The Destruction of Sevyn (The Vengeance of Luther Book 1)

by Ember Michaels

  "What the fuck is going on?" Crystal asked, turning her head from side to side to take in her surroundings. "Where the hell are we?"

  "I don't remember anything after leaving the club," Carrie said, her eyes wide with fear.

  Rebecca glared at her. "It's your fault we're in this shit in the first place, you bitch!"

  "Bec, stop," Jamie whined.

  "No, it's true. Her boyfriend or whoever the hell he is drugged us and nowhere we don't know where the hell we are or who these men really are."

  "What's the last thing everyone remembers?" I asked, trying to stop their bickering. Now wasn't the time to be against each other. We were all in the same boat and rocking it wasn't productive to anything that would get us out of this situation. "I only remember leaving the club and getting in the car with...."

  No sooner than I was about to say Eric, I finally remembered why his eyes were so familiar. I'd once spent an entire summer looking into them, planning a future with them. How could I have been so stupid to not have recognized Luther? He probably counted on the fact that I hadn't seen him in years. The last time I saw him was in court and he'd still looked as he did when he was a senior in high school even though he was a freshman in college. When I was looking out for him anytime I was out in public, I only had that image in my head, never taking into account any changes he could've made over the years.

  Allison spoke up. "I don't even remember leaving the club. I just—"

  "It's Luther," I breathed. Everyone went silent, Rebecca glaring at me.

  "That's not funny, Sevyn," she snapped. "Now isn't a time for one of your psychotic breakdowns."

  "Psychotic breakdown?" I shrieked, my voice cracking but at least a little louder than it had been before. "He was literally in front of you and you still think he no longer exists. I swear, I almost hope it's him so you can feel like a fucking idiot for not believing me when I told you he was back in the first place."

  "Instead of us fighting with each other, we need to figure out how to get the hell out of here," Jamie said and sniffled. "Whoever it is, whether it's Luther or someone else, I don't think they have us restrained just for fun.”

  "What if it's whoever went after Josh, Tyler, and Hunter?" Crystal said.

  "You mean Luther?" I asked, my tone flat.

  "So, you do remember me, pretty girl," he said as he entered the room again, smiling. He held an electric shaver in his hand, his beard covered in shaving cream. "I almost thought I had to shave off my beard to trigger your memories, but since I already have it prepped, may as well get rid of it. Not really my style to begin with."

  I ground my teeth as I watched him shave his face. He kept his eyes trained on me the whole time, and as more and more of the face I remembered revealed itself, I knew that my worst nightmares were coming true. Luther Evans was back, and he was back for the justice he didn't get seven years ago. As I looked at my friends' current predicament as well as my own, I knew there was a 99% chance that none of us were leaving this place alive.

  He pulled a towel from his back pocket when he finished, wiping away the excess shaving cream from his face. He'd definitely matured over the years. His beard had hidden the sharpened jawline he'd developed, which was clenched as he stared at me with hard eyes. "It's been a while, hasn't it?" he finally asked.

  There was no point in pleading or begging. I already knew what this was about and why we were here. It was what I'd dreaded for seven years, even more so when the deaths of the guys showed up on the news. For years, people told I had nothing to worry about it. But they had no idea that Luther had been planning, plotting, and preparing for this moment for the last seven years. Money may have been able to keep me out of jail, but it didn't protect me from him, especially when I willingly walked into his trap in the first place.

  "If your issue is with what I've done, then just deal with me," I said, my voice shaky. "They don't have anything to do with—"

  "Wrong!" he interrupted, his booming voice causing me to flinch. "Your friends practically dangle from your clit and will do whatever you ask them to. They blindly followed you and participated in everything you told them to, so they're just as guilty as you are."

  He turned to face my friends, his gaze focusing on Rebecca. Her breath hitched as he stalked toward her, recognition settling on her face as she swallowed hard. We all watched as Luther bent down until he was eye level with her. "I heard you didn't think I was real anymore," he murmured and smiled.

  Without warning, his hand reached out and grabbed her throat, squeezing hard. Fear and shock robbed me of my voice as my friends screamed and begged him to stop. Rebecca gagged and tried to shake herself out of his grasp, her body jerking in her chair.

  "Luther, stop!" I finally screamed. After a few moments, he finally let her go. She gasped for air, sobbing and coughing as she tried to catch her breath.

  Luther roughly grabbed her chin and forced her teary eyes to look up at him. "I bet I exist now, huh?" he taunted before he let her go. He then turned his attention to the rest of my friends. "I'm sure it's no surprise for why all you sluts are here right now. You got away with your involvement in my sister's death—"

  "She committed suicide on her own, you lunatic!" Carrie exclaimed. "We weren't the ones who killed her."

  Luther frowned at her. "I don't think I asked you to say shit," he growled. "Do I need to find a way for you to shut the fuck up?" Carrie looked at his hands, which had balled up into fists and shook her head. "That's what I fucking thought."

  "Luther, we're sorry about what happened to Logan," I said. "But we—"

  "Sevyn, it's in your best interest to also shut the fuck up," he said and turned around to face me. "You're the catalyst of this whole fucking thing. There isn't shit you can say to me that won't stop me from slitting your throat at the end of this, so I'd advise you to spend your last few days on your best behavior or this is gonna be a long, painful fucking week for you."

  I swallowed hard at his threat. He wasn't going to rush this. He was going to make us suffer for as long as he could before he eventually killed us all and there wasn't shit we could do about it. I didn't even know where we were outside of this house we were in. We currently sat in the middle of what looked to be a large living room, the furniture pushed off to one side and covered with plastic. Whatever was going to happen here this week was bound to be bloody if there was plastic involved. The very thought sent a chill of fear down my spine.

  "You bitches treated Sevyn like your God," he said, looking at each of my friends before turning around and smirking at me. "Well, let's see if your god can save you from the hell I'm about to unleash."

  The other men appeared in the room holding rifles, each of them moving to stand behind one of my friends, pointing the rifle at their heads. Luther gestured to them. "These women have followed you and helped you bully and torment an innocent girl out of your own jealousy and hate," he said. "And because of that, you're going to play God and decide who dies first."

  I frantically shook my head. "No, don't make me do that," I pleaded. "Luther, listen. Just punish me. Please don't make me choose!"

  "If it makes you feel any better, they'll die regardless if you choose or not. But if you don't choose, I'll punish you until you do," he said with a shrug.

  I looked up at the ceiling, tears burning my eyes. My friends all screamed and pleaded for me not to choose, but I felt like I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. It's your fault why they're all in this situation to begin with, I reminded myself. I knew that I'd eventually have to pay for my actions and if I had to take their punishment until I no longer could, then I'd rather do that than have someone's death on my conscience.

  "Then punish me," I forced myself to say, my entire body trembling.

  Luther shrugged again. "I guess you take your position as a god seriously, huh? Sacrificing yourself already. You do know that you can only do that so many times before you eventually can't take anymore punishments, right? Then you'll have no ch
oice but to choose who you want to sacrifice," he said.

  "If we all have to die, then why do I have to choose in the first place?" I asked, my body trembling.

  He grinned. "What fun would it be to not bring you mental turmoil throughout this?" he said. "I waited for this moment for seven years, Sevyn. I don't plan on making your suffering light." My heart hammered in my chest, the anxiety of not knowing what was about to happen to me sending my fear into overdrive. He walked over to something behind me and after a few moments, one of my arms fell from the cross. When my feet were loose, I fell off the cross, still dangling from one side of it. Pain radiated across my shoulder at the sudden drop and I groaned in pain, collapsing to the floor when he finally untied my wrist.

  "Stand up," he ordered, walking back around me. I forced myself to stand on my shaky legs, the room feeling as if it was spinning around me. Two of the guys rolled over a table to where Luther and I stood. The table had cuffs on the four corners of it, probably to restrain me on it. There was also a bottle of what looked like oil on it, which Luther grabbed when the guys clicked the brakes on the wheels of the table.

  My body trembled as he untied the makeshift bra, tossing it off to the side. He did the same for the fabric on my hips, leaving me completely naked and exposed to everyone in the room. He said nothing as he rubbed oil all over my body. As each second passed, the oil made my skin tingle, to where it was extremely sensitive to the lightest touch. Luther's hands lingered longer than they needed to as he massaged the oil onto my breasts, ass, and pussy, but the expression on his face was indifferent. Once he was done, he opened the shackles on the table gestured to it.

  "Get face down on the table," he said, his voice firm. I forced myself to move and did what he asked. The wooden table was smooth against my legs, the oil causing my entire body to tingle. My friends all sniffled, worried expressions on their faces as they watched in silence. At first, nothing happened. I could only hear Luther's footsteps, but I couldn't see him. Finally, something light ran along my spine that tickled me. It felt as if it was barely there, but the oil he'd put on me seemed to heighten my nerve endings. He ran it up and down my back a few times before holding it in front of my face. A fucking feather.

  He tossed the feather to the floor and moved on to something else that I couldn't see. I watched my friends, who seemed to be watching him, their eyes following the directions of his footsteps. I jumped when something pricked my skin. It felt like a million tiny needle tips pricking my skin each time Luther pressed his hand on my skin. He grabbed the back of my thigh, the sharp object on his hand digging into my skin. I bit my lip to suppress a whimper of pain, tears blurring my vision as the pain continued. He kneaded my ass a few times with what he held in his hands, the pain becoming so intense that I couldn't stop myself from crying out. Tears leaked from my eyes as I bit my bottom lip so hard that I could taste the blood in my mouth. But I didn't protest or tell him to stop. To tell him to stop would mean that I'd have to choose. That I'd have to choose which one of my best friends died first. I wasn't ready for that kind of responsibility now or ever, so I'd take the punishments as much as I could.

  Luther finally stopped and moved around to show me his hands. He wore gloves that were covered in little spikes that didn't look as sharp as they felt, some of them covered in specks of blood. With the way my skin now burned in some areas, I wasn’t surprised that he'd drawn blood. My entire body trembled as I waited for what was next. My friends' eyes widened and before I could even turn my head to get a look at what he could possibly have, I felt the red hot pain of a belt against my oily skin.

  I screamed, the sound so loud and strangled that I wasn't even sure if it came from me. The pain radiated well beyond the place it was delivered, the entirety of my body on fire as blow after blow struck down on me. There was nowhere for me to go, no way to run from the belt with my arms and legs secured to the table. No matter how I tried to twist away from the belt's impact, it still licked my skin and set me on fire. Sometimes it hit the sensitive skin of my inner thighs and pussy, sometimes he struck my upper back and the back of my neck. My friends cried silently as the scene before then, the only sounds in the room being my sobs and the belt against my skin.

  After what felt like eternity, he finally stopped and walked around to the front of me, showing me the belt as if I didn't already know what he was using. I hiccupped, trying to catch my breath before the next assault happened. My entire body burned and throbbed in pain to where I couldn't even move without pain radiating all over my body.

  "Ready to choose someone yet?" he asked me. I sobbed even harder, shaking my head.

  "Please don't make me choose," I begged.

  "So, you want more punishment then?"

  "No! Please," I croaked and coughed. I couldn't imagine what I looked like with my makeup and snot running down my face right now. It was hard to be ashamed when you were in so much pain. Held so much guilt. Every burning part of my body wanted to scream and surrender, but my pride wouldn’t let me. Luther was right; despite Carrie’s connections getting us into Luther’s grasps in the first place, I was the reason we were all here. My actions and my friends following me just because they were loyal to me was the reason we were here. Us getting off in court with just a slap on the wrist was thanks to my parents’ money.

  I deserved every single thing that happened to me.

  “So, make up your mind. Do you want to choose, or do you want more punishment?” he asked. I took deep breaths in an attempt to ease the pain clouding my mind, but it wouldn’t go away. I looked into the eyes of my terrified friends and it broke my heart to know that I couldn’t save them. Even if he killed me with all of my punishments, it wasn’t like it would save them. All this did was prolong the inevitable.

  I ground my teeth and squeezed my hands into fists to prepare for what was to come. “More punishment,” I said and released a shaky breath.

  “More punishment it is,” he said with a smirk before he walked away. I couldn’t stop my body from trembling. Pain danced along every nerve ending I had and the oil only heightened my sensitivity, making the pain so much worse. “Recite the Lord’s prayer.”

  “What?”

  “Are you fucking deaf? The Lord’s prayer. Say it,” he stated, his voice firm.

  “Um…” I wracked my brain for the information. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d been in a church aside from going with a friend’s family so many years ago. “I don’t know if I remember.”

  “You better try really fucking hard or else this is going to get really hard on you,” he growled.

  “Okay, okay,” I rushed out, swallowing the ball of fear in my throat. “Um…our…Father who art in Heaven…”

  Pain erupted across the back of my legs and I screamed. The lash burned so badly that I’d believed he struck me with something hot. But I didn’t smell burnt flesh or anything indicating that he was using something heated.

  “Continue,” he ordered.

  “H-h-hallowed be thy name,” I stammered, wailing when he hit me again. “Please stop!”

  “Continue!” he bellowed.

  “T-t-thy k-k-kingdon come, thy w-w-will be d-d-done—ah!” I screamed as he hit my back. My friends all sobbed and screamed for him to stop, but Luther didn’t care.

  “You better keep fucking going, Sevyn,” he warned.

  “On Earth a-a-as it is in h-h-heaven,” I continued, squeezing my eyes shut as two more blows came. “G-g-give us th-th-this day our d-d-daily bread—fuck!”

  He sprayed cold water on my bruised body from a bottle but with how bad it stung, it might as well have been acid. “Keep going,” he stated.

  “And forgive us our trespasses,” I said in one breath, unable to control my body from shaking. “As we for-forgive those who tres-trespass a-a-gainst us.” I clenched my teeth, my vision going in and out as the pain became too much.

  “Go!”

  “L-lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from e-e-vil,”
I stammered. Nausea tightened my stomach as Luther delivered blow after blow, not stopping until I mustered up the energy to speak again. “For t-t-thine is the k-k-kingdom, the power and the g-g-glory, forever and e-e-ever.” I released a breath, my body going limp on the table. “Amen.”

  And everything went black.

  LUTHER

  “Sevyn!” Rebecca screamed, jerking against the cuffs that restrained her. Sevyn lay limp on the table, her body so still that I didn’t think she was breathing for a moment. I rolled my shoulders in satisfaction, looking at the mess I made on the backside of her body. She had purplish bruises and welts forming on the back of her legs, her ass, and up and down her back. Some of the welts even bled, drops of blood beading along the bruised flesh.

  I grinned at Rebecca. “Are you upset that I bruised your little girlfriend?” I asked. She glared at me without a word, tears glittering in her eyes as her nostrils flared. I took in the expression of terror and shock on the rest of the distraught women. “Looks like your god can’t save you after all.”

  “We didn’t do anything wrong! You’re acting like we forced your sister to do what she did!” Allison cried, jerking at her restraints. I scoffed and moved over to stand in front of her.

  “Oh really?” I pulled a knife from its pouch on my hip and held the sharp tip to her throat. “So if I had one of my guys make a sex tape with you and released it to the public, made you lose your job, harass you online, send messages and texts telling you to kill yourself, you wouldn't succumb to the depression that comes with that shit?” I asked. Her bottom lip trembled as she looked at me, but she didn't verbally respond. “That's what I fucking thought.”

  “We were stupid teenagers back then!” Rebecca wailed, desperation in her voice. “We fucked up, okay? We’re sorry!”

  “Sorry doesn't bring Logan back, now does it?” I asked, my tone flat. “But since someone has to die and Sevyn is taking a little nap, I think we should choose the first person to go.” I looked around at all of them. “Any volunteers?”