by Faulks, Kim
My fingers trembled, dancing against my thigh. “I don’t know what you’re saying.”
“You know,” Pryor murmured. “I know that you know.”
I glanced at the others…lingering on Maddox. “Please, please don’t do this.”
There was nothing, not a shake of his head—not a flare of torture in his eyes. It was a lie…one big fucking lie.
And that nerve in my head spasmed…tick…tick…tick…
My breath caught, muscles trembled. I glanced to the back door for a heartbeat and then lunged.
Boots slammed against vinyl as I cut behind them. The Hunter roared as I flew, spearing through the kitchen, until I was hit from behind.
My head hit something hard. Plates rattled in the cupboard as I smashed into the sink and fell.
Hard body pushed me face first into the floor. “Don’t do this,” Maddox growled. “Don’t fight.”
I thrashed and bucked. “Get the fuck off me…get off!”
Hate spilled, rising in waves I couldn’t control. I kicked, arched my spine and drove my head backwards, aiming for anything I could.
“Careful,” Pryor urged as hands gripped the back of my neck and tightened.
“You gonna play like this?” Breathless words warmed my ear. “You going to fucking fight me? Do what you’re told…do it you lying fucking bitch!”
My head was slammed forward until I hit the vinyl floor. Fire lashed my ears as he ground the side of my head against the cold. “You gonna show us one way or another you hear me, Purple? You’re gonna fucking show us what you are.”
Hate, rage, and pain spilled into the room as a tortured sound tore from my lips.
I kicked and punched, but I couldn’t reach him…
I couldn’t reach anyone…not without the beast…
It was growing, howling in the wind, filling my head with devastation. It wanted out…it wanted to do what beasts do…I was weak…so fucking weak.
The weight lifted off me in a rush. At first, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think. My ear burned. The heat and pain carried along my face.
The collar of my shirt was choking as Maddox jerked me from the floor. Still the darkness was morphing, sending power rippling out.
I could feel them now, every dark desire, every ounce of unforgiving venom whispered but never carried through. And I called them…I called them to me.
Roots like veins carved through the ground. A lifeblood filled with poison. The trees were searching, finding…filling…
I splayed my fingers as my boots hit the floor, and I was dragged back into the lounge room and around the end of the sofa.
The beast was here now…and there was nothing more I could do…
She wanted blood. And to end the tick…tick…tick…inside my head.
The whites of his eyes were neon in the gloom, as the Hunter knelt on the floor and lifted his head.
“Show us.” Pryor stepped closer, but not within reach…
Never within reach.
“Don’t hurt her,” the Hunter spluttered, lips split and bloody. “Don’t you hurt my Mom.”
Tick…tick…tick…
“Do it!” Pryor roared.
I never flinched, never moved. I wasn’t me anymore.
I was no one, and everyone…I was a beast…
And as the darkness opened its savage jaws to swallow me.
I knew what I had to do…
And there was no fighting anymore.
Chapter Eleven
Oleander
The floor trembled under my feet.
Movement at the corner of my eye...
The thug lifted his hand, silver gun glinting in the murky light.
One touch was all it’d take...one tiny brush of my fingers.
Blood would slip from the corner of his eyes.
Black veins would carve lines across his face.
He’d be the old man in the van all over again.
Left behind to rot.
The beast wanted...the beast craved. I closed my eyes and opened my hands...down...down...down I plunged. I'd swallow it whole, push it all into the beast, every poisoned drop. Make her gag…make her choke…make her die…If I killed the beast they’d have no more weapon. If I killed us then there’d be no more pain.
“No!” screamed Pryor.
But it was too late. It was all too late, and as the floorboards cracked under my feet, and I smiled.
They wouldn’t win.
I wouldn’t let them.
I was no one’s beast but my own.
A pop echoed, followed by another. A sting at my arm, and another in my belly. I opened my eyes as Cog stepped forward, lifted his gun to the Hunter’s head, took aim and fired.
A bright flash seized me, before there was blood…so much blood, shooting out to splatter against the floor.
The Hunter fell, and just like that, he was here one second and gone in the next. I was transfixed by that moment—so fragile…so cruel.
“You think we brought you here to kill?” Pryor snarled as upstairs the woman screamed. “Hell, I could’ve sent a goddamn kid to take this sniveling, stealing motherfucker out. But I wanted you, Oleander. I wanted you.”
The room wavered, bowing in and out as the piece of shit stepped closer. The scream came again from upstairs, and then there was silence.
Cold, sickening silence.
I tried to turn my head, tried to fight through the wave of rage. But my knees buckled. The heavy thud of boots turned slow and strange as I hit the floor. My fingers were numb and lifeless, unable to curl into a fist. The beast slipped away now, back into the darkness inside my mind.
“Get her.” Warped words filled my ears. Silver glinted as they raised the gun and came close.
Tranquilizer. The word slipped through my mind as Maddox pulled the trigger. “Nighty night, Purple. Time for you to sleep.”
Hate raged through me. My lips were slow to curl. But he knew…he saw it all in my eyes as he squeezed the trigger one last time.
I didn’t feel the sting this time, only the rage…the cold hard rage and the beast falling away in the darkness of my mind.
I dreamed of a field of grass. The blades so high they touched my hands. I closed my eyes and inhaled the sweetness, like the smell of spring rain.
“We belong here,” a male murmured at my right.
I turned my head, catching the outline of his body against the dimming sun. A soldier stood beside me…dressed in green…I skimmed his uniform…USMC…
No, not a soldier…a Marine.
“Do I know you?” The words slipped free.
He just gave a small smile. “I know you. Does that count?”
Sparks filled my vision, sunbursts so bright they blurred his face. Sixth, his name came to me like the scent on a wind.
Darkness bled into the silver light. I caught the movement as he lifted his hand. His sleeve was rolled halfway along his forearm. My breath stilled as he tilted his wrist. Thick black numbers across pale skin…two nine zero one.
I jerked my gaze high, catching the silver glare of the sun fade. But it wasn’t the sun, it was him. Light speared from his eye, like a neon light. “I guess you can say we have a few things in common.”
The savage snarl of the beast filled my head, as pain flared across my mind drawing me away from the glare. I knew what lay behind me…knew what waited in the dark.
Think you can get away that easy? Maddox’s voice pierced the vision.
Pain roared, tearing through my mind. An ache came at my wrist. I looked down at my feet. Straps were tight around my wrists now.
I jerked my gaze toward him…to Sixth. “They’ve drugged me,” I whispered. “I can’t hold on. I can’t hold on forever.”
And as that silver light dulled and the vision faded I knew he understood…
He was the only one who could save me…the only one who knew the beast.
“I’m coming.” He lunged forward, arms outstretched, reaching for me. �
�Do you hear me? I’m coming.”
Darkness swallowed me. Darkness and pain as I came to with a rush and wrenched open my eyes to stare at the darkened room. I lay on a bed, tied down like an animal once more. Panic filled me, arcing and firing like a shotgun inside my head.
The stench of something old was a rag down my throat. I tried to catch my breath and ride that wave all the way to the surface.
Straps bit down on my wrists, burning and stinging as I yanked.
Tendons pulled taut until a scream ripped from my lips, the sound rebounding in the darkness.
“You think you can embarrass me like that?” Maddox snarled beside me.
I jerked my gaze right, searching the dark. Black on black moved and the scuff of a boot followed. “And get away with it?”
He moved closer, leaning over the bed.
Hot breath in my face, dark eyes glinted with hate as Maddox yanked the straps harder and then moved around to the other side.
“Don’t…don’t do this.” Graveled words tore free, fire lashed my throat. I swallowed and tasted blood. “Please Maddox.”
His name conjured an ache that carved through my chest. I smothered the hurt—just like I smothered everyone else in my life. I thought he’d been a friend. Thought he cared for me…stupid…fucking stupid girl. It was dad all over again. Leave me. Hate me…once they see what I am…they fear me.
A strap at the top of my arm snapped tight. Dull light from the hallway spilled into the darkened room. I caught the glint of steel, the tip of a needle, and the plunger filled with amber liquid.
Drugs…he’s going to…
No…no…no…no...
The sting was instant, tearing through the crook of my arm.
“You’re gonna play ball, Purple, one way or another…you’re gonna play fucking ball.”
A whimper ripped free as warmth flooded me from the inside, pulling me out of my body, and then letting me go like I was nothing elastic.
So pliable.
So disposable.
“Likkkkeee thaaattt dooon’tt yooouuu…”
No…I tried turn my head and trace the sound.
But shadows slipped away faster than I could grasp. I closed my eyes and floated on a sea of nothing.
The heady thud of my heart filled my head…like an animal…a rabbit running, searching…desperate.
And I stood on that highway once more…with that cold Alaskan wind whipping my hair.
Said you were a fucking animal. Did you know that?
He left you there! Left you in that shithole of a place to die.
He didn’t want you…no one wants you.
I turned my head to that lonely diner in the middle of Deadhorse.
Paint peeled on the outside, not as nice as I remembered, and the neon sign flashed no more.
Empty…no, not empty…
Someone was inside. Energy surged from me carving an unseen line to someone inside.
I could feel them…hear them…I knew them,
Tiny breaths…heart thundering just like mine.
A bear moaned and pawed the front door, drawing my gaze. His big round body ready for the long sleep for the winter. He swung that massive head back and forth, black lips curled revealing long white fangs.
And inside a little girl screamed.
I knew then, knew before she stepped into the light steaming in through the grimy windows—she was me.
The bear snarled as he barged the door harder now. He wanted in…anyway he could. He wanted to get her…
He was going to kill her…going to tear her apart. He wanted the beast she hid inside. Didn’t he know what happened last time? Didn’t he see the man with the bloated face and the bleeding eyes?
Massive front paws punched against the ground as he rose on hind legs.
Purple hair glinted from inside.
“Run!” I roared and rushed toward her as desperation roared. But the bear reared backwards and then lunged, pushing his entire weight on that flimsy door. It wouldn’t hold, not under the sheer force.
The brutal thud was sickening, cracking timber all the way along the frame. But the lock stayed strong…for now.
Shadows descended behind her. My steps faltered as I rounded the front of the windows. I was seized by the silhouette of a man as he loomed behind her.
My heart skipped at the sight.
No…please no…not again…NOT AGAIN!
Desperation roared like fire through my veins. Until the shadows shifted and he stepped forward…
The one from my vision—the one dressed in Marine green.
“I’ve got you.” He captured my gaze and withdrew his gun from his holster. “You’re safe with me. You’re always safe with me.”
Silver light glinted from his eye, bouncing off the dirty windows. But the bear was coming, heaving his frame backwards as he aimed on that broken lock.
I opened my mouth, the scream searing as it ripped free, until I was pulled from the image, sinking into the grey of my world. I floated upwards as the faint crack of a door gave way. I swam with dull boom…boom of gunfire falling far behind me and tried to open my eyes.
“There she is…” a voice called me. “Give her just a touch more.”
Pain roared, stinging along my veins. I swallowed a whimper and thrashed my head.
“That’s good, right there.”
My stomach clenched, tightening until it was a fist in my chest. Movement sharpened into the outline of a man as Pryor stepped closer and smiled.
I clenched my fist, nails carving into the flesh of palm, the bite crawled along my arm, to bleed into the agony in my head.
“Please…” The hoarse whisper was fire in the back of my throat. “I don’t know…I don’t…”
“You don’t what, Oleander?”
Footsteps came closer. I turned my head away from him as Pryor came closer. His fingers skimmed my arm, making me flinch and cower. Don’t touch me…don’t touch me…don’t touch me.
“Haven’t we been kind to you?” Pryor murmured, his sick words filled my ears. “Haven’t we fed you, given you somewhere to sleep…”
A shudder broke free as sweat slipped along my brow. His fingers slipped to the strap around my wrist, to where the nylon bit into flesh. “I only want you to show me. Is that so bad?”
I tried to breathe, tried to shake my head. “Don’t…you don’t understand.”
Agony roared as he gouged my arm, his fingers digging in. His other hand fisted my hair, wrenching my gaze to his. Wild eyes filled with desire and hate blazed. “I’m going to enjoy hurting you…I’m going to enjoy breaking you…my sweet little Eve.”
Eve…Eve…Eve…
And I was back there in that place, strapped down, things stuck to my head with the deafening thud…thud…thud…slamming inside my head.
You know what you need to do, the images flashed on the screen in black and white. Blood splatter shot across the words. You know what you need to do.
Kill…
Kill…
Kill…
And in the room Pryor glanced to the doorway and gave a nod. Heat lashed my scalp as he jerked my hair. Tears blurred them, tears blurred everything as the others moved in.
The squeak of a wheel followed, and came again, and again. The constant sound grating as Pryor released my hair and stepped away. My scalp pulsed and burned. But I couldn’t close my eyes, couldn’t look away as Maddox and Cog stepped closer.
“Please, Cog,” I whimpered.
But his stony gaze was focused on the machine he pushed into the room. He reached over the hospital bed, gripped my shirt and yanked.
“No…no…no…don’t do this…you don’t have to do this…”
Cords were stuck against my exposed belly as a low electrical hum filled the room.
“Last chance, Oleander,” Pryor murmured. “Show me what you can do and we don’t go through with this.”
My insides turned to water as that low hum of power raised the hairs on my arm
s.
“Show. Me.” Desperation punctured his words.
I closed my eyes to the sounds, and the hunger.
I closed my eyes to it all.
A whimper slipped free, soft and mewling as the echo of heavy boots neared.
I flinched as the beast bit my thigh, sinking fangs deep.
And pain followed.
My body moved on its own, jerking and thrashing against the straps. Hands and feet curled into clubs as my spine bowed against the bed. A scream ripped through the room, piercing my head, and I was caught in that unmerciful sound.
Seized by the terror.
Nailed by the pain.
Until there was nothing. My body collapsed against the bed. Maddox blurred as Cog leaned close, a wand in his hand. He pressed against my thigh and the pain came once more.
I let go…warmth flooded me…I suffocated in the stench of my own waste.
The beast bit again…and again.
Until the bear finally stepped away.
Savage breaths tore from my chest. That was all there was. Air in my lungs…and the sodden warmth under my body.
“That’s enough,” Pryor growled. “We don’t want to kill her.”
My muscles trembled and danced. I stared at the dirty ceiling, stared until the murky sight blurred and footsteps echoed.
“Pump her full of the shit,” Pryor snarled. “We want her docile…as docile as this bitch can be.”
Tick…tick…tick…the past blended with the present. Same straps, same terror… always taking and taking and taking…
A sting at the crook of my arm, this time I didn’t flinch.
This time I waited for the rush…stealing me away from this room.
“They said Chris Bishop made them virtually uncrackable, and they weren’t half wrong.” Pryor’s words slipped in a breath before clouds parted inside my head. I was stolen from this place and carried high.
As high as I could get without dying.
Chris Bishop…Chris Bishop…
Five Seven Six Three, a man called drawing my gaze.
Dr. Chris Bishop, printed on a plaque on his desk.
Baby’s toys scattered all around me. But I wasn’t a baby, not anymore…I was five.
