“Never. Go get cleaned up while I sort this, yeah?”
He places his small, bloodied hand in mine, pulling until I lower to my haunches. As soon as we’re eye level, he wraps his arms around my neck. I slowly place my hand on his back as Isoftly say, “You did a good job, Kid. No one is ever allowed to touch you. If they ever try, you do this again, okay?”
“Can we play now?”
“Yeah, once you’re cleaned up.”
He doesn’t even react to the dying fuck beside us as he excitedly says, “Okay, I thought of a really hard one. You’ll never guess it.”
“Oh yeah? Why don’t you practice while you get a shower?”
He nods but my arms are still around him so I ask, “Can I pick you up?”
Another nod, slower.
“You can say no to anyone. Including me.”
There’s no response so I remain still. Only for my heart to break and my blood to boil as he whispers, “I can shower by myself now.”
“I know you can. I was only going to take you into the bathroom then close the door.”
“Oh,” he says slowly. “You can pick me up.”
I stand as he wraps his arms tighter around my neck. There’s even blood on his socks, but I don’t remove them as I hold his ankles while he chews on something. Carrying him into the bathroom, I sit him on the closed toilet lid and quickly drop down to my haunches when I see the blood running from the corner of his lips. “Is this your blood?”
“No.”
I’m too busy trying to work out where the blood is coming from as I check his arms for any cuts that it’s too late to notice the blade in his hand. It’s thicker than the one I have, longer too.
“Where did you get it?” I hold my hand out.
“It’s my trick to make them weaker.” He smiles. “Jasper taught me how to hide it.”
“Well, you don’t need to do it ever again. Where did you hide it?”
He opens his mouth, showing me the small cut on the inside of his cheek and the scarring from the other times he’s hidden a razor blade in his mouth. A child hid a razor blade in their mouth to weaken grown fucking men.
I take a deep breath to calm myself. “Promise me you won’t do it again.”
“Promise.”
I leave the bathroom, making sure the door is closed behind me. When I killed the other cunt, I thought there was only one of them who hurt him. Death hasn’t spread the message he’s not to be touched so I need to be more creative. The water turns on as I say through the door, “Don’t come outside until I tell you, okay?”
“Okay,” he mumbles back.
The guard still has his mask on as I pinch the blade between my finger and thumb. He applies pressure to the wound on his side, but there’s no fear as I approach him and lower to my haunches. He’s not worth speaking to so I press my knee into him, just above where the knife is. The weak grunt is like music to my ears as I peel his mask off to reveal a normal face. He’s young, younger than me. But not young enough to claim ignorance for his crimes.
I apply more weight to his abdomen as I grip his hair, forcing his head against the floor. The point below his hairline opens up as I dig the sharp corner of the blade into his skin. He swallows his screams while I put more force into the blade until the thick edge is scraping against his bone, then slowly drag it down over his brows. The motherfucker squints, weakly trying to push me off as I reach his eye. Yet he bites his tongue to mute his scream while I fulfill Kid’s request. “You’ll never look at him again.”
My fingers slip against the smooth, bloody metal when I reach his cheekbone. I leave it there to wipe my hands, but he snatches it and opens his mouth. Bringing my other knee down, I slam it into his jaw, trapping his mouth so he can’t close it.
He’s managed to cut his tongue, but I pick the blade out of his filthy mouth then do the same to the other side of his face as he shakes to suppress his scream. I push my knee further into his cheek, forcing his lips apart to give my boy screams as music.
“You’ll never laugh at him again.”
My voice sounds like it’s underwater as I pinch his bottom lip in my free hand then run the blade into the seam of his lips in a downward motion. It’s not sharp enough to do it in a clean cut, but I don’t give a fuck about minimizing his pain, so I continue hacking at the flesh until his bottom teeth are exposed. Then I do the same to his top lip as the shower stops running.
Taking my knees off the fucker, I move back and grab the handle of the knife sticking out of him, twisting as I pull it free. I throw it on the other side of the room before holding his arms to drag him away from the door. I pull him out of the room, leaving a crimson trail of blood as I go.
