My heart pounds with excitement.
Liem wretches his bat against Eric’s windpipe pressing and cutting off the air into his lungs. He gasps, chokes, coughs, and claws his way at the bat in hopes Liem will let up, but he doesn’t, and I don’t try to help him because my distain is greater than my empathy. This world changed me somehow and while I feel stronger with Liem by my side. I won’t bow to evil walking the streets.
With Eric’s face now turning a shade of purple, Liem backs away taking his bat with him, and Eric falls to the floor as Liem towers over him. Strangled breaths come from his frail body.
Liem only gives him a minute before bending down, taking him by his throat, and dragging him up to an unsteady stand. “Walk, motherfucker,” he grinds out as he steers him past, and away from me to the outside. A stumbling Eric dragging along with him.
I don’t dare look away, but instead I rush to the window when I can no longer see them from my position on the floor.
I open the door that is now unlocked, pushing my way to the outside, the broken glass crunching under my black Pumas.
The freezing air slams into my exposed arms and face but it’s an afterthought as I watch Liem man handle Eric like he’s a bug about to be squashed.
With the early morning still on the rise there’s no one around except a few passing cars, which don’t pay any attention.Coming from such an area, civilians tend to turn their heads at any confrontation. Unless it’s a dead body at a crime scene.
Eric, the boss I happily watch suffer from his own consequences, spits up blood as Liem throws a fist to his face.
The wind blankets over me, but I ignore it, staring, waiting for what’ll happen next. Is Liem going to kill him? Do I want Liem to kill a devil hiding inside a man’s body, walking free in this world?
Maybe I do.
A snowy ice pile lays beside them and Liem lifts Eric’s bruised and battered body up in the air like it’s no big deal. He then plunges Eric’s face into the snow mound. My breath is quick, my eyes darting between them both. Liem isn’t letting up. He’s not letting him go. I twitch to move but can’t seem to pry myself off this snow-covered sidewalk.
I gasp as Eric’s body thrashes around in panic and terror, fighting for its existence, fighting for the air being stripped from him. Liem continues to hold him inside the ice until finally, he grows limp, and he stops fighting.
I don’t know much about him. I know he’s not married. No children. Thank God. Who will miss him?
I doubt anyone.
Another sick bastard gone and the world will be a better place without him.
Liem steps away, never breaking a sweat and I admire his broad back that faces me. The way it rises and falls all too quickly… because of me.
It’s been minutes. His back still to me. If I were to see his eyes, I bet they’d be empty and soulless. He doesn’t enjoy this, but it’s scratching an itch.
He finally spins, looking intently at me the second he does, and his brows furrow. But he doesn’t say a word as he prowls my way. He takes out his phone, keeping his eyes locked with mineas he closes in on me, telling whoever’s on the line, they need to come do a cleanup. I suppose they had something for this sort of thing. You take someone’s life and there had to be a plan on how to handle the aftermath. But I’m not afraid, I’m intrigued, and my body hums with excitement.
What does that make me?
Whodoes that make me?
Liem tucks his phone back into his pocket. “I’m sorry.” His voice is pained against his low tone, and he looks ashamed, yet a tad satisfied.
I peer behind him at Eric’s lifeless body and then search Liem’s eyes for the darkness I remember witnessing when I brought him back to my apartment that night.
Two murders. He’s taken the life of two people and I’m still falling for him.
“I wanted to watch.” My voice equally as strained, and he tilts his head, studying me closely. “Why did you do it? Why did you kill him?”
The icy wind picks up, whistling in the silent streets.
“He laid his hands on you. He touched you.”
My chest tightens. “Yeah, well, a lot of men have touched me.”
He shakes his head, slowly closing his eyes as he takes in a heavy breath. The sigh he lets out trembles his entire body. “Not anymore.” He opens his eyes with a glimmer of light.
My heart quickens, and I take in a sharp breath, any fight I have left vanishes.
