Route 4 – Help her

Despite your fear, you decide to help her. You simply cannot leave her here. She reminds you of your own children and the idea that one of your beloved offsprings would be subjected to such a cruel experience is so terrible for you that you cannot interpret or even process your emotions at this moment. You suspect a mixture of fear, despair, hatred and grief. You can well understand the worry that the parents of this girl must be feeling at the moment and you fervently hope that you will never have to experience how one of your children is abducted by a murderer yourself. Your protective instinct is awakened.

            You approach the young woman in the pink nightgown and notice that her hands seem to be tied behind her back. Damn… that too… Every minute we stay here puts us in more danger… Under the increased time pressure you move faster and more purposefully towards the girl. You are only three steps away from her when her breathing accelerates and her quiet sobs turn into a frightened, panicked whimper, the volume of which increases drastically as you take another step towards her. You are rooted to the spot as soon as your foot hits the ground. She begins to cry heavily and tries to scream, but her voice is muffled by a piece of cloth with which she is gagged. Your eyes widen and your own panic increases again. The more noises that come out of this room, the sooner the killer will take a look to see where the commotion is coming from. Oh no, not good at all… She probably thinks I’m the one who tied her up and did who knows what to her… She can’t see me… I really need to calm her down somehow.

            “Shhh! It’s all right, I want to help you! I won’t harm you, but you have to be quiet… I don’t want to scare you even more and I wish I could say that everything will be alright, but if you try to scream our kidnapper might hear it and then he’ll surely come here to look! I just want to free you and then find a way to escape with you… I promise I won’t hurt you…” Despite the panic, the girl seems to understand. Shaking violently and now crying softly, she refrains from screaming and also makes an effort to suppress her sobs. In her predicament she has no other option but to put her trust in you. Before you move any further towards her, you whisper to her what your next steps are. “Good girl… we’ll get out of here somehow, all right? I… will come to you now and take off your blindfold, then you will be able to see me…” Carefully you take another step towards the young victim and to your relief she remains silent. You take a deep breath and take another step and now stand directly in front of the poor girl. Your eyes fall on her wounds on her arms and thighs and you notice clean, deep cuts. In some places the blood seems to be drying, but in the pale shine of the chroma lamp you can still see many shiny spots, which indicate that blood is still oozing out. The dark red liquid has covered most of her arms and legs, leaving her sitting in a pool of red life juice. The pink nightgown has already soaked up in many areas. You crouch down and examine her head. It seems to be swollen, many spots of different sizes and colours, ranging from all shades of red to a light purple, cover the pale face. A trail of blood runs from her nose to the scrap of cloth in her mouth where the dark red has spread. In a few places her skin has burst open. Her hair is brown, reaches down to her elbows and is stuck together with blood in some areas. It looks well-groomed and silky but stands wildly off her head in all directions and is dishevelled. You can see clear red strangulation marks on her neck. You sigh in deep consternation and lay the axe on the ground next to the girl. Poor little girl… “I am now in front of you… Don’t be frightened, I will now take hold of your head and loosen the cloth around your eyes…” Carefully you lift your hands and place them gently around the girl’s head, who flinches hard under your touch and begins to cry harder again. She seems to force herself to be as quiet as possible. You run your hands along the eye cloth until you reach a tight knot at the back of her head. Trying to remain calm yourself, you nibble at the knot, but your fingers are shaking too much. “I can’t get the blindfold off like this… I’ll cut it with the axe. Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you. Please stay calm…” The girl just lowers her head. You grab the axe again and with one hand reach under the scrap of cloth wrapped around the young victim’s eyes and carefully try to lift it slightly away from her head. In addition, you would cut your own hand rather than injure the girl. You begin to move the sharp blade up and down against the cloth blindfold, cutting yourself in the process, but after a short time the blindfold finally falls off the young woman’s head. Her hazel eyes are puffy and red from crying and her gaze is fixed forward as if looking through your torso. You recognise an expression of sheer horror.

            Your heart is heavy and the fate of the girl gives you a depressing, piercing feeling, which you can sense even in your fear. “There you go… Now you see something again… That’s done for now. I will now free your mouth and hands, please hold still…” In the twinkling of an eye you free her from the further bonds. Sobbing softly, she carefully rubs her chafed wrists, fresh tears rolling down her swollen face. You look at her with pity, always keeping the time pressure in mind. But she seems to be in severe shock, her gaze is still fixed, she is trembling, has not looked at you once and you are not even sure if she understands what you are saying to her and if she even could get up at all. You are aware that she is severely traumatised, but if you want to escape with her, she must somehow awake from her absent-minded state. You gently place your hands around the side of her swollen face and decide to talk to her in an attempt to get her attention. “Hey, girl… I’m… I’m terribly sorry for what you’re going through… These wounds must be very painful… What happened? How did you even get here?” No reaction. For a few seconds you remain in your position with a pitying look at the girl, already beginning to think desperately how you should persuade her to flee in this state, when her eyes slowly break free of their rigidity until your eyes meet. She opens her mouth tentatively but is shaking so badly that she accidentally closes it again and again and only after a few moments she manages to utter some stuttering words. “I-I… I… H-he… d-did… Ngh…” She squeezes her eyes shut and makes an effort to take a deep breath, but she can’t. Opening her eyes again, she tries to speak again. “I-I… was home… I… wanted… to sleep… I-I… put… out… the… candles… in… the… living… room… b-b-but… then… there was… a… knock at the door… Quietly… I… almost didn’t hear it… But I-I went to… take a look… Opened… the door… There… was no one… only just…  small parcel… on the floor… I… was curious… I… went out and… wanted… to pick it up… Then… suddenly I… was grabbed from behind… a hand… on my mouth… I… couldn’t scream… There was a sweet smell… and then… everything went black… I woke up here… a-and… he… HE… H-HE! ” The girl needs to pause and has a veritable fit of trembling. She breathes heavily and tears stream down her cheeks, along your fingers.

            You feel a cold shiver run down your spine and notice how tears come to your eyes at the sight of this broken girl. She sobs and continues to speak. “H-he… hit me…and tied me up… and… and… he… cut me… v-very slowly… i-it burns… it hurts and…t-then…” She swallows. “T-then… h-he… he… pulled down… his… pants… I-I… h-he… he did… He came… closer… he was so strong… I couldn’t fight back! I-I… W-why… I… I don’t want this… What… did he do… N-No! I-I feel… him on me… I…” You interrupt the crying girl and take her in your arms. You cannot put into words what you feel, your horror is too great. What a disgusting piece of filth…

            A few moments pass while you remain in this position. Then the dicey, current situation comes to the fore again and you detach yourself from the girl. You rise from your crouch and offer her your hand. “Can you stand up?” Tentatively she nods and reaches for your hand. At least you have succeeded in bringing her out of her trance, even if she has to pay the painful price of the cruel memory. Should you come out of this alive, she would still be branded for the rest of her life. And yet you want to help her escape now more than ever. You don’t know how much time you have dedicated to the girl, but you are glad that your kidnapper hasn’t turned up yet. However, it is now high time to think of an escape plan.

            The young woman grabs your hand and you pull her up. She seems very weak because her legs buckle for a moment and if you hadn’t caught her, she would have fallen down again. With great difficulty she manages to stand unsteadily on her own feet, shaking badly, and you let her go. “We’ve got to get out of here somehow… There’s got to be something here that can get that door open up ahead.” The girl grabs her arm with her hand and lets her gaze wander around the room. You do the same. Not two seconds pass before you hear a dull, steadily increasing noise. It comes from the other side of the door. Shocked, you fix your eyes on the direction the sound is coming from. Footsteps! Someone is coming… It must be… D-damn! Without wasting any time, you break free from your state of shock and hurry past the girl, who slowly backs away and starts crying harder again. You pick up the axe that was lying next to where the girl was tied and which you had left there earlier in your horror at your captor’s atrocities. You are overcome by fear that you are about to meet this outlaw, who seemed to stop at nothing to commit a cruel deed, and you begin to tremble violently as you move in front of the girl and grasp the axe firmly with both hands, your gaze fixed on the wooden door.

            A few seconds of unbearable tension pass before you hear a key being inserted into the lock and a metallic click announcing the opening of the door. It opens a crack and through it peers someone with a creepily painted wolf mask covering his face. A masculine, amused voice sounds from beneath the mask. “Oh, so I heard right. My two sheep seem to have freed themselves… Well, I was going to give you my full attention now anyway, but… I’m going to change my previous plan to play a fun game with you. Because, as I’m sure you know, bad sheep must be punished. Oh, but don’t worry. Punishment is also a game. I like to call it ‘punishment game’. So, we’ll have a happy time together, full of lasting memories and fun!” You back away a step as the door is pushed open completely, revealing a male body dressed in a blood-spattered black suit as a body to the face behind the wolf mask. W-what the hell?! What… is this psychopath… what kind of sick game is this?! So, this is apparently your kidnapper and probably the murderer of the people in this room and therefore also the one who has done so much damage to the girl behind you. You feel your suspicions confirmed as the young woman behind you collapses with hysterical screams as the man in the suit strides down the small staircase by the door and comes towards you. He rubs his hands together and lets out an increasingly loud evil laugh. In your ever-increasing panic, you find it hard to think what to do now. You don’t have many options and the situation seems hopeless. But you have to think of something, you will not just stand still and accept the fate that this murderer has planned for you. You are panic-stricken by this man. It is as if you are facing death in person. You break out in sweat and feel that you have no time left to think. You have to decide now!