Then you see your face separate from you and he throws it on the floor. Unable to blink, your eyes start to burn, but that makes no difference to you now. He goes for the scalp and finally claps his hands. “Wonderful! The sheep is sheared.” You can’t talk anymore and breathing is difficult, your surroundings are blurred and you can barely hear. The man had gone to his tool table and now returns with a saw. He starts to cut off your feet. What have you done wrong in your life that you have to go through this hell? You don’t know the answer to that question. You can’t scream any more, the pain slowly disappears, you only notice how your legs separate from your body as well before your vision goes black. “Hm, too bad it’s over already…” You can barely hear the man’s disappointed words before everything around you goes silent. In your mind’s eye you can still see your family. Then your life ends.