sounding like war and hell all in one ."
Laurel paused for a moment , breathing heavily and trying to control her sobbing over the phone .
" It ' s okay , babe ," I had said to her over the phone . You ' re gonna be okay , you can tell me the rest later ."
" No ," Laurel said , her voice frail . " I have to keep going ."
I didn ' t stop her this time from speaking , but I cried silently as she recalled the hell from which she escaped .
" The man was in his late forties , Max ," Laurel started . " He was wearing an awful Christmas sweater or something . He began wailing on the tall guy in the corner .
The dogs barked excitedly as they eagerly awaited their turn at the man . The kidnapper kept beating the man for four minutes , as Laurel counted by her watch . He screamed , " SMILING ! AHHHH !" with an unintelligible fury of madness . All at once he stopped . He turned around to the rest of the group and screamed , " Who wants to die SMILING !?" As if on cue , the dogs fell silent , their ears turned straight up . The psycho turned back around to the man , a bloodied mess of a pulp in the corner , and screamed , " YOU DO !"
The dogs jumped in like the pouring of a black rain .
" It was absolutely horrible ," Laurel cried over the phone . She was having trouble breathing at this point . " I couldn ' t ... I couldn ' t even move . I couldn ' t do anything ."
" Laurel , honey , there ' s nothing that you could have done ," I said , in what I knew to be a horrible attempt to comfort her . I did anyway . " This person is insane ! We ' ll find him !"
Laurel continued as if she hadn ' t heard her husband . " The next day it was the same thing ," she said . " There were footsteps upstairs , then the opening of the door and the fall of foosteps on the stairway . "
When he reached the bottom , it wasn ' t a Christmas sweater though . Oh no . It was a freaking Panda sweater . " WHO WANTS TO DIE SMILING !?!?" He screamed like a banshee , straight into the Korean woman ' s face . She didnt ' move but kept her gaze to the floor . " SMILING !!!!" He screamed at her again . He began beating the ground with his fists and the Dobermans could be heard above scurrying to get downstairs . They clawed their way down into the basement , almost tumbling headfirst as they went .
" YOU DO !!!!!!!" The man shouted at the Korean woman , who finally lifted her head . Her eyes filled with dread as he landed a punch square in her face . The dogs rushed in and she was engulfed and devoured by what seemed to be hundreds of teeth .
" That ' s when he came towards me ," Laurel said , choking on her tears . " It was awful , Max . I couldn ' t ... He kept looking me in the eyes . The dogs followed him , licking their lips and surrounding me in a half circle formation ."
Laurel could feel his rank , hot breath on her as he asked , " Do you wish to die ?" " No ," she said , crying . " Do you wish to die , SMILING !?!" The man punched her as hard as he could , straight in the face . She was knocked out .
I sobbed silently on my end of the phone as Laurel recounted the experience . I bit my fist to keep from making any sort of sound . I had to be strong for her .
" Everything turned white ," Laurel said . " When I opened my eyes again , a fist was coming straight toward my face again and that ... that cretin is screaming the same stupid shit over and over and those damned fucking dogs just wouldn ' t stop barking . Eventually I