“What are you going to do? Punch me in my own office?” Sinclair straightened up as if Will’s anger, which was visible enough to notice, didn’t bother him at all. “And let me just tell you about that kiss that Una and I shared, it was fucking good that I even heard her moan against—”
And before Sinclair could even finish his sentence, Will finally lost it. He grabbed his boss’s shirt and threw him back. Sinclair stumbled backward and before he could gain his balance back, Will threw a punch at him that landed on his mouth and sent him reeling backward. He touched his lip and saw blood on the back of his hand.
“You fucker!” he screamed and lunged at Will. “How dare you!”
Will threw in another punch which he deflected. Quickly, he grabbed Will’s arm and twisted it behind his back, threw him onto the floor, shoving his face against the carpet. “Do you think you’re bigger than me, you little fucker?” he hissed between gritted teeth.
“Guys! Stop!” Glen would’ve jumped in, but this was his friend and boss fighting. He could help Will, but he would most likely lose his job after. And it was something he wasn’t prepared to do just yet for friendship’s sake.
As Will struggled on the floor under Sinclair’s strength, he was able to finally break free and elbowed Sinclair’s face. He stood up and brought Sinclair with him and began to throw hard punches at him. Sinclair was able to block some, but the blow to his stomach made him wince hard.
Will grabbed him and pinned him against the table, sending the computer flying and landing on the floor with a loud noise and, without hesitation, repeatedly punched his boss in the face.
Sinclair’s face welcomed the blow with a loud, painful sound. Will’s world dimmed and he had shut down everyone who was asking him to stop. His boss had chosen to push the wrong button and now he had to suffer the consequences. Rage escaped Will’s fists as all reasons to contain his madness had gone out the window. “Don’t talk to her like that. She’s nothing like the women you slept with to temporarily fill that fucking hole in your pathetic life.” He growled, landing another punch.
Liezel rushed to try to stop the commotion that was happening, yet she couldn’t help but pity herself instead after hearing the hurtful realization brought about by Will’s words.
Was she really just someone Sinclair took in to temporarily fill the emptiness in his life?
She took a step back and fought back the tears from falling as she watched Sinclair get beaten up. This was what she had wanted. When she left Sinclair’s room and went looking for Will, she already an inkling that this was more likely to happen. No matter how reserved and collected Will seemed, he was still just a man. And like any other man, it was his nature to react to any threat from another man.
“Oh my...”
“Stop!”
“Can someone stop him. Please!” It was Maddy who finally got the balls to intervene, stepping closer. “Will, stop, or you’re gonna kill him!”
“He’s already killing him,” someone from the crowd said.
A lot wanted to stop Will, but no one actually dared to physically stop him.
“There are so many evils in this world, Sinclair. I say you watch your fucking mouth or I’ll personally introduce you to one of them.” Will’s nostrils were flaring and eyes flashing as he warned him.
He let go of his boss. The lethal expression on his face had not changed. He walked out as people parted like the red sea to make way for him. No one talked or called out his name, not even Glen who had been just as shocked as the rest.
Breathing hard, Sinclair spat blood as he tried to stand up. “You’re fucking fired!” he called on to him.
“Talk to the police about this and Belinda would hear about Una and what you did to her,” Liezel threatened, looking at him with disgust before walking away.
“Why the hell are you still standing there like fucking figurines?!” Sinclair demanded, but the floor remained silent as he picked his shattered dignity back together as soon as he slammed the door shut from everyone.
IV
Lust
The mind governed by the flesh is death…
Lust—
“What does a conscience feel like?” I asked.
“Where am I?” His glazed almond eyes roamed over my naked body and then around the poorly-lit room before it finally landed on the tools that I had neatly laid on a utility table next to me.
I smiled at the obvious curiosity in his eyes.
Suspended a few inches off the ground, he groaned softly from, what I could tell, the dull throbbing pain in his head. I did hit him badly that knocked him out immediately.
“Welcome to my world, Toby,” I told him, opening my arms as if to sincerely welcome him.
“An old funeral home? Nice.” Toby gave me a nod and continued, “Damn, am I dreaming? Am I hallucinating this? Or is this shit really happening? You have to understand, bro, I had some serious dope back at the party.”
“Yes, Toby, everything you see, hear, and feel is real. You are really naked, and your wrists are really cuffed in metal shackles from the ceiling. Your bruised arms are really stretched over your head. The blood dripping from the cuts and lacerations down your legs are pretty real too.”
He grinned and gave me a once-over. “And are you really naked too?”
“Yes, I am.”
“I have never tried fucking a man before, but I’m open-minded…”
“Answer my question, Toby,” I told him dryly. The guy was obviously still fucked-up. I could only imagine the different junk he snorted tonight to even consider screwing me.
“What question? Oh, the crap about conscience? Alright, well, I think conscience is typically linked with guilt. And I think when you do something wrong or bad, you feel something’s not right. That’s your conscience working on you. Conscience is supposed to make you feel like you’re torn, ashamed, and make you feel like every ounce of energy is drained from your body. How about you? What does being like you feel like?”
That made me think for a moment. Nobody had ever asked me that. Every person I brought in here all either begged for their lives right away or cursed me to death. Toby, apparently, was far different from all of them.
“If what you’re saying is real—this place, me hanging naked, the blood, the strong, rotten smell of this place—then that makes you…” he paused and then smiled menacingly at me.
This guy was seriously something else.
I sighed. “Being me isn’t no picnic. A lot of things go into what I do; it’s no walk in the park.”
He opened his mouth to reply, but a wince came out of his mouth instead. He was, no doubt, in unbearable pain by now.
“What you are is special, bro. And the kills you make are supposed to be your message to the world. Like every artist, the world needs to see your work. Well, I have to admit that I envy you.”
As I listened to him, I couldn’t believe it. He had to be playing me. He just had to be. Was he really envious of me? Was that the reason for the curiosity in his eyes? Every sinner I brought in here didn’t think so highly of me. And they were far from being envious of what I was or what I was doing.
To hide the slight uproar that his interest in what I do had sparked, I smirked and pretended I didn’t find anything wrong with his weird reaction. “I am proud of my works, no doubt about that. But there’s a reason why I don’t show it to people. There’s a reason why I burn the bodies. And I had to survive, Toby, to continue to exist and do what I was born to do. I have to live and blend in and not cause trouble and attention from anybody, especially the police.”
Toby grunted and momentarily stared at me. “That’s sad to hear, bro. It’s like creating something remarkable only to keep it yourself.”
As I processed his reply, I heard something vibrating. I looked to my right and snatched my phone from the table. “Hmm… I gotta take this,” I muttered when I saw her name on the screen.
I took the duct from the table. “There you go.” I silenced T
oby with a piece of the tape and turned on the music player on the bottom compartment of the utility table and Queen’s Crazy Little Called Love started to fill the heavy air. He was a piece of work that I still couldn’t trust him not to scream no matter how fascinated he seemed with what was going on. He could still be playing me.
“Hello,” I finally answered the call.
“Is that Queen I’m hearing? Wait, where are you?” I heard my girlfriend ask from the other line.
I looked back at Toby whose eyes were twinkling, smiling. “I’m at my friend’s house. Do you remember Glen? We’re…we’re um…”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, of course! Do you want me to grab something for you?”
“No, I just…I just need you home.” Her voice was too soft that it instantly made me want to wrap her in my arms. Forever.
But, wait, did I hear it, right? She needed me home. Not wanted, but needed. And oh, how great it felt to be needed…by her. I hadn’t thought she’d ever really need me.
“Liezel called me and told me about what happened today at work. You and Sinclair…”
What happened with Sinclair earlier today was, perhaps, a miscalculation on my end. I was mad at him for kissing my girlfriend. So insane that I wanted to rip his heart out and shred it to pieces and I suppose I could have done it though had I not punched him and made that stupid avenging boyfriend stunt in front of everyone in the office. Now, it would be impossible for the police not to go after me if I decided to touch even a single hair on that fucker’s head.
“Hello? Will? Are you still there?”
“Yes. I’m still here. Yeah, I’m still a little upset with what happened. We’ll just have a couple of bottles. I’ll be done in an hour…drinking…I’ll be done drinking with Glen in an hour…then I’ll be heading home.”
“But you can’t drive when—”
Her concern immediately warmed my heart. “Don’t worry, little miss, I won’t have more than a couple.”
“Please don’t take too long…”
Fuck, I could literally feel my heart thumping loudly. I was excited, and suddenly, I felt desperate to be with her. Like physically be with her. Kiss her. Touch her. Fu—
“I’ll wait for you. Bye.”
“Bye.”
And the line went dead.
Toby said something through the duct tape, willing me to pay my attention back to him. I ripped the tape off and he flinched. I smiled at the obvious pain I just gave him.
“Oh, bro, you’re in fucking love,” he commented instead.
My smile turned into a grin, like a fucking teenager. “I guess I am.”
“Dude, I never thought of you as a lover boy. Is she part of your plan to blend in? So people wouldn’t notice anything peculiar about you? Is she like your cover?” He winced, taking the pressure off of his bruised wrists.
This time, I frowned. How could he? “She’s not. But she makes my life feel more normal.”
“I get you, bro.” He grinned and nodded eagerly. “But you know what I think? I think I’d be cool if…well, I think it’d be really awesome to be your sidekick. I don’t mind you bossing me around, really. As long as you let me participate in the killing. I can choose the victims for you. Stalk them for you. Kidnap them for you.”
And there it was, Toby’s shameless truth. He was a sicko, offering me a partnership like what I had been doing was nothing but to satisfy my bloodlust. This fucker was obviously misjudging me.
“So, aside from being a rapist, you want to be a murderer too?” I asked him. The fire flickered in his eyes, and, for the first time, it pissed me off.
“That sounds awful if you put it that way.”
My jaw tightened. “Of course. But you wouldn’t really enjoy doing what I do, not as much as sticking your cock forcefully into those women you raped.”
Without any trace of shame, Toby grimaced. “Maybe. Those whores had it coming. And between you and me, I actually think they loved my dick, they were just too proud to admit it. I mean—” He looked down at his exposed dick and grinned. “—look at the size of that thing.”
My knuckles clenched. I’d enjoy nothing more right now but to have this idiot eat his own fat dick and see if he’d really love it before breaking his skull with my bare hands.
Toby Langston’s parents were rich enough to help him cheat the justice system and avoid prison. That’s why whoever ordered him to die was obviously doing everyone a favor. The city would be a safer place if people like him were dead.
Predators like Toby weren’t difficult to find, and it only took me less than an hour to locate him in one of the high-end clubs in the city, high as fuck and looking for his next prey. Although it took me a couple of hours to convince him, I had a wasted college girl waiting in the car. He was suspicious, of course, but the fucker still took the bait in the end.
“Shit, the pain’s slowly eating me up, bro.” He moaned, blinking his glazed eyes.
He was slowly coming down from his high, and as soon as he sobered up, he’d be shitting himself in pain. I’d love to see him suffer longer, but I had to be done with him now. Una was waiting for me.
“Do you know why you’re here, Toby?” I asked him.
He tried to focus his eyes on me. “You tell me, bro. Wait, is it because we can make good partners in crime?” He giggled, which was quickly cut off by his coughing.
I desperately wanted to pull his tongue out and see if he could still make that annoying noise once he’s choking in his own blood.
He cleared his throat. “We can make an incredible duo, bro. Think of what we can achieve. You don’t even have to resort to settling down and getting yourself a girlfriend just to cover your true self. I will have your back. Your girl can’t protect you from the world. You need better backup. A filthy rich backup. You need me.”
His offer had just become slightly tempting. His money could definitely serve me well while I continued my mission. But I’d be mad to take his offer and let him live. I knew his kind; he loved the spotlight. And he’d soon be so addicted to the attention he’d get from murdering people and cops would be on us in no time.
There was no way I’d let him walk out alive. I would never make that mistake. So I dismissed his bullshit and continued, “Lust, Toby, is the reason why you’re here—your wanton craving to ram your dick into women regardless if they’re into it or not. Obviously, your lack of control over your dick is the reason why you are here.”
I had to take a step back when he suddenly answered me with a loud laugh.
“Are you kidding me, bro? Is that really why I’m here? Because I don’t control where I stick my cock in? Don’t even try and tell me you’re better than me, bro, because you’re not,” he hissed. “And don’t even try and tell that you haven’t fucked that girl you spoke on the phone. I know you have, and I know you’re thinking of fucking her again once you go home.”
I swallowed. The fucker was like reading my mind. But it didn’t mean I was like him or we’re anything alike. “Listen, you—”
“—No, no,” he cut in. “You listen, bro. I know how much you love the feeling of your girl’s flesh, clenching around that cock of yours…”
Now, I am starting to feel weird with both of us being naked and talking about our dicks.
“…that powerful feeling of filling her and moving inside her tight hole; that intense feeling of dominance as you listen to her cry and beg for you; that extreme and violently overwhelming whirlwind of emotions streaming in every single vein in your body never really leaves you even after you’re done screwing her, bro. And once you reached the peak, you just want to go for it again, and you should, we all should. Why should we restrain ourselves? Why should we control our desires when we know for certain that it’d only make us fucking lose our mind until we let it go? It’s human nature to feed, bro, because that uncontrollable hunger you feel in the pit of your stomach won’t go away until you do. That sensation you feel as you thrust in and out of
her again and again; her juicy flesh against your—”
“Stop!” I finally mustered the will to push back the image that he was trying to paint in my mind as I walked closer to him. “Listen, you little fuck. Unlike you, I have complete control over my desire. And if I’m going to fuck her, again and again, it’s because I love her.”
“Are you convincing me, or yourself? Love?” He snorted. “Go on a year without fucking her and then I’ll believe that what you have for her is indeed love.” He smiled. “Be real, bro. Don’t worry, I don’t judge. I’m pretty sure your girl loves some dick action every day too. Those whores do.”
That did it. ‘What did you just say?”
“I said your whore—”
Before Toby could finish his sentence, I grabbed the knife from the table next to me and in one rapid motion, swung the sharp blade at his throat. His body gasped for air for a moment before his head slumped, blood spilling out of his throat.
I breathed heavily. “I absolve you from your sins, you mother fucker. You will return in your original state when you first came into this world, pure, free of any transgressions, immaculate, with no iniquity.”
It was finally done.
Looking at the blood gushing from Toby’s throat, I was still stunned with the offer he made. A partnership? Was he kidding me? Did he just say those things to avoid his death? One thing’s for sure though, he was sick and he had to die. We weren’t alike, I was no way like him. I had a road map. I had a purpose. Toby didn’t have anything; he didn’t live with any rules, and it was a dangerous way of living.
Toby was pure evil. I wasn’t.
Chapter 22
Home Invasion
“…but how can you be so sure that he won’t press charges after what you did?”
“I’ll go and speak to him tomorrow.” Wearing nothing but his grey sweatpants, Will closed the door behind him.
It was already almost midnight when they decided to climb to Una’s bed after finishing a tub of ice cream and a Chaplin movie. It had been a long and exhausting day for both of them, but most especially for Will who just had an office brawl with his boss. He knew what Sinclair could do and because of this, he was surprised his peaceful dinner with Una hadn’t been interrupted by some police officers barging in to question him about the fight. Other than a text message from Liezel and Glen checking on him, there was nothing.
Considerably Wicked: A Dark Romance Page 23
