Retribution

by B C Morgan

  “Yes, this is delicious, but I am not done yet,” I replied as I ran a hand across her shoulders, walking around until I stood behind her.

  I gripped hold of her chin and yanked her head back, making it crash into the wooden backing of the chair. Her eye was drooping, most likely due to all the pain I had caused but I soon rectified that when I poured water over her, waking her back up.

  I grabbed hold of a towel and laid it across her face, before proceeding to waterboard her. She was spluttering under the onslaught, and then I changed tactics by heating the towel with my fire until it caught alight.

  Her voice had grown hoarse and I could barely make out the cries she made with her agony, I laughed growing more and more excited at the prospect of killing her.

  The fire had made the towel stick to her face, but I detached it with an almighty rip, tearing off the top layer of her skin.

  “You are such a riot Jackie, but our fun must come to an end.”

  “Don’t I get to play?” Asked Malachi as he slipped his hands around my waist and placing them against my stomach. He trailed kisses down my neck and across my shoulder, biting every now and then, which sent delicious pain coursing through me.

  I twisted my head around until our lips could meet, sending even more sparks throughout my system.

  “Have your fun my Incubus, but no killing.”

  “You did a lot of things to the only creature who means a damn to me, you deserve to suffer in endless torment for the rest of your existence. But seeing as I can’t enact that, I’m going to do the next best thing.”

  That was the last thing Malachi said until an hour passed, and I was wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing him like it was the first time all over again.

  Jackie now had all her fingers and toes missing, her tongue was ripped out and one of her feet had been removed and shoved into her mouth like a handmade gag or foot made if you’d prefer.

  She was so close to death that I had to do something before she bled out anymore and spoiled my fun. Tears streamed down her face, I let her take a minute as I ran my blade across my palm, then thrust her head back once more. I covered her open mouth with my bleeding hand letting my volatile blood pour into her mouth and down her throat.

  I jumped up and down in glee, as the toxin burnt through her cheeks, throat and carried on spreading down.

  Her final cries were almost deafening, but it did not rob me of the ecstasy I was feeling, knowing my blood caused her far more pain than anything that could be imagined within the underworld.

  I left her tied to the chair and vacated without a backwards glance, her voice never joined with those already within my head. Not that I was disappointed seeing as the last one to join was still being villainous.

  I wasn’t sure why he didn’t become like the others and rejoice within their new home, something was different about him. He kept telling me I did not deserve the gift I had been given, he even tried to tempt me into ending my own life. He never tempted me, accept from when Malachi had walked in and found that I had hacked at my own face. I was having too much fun to ever want to give up my existence willingly.

  Malachi and I had been walking through the town centre, when I noticed a group staring at me. I did not know who they were, but it seemed like they may have known me once upon a time.

  I stood watching them for far too long, as they suddenly approached me.

  “Well, well, well. If it isn’t Unya, you’ve got a lot of people looking for you girlie, that must make us the fortunate ones,” said a girl with evil intent written upon her face.

  One of the guys came closer to me and gripped hold of my shoulders, while another held onto my wrists and began tying them in front of me.

  Their game was interesting, especially as they believed their actions would be enough to keep me down.

  I didn’t want Malachi to interfere and told him as much, I wanted to have this all to myself. He stepped out of my way and leans against a building getting ready to watch the show.

  I allowed my flame to flow up my wrist and burn straight through the rope that they had used, their mouths all fell wide open, but the shock didn’t stop them from trying to capture me again.

  I had four guys and a girl come at me this time and we were starting to draw a crowd, as they circled around me, trying to prevent me from escaping.

  “Don’t worry about me escaping darlings, I would never do such a thing. Not without teaching you a lesson first.”

  I don’t know how I did it, but somehow, I manipulated the air even though I was trying to burn them or at least drown the fuckers somehow. Instead I ended up circling them from the sky. I couldn’t control it very well and I would start to drop, so before I lost control completely, I created a ring of fire, they would have no hope of escaping.

  They all huddled closer to one another, but that was spoiling my fun. I ran my fingers across one of the guy’s head, he was mine. He followed out my orders without an ounce of hesitation, as he seized one of the girls and pushed her into the flames. She was set aflame, filling the air with her cries of pain.

  The others all decided in that moment they had to get out, pushing at each other not caring if the others died, if they survived.

  By the time I returned to the floor all but two of the worthless humans had been burned to death. The other two stood there in shock, not able to believe what they had just done to the people they classed as their friends. I landed in front of them, making them jump backwards, in a futile effort to escape my punishment.

  None of the other onlookers tried to aid them, as they looked on in sickened horror.

  I grabbed hold of the survivors, using the air to send both sixty feet up into the sky. I let them free fall back to the ground, dying on impact and making their faces unrecognisable.

  After my demonstration no one else dared to approach me, although I had a feeling it would happen again. Silly little creatures, believing they could capture me, no measly human could ever accomplish such a feat. I continued walking through the town, when I had the strange impression I was being followed. I hadn’t seen anyone, but I couldn’t shake the sensation.

  Malachi was beside me one minute and the next he disappeared, I stopped at the entrance to an alleyway to search for him when the wind picked up. It was an impenetrable barrier and it would not let me move any further forward, but I was also being prevented from backtracking.

  I spun around to see if I could find the culprit, but the way I entered from was clear but as soon as I turned back around, I came face to face with an unfamiliar female.

  She had red hair that was pulled back away from her face, making her appearance seem fierce. She had bright red eyes that looked like they could burn right through your soul. She was in leather trousers, a black tank top and leather straps wrapping around her midsection in a criss cross fashion.

  “Who are you?” I asked, confused as to why she would trap me like this and why I couldn’t free myself.

  “Poor little Unya, lost and alone. You must feel so confused not knowing who you are meant to be and where you should be headed. Well I’m here to put a stop to all your niggling worries. A price has been placed upon your head and I aim to collect.”

  She gripped hold of my forearm and we faded out of existence, before reappearing in a lightless room, where I was strapped to a chair and then left alone to my own devices.

  27

  Marcus

  I had been lost in my contemplations regarding the bomb that Nora had dropped upon us all, I did not understand what I was supposed to do when a knock sounded upon my door.

  I invited whoever it was in and it shocked me to see it was in fact Nora herself. Ever since she joined the rebels one year prior, she only attached herself to Janelle. Why that happened no one would say, and Nora and Janelle were never willing to explain. I couldn’t even remember ever speaking to her without Janelle present.

  “Nora, is everything okay?” I inquired, not sure how to handle this unplanne
d visit.

  “Forgive my intrusion but there was something I needed to ask, and I thought it would be wise to do that in private,” she replied, closing the door behind her, as she began to approach me.

  “That sounds rather ominous, please ask whatever is weighing on your mind.”

  “You seemed surprised there were other dimensions or realms out there, I was just wondering how you did that so effortlessly?”

  “Nora what are you talking about, of course I had no idea. Why would you think I would be in the know about a matter such as that?”

  “Because you’re not from this world either, you can deny it all you like but I am perceptive. I know that like me, you do not belong in this realm.”

  Her words threw me for six, what the fuck was she talking about? Of course, I belonged here, I was born here.

  Nora you must be mistaken, I was born in this realm there is no way I can’t be from here.”

  “You didn’t know, I am so sorry Marcus. I should never have dropped that bombshell on you. Clearly someone didn’t want you to know about your origin.”

  I was about to demand Nora to tell me everything she knew when Ishira flew into the room, her eyes were ablaze, with a mixture of hope and horror playing in her eyes.

  “Marcus, Unya has returned. She has returned to Earth, but something is wrong. Her spirit is growing weak, I do not know how long she has left.”

  “No, please tell me you are mistaken. How could the Gods have got a hold of her so easily?”

  “It’s not the Gods who have her in their possession Marcus, it’s Kat. She has Unya and she is releasing the Erinyes upon her.”

  It took us ten minutes to get everything we would require together, myself, Ishira, Janelle and Marcelle were going to go after Unya. And we would not return until we had her.

  David and Nora wanted to accompany us, but I needed to have at least two people I could trust standing guard over our base.

  Ishira was using her flame to focus in on Unya’s location and once she locked on, I would be transporting all of us straight to her. It took another twenty minutes, until we had a destination in mind, and it was not at Kat’s place. What surprised us though, was the fact they had gone to Lawson’s cabin, it was ironic, but we didn’t have time to think about why she would choose there.

  With a few words we were all inside a swirl of multi-coloured lights as they spiralled around us, until they took us from the compound, and we ended up inside Lawson’s bedroom.

  “What do we do now?” Asked Janelle, using her wolf senses to smell the air, and discover what room she was being held in.

  “Now we get her,” I replied, not letting myself think about the fact I was about to come face to face with my greatest love but also my greatest weakness.

  Much to my chagrin Janelle led the way, with Nora taking up the rear. She led us to a room I never entered before and my eyes opened wider once we went inside.

  There were at least twenty oil paintings leaning against the smallest wall, with pictures of myself, Kat, Malachi, Lilianna but most of all Unya.

  I had almost forgotten why we were even there, until Ishira let out a roar. We all turned to look at whatever had caught her eye and we came face to face with Kat, who was standing over Unya pulling off her fingernails one by one.

  “What are you doing?” I shouted, which made her spin around to face me.

  “What I was hired to do, Jackie approached my bosses and put a price on her head. She wanted Unya to suffer the same way she made her suffer, she is creative with her torture method.”

  “Kat please, you need to stop this,” I stated, trying to reason with her, but all it produced was a belly laugh from her.

  “I don’t need to do anything Marcus dear, except from what I was ordered to. Unya must die, and I’m the lucky girl who gets to exact the vengeance upon her.”

  “You know Hades would never stand for this,” stated Ishira, but Kat just shook her head mockingly.

  “I do not answer to Hades, I only answer to those who created me. And this is so much more than just a simple job. The perfect Unya slipped up, in my opinion it doesn’t seem like she deserves to survive.”

  With that said, she placed her hands upon Unya’s forehead, making black lines snake across her face. They began to turn red as they travelled down her neck and turned a purple as they snaked under her top. They even covered her stomach in a garish yellow colour, I had no idea what Kat was doing but Unya didn’t seem to be faring well.

  Her mouth was wide open in a silent cry, with her eyes rolling so far back you could only see the whites of them.

  “Marcus, we need to do something,” pleaded Janelle, unable to witness her suffering any longer.

  “No, if we break the contact too suddenly, it may destroy Unya’s mind altogether. Trust me, there is no safe way to force Kat to release her right now,” stated Marcelle.

  “Cowards, your affections for this little creature do not run deep. I wonder if you would have allowed me to suffer like this,” Kat said, as she broke contact and sent Unya hurtling forward.

  She fell to the floor, the chair breaking under the impact. Instead of crying out, she started to laugh hysterically, as she clutched onto her head and writhed across the floor.

  I went to grab her, but Kat appeared before me. She had a shit eating grin on her face as she stroked my face, before scoring me with her talon style nails.

  I pulled away from her, before releasing a shockwave from my body which sent her flying into the wall. I manipulated the air to keep her pressed up against it, Ishira then approached it and summoned her flaming chain.

  She lassoed it around Kat’s neck and began to pull it tight, I knew I no longer had to protect Kat, but I couldn’t let her die like that. I didn’t even contemplate my actions, as I pulled Ishira away from her, with more force than I’d expected.

  She glowered at me as she came closer and whipped her chain across my chest, I cried out under the heat before sending her, Janelle and Marcelle flying through the door and making it slam shut. I could hear them pounding against the wood, and I knew I wouldn’t have long before they made their way back in.

  Turning back around to the spot where I’d left Kat, I saw had escaped and was leaning over Unya. I tried to get to them, but Kat did something to prevent me from moving from my spot.

  I could see the wicked glint in her eye as she ran Unya through with a sword, before placing a knife into Unya’s hand. Unya gripped hold of the knife, as she bought it up to her face, carving words into her flesh.

  I didn’t even want to try to decipher what she was writing; all I could think about was how much of a monster Kat had become.

  I overcame whatever Kat had done, and leapt onto her back, sending us both crashing to the floor. I twisted her around, so I was looking straight into her eyes.

  She formed a mace in her hand, which she swung at my head, sending me crashing to the side. But I wouldn’t let her bring me down, as I pulled up one of the broken chair legs. I snapped it in half, making a spike appear at the end, before thrusting it into her chest.

  She fell to her knees, with blood dripping from her mouth, but she still had a smile upon her lips, knowing she would heal from such a wound.

  I pulled a small knife out of its holster I kept on the side of my lower leg, I whispered a few words, which would make the knife powerful enough to destroy an Erinyes once and fall all.

  The only problem was, it wouldn’t just kill her, it would destroy whatever was left of her soul entirely.

  She would never go to the underworld, but she also wouldn’t go to Elysium either. Could I destroy her, so her spirit would no longer exist on any of the plains?

  “Marcus, please just do it,” begged Kat, her eyes once again that deep sea blue colour I had once loved.

  “Kat, is it really you?” I asked as I pulled her into my arms and rocked her gently.

  “Yes, my love, but I don’t know how long I can keep the monster at bay. You know you nee
d to kill me Marcus, now while you still can.”

  “What are you saying? I can’t kill you Kat, I still love you, you can’t leave me again,” I pleaded, beseeching her.

  “Marcus, I made the biggest mistake of my life letting you go, but it’s too late to make it right now. The Erinyes is too strong for me to ever overcome it. Look Marcus, if you don’t kill me then I will stop at nothing until my order has been completed and Unya is dead.

  We both know she doesn’t deserve that fate; I will make her suffering so intense she will beg for death and I will just keep going. Please don’t let me have the chance to do that, I don’t want to hurt my friend.”

  “How can I do this Kat, you are my entire world. All I’ve wanted is to have you back by my side, if I do this, I will never see you again.”

  “Please Marcus, I need you to let me go, please don’t let me die as one of them. Let me die knowing I am loved,” she pleaded, tears streaming down both of our cheeks.

  I pulled her in closer, cradling her head to mine. I lowered my mouth to hers and we kissed with all the emotion we felt for one another. There was sorrow, anger, pain but most of all there was love.

  I pulled my mouth away slightly, still feeling her breath brushing against my lips.

  “Kat, I love you I always have and I always will.”

  I love you too Marcus, know that whatever may come in your future, you were loved and wanted and that never stopped.”

  Our lips met for one final kiss, as my knife plunged into her chest, piercing her heart and stealing her life away.

  My heart shattered into a million pieces, but I couldn’t let myself fall apart. I was still clutching her close to my body when I felt a hand squeezing my shoulder.

  I looked up into Janelle’s eyes, they were mirroring heartache, just like I imagined mine were doing.

  She dropped to her knees and cuddled me, with her chest pressed against my back and her arms around my waist.