" smiling faces of the masks, and every inch of my skin rose in prickles of terror. I could see the first man’s teeth between the red lips of the mask. They were pressed together, the pale shape of his mouth wide and straight, as if the effort of choking me one-handed was too much for him. The two sets of lips –a human flesh pair within a solid plastic pair –made my blood freeze, but still I couldn’t take my eyes from the mask and the glimpse of the person I could see beneath. The second man grabbed my arms and fixed them tightly behind me with something hard and cold that bit into my skin. And then came the gag -between my teeth, tearing into the corners of my mouth, the rough material chafing my flesh. The two men spoke again, but their words blurred in my head and became little more than a buzzing sound. I watched as the first man went into the hall. He was leaving us, pulling off his mask as he reached the front door. He didn’t know I’d "
― Rachel Abbott , Kill Me Again (DCI Tom Douglas, #5)