Southern Bouquet

Left Hanging

**Warning: this chapter will include extreme violence, torture, some language, and death.**

"Daisy, I'm so sorry you've been dragged into this." May was looking at Daisy through bloody, swollen eyes.

She fought against the rope tied around her hands and feet.

"It's not your fault that man is a psychotic douche bag." Daisy replied in between spitting blood out of her mouth.

"I know but I still feel bad. You wouldn't be in this situation if it wasn't for me. This is not how I wanted to be introduced to my best friends' girlfriend."

May shook her head still trying to wriggle her hands free from behind her back. Just as Daisy started to reply, the door opened and Anthony walked in.

"Miss me, girls? I know I missed you." He sneered, stalking towards May.

"Are we trying to break free of our restraints?" He eyed the ropes behind her back.

She tried to move away from him but he grabbed her arm and yanked her up off of the ground. May jerked away from him, spitting a mixture of saliva and blood in his face.

"Keep your damn hands off of me." She growled through clenched teeth.

Anthony slowly wiped the saliva from his face and backhanded May with enough force to knock her back into the wall. Blood was now oozing from the new split in her lip. The fear she had been feeling up until now dissipated and quickly turned into anger. She felt her entire body tense up, muscles tight, jaw and fists clenched, and all she wanted to do was scream with everything she had in her. The hatred spilled from her as she glared at Anthony through narrowed eyes.

"Is that all you got, big shot?" She taunted as spat blood at him.

"May," Daisy whimpered. "What are you doing? Are you trying to piss him off even more?" She was curled into a ball hiding in the corner with her share of blood and bruises.

Anthony walked over to her, pulling her up off of the floor. Unlike May, Daisy's hands were tied in front of her. With her struggling against his grasp, he led her to a room in the back of the warehouse. Looking through the doorway, May could see meat hooks hanging from chains connected to a pulley system hanging from the ceiling.

He lifted her arms above her head, placing her rope-tied hands over a hook. Once he let her go and her weight pulled her down, she wasn't able to stand tall enough to unhook her hands.

"Please..." Daisy begged.

Anthony walked over to a lever on the wall and pushed it upward. The chains began to raise towards the ceiling making Daisy's feet completely lift off of the floor just so her toes barely touched.

"Anthony, please." She begged, swinging her feet back and forth as she fought for traction.

Tears were now streaming from her eyes, snot running from her nose, and sweat from her fear dripping down her body. All mixing in with the blood splatters from where he created cuts with either a blade or his fist. He began walking back over to her when suddenly he was hit hard from behind, knocking him to the ground. Standing up he turned to see May standing with a meat cleaver in her hand. She gripped the long handle with both hands, raising it high above her head as she charged towards Anthony. Swinging it down fast and hard, forcing the blade to bite into the muscle above his right shoulder blade, he yelled out in pain. May tried to pull the cleaver out of his shoulder to swing it at him again but it was stuck. Anthony rammed his left shoulder into her abdomen sending her to the floor. Before she could move, he was standing over her out of breath, wincing in pain. He kicked her in her stomach causing her to curl inward to protect herself from another blow as she started coughing and gasping for air.

Anthony turned back towards a now blubbering Daisy and admired the sight. He truly did love to see a woman beg, especially if it was for her life. May attempted to crawl away but Anthony stepped on the small of her back stopping her in her tracks. She heard the click of a pocket knife opening as she felt the pressure lift off of her back. Quickly, she grabbed his ankle and yanked as hard as she could causing him to lose his balance and fall, losing the knife in the process. He screamed out as the meat cleaver was jarred from his shoulder.

She scrambled to her feet going after the knife but he kicked his leg backward, tripping her. Catching herself before hitting the ground she decided to forget the knife and go for the lever on the wall. Grabbing it with both hands, she yanked it downwards, she heard the chains unrolling, allowing Daisy's feet to reach the floor fully. Anthony lunged at May and the lever in an attempt to stop Daisy from being able to completely free herself from the hook. May darted towards one of the other hanging hooks, she grabbed it, lunging it towards Anthony's head, which just barely missed him. He glared at her, bent down to retrieve the meat cleaver from the floor, and calmly walked towards her with flames in his eyes.

May kicked her leg out to push him away from her but he used the cleaver and sliced a deep cut into her calf muscle. Now, trying to hold her leg and limp backward, May realized just how stupid of a move that was. She was unable to put any weight on that leg, preventing her from running anywhere.

Anthony laughed at the sight of May struggling to stand, let alone try to get away. He dropped the cleaver, grabbing the knife instead, and stalked over to her. Reaching her, he grabbed a handful of hair and yanked her head back, exposing her neck. May closed her eyes tightly and swallowed thickly as tears dripped down making a clean path in the blood and dirt on her face. He held the blade to her throat stopping only when he heard Daisy's voice. He turned to see her on a cell phone, telling someone to track her location.

Once she noticed the chaos stopped and the noise died down, she looked over her shoulder. Her eyes widened in fear and she screamed, "Hurry!" into the phone. She purposely dropped it through a crack on the floor without ending the call. May waited to hear the sound of the phone crashing and shattering but no sound came. She attempted to move towards Anthony to grab the cleaver but he saw her out of the corner of his eye, swung around, and buried the blade of the pocket knife into the calf of her other leg.

She screamed out in pain, feeling the blade tear and slice through her skin and muscles. Gritting her teeth, she still reaching for the cleaver. Anthony kicked it away, yanked the knife from her leg, and fell to his knees beside May.

"All you had to do..." He sneered between gritted teeth as he stabbed her in her left side as deep as the blade would go.

"...was do what you were told..."

May cried out in pain, her eyes pleading for him to stop. He stabbed her in the right side, "...look pretty..." he stabbed her in her stomach, "...and make me..." stabbed her in the stomach again, "...look..." he stabbed her in her chest as he said, "...good."

May was barely clinging to life, she was coughing, gasping for air as the blood-filled her lungs. Anthony raised the knife one more time but before he was able to stab May again the meat cleaver was in his arm. He cried out, dropped the knife, and grabbed the cleaver, pulling it from his burning muscle. He turned around and lunged at Daisy, swinging the cleaver and cutting her stomach as she dodged him. She ran towards May but grabbed a swinging hook before she reached her. She turned and swung it hard towards Anthony connecting with his forehead. Anthony fell to the ground and didn't move.

Daisy ran towards May, who was now making gurgling sounds as she struggled to breathe. She slowly rolled May onto her side and propped her up with her leg against her back. Her body was shaking, she was going into shock. Daisy took the flannel off that she was wearing, grabbed the knife off the floor, and began cutting strips to tie off her wounds. She could hear sirens off in the distance.

"May, stay with me sugar, they're almost here. Fight just a little longer." Daisy said as she lifted May's shirt to assess her stab wounds.

here were five wounds, one on each of her sides and three in her stomach. All equally deep. The blood was seeping out so quickly the only thing Daisy could think to do was lay the rest of her flannel out flat, fold it in half and wrap it around her entire waist and pray this would slow the bleeding.