With This Ring

“Look at you,” he jeered. “You’re no better than a disease infested, dirty little rat living in a sewer. I should just fucking end you right now!”

As I fought to recover, he stood watching me, his chest heaving in frustration that Freya had thwarted his best laid plans.

“Well, looks like I’ll have to work with just you then,” he said. “There’s pain and there’s pain. At a certain point every man breaks and if he doesn’t those that love him will. I’m going to start burning up parts of you. We’ll start with your legs, and then when that is crisp, we’ll put the fire out, and send the video to your brother. I’ll use that to start the negotiation.”

“Marlow,” he roared again. “Get an extinguisher and a fucking lighter. The rest of you get in here and secure him back to the chair. And someone bring a fucking phone.”

There was a flurry of activity, two of the men ran out to do his bidding. I was left with just him and I understood that it was either now or never. My only hope was I would have enough strength to completely decimate him. He looked thick and healthy, but I had desperation on my side. I had one chance and only one. I raised my head and looked him in the eye.

He lit a cigarette and took a long draw. “One of the things I hate the most about you is the way you look at people, like right now. As though they are all beneath you. Your life is literally in the palm of my hands and yet you would rather die than to plead with me. I am so going to enjoy killing you.”

It was now or never. I had already loosened my gasoline soaked pants, I kicked them off me as far away as possible. Then I threw away my shirt and began to rise in my underpants, slowly. I saw the expression in his eyes change.

With my face twisted, and my mouth open and screaming like a mad man, I ran towards him, but before I could ram into his bulk, the sound of a gun exploding shook the walls of the room.

I couldn’t stop my momentum and I slammed into him. The pain was indescribable. We tumbled to the floor.

His laugh was bitter and full of disbelief. “You managed to set yourself free,” he said, “and found a way to guide your brother here, but it won’t be enough.”

I heard the shouts from beyond. Levan. My heart came alive with hope. But before I could start to breathe easy again, Boris’s hands circled around my neck. I looked into his eyes.

“This is how you die,” he growled.

With all my strength, I tried to tear his hands from my throat, but he was like a man possessed. He was smiling. This was what he had dreamed of for such a long time. I could barely see, my eyes hazy with a raging fever, and a deathly exhaustion was starting to take over. The edges were beginning to go black. Then his hands were gone. My head dropped to the ground as I choked and coughed and took great gasping breaths of air.

“You’re not going to make it out of here, and I am not going to strangle you. That’s too much mercy for you.”

He scrambled up and retrieved the can of gasoline from the corner and began to pour it across the ground from where I stood.

“You will be burned like an animal!” he swore to me. “That’s the fate you deserve.”

When he had emptied the can, he brought out the lighter from his pocket. He lit it and my heart lurched into my throat. He threw the flaming lighter forward and the room went up in flames.

With a howl of delight he ran out and I watched the flames begin to engulf the room. This would be the end unless I found a way to get out. The fire was growing and coming towards me, trapping me

Then I heard Levan call out my name.

“Maxim!” he roared, and I answered back at the top of my lungs.

“Levan! Levan!”

I needed to leave… right this moment even if it meant being set on fire otherwise no one would be able to get to me. I took a deep breath and aimed for the corner that was the only place that was not burning. I counted to three and was about to move, but fear stopped me. My body was too weak. I could barely even stand up straight. I would be too slow, and the flames would engulf me in seconds.

“Levan!” I howled.

And just like an answered prayer, he appeared.

He ran into the room but the flames were too high, and he immediately jumped right back.

“Extinguisher!” he shouted and disappeared once again.