“You have to listen, Talia. It’s important,” Mikah tries for the second time.
The very sound of his voice grates on my nerves. Agitated, I toss the saw and pick up my bat, deciding a slow, torturous death means having to listen to and see him. Neither one is high on my list of fun times.
“They’re coming, Talia. You need to be ready, or they’ll take you—they’ll take all of you.”
“Who is they and why the fuck would they take me?” The question rattles off my tongue before I think better of it. He’s been lamenting about this damntheysince he woke up.
Furious that he won’t stop blubbering on, I smash my bat into his stomach, the barbed wire tears at the fabric of his shirt, but barely scratches him. Unsatisfied with this result, I swing two more times, smiling when I finally tear flesh.
Mikah screams in agony, gasping for air.
“Answer my question, or I’ll cut out your tongue since it must be for decoration,” I order.
When he doesn’t respond, I swing again, following all the way through this time, and the gash in his stomach becomes an open wound. It’s not enough for him to bleed out, at least not yet. But it’s more than enough to make him understand that if he doesn’t say what I want to hear soon, I’ll end him.
“Ahhh, fuccckkkk. Tati, please, understand I did it to save you—it was the only way to ensure you all were s?—”
Rage storms through like an acid cloud, burning through any and every fiber in my body when those words leave his lips.
How fucking dare he spew that bullshit my way?
Incensed, I grip the handle of my bat and swing with such force that the swoosh is audible. Glee like never before fills be at the snap of his kneecap.
Mikah’s screams become banshee-like shrieks. It’s so loud that blood fills his pupil from a vein his strain must’ve ruptured.
“Shut the fuck up already. I don’t want to hear your bullshit excuses. This isn’t an ‘I’m sorry, Ma’am, I forgot to do my homework situation.’” I seethe, my torso twisting before I launch another strike, this time to his other kneecap. I don’t wait between the next few strikes. My bat whirs through what’s left of the night air, colliding with the same spot. And I slam it over and over until the only thing keeping Mikah upright is the same barbed-wire rope Braxton tied him up with.
Blood pours down his arms in rivulets, saturating his shirt in crimson. I bask in the sight of Mikah sliding. The lubrication, combined with the loss of a leg, causes him to slip, further embedding the sharp, jagged pieces into his flesh.
“I’m s-s-sor-r-ry,” he mewls, snot dripping down his nose and into his mouth.
“You don’t get to besorry, Mikah,” I hiss.
Smash.
You don’t get to feel guilt.”
Smack.
You only get to die by my hand,” I declare. “It’s whatyouowethem—it’s what you owe me.”
Mikah must pass out while I’m in my frenzied state.
“Wake up, you twisted fuck,” I yell, ramming a needle into his ear deep enough that I know I ruptured his eardrum. Stupid fuck deserves to be raked across hot coals. He should be melted in a vat of acid while still alive. My imagination runs wild with all the things I wish I could do. Killing and then reviving him to kill him again. My bloodlust for Mikah’s death can’t be sated, but I’ll settle for sparking embers over a roaring blaze.
“I did it to save them,” Mikah splutters.
It’s the same shit, rinse and repeat.
“You didn’t save them, Mikah—you didn’t save me,” I shout. “You resigned our fate—you forced me to walk alone in the depths of guilt, anguish, anger, apathy, numbness.” I rattle off the endless list. “You stole our lives before we ever got the chance to know the world—to walk our path.”
Mikah’s jaw clenches so hard, I think it might rip through his cheek. “No,” he growls. “I savedthem—I savedyou. They were going to?—”
“You hide behind the mysterious boogeyman, but the truth is you’re not even human. You’re worse than scum, and I’ll hate you into eternity, and in every reincarnation thereafter, I will loathe you beyond the end of time.”
“They’re already on their way,” Mikah stammers, resigned sadness pooling in what’s left of his eyebrow.
A sudden fierceness flashes in his eyes when his gaze lands on Brax. “You have to promise to protect her—you have to keep her safe.”
