Glancing around, the place is dead. Apropos of nothing, this establishment is every bit as dark, quiet, and generally unscrupulous as it’s intended to be.
Yet as I approach the building, I make out a voice. Only one. Unfamiliar, and belonging to someone just out of view.
“She was terrified… the night that you raped her…”
It’s deep, gruff, and trembling with contained wrath.
“But you didn’t care…”
Inching closer, I peer around the corner, my pulse increasing from a steady thump to a hearty jog.
“You raped her, viciously, like the sick animal you are…” The words are hissed by a man I’ve never seen before. A large one. Anangryone. “And now I’m going to put you down.”
The stranger cocks his arm back. Jose gurgles something unintelligible, raising his hands for protection, though it’s clearly no use. His face is already almost unrecognizable.
And when the man ignores his choking plea and swings… And swings…and swings…
Well, it only becomes more difficult to recognize at that point.
Snarling and growling and gasping, the man mashes his fist into Jose’s face, so many times that it’s barely even a face anymore, let alone one belonging to an alive person. But he doesn’t stop. He keeps going, beating my employee’s corpse into a literal pulp with his bare hands.
And I’m just…staring. Transfixed.
The breathless grunts, cracking bones and beating of dead flesh is a mesmerizing orchestra of sound. My eyes are wide open, awed gaze magnetized to this unhinged, deadly…stunningcreature.
I bite my lip.Wow…
Look at that.
I don’t know that I’ve ever been so captivated by a sight. It feels like my heart is going to snap my ribs.
Swallowing down a mouthful of saliva, I force myself to blink hard. But it’s difficult. I’m purely hypnotized by the way this stranger has just unleashed the beast within himself…
My head tilts.
Hm…
Minutes pass while I watch the man go from snarling to sniffling. He rises to his feet, standing over the lifeless body whose head is no more, visibly shaking.
Standing reveals his size. He’s… big.Oh so big. Maybe six-four, well over two hundred pounds of sheer vitality. Brawny, overflowing with strength andpower. A rabid animal, crafted of muscle and ink and steel.
But even the toughest person succumbs to the nausea that hits when the spell is broken, and the adrenaline wears off. It reminds me of the first time I killed someone with my bare hands.
Been there, champ.
The man is now sniveling, mumbling nonsense. He throws up on the ground beside where he’s wobbling, and I have to bite back a grin, reminding myself that this person just murdered one of my dealers in cold blood.
My eyes shift.Oh, shit…Twoof my dealers.
He is clearly dangerous, and unstable, and God, why am Iswooning…?
But come on. That is just too cute…The way he’s trying to wipe a spot of blood off of his shirt that’s so soaked in viscera, it looks like two humans just exploded right in front of him.
Composing myself, I decide to make myself known, stepping out from around the corner. Mainly, of course, because I need to confront this man who just killed people who work for me. Such things simply cannot go unpunished, no matter how little I care about the deceased, or the fact that I was going to kill them myself. Or how…fascinatingI find the culprit.
He doesn’t even notice me at first. He’s completely out of it. Shell-shocked and sputtering.
“Well, then…” At the sound of my voice, he flinches and turns, though he still seems to be in slow motion. I move in closer. “That’s a dead ass man if I’ve ever seen one.”
