PART FOUR

It was coming close to Graham's fortieth birthday, and by this time it had also been a little under five years since the night Graham awoke in the basement of Sarah's house and experienced the physical torture that still left him scarred in more ways than one. Even though he spent one of those years in a coma, in some ways it had seemed like a lifetime had passed since that attack occurred and in other ways it seemed that only days had passed.

Living with the hurt that never leaves him would have him struggle to remember a time before it occurred. His mind refuses to allow any kind of let up and if it ever were to then his physical injuries would bring it all back. Living life now the way he does is not living at all.

Present time seems to pass so slowly that every minute is a torture within itself. For some reason or another, Graham still cared about Sarah. He didn't know why, but those feelings that he had for her had stayed with him. He would often see her off somewhere in the distance but at that he was unable to tell if what he was seeing was reality or a moment of madness.

The only good thing about this whole situation by this moment in time was that he was done with his surgeries. His nose and left hand were as good now as they were ever going to be, not quite perfect, but right now ... that didn't matter.

Sarah had indeed been watching Graham from afar; the thing was or is that she was as much in love with him as he was with her. The whole torture thing is an addiction, it was and still is her addiction and Graham had not been her first victim. He had not been her last either.

It had been the feelings she had for him that had allowed him to escape. She had found it easy to go and meet guys, they would fall for her, and she would torture them and dispose of their bodies with a confidence that she would never be found out. She couldn't help herself and the one thing she had not planned for was the possibility that she would become emotionally involved with one of these guys she would meet.

When Sarah first met Graham, she thought that he was easy pickings. During the time they spent together, she knew she was falling for him but her addiction was as strong as her feelings, maybe perhaps even stronger, and it hadn't been until the torture began that she realized just how strong her feelings actually were.

She was so conflicted that she felt her only option was to arrange for Graham to escape on his own accord. Her identity had been hidden all through the torture 'session' and she had made sure nothing could be tracked back to her. Choosing the doctor as a potential victim made sense to her. Sarah could be close to Graham and at the same time she could also arrange to try and get her next 'fix'. There had been the point where she didn't think Graham would wake up but wake up ... he did.

After he did wake, she wanted to tell him everything, but how could she after what she had put him through. It would not be like she could receive any sort of forgiveness that could lead things to continue without any consequence.

In the time since his physical torture Graham had become very distant to his family and friends. The last thing he wanted was a party for his fortieth birthday. One birthday card that did come his way had no name put to it; it did not include a birthday greeting but rather it only included a time, date, and location with nothing else written within.

Close to the time indicated on that birthday card, on the exact date indicated on same card, Graham made his way to the location. The location was a house in a quiet estate. With the time of day and time of year it was dark and late, the chill in the air made Graham shiver. He kept questioning himself as to why he would go to a specific place at a specific time written on an anonymous card he had received for his birthday.

The house he arrived at appeared to be as ordinary as any of the other houses around. The front door was already slightly open upon his arrival, so Graham cautiously went in. No lights were on, and Graham wondered if it would be a good or a bad thing if he was to turn one on. He decided not to. He passed through the hallway and into the kitchen. Graham's eyes needed time to adjust to the darkness having come into the house from the well-lit street.

It soon became obvious that he was not alone in the house; he was not alone in the kitchen. He could hear movement that wasn't his own. There was a certain feeling to this moment that he most definitely did not like. A gluten for punishment ... is that what he is? Or could a possibility exist that would allow him to move on with life somehow? Perhaps he will find out, perhaps he won't.

When a sound that was not his own got quite close, he turned suddenly, and Graham was met with a punch to his face which directly connected with his nose and this punch knocked him off his feet. Graham reached for his nose; it was bleeding.

Standing up facing the direction in which the punch came from Graham would see no one. How could he have allowed himself to walk right into something like this. Is the need for answers so strong that he is willing to abandon common sense? No point in debating himself right now. There is no time for that.

Graham reached towards the wall closest to him and felt around for a light switch, but before he could find one, he was hit in the small of the back with some sort of object, a bat or something of the likes, once again he had been knocked off his feet. He got up once again, slower this time and let out a roar, half of which was out of pain and the other half out of anger. He had known something wasn't right, but he still had walked himself right into this building ... stupid ... stupid.

Back on his feet, Graham could still not see anyone. It was indeed still dark but there was just enough light coming in from outside to see around him. His heart was pounding.

'Show yourself' he shouted, to which there was no reply.

Graham ducked as something came hurtling towards him, missing him, and crashing but not smashing the glass panel of a door that led to the back garden. Graham was grabbed and pressed against a wall with his attacker pressing a forearm against Graham's throat, choking him. Using his right hand, Graham took a clock from the wall and smashed it over his attacker's head before ramming him through the shattered glass and both men ended up on the ground out in the back garden.

It had begun to rain; the moon was full and shining bright. Neither man had moved during the initial moments after crashing through a glass panel door and out to that back garden. Police soon arrived.

'This man is dead' spoke one officer.

'This one over here is still breathing' spoke another.

Graham once again found himself waking up in hospital. On this particular occasion he was recovering from cuts from going through the glass panel, along with some bruising and a broken nose. A large shard of glass lodged itself into the chest of his latest attacker. Police had plenty to ask of Graham, like what was he doing at that address? Who was this other man? And who is the tortured woman they found in the basement?

That third question completely threw Graham and really caught him off guard. Not only was there another victim of torture, but this victim was female, not male, and the torture had taken place in the house that Graham had gone to, the place, the location which had been sent to him on a card. Before Graham would answer or attempt to answer these questions to which he had been asked, he demanded to see the female torture victim.

He did not know how to react when he discovered that the tortured woman was not the woman he knew as Sarah. When he heard that there had been a female victim, he was sure that it would be Sarah although he was disappointed and saddened to find that this woman had not survived the attack. At the same time, Graham was more than relieved to find that it had not been Sarah.

Graham was arrested and charged with the murder of a Dennis Berry on the possible basis that Graham had discovered the identity of his attacker and caught him in the process of attacking another victim therefore taking it upon himself to seek revenge and kill this attacker.

This had not been true of course, but how could Graham defend himself against these charges? Graham never knew of a Dennis Berry, and had certainly not gone to the house with the intention of finding him let alone with the intention to attack and kill him.

So much went through Graham's head, had he really come across the person who had tortured him? Why was there a female victim? And why has another form of torture come his way?

Even though he had been only aware of the previous attacks of himself and the doctor, Graham felt positive that if there had been previous victims, then they all surely would have been male, and despite the death of Denis Berry, Graham was sure that the torture of people such as himself was not yet over and because of the death of Denis Berry, Graham was now not in any position to do anything about any of it as upon his release from hospital he would be taken into custody and charged with murder.

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