I stood up slowly, smoothing down my jacket.
“But here’s the thing, baby.” I smiled, and it felt foreign on my face. Cold. “I’m not going to discard you. That would be too easy. Too quick.”
I walked over to the corner where Justice had left the supplies and picked up the metal baseball bat leaning against thewall. It was heavier than I expected. Solid. The weight of it felt right in my hands.
Thad’s eyes went wide. “Mehar. Mehar, wait. Think about this. Think about what you’re doing. This isn’t you. You’re not like this.”
“You’re right. I wasn’t like this.” I walked back toward him, dragging the bat along the concrete floor. The sound echoed through the warehouse like nails on a chalkboard. “But you helped make me like this. You and Ahmad and my father and every other man who thought I was something to be used.”
“Please. PLEASE. I’m begging you!”
“I’m going to keep you, Thad. Like a pet. Chained in a cage somewhere until I get bored. And every day, I’m going to come visit you. And every day, I’m going to remind you of what you are. What you’ve always been.”
I raised the bat.
“MEHAR, NO! I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY!”
I swung.
The crack of the bat against his kneecap was the most satisfying sound I’d ever heard in my life. He screamed so loud I thought the walls might shake. His whole body convulsed against the chains, thrashing and writhing, howling in agony.
I stepped back and watched him suffer for a moment. Then I raised the bat again.
“Please, no more, please, I’ll do anything, PLEASE?—”
I swung at the other knee.
Another crack. Another scream. This one seemed to tear his throat apart, ragged and raw and barely human.
He slumped forward in the chair, held up only by the chains, whimpering and moaning. His legs hung at wrong angles now, useless, destroyed.
I dropped the bat. It clattered against the concrete floor.
“I’ll be back tomorrow,” I said quietly. “Get some rest.”
I turned and walked toward the door where Justice was waiting. He looked at me with something I couldn’t quite read. Not judgment. Not horror. Something closer to recognition. Like he was seeing me clearly for the first time.
“You good?” he asked.
“I’m good.”
He pushed the door open and I stepped out into the night air. Cool and clean after the stench of the warehouse. The stars were out. A breeze rustled through the trees at the edge of the lot.
I made it three steps before the pain hit me.
It came out of nowhere, a searing, ripping sensation low in my belly that dropped me to my knees. I gasped, clutching my stomach, and when I looked down at my hands they were shaking.
“Mehar?” Justice was at my side instantly. “What’s wrong? What’s happening?”
I couldn’t answer. The pain was too much. It radiated through my entire body, wave after wave, stealing my breath and my thoughts and everything else.
Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.
“I need… hospital…” I managed to choke out before another wave hit and I doubled over completely.
Justice didn’t hesitate. He scooped me up like I weighed nothing, carrying me to the car, moving faster than I’d ever seen him move.
“Stay with me,” he kept saying as he laid me across the back seat. “Stay with me, Mehar. I got you. Just stay with me.”
