Adrian sucks in a breath. Then he shrieks at the top of his lungs.
“Help me!” he screams. “Dad! Mom!”
I laugh despite myself. Krampus darts a disapproving look in my direction before yanking the chains tight again, cutting off Adrian’s childlike screaming.
Krampus’s expression is impassive, but his tail swishes, betraying his impatience. “Fine, then,” he says. “I will name your sins, if you are too cowardly to do so yourself.” He leans in, nostrils flaring as he drags in a deep breath. Adrian’s eyes bulge in terror.
Krampus grimaces as if tasting something rotten. “You reek of lust,” he says. “And envy, sloth, greed… all seven. But lust most of all.” He sniffs again, and growls low in his throat. “Adultery. Covetousness. Rape.”
A chill slides down my spine that has nothing to do with the blizzard around us. I wonder how far he would have gone if Krampus had not showed up… but as I touch the bruises forming on my wrist, I suspect I already know the answer.
“Will you confess now?” Krampus asks. “What have you to say for yourself?”
He loosens the chains again.
Adrian sucks in a deep breath, lets loose a hacking, wet cough. I expect him to scream again, but there’s a glazed look in his eye that has replaced his former terror. His lips twitch into a manic smile as he looks up at Krampus.
“Go fuck yourself,” he says.
Krampus doesn’t say a word. He just yanks the chain tight and lifts Adrian completely off the ground. His boots kick in the air, fingers scraping at the metal cutting off his airflow. His eyes bulge and his face turns red.
Krampus pulls tighter. The muscles in his thick arms swell with effort.
I watch in silence, heart hammering in my ears. Though it isn’t fear I feel, not precisely. I’m not sure how to name thesensation surging in my veins, but I know I can’t take my eyes off the sight.
Adrian’s face goes purple. His struggles weaken. His arms fall limp at his sides and his eyes roll back in his head.
I swallow past a dry mouth. Is Krampus really going to kill him? I thought he’d whip him, hurt him, but I didn’t expect an execution. Yet… after the crimes Krampus named… do I blame him?
I keep my mouth shut.
Krampus yanks harder. Harder. Veins throbbing, muscles all through his torso clenched with effort. The metal digs into the darkening skin at the edges of Adrian’s neck. There’s a sharpcrack, and his head snaps to the side.
I gasp, taking an inadvertent step back. But I still don’t look away—and Krampus still doesn’t release the chain clenched in his fists.
Instead, with a mighty roar, he yanks even harder. With a wet tear, the chains tear right through Adrian’s neck. His head goes flying. Blood sprays out of him, splattering all over me. Some gets into my open mouth when I gape, and I stumble back, sputtering.
I wipe a hand over my face, trying to scrub myself clean. When I lower it, I see that Adrian’s gaping, severed head has rolled to a stop in the snow in front of me.
I scream.
Chapter
Twelve
Idon’t stop screaming until I run out of air. Then I press the back of a trembling hand to my mouth, smothering a final whimper.
Krampus lets Adrian’s body slump to the ground and kneels. He grabs a handful of snow and carefully, patiently, cleans the blood off his chains. He didn’t react at all to my scream. He barely reacts to the death itself, except that he seems… more relaxed. His shoulders have slumped slightly, and his breath comes easier. When he straightens up and turns to me, even his eyes seem less red; some of the manic gleam is gone from them. He isn’t in a blind rage, but appears calmer and more in control than he’s ever been. Like he’s… satisfied.
That keeps my feet planted instead of running. For the moment, at least, he seems sated. And despite the blood all over me and the headless corpse nearby, I feel safer with Krampus than I did with Adrian.
“You didn’t tell me you were going to kill him,” I say.
“I told you I was going to give him what he deserved.”
I study him, but there’s no hint of remorse on Krampus’s beastlike face. Of course not. This is who he is.Whathe is. He was made to punish, to hurt, to kill.
I can’t let myself forget that. Nor can I expect him to be merciful to me, in the end.
