The first dart slammed into the board a few feet above his head. The THUMP rattled through him, and it made everything real. He’d felt the wind on his face as the projectile whistled past.

“Jesus.” Said James, the tiny man tied to the dartboard and living out karma’s finest punishment.

The lady who’d thrown the dart readied her aim once again. She was watched by another girl with a rather astounded expression. Sarah watched as Carly pulled back the dart. She couldn’t believe that they were actually going through with this. Carly let fly.

“Christ!” James squeaked out as the dart whizzed past and THUMPED into the board, just below his exposed frame.

“Fuck!” Carly said, clearly annoyed that she’d missed both shots. She growled and walked toward the dartboard, glaring dead center at the naked man. His eyes were wide.

“I won’t miss again.” She said to her nearly hyperventilating target.

“Fuck’s sake, Carly. You’re not serious. Can’t we just talk about this?” James pleaded, and she barely heard him as she yanked each dart out with violence. Her dark eyes went level with James and she grinned.

“You’ve missed the boat on that, sweetie. Sarah, your turn.” She said, turning to walk away. 

James was in disbelief. Mere hours ago he’d been on stage in the midst of a performance. His world prior to this nightmare was one of lavish self-indulgence and obsessive narcissism. It’s what becomes of a lead singer with no one to answer to, not even his girlfriends. That’s who Carly and Sarah were, two of his girlfriends. That he was seeing at the same time.

Sarah took the darts from Carly with a pensive look. This had all been Carly’s idea. And hurt as she was by James’s blatant infidelity and lies, it seemed too brutal. She was still struggling to come to grips with the fact that Carly was able to shrink him. The moment when her tiny ex-boyfriend was left agape staring up at her still danced through her mind. 

“I don’t know, Carly…” she said. Carly huffed and handed her a glass.

“Have another drink then. It won’t do much for your aim, but it will loosen you up. Remember, he deserves this. He played us for fools, Sarah. Pitted us against one another. Used us for his own pleasure. He’s scum.” Carly said as Sarah nodded and then took a sip from her glass, scrunching her nose up at the strong taste.

“Are you fucking kidding me?! This is psychotic! I’m sorry, alright. Come on!” The little man on the dartboard squeaked in protest of his condemnation. He could only watch as Sarah lined up her shot and aimed. She let fly.

Fortunately for James, Sarah threw like a girl. The dart whizzed through the air but hit well below the dartboard, bouncing off the door and landing on the floor below. Carly laughed at Sarah and she giggled at herself. 

“Well at least I’m not going to hit him. Jeez.” Sarah said and steadied herself for another throw. This one was just as wild, her form never really having any aim, but James watched as it rose from her delicate fingers and hurled through the air right at him. His eyes got bigger as the missile dipped and struck, just below his naked right foot. The THUMP reverberated and he felt it even more this time. His adrenaline crushed his blood through his veins.

“Holy Jesus fuck.” He said, It was all he could muster. Sarah trudged to collect her darts, a little amazed at how close she got. Her pretty blue eyes came level with her ex-boyfriend, who took his chance to offer his pleas to the softer of the two.

“Sarah, you can’t let her do this. You can’t do this to me. This isn’t fair. Please. It’s not human!” He said, the emotional panic swirling through his words. 

Sarah picked up her darts, and her expression remained tough. Focused. She stood and looked down at the man she’d loved for everything and pushed a strand of blond hair from her eyes. She cracked and pouted a bit, seeing him like this made her kind heart yearn to protect him. At once the nights they’d spent together flashed through her mind. The passion, the sex, the romance. The love that was never really there. She sighed and turned back to Carly as James shouted to her. 

Carly grinned as she took the darts and aimed. He was squeaking his head off, the little bastard. She imagined her dart piercing right through his mouth, cutting off the source of all the pretty lies she’d been told. ‘We’ll be together for good.’ He’d told her. ‘You’re my little hardcore queen.’ He’d said. ‘Seeing someone else? Of course not.’ He’d lied straight through his teeth. She threw the dart.

This one slammed a few feet above him. James was getting used to the THUMP a bit, and wasn’t as shaken up by it. His thoughts raced for ways to convince Carly to stop. Though what he’d always dug about Carly was her darkness, dark hair, dark eyes, dark demeanor. She was the perfect groupie and the perfect fuck. But he couldn’t play on any of this for mercy. Her heart was as black as her eye-liner. He inhaled as she drew back and threw. THUMP. He yelped in terror, not pain. The dart struck the board just below his exposed genitals. 

Carly thought she’d hit him at first, but the lack of screams told her otherwise. She snapped her fingers and went to collect the darts.

“We’re getting closer, it’s only a matter of time,” she yanked out the dart above James’s head. “in fact if you’d been a little bit bigger, I’d have already got you.” She said. 

Despite being mocked, James was in full-on plead mode.

“Carly, I know what I did was wrong. I was stupid, and I didn’t know what I had. How will this change anything? How will this help?” He said.

Carly glowered down at him. That same darkness that drew James to her was thrown back in his face in an instant.

“It will make me feel better.” She said, and yanked the dart out from under his balls.

James watched her walk away and was brought back to the first night he saw her. He’d spotted her at one of his shows, reaching up to him from the front row as he sang. He remembered admiring the way her black hair framed her face and her eye shadow accentuated her piercing green eyes. As he fought through the lyrics, he’d made a note to find her after the show. He’d let go of Carly’s hand during that performance and gave her a wink, sealing his own fate. 

Carly handed the darts over to Sarah, who had just polished off her glass of alcohol. James stared at the gorgeous blonde. Memories flooded back into him of the night they met at a club after one of his shows. She was shy at first, but her demure and naïve nature drew him in. He’d met her a week after beginning to date Carly, but James wasn’t used to the concept of restraint and hadn’t been told ‘no’ enough. He wanted her, and he got her. He got her and Carly at the same time, and he indulged in the both of them separately for months. It was tough for him to decide which he preferred. Carly was Sarah’s opposite. Sarah was quiet and submissive, a joy to be around. And Carly was an energetic fire cracker that made all his fantasies come true. It was the best of both worlds, and James had never been happier. Sarah pulled back her dart, and reality came crashing back down.

The dart flew through the air and slammed into the board a harmless distance from James’s body. Sarah’s nose scrunched at her poor aim and she laughed. Carly didn’t laugh, and continued glaring at James. Sarah sighed and shook her head before readying herself. She was thinking about how silly this all was, and how Carly was just trying to scare James when she let fly again. She only turned her head to look at the board after the shrill scream erupted from it. Sarah’s eyes widened. The dart protruded from his right arm. It had gone straight through.

For James, it was surreal. He’d had so many new things to comprehend that the sudden blinding pain erupting from his right bicep seemed unrealistic. He screamed and it felt like something in his brain snapped as tears leapt from his eyes. Carly’s voice gave a shrill laugh and his pain erupted forth and contorted into rage. He heard her high heels clacking the floor as she went to collect the darts. Sarah’s hands covered her mouth. Carly looked down at him with a grin and James’s vision shook with anger.

“You fucking cunt! You fucking monster cunt! You fucking deplorable fucking cunt fucking whore! I fucking gave you fucking cunts everything you fucking wanted! I gave everything you wanted you fucking whore! You wanted to date a fucking singer you cunt and you fucking got it! You got exactly what a dumb fucking groupie gets! You fucking daft fucking cunts got what you fucking deserved, and you don’t take any-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!” 

James’s rant was cut off as a smiling Carly yanked the dart out of his arm. Blood poured out of it and ran down the dartboard. Carly giggled. 

“What was that? I’m sorry I didn’t catch all that.” She said. James’s pain boiled back over into more rage and he started screaming obscenities again. Carly took the blood-tipped dart and shut him up by sticking the point right in his open mouth. She made him taste his own blood. James gagged, unable to close his mouth or stop himself from sucking his own gore off the tip of the dart. Carly laughed and pulled the dart out and walked back to take her turn, leaving James sputtering and spitting and crying.

Sarah was aghast at what she’d done, and more aghast at how calm Carly was as she turned and fired again. This dart whizzed and thumped into the board close to James’s head, and a shrill shriek came from him. 

“He’s so pathetic. This is incredible. I need to fucking hit him though.” Carly said and pulled the dart back. She squinted and aimed, fully focused. She threw. It hit. James’s voice erupted once more as the dart stuck out of his meaty left thigh. Carly pumped her fist and let out a ‘Yes!’

James’s thigh was nearly torn off by the force of the dart. The pain was even more blinding and this time he almost passed out. His heart thundered in his chest and he screamed his throat raw. Tears poured from his eyes and eventually mixed with his blood on the way down the dartboard. His mind was completely broken and the anger from earlier disappeared, replaced by fear. The unyielding desire for survival took over as Carly made her way toward him once more.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Please! Carly! It hurts so bad. Please. Please! Oh God please. Oh God, no, no, no, no, NO AAAAAAAAAHHH!” He screamed as she yanked the dart out of his thigh. More blood. More screams. More tears. The man who had done plenty of screaming on stage now screamed for his private audience of two. He’d never spilt so many guts though. 

“Please Carly stop. Please. Please!” He said. She eyed him with mischief and curiosity. There was no humanity in those eyes. Nothing James could latch on to in order to save himself, but he begged anyway. Carly’s tongue peeked out and licked her lips. She leaned forward and gave her former lover the biggest kiss of his life, coating his face and chest with saliva and black lipstick. As she pulled back, strands of saliva mixed with his blood and formed a thin wiry bridge from his body to her mouth that collapsed once she’d moved far enough away. 

James responded physically to the touch of her lips with an erection and his mind flooded with anger at this betrayal. The pain came in new pulses and waves, continuing to break him down. His throat now hurt from screaming. His face was slick from sweat, saliva and tears. And he was starting to get light headed from the blood loss. They had to stop this or he was going to die. The realization shook him back into pleading.

Sarah took the darts from Carly with a shaky hand. She couldn’t believe this was happening. It had gone too far. The joy Carly was taking in this was inhuman and unbelievable to her. Sarah wanted this to end.

“Carly I can’t do this anymore. We have to stop this. We’ve got to help him or he’s going to die.” She said. Carly looked over and rolled her eyes.

“You know, I was really hoping I was going to be wrong about you, Sarah. I thought you’d go soft on me and wouldn’t be able to go through with this.” Carly said and sighed.

“Well I’m sorry that I can’t literally kill someone with darts. This is inhuman and we’re not doing it anymore.” Sarah replied, setting the darts down on the table next to her drink.

“You’ve already hit him one time, what’s a few more? Come on Sarah, is he really worth your feelings anymore? Why do you still care about him? Come on.” Carly said, moving closer to her. Sarah shook her head and glared.

“It was an accident. We’re done Carly. Period.” Sarah said. Carly sighed again. They stared each other down for a moment, James’s tiny pleas echoing on the dartboard beyond them. His life hung in the balance, suspended in the air between his two ex-girlfriends.

“It’s a good thing I was prepared for this. I had a feeling I couldn’t trust you. It’s why I spiked your drink with the same thing we shrunk him with. You’ll be feeling it soon.” Carly said, and Sarah’s eyes went wide. Carly smiled. 

Sarah felt her heartbeat quicken. The drink had tasted different. And her hands had been shaking. Now her vision felt blurry. Her mind wouldn’t let her think about different possibilities. Carly had done it. She had to get away. Get help. She took a step back and Carly matched it with a step toward her. Sarah took a deep breath and shoved Carly with all her might, knocking her down, but Carly was ready for it and latched onto Sarah’s hair. The two girls clattered to the ground, Sarah’s foot caught on the table behind her and it fell over bringing the drinks and darts down as well. 

James watched the battle and used everything he could to stay awake. He cheered Sarah on, knowing she was his only hope. At first Sarah had the upper hand, but Carly was able to flip her over and start strangling her. Sarah had a long reach though and managed to grasp Carly’s hair and tug her to the side. The girls flailed, kicking and screaming and tearing at clothes. James’s vision blurred, the blood loss and tears affecting his ability to think and see. Carly got back on top. Both of them were shrieking. Carly got her hands more firmly around Sarah’s neck and Sarah’s shrieks stopped. James’s hopes were fading.

Sarah’s arm flailed about as her own vision blurred. She felt something sharp and grasped it. A dart. She flipped it with unconscious precision and with all her might brought it toward Carly’s neck.

Carly’s reflexes were brilliant, and she blocked it from hitting her neck. She screamed in rage and pain as the dart pierced her palm. Sarah tried to use the opportunity, but her strength was leaving her. She felt so weak, and soon Carly was choking her with just one hand completely around her throat.

James watched and heard Carly screaming down at Sarah. Telling her that she was fucking finished, that she was going to die on the dartboard next. His hope faded with his consciousness. Blackness started to blot out his reality. He let himself pass out with the knowledge that he wouldn’t wake back up.

--

Sarah woke up. Her face stung with pain, but she couldn’t move her hand to rub it. She couldn’t move anything. Her heart sank as she looked out and saw black lips framing a vicious set of teeth. Carly’s grin made her want to wail. “Oh no.” Squeaked from her tiny lips.

“Well Sarah, since you ruined our last dart game—and James died from blood loss before I could kill him thanks to your outburst—I thought you wouldn’t mind playing another one.” Carly said before turning and walking back toward the table. One of her hands was heavily bandaged, but unfortunately not her dominant one. She picked up a dart and spun around. Their eyes locked. Sarah started to cry. She started to hyperventilate. Carly pulled the dart back and licked her lips. She aimed. 

“Please no.” Sarah squeaked. Carly threw.

Bullseye. 

The End