HER HORRORWEEN - The Weight

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_01] Listen up, thrillers. A quick note. Tonight's Devious Audio Delight contains adult content and language. Please see the content warnings in the show notes.

[00:00:23] [SPEAKER_01] You gasp. The water is cold. Ice fucking cold. Your head jerks back and forth like an animal in the jaws of a predator. You try to get your bearings, but you see only darkness. There is a pressure on your eyes. It takes you a moment to realize that you're blindfolded. At least, you hope you're blindfolded.

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_01] You picture yourself sightless, gaping dark holes where your eyes were. Fleshy, yawning sockets of useless tissue pockmarking your face. You gag at the thought. You reach to check, but hemp rope digs into your wrists. Your hands are bound, secured tightly behind you.

[00:01:10] [SPEAKER_01] You squirm. You struggle. Your face is pressed to the ground. It's hard. You smell motor oil. Garbage. Piss.

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_01] You're pretty sure that last one is you. You try to speak, but water hitches in your throat and you choke on it. You squirm and manage to get your legs under you and rise up to your knees. You cough more. Violently. A stream of saliva drools down your face. Hanging thick and stringy from your chin before dropping to the floor.

[00:01:50] [SPEAKER_01] A single bubble of your throat. A single bubble of your throat. A single bubble of your spit floats on the water. Twirling on the surface like a ballerina. Before popping. Your breathing is fast. Irregular. You try to calm yourself enough to hear anything for the raspy wheezing of your lungs.

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_01] There's something in front of you. You cry out, asking them to identify themselves. You mumble. You wince as the blindfold is ripped from your face. You blink rapidly out of some instinctual sense of fear like most animals would. Your stomach twists and your eyes swim in your head like a hooked fish. You desperately try to take in your surroundings. To make sense of something.

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_01] Anything. Anything. Anything. Anything. The light is the dirty yellow of an antique sodium lamp. Color of an old bruise. A single bulb hovers above you. Dim. Menacing shapes loom at the dark edges of the room like hulking beasts.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_01] Peer into the shadows. Peer into the shadows. Your eyes squinting. Quick. Get your bearings. What do you see? Industrial. Gray. Metal. Blood. No. Rust. What else? Concrete. Machinery. Broken glass. Your breath catches. There she is. A woman.

[00:03:41] [SPEAKER_01] A woman. Standing at the border of darkness and light. She's holding the dripping cloth that had been covering your eyes. She stares at you. Her face a mask of detachment.

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_01] Do you remember me? You squint. Trying to make out her features. But the shadows seem to leap and skitter across her face. You squint harder. And the slightest recognition flickers. But vanishes. The specter of a memory touches your thoughts and reverberates through you.

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_01] Like waking up in the middle of the night because you heard a noise. Or did you? Maybe there never was a noise. Maybe you imagined it. But an undeniable part of you believes it was real and your heart flutters at the idea that you are no longer safe. In your comfortable bed. Listening.

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_01] Your ears strain to hear the slightest sound. The softest footfall. Outside your bedroom door. Your whole body tenses. It doesn't matter that you locked your front door. It doesn't matter that you have a security system. Or a guard dog. Or that things like that don't happen to people like you.

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_01] All your primal brain knows. Is you are in danger. You are in danger. She stands in front of you. Hands on her hips. Judgmental. Expecting. You feel like you know her. You just can't place the face. You can't find the name even though the ghost of it lingers on your tongue like a greasy meal.

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_01] She shifts her position. And the sodden material of the blindfold hits the floor. She stands taller. Light and shadow battle for dominance on her face. Do you know her? You grasp for an answer. Is she... No. Could she be... No. You flip through the Rolodex of faces in your mind as her eyes bore through you.

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_01] Her poisonous glare never wavering as you writhe and squirm. Bound. Soaking wet. Helpless. Kneeling on the cold, hard floor. She points a sharp accusatory finger at you. Do you remember me? Her question hangs in the air like the stench of a dead animal. She stares at you and stares and stares.

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_01] Her expectant eyes burn like two lit bombs ready to explode. Your mouth hangs open. Your mind races to think of something to say. You make a noise like something struggling in thick mud. She shifts, crossing her arms over her chest. Well? Your eyes frantically search the room. As if the rusty machinery will somehow lean in and whisper the answer to you. Hey, asshole.

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_01] I asked you a question. She moves. Fast. Grabbing a wooden plank from the floor. She swings it. Catching your chin on its edge. You're propelled backwards and your head hits the floor. She stands over you. And places her pointed heel on the softest part of your neck. Applying just enough pressure to make your bowels churn.

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_01] You stare up at her with bulging eyes, mouth gaping like a dying eel. You finally manage to choke out a sputtering.

[00:07:55] No.

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_01] You wince as her heel digs further into your flesh. You cry out. Pray, please, please. Your face is a contorted mask of tears, sweat, and snot. The water underneath you turns gelatinous from all your fluids pooling there. She releases the pressure on your neck. You gasp in ragged sobs. She crouches beside you.

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_01] You feel her hot breath near your face. Open your fucking eyes. You force yourself to look. Her face hovers inches from yours.

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_01] You see her. Catch a moment. A memory. A time. A place. But there's nothing to hold onto. The naked bulb hanging above you sways back and forth. Contorting her face even further as light and dark trade places. Morphing her appearance. You can't tell if her eyes are blue or brown or green or hazel. If her face is round or long or flat.

[00:09:35] [SPEAKER_01] Her hair color. Her hair color. Her skin color. Her body shape. Every feature seems to shift and change in the vacillating light. You stare deeper. Harder. You claw at every moment of your life for an answer until your memories begin to bleed. You pour through your sins. Your lies. Your deceits. You think back to every harm you perpetuated. Every hurt you bestowed.

[00:10:04] [SPEAKER_01] Is it her? Or her? Or her? Faces flash before you and your head spins with a guilt that has never been named. Until now. The cost of your choices. Your decisions. Your actions. Your inactions. The girls. The women. The hussies. The whores. The skanks. The babes. The bitches. The cunts. They are all there. Oscillating in the vengeful face of your captor.

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_01] You open your mouth to tell her what you see, but the words are too big for your throat. You choke on them. You try again. Your lips move, but no words can escape your hollow mouth. Tears stream down your face as sighs, then moans, then hobbled screams reverberate in the rusty metal womb. You sob for your own sins. You feel a light touch on your cheek.

[00:11:02] [SPEAKER_01] Your eyes open, and you see her face has lost its vitriol. Her expression is one of grief. She looks at you with sad eyes. Mournful eyes. You feel a small break on your neck. When she steps away, you see a syringe in her hand. The room blurs.

[00:11:32] [SPEAKER_01] Your eyes close. You sleep. But you do not dream. Thing lands on your legs. Heavy. Your eyes flutter open. You try to clear your head. There is something else. Something being dragged.

[00:12:02] [SPEAKER_01] You crane your head in the direction of the noise. It's her. You realize what she's dragging. A body. The body of a woman. Slender. Brown skin. Pink shorts. Three bullet wounds in her chest. Panic seizes you and you try to sit up, but your movements are sluggish and your legs are pinned. You try to kick out, but whatever is on top of them is too heavy. You look down and see another body. A woman.

[00:12:33] [SPEAKER_01] This one has wrinkles covering her face. Her spidery white hair spills across your midsection. Cloudy gray eyes stare up at you. Blood is caked around her neck from where her throat has been slit. Panic overcomes you. You try to move to free yourself from her. You paw at the ground with weak arms, but only drag her further with you. You turn back to push her off you when something else lands on your chest and presses your torso to the ground.

[00:13:04] [SPEAKER_01] Dead weight. Pink shorts. The woman leaves the room. You pray for the first time in years. There it is again. Something else being dragged. A woman. Middle-aged. Tattoos.

[00:13:31] [SPEAKER_01] Her boots leave thick, black streaks across the floor. Half of her head is missing. She's added to the others. You hear it again. Something being dragged. A woman. Dark hair covers her face, but as she gets closer you can see she's been beaten. Her nose is broken. Cheekbone cracked. Skull crushed.

[00:13:58] [SPEAKER_01] Her one dead eye stares accusingly at you. The other one is swollen shut. She is added to the others. You hear it again. Something being dragged. She is wearing a headscarf that billows out behind her as she is pulled by her feet. A knife is still lodged in her chest. She's added to the others.

[00:14:28] [SPEAKER_01] You hear it again. Something being dragged. She looks for all the world like she could simply be asleep. Until you notice the small red wounds on her arms. The bruising that snakes up her biceps. Her lips are blue. She is added to the others.

[00:14:58] [SPEAKER_01] No more dragging. The woman enters. Carrying something. A girl. Her tiny body is laid down on top of you. You barely feel her as she is added to the others. It lands just within your field of vision. It is covered in cuts. And bruises.

[00:15:28] [SPEAKER_01] And burns. And rock dust. Two fingers are missing. You hear it again. Something being dragged. A woman. She is added to the others. Again. A woman. She's added to the others. Again. A woman. She's added to the others. Again. A woman. A woman.

[00:15:58] [SPEAKER_01] A woman. A woman. A woman. What defils your struggle to breathe? You sip air in short gasps. Trying to keep yourself calm. She enters again. Dragging another body. This one she places near you on the floor.

[00:16:28] [SPEAKER_01] The same with the next. And the next. And the next. Dragging and placing. Dragging and placing. Until the room is littered with corpses. She makes sure you see all of them. She makes sure you can't look away. Finally. She places the last of them.

[00:16:57] [SPEAKER_01] A young woman with ebony skin. Dressed in bold, bright colors. Her legs are missing from the knees down. There is no more room left. The silence is deafening. All sound soaked up by the bodies. Hundreds of dead women filling the space. Somehow you know that wherever they came from, there are more.

[00:17:28] [SPEAKER_01] This room could be filled a thousand times over and still. The woman's gaze scans the room. Her face is blank. She's naming them. All of them.

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_01] Their names fall from her mouth like petals dropping from a cherry tree. Each one spoken with reverence. Their final epitaph. One after another. After another. After another. It continues for what feels like hours. And then, the last name is spoken and she falls to her knees. Her breath. Ragged.

[00:18:25] [SPEAKER_01] She brings her hands to her face. Inhaling deeply. She cries. Her keening starts low and soulful. A personal sorrow. Her despair. Her anger. Her regret. It builds. Mournful and bitter. Growing with fury and rage. Until her whole body vibrates with indignation.

[00:18:55] [SPEAKER_01] She leans back and a scream is ripped from her throat. It is loud enough to wake the dead. But it cannot. She falls quiet. She falls quiet. Hugging herself. Slowly rocking back and forth. In the perfect silence. You notice.

[00:19:25] [SPEAKER_01] A low moan. Close to your ear. Another from across the room. Another from a dark corner. Another from a dark corner. Another and another. The dead women are crying. In sorrow. In grief. In rage. In rage. The bodies of mothers and sisters and daughters cry out as one. They cry for injustice. For cruelty.

[00:19:54] [SPEAKER_01] For innocence lost. They cry for the broken. The battered. The silenced. For the vilified. The violated. The ignored. The unheard ones. They will be heard now. You will. Listen. You struggle to raise your hands to your ears but your arms are pinned. You will listen.

[00:20:20] [SPEAKER_01] The yelling lament grows and when you can no longer stand the cacophony. When your head feels like it will burst. You open your mouth. And join them resonating. With theirs. And the shrieking voices shake the room. And for a moment the earth itself stops turning. The weight. The pain.

[00:20:53] [SPEAKER_01] The cries echo in your head long after they've fallen silent. Long after death has taken them back. You hear them still. You realize. They were always scorn. The woman stands. She wipes the tears and blood from her face.

[00:21:22] [SPEAKER_01] As she does, recognition blooms. You finally remember. You know her. She approaches and stands over you. Staring into your eyes with cold indifference. Buried and struggling to breathe. She kneels down. Leans in. You wheeze out a plea for help. Her breath tickles your ear.

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_01] She stands back up. Looking at the corpses smothering you. With a quiet sigh. She removes her shoes. And climbs on top of the pile of dead women. Somehow her weight seems greater than all the others combined. The crushing pressure is unbearable. Above you.

[00:22:18] [SPEAKER_01] She lies down and closes her eyes. Burns. It feels like scalding water in your lungs. You writhe. You writhe. Panicked. You open your mouth to plead for a... Lifeless hand falls across your mouth. Silencing you. Your vision blurs. The room lurches.

[00:22:48] [SPEAKER_01] Spins. And explodes in vibrant reds and blues and yellows. Then everything goes black. The voiceless women do not stir. They do not cry. They do not fight. And neither do you.

[00:23:37] [SPEAKER_00] Written by Alison Cossett. Performed by Jolene Anderson. You've been listening to Ominous Thrill, Her Horrorween. It's created, produced, directed, and sound designed by myself, Jeff Schmidt. If this is your first Ominous Thrill episode, please look back in the feed to find other stories you might enjoy. There's plenty of devious audio delights to choose from. The best way to help support making more Ominous Thrill is to subscribe to the ad-free feed, The Red Room, on Patreon and Apple Podcasts.

[00:24:08] [SPEAKER_00] Find links in the show notes. It's greatly appreciated. Next best is to share this story with everyone you think might enjoy it. Help spread the word. Use the share icon in your listening app of choice. And the easiest way is to leave a five-star rating and a positive review. It doesn't do much for the algorithms, but it helps other listeners decide if they'll listen. Thank you. This has been Ominous Thrill, Her Horrorween. And until next time, thrill you later.

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