“You mean drop this, or you shoot me? Don’t be an asshole, Luther. I’d rather have you shoot me than-”
The first shot blew out Donaldson’s right knee, toppling him over.
Luther strolled over while Donaldson howled.
“Still rather have me shoot you, Fat Man?”
He aimed and fired. Donaldson’s left knee exploded.
A feeble, breathy sound caught Luther’s attention. He turned and saw a smile on Lucy’s face.
She was laughing.
“Knees are supposed to hurt the most,” Luther said. “Tell me if that’s true.”
Two more shots, and Lucy’s laughter became sobbing.
Luther went to the wall and chose a tool to play with.
After twenty minutes of exhausting his imagination with that one, he went on to get another.
On Luther’s third tool, Donaldson went into cardiac arrest.
Happily, Luther kept a portable defibrillator in his car, and it only took three shocks to get the fat man’s ticker back on track.
Then he started in again.
Dawn approached.
Soon there wasn’t much Luther could do, even trying really hard, to illicit more screams from the duo.
Donaldson tried to say something but it came out too soft for Lucy to understand.
They lay side-by-side on the floor of the barn. There were bits of them everywhere.
Lucy could barely speak.
“What…D?”
“Is…he…gone?”
“I think so.”
The barn was quiet. Somewhere, across the field, a rooster was arguing with the sun.
“Why aren’t we dead yet?” Lucy asked.
“Because your friend is very…very…” Donaldson coughed up a chunk of something. “Good.”
“I can’t feel anything anymore,” Lucy said.
“Me neither.”
“I believe I can fix that.” Luther had returned.
He held a red plastic container.
“I’ve read that in most witch burnings, the victim died quickly from smoke inhalation,” Luther said. “Or from breathing in the fire itself. So I’m going to try my best to keep the flames on just the lower parts of your bodies.”
Luther poured gas on them. Donaldson turned his head, caught Lucy’s eyes.
“You know what, little girl? I never should have picked your ass up.”
“Hitchhiking can be dangerous, D,” Lucy said.
They reached for each other and held hands as they burned.