Monsters in the Dark

by Winters, Pepper

  Lynx clenched his jaw, his eyes tight with rage. “Fine, you fucking pussy. Let’s move this conversation downstairs.”

  Four hours fifty-nine minutes.

  My time had officially run out.

  * * *

  My eyes refused to open.

  Every sense honed in on one particular pain. An excruciating agony in the back of my skull. Pounding, clanging, throbbing.

  I groaned, needing to investigate the wound, needing to touch it—to try and alleviate the pain.

  But I couldn’t move.

  Nothing obeyed.

  Panic opened my eyes.

  My vision was hazy, unfocused, especially in my right pupil. What the fuck happened?

  “Ah, you’ve finally decided to stop sleeping away your final minutes, Mercer.” Lynx appeared, but all I saw were his crimson shoes.

  I frowned, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Blinking hard, I forced my eyesight to make sense of something that made no sense at all.

  I’m upside down.

  Clenching my stomach muscles, I arched upright, taking note of my bound and very naked body. Black ropes wrapped around my ankles, tethering me to the ceiling. The gunshot in my thigh looked awful and bloody. My arms were lassoed to my sides, coiled tightly with twine.

  Hot lacing terror filled my heart. “Wh—what?” My swollen tongue couldn’t form syllables. It felt as if I’d bitten it again. “Tell—”

  Lynx laughed. “If you’re trying to figure out how you came to be hanging in the same dungeon you were invited to enjoy an orgy in, then I can clarify.” His hand struck out, stroking my chin almost tenderly. “I pushed you down the stairs. You hit your head pretty hard at the bottom. Smashed a tile.” He tutted as if I’d ruined his entire decor. “However, passing out you gave us the great advantage of preparing you like this with no other issues or complications.” He patted my cheek. “Thanks for that.”

  My chest rose and fell as adrenaline turned me from rational to drunk on the need to run or fight or both. I never took my eyes off Dante as he snapped his fingers, silently ordering two men to place a small table beside my head. On it rested a small towel and a row of buckets of water.

  I gulped—not that it worked hanging upside down. The pressure of vertigo made the ache in my neck and residue unconsciousness scream for mercy.

  In the distance hung a sex swing with ropes, pulleys, and a wall groaning with sexual torture equipment. The cold black tiles of the floor and the chains looping from the ceiling made it seem as if I’d stepped back in time. I’d woken in a nineteenth century torture chamber.

  “You came for me, Q. You saved me from them.”

  My eyes snapped closed at the memory of finding Tess in Rio. Those conditions had been worse. If she survived that I could survive this.

  “I offered a civilized way out of this, Mercer. You’re an idiot for not taking it.” Lynx came closer, running a fingertip down my chest, swirling around the upside down sparrows.

  I stiffened. I wanted to tear his body to pieces. My blood was cold and ready for his death.

  He held out his hand. One of his guards placed a baseball bat into his open grip.

  Oh, fuck.

  My stomach muscles clenched in preparation; my entire body locking down to protect vulnerable organs.

  “I think we’ll begin with a warm up—don’t you?” The thwack of the bat wrenched a groan from my lips, echoing around the chamber.

  I jerked in the chains, dangling like a punching bag. I tried to double over, but my weight kept me hanging, completely at his mercy.

  “Tenderize you a bit. Be a good way to relieve tension.” Lynx laughed. He hit me again on my lower belly, scarily close to my cock.

  A cock that’d been sucked by a woman who wasn’t Tess. It deserved to be punished.

  Lynx twisted the handle, securing a better grip. He swung hard and fast, walloping me as if I were a homerun.

  I cried out, groaning as something crunched inside. A rib. The sharp shooting pain compounded to all the rest—consuming my thoughts with agony. My ragged breathing turned short and shallow, working through the wash of darkness.

  Another blow. This one right on my chest.

  My vision went black. Pain ebbed away as my soul tried to run.

  “I love you, Q. I love your ruthlessness and strength. I love knowing you’ll always come for me.” Shit. Tears pricked my eyes. I’d broken a promise. I would no longer be there for Tess. I wouldn’t be there to rescue her.

  Be happy you fixed her mind. Before…before I was stupid enough to let this happen.

  “You still with me, Mercer?” A white hot jolt seized my muscles. I turned into a plank of human flesh as Dante electrified me with extreme volts from a Taser.

  My jaw locked, bones hummed. Every inch of me stood to fucking attention.

  Lynx stopped the current passing through my body, trailing a fingertip around my waist to my back. “Don’t pass out. You do and you won’t wake up.”

  I wasn’t weak but the sound of passing out was entirely too tempting.

  The next strike came from behind. The baseball bat struck my lower back, lighting up a different sort of pain—a radiating sensation-stealing pain.

  I screamed.

  I wasn’t proud I screamed. I hated that he’d hurt me enough to earn it but fuck—it devastated my willpower. All feeling to my freezing legs above suddenly disappeared. The heat from the gunshot was gone. The tingles from the electric shock existed no more. He’d either traumatised my spine or crippled me.

  The thought of not being able to stand beside Tess to marry her, or walk beside her as we grew old tore my heart into pieces.

  It doesn’t matter. You’re about to die anyway.

  Incredibly, the thought granted peace. Dante could do whatever the hell he pleased because ultimately it didn’t matter. I would still end up in the same place.

  I lost the will to tense. What was the point? It would only prolong it.

  The next swing slammed into my kidneys like a bulldozer. Agony blazed in my groin and lower belly. Lynx prowled around, dragging a hand along my quivering body. I tried to twist away, moaning at the spreading pain. I wanted to curse him—but again—what was the fucking point?

  He chuckled, sounding evil in the cold black dungeon. “I’m thinking we need to get rid of this tattoo.” His hand slapped over the ink, trailing down to the ‘T’ branded over my heart. He clucked his tongue. “What the hell is this?” He shoved me with the tip of the baseball bat. I swung backward, creaking in the chains.

  That is the one good thing in my life. The one redemption. My one untarnished love. Tess. She would always be the key to whatever heaven I entered.

  I swallowed back my sadness—I’d never see her again. See her smile. Hear her laugh. I’d done everything I could to protect her. I just hoped she wouldn’t switch herself off again. She couldn’t live a life removed from emotion. I’d tried to teach her that—but I wouldn’t be there to enforce it.

  Lynx shoved me again, spinning me around. I closed my eyes, suffering a rush of nausea. “Answer me, Mercer.”

  I kept my lips pursed. He’d torn a scream from me but he wouldn’t get another.

  He huffed. “Well, it doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, soon it will be in pieces on the floor.” He spun me again, stepping away and dropping the baseball bat. “Let’s loosen him up. I want him screaming.”

  A man stopped my pendulum swing, slapping me to a halt. He smiled, his face hideous upside down. “Say goodbye, fuckwit.”

  I sucked in a breath as he placed a heavy towel over my face. Shit. It blocked out everything. My warm breathing was trapped in the material. My hands clenched, hating the iciness of fear spiking my heart.

  “I’m never afraid when I’m with you. Because I trust you.”

  Tess filled my mind, giving me something to latch onto. I couldn’t see past the black towel, but I didn’t need to. I didn’t want to look at anything but the woman I wanted to marry.


  My stomach clenched at the thought of anyone else making her happy. I couldn’t bear the idea of her falling for another or marrying someone completely unworthy. My forehead furrowed, loving the memories of her and hating them, too. Knowing I’d never see her again hurt more than anything Lynx could do.

  I’d never see my perfect esclave again.

  Je t'aime, Tess.

  Fuck, I wanted this over with. I wanted to stop thinking and just…go.

  I made a vow not to scream. I wouldn’t die a pussy. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of tearing my life from an unwilling body. I’d brought this on myself—I’d been too proud—too cocky, and I would pay the worst kind of price.

  “Do it,” Lynx ordered.

  Water poured onto my face, seeping through the towel. My heartbeat thundered in my ears as liquid saturated the material, suffocating me drop by drop.

  Waterboarding.

  I’d seen it done. I’d witnessed a few women die from such a simple but very effective method of torturing.

  The towel went from dry to soaked instantly, clinging like a heavy film over my mouth and nose. The weight of the material increased, smothering my face, giving me nowhere to turn or hide.

  My mouth gaped, sucking at non-existent oxygen, breathing in wet towel and nothing else.

  Don’t panic. Just let it happen.

  It was fine to order myself to do something—entirely different when my body took over. Survival instincts kicked in. I thrashed, trying to dislodge the never ending stream of water.

  My stomach clenched, overriding the numbness in my spine and bruises on every inch. I hurled upright, doing everything in my power to free my nose.

  But it was no use.

  Goddammit, let me breathe!

  Time ceased to have meaning as the trickle became a downpour, no longer stealing my breath but forcing a torrent of water down my throat—drowning me in more ways than one.

  “More. Give him more,” Dante demanded.

  The water level increased until I gave up trying to breathe. It was pointless. Holding what little oxygen I had, I counted the seconds until I died.

  One second.

  Two seconds.

  Another wash of liquid tickled my throat, running in rivulets over my hair.

  Three seconds.

  Four seconds.

  There was no point being brave. I was about to die.

  My heart chased the last breath around my lungs.

  Five seconds.

  Six seconds.

  My body absorbed the final dregs of oxygen—nothing remained. My body was master now—not my mind. Death throes took me hostage. Muscles jerked, hurtling me toward death, desperately fighting the restraints.

  I would’ve given every cent I owned to have one last breath. One inhale of sweet, sweet oxygen. Even Tess couldn’t distract me from the all-consuming need for air.

  “I held on for you to find me. You came even when I didn’t think you would. Hold on, Q. I’m coming.”

  Tess’s voice was angelic, cutting through my panic. I wanted to tell her I couldn’t. There was no point in her coming to find me. I wouldn’t be there when Franco’s team arrived. I no longer knew the timeframe after being unconscious.

  But I didn’t need to know. I ran out of time the moment I refused to accept a blowjob from a slave.

  Air. Please give me air.

  My body danced in its chains, slowly growing weaker as blackness inched over my brain.

  Then I got my wish.

  The towel left my face, and I threw all dignity to the dogs. I gulped and gulped, sucking in air as if I was starving—which I was. Starved of the simplest thing a human required to live.

  Then, I screamed.

  The fucking cocksucker made me scream. I had no choice. I couldn’t contain the pain.

  The agony came from my shin bone. Using the rapidly depleting muscles in my stomach, I curled upward, fixing onto the blood dripping from my sliced flesh. It trickled down my skin, running toward my groin.

  Lynx stood beside me with a knife. The blade smeared with crimson. “We’re going to begin a game. Every breath must be paid by a cut.” His face moulded into the true devil. He cut me again, just below the first. I bit my lip against the sharpness—refusing to scream again.

  “Every breath has a price. And when we get to here—”

  Everything in me froze to ice. The tip of his knife wedged beneath my flaccid cock, raising the heavy organ from my stomach. Shit, shit. No, don’t.

  The sharp blade exploded my heart with horror. Fuck, let me die.

  “When we’ve used up your legs for payment…this comes next. I don’t expect you’ll survive much longer after that.” He twisted the blade, letting my cock slap against my stomach. Lynx pressed the serrated edge against my balls, deliberately dragging the knife lower and lower, right to the base—right where he would eunuch me and let me bleed to fucking death.

  My head pounded—the need to replace air to my oxygen-depraved body forgotten. The beast inside turned feral—wanting so damn much for freedom to mutilate him in the same way.

  I wouldn’t have the opportunity to pay him back. I wouldn’t be able to take payment for what he would steal.

  “You know why I’ll take this as my final trophy, Mercer?”

  I didn’t say a word. I didn’t need to—he was high on whatever sick power trip he existed on.

  “I gave you the opportunity to use it. If you’d blown down that girl’s throat I would’ve let you keep it. If you’d fucked her in front of me, I would’ve let you walk away without torture. And if you’d killed her—like I know your sadistic tendencies make you want to—I would’ve forgotten this whole thing. Shit, I would’ve stood by you and assured the rest of the men who want a piece of you that you’re one of us. That the lies you told were for the media and not to the men you pretended to be like.”

  Leaning forward, he whispered in my ear, “If only you’d played along—see how you could’ve survived?” Swirling the knife around an inked sparrow, he muttered, “Now you’ve pissed me off and I won’t be happy just taking your life. You think you’ll be free when you’re dead?” He shrugged.” You will be I suppose, but know this. I’m not done with you yet. I’m going to chase your little slave. I’m going to take her. I’m going to fuck her. And then I’m going to kill her just like I killed you.”

  No!

  “Don’t you fucking touch her. You have me. Do whatever the hell you want but leave her the fuck alone!”

  Rage. Blinding, suffocating rage. I couldn’t do it. He’d stolen the luxury of slipping into death. He’d taken away my will to die, replacing it with the terror of knowing I could do nothing to stop him.

  Tess!

  “Do you hear me? You stay the fuck away from her.”

  I couldn’t let them take her again. I didn’t care that Franco would never let her out of his sight. He had his orders. If he didn’t find me in time, his loyalty was to her. He would give his life to protect hers—just as he did for me.

  Lynx laughed. “You aren’t in the position to tell me what I can and can’t do. You’re going to die, Mercer, but at least you won’t be alone in hell for long. She’ll be joining you soon enough.” The knife pricked my cock again. “Pity for you, you won’t have a dick to use when you see her again.”

  “Ne pas la toucher. Vous ne pouvez pas la toucher.” Don't touch her. You can't touch her.

  “Speaking in French doesn’t work on a Spaniard, idiot.” He removed the blade. “Cover him.”

  I sucked in gulp of air as the wet towel descended over my face. My heart bucked with terror. I had to warn Franco, Frederick. I had to get Tess to safety. She wouldn’t die because of me. She wouldn’t!

  “Begin,” Dante ordered.

  The cascade started anew, drowning me with the aid of a simple cloth.

  My lungs turned to fire. Seconds flew toward minutes as more and more water cascaded. I forced myself not to suck in the towel, desperate for b
reath.

  Unconsciousness tried to claim me but I fought it. I couldn’t. Tess!

  But no matter how hard I held on, my brain shut down, body jerked; I died with every pour.

  My life didn’t exist apart from the black water-world. My thoughts scrambled. Tess. Air. Tess. Air.

  I wanted both in equal measure. I wanted to run. I wanted to be free.

  Tess morphed into being. Her gorgeous blonde curls, her all seeing blue-grey eyes. A halo of light appeared behind her, fading her from view as my heart threw itself toward its last beat.

  Tess, run. Please.

  Her presence never left me as a wave of heavy water splashed over me. I toppled on the edge, gasping, choking. Lynx overestimated my lung capacity—hurtling me toward death.

  The last torrent of liquid was my demise.

  Don’t give up. You can’t. I owed it to Tess to stay alive. I had to protect her. I had to be there for her always.

  “Come with me, Q. Let go. It’s better this way.” The illusion grabbed me by the hands, dragging me forward. I didn’t want to go, but I had no choice.

  My body gave up. Suffocated of air it shut down—snipping my life-force free from pain.

  The agony faded, inch by inch, ache by ache, until I felt nothing.

  Nothing but weightlessness…nothingness.

  Sounds faded. The strain in my lungs no longer mattered.

  Life tiptoed away from me, taking with it any promise of happiness I might’ve found by marrying my soul-mate.

  But my soul-mate wanted me to leave with her. Her golden hand outstretched, glowing with welcome light. She wanted me to leave this black cold place.

  I could be with her forever.

  I want to be with you forever, esclave.

  “Then let go. I’m waiting.”

  I didn’t think why she appeared when she was living not dead. I didn’t stop to ponder how she found me. All I knew was what I wanted. And I wanted her.

  I let go. I went to her. I obeyed my esclave.

  Dying was such a simple thing.

  I felt no guilt, no terror, no worries. Only acceptance for something I couldn’t change.

  Darkness came for me.