31 Days of December

Prompt Fill: 342. lucid 1A

Her first lucid thought was that things had gone wrong. Then the pain pulled her down again and it was another two days before she regained consciousness. By then they’d already taken her right leg below the knee and her left leg at mid-thigh.

She was a huddle of blankets on the bed. Her body made small by stillness and the mass of bandages covering her face and arms, each of her fingers individually splinted and wrapped.

It was pain that woke her, then they had to knock her out again when she was unable to stop her panic.

She almost thought that waking was a dream–a nightmare–except she was still in the hospital when she woke up. Her legs were still ruined. Her arms and fingers were still broken messes of healing bone and flesh. She was still the only surviving victim of The Renaissance Mangler, a serial killer that had been preying on the city for the last four years. Men, women, children–the Mangler had no preference but to cause pain to his victims before killing them and dumping their bodies where they would be found.

It was the Mangler’s need for attention that saved her life. Through his interactions with the media, the FBI were able to find the warehouse where he tortured and murdered his victims. And though The Renaissance Mangler wasn’t caught, his latest victim was found alive.

Splayed out on the floor of a large metal cage, she’d looked dead. The Mangler must have known they were coming and killed her before he fled. It was grim work breaking into the cage, until someone shouted that her chest had moved–she was breathing!–and they burnt through the lock with heightened urgency. The EMTs streamed into the cage and she was … Read the rest “Prompt Fill: 342. lucid 1A”