“You will never break me.”
“That’s a bet I’m willing to take,” Ivan says as he steps forward and rips open Bruno's blue linen shirt, exposing his sun damaged skin.
“Get your hands off me,” he snarls. I’m impressed that he’s still trying to intimidate us. At least he’s trying, unlike Gabriel who looks like he took a harder hit than I thought. His eyes are unfocused and he is struggling to keep his head up. Like I said, weak.
“I can’t wait to see what this bad boy does,” Ivan mutters to himself as he lines the paddle up with Bruno's stomach, like he is about to play ping pong.
Lining up the paddle, Ivan takes his first hit.
Thwack!
Now that's a great sound, like a book being slammed shut. With the background sound of crying and whimpering. His cries are as annoying as him talking.
“Oh shit,” Ivan says, trying to pull his hand back. The paddle is stuck.
“How has it got stuck?” Lucas asks, coming over to look.
“I don’t know. Maybe the glue isn’t dry enough,” Ivan ponders.
“Glue?” I ask.
“Yeah, it's a special glue that attaches metal. I should’ve read the instructions, but I was excited and in a rush.”
“Get it off me!” Bruno begs, spit running down his chin, face scrunched up in torment, and it's entertaining to watch.
“Are we done yet? What's with all the screaming?” Igor says as he approaches. He looks at Gabriel and Bruno, then stares at Bruno, confused.
“What the fuck is that?” he asks, pointing to Bruno’s stomach.
“It's my invention and it's stuck,” Ivan says, still trying to remove it.
“Who cares? You’re killing them anyway. Get a move on, your time is almost up.”
“Okay. Lucas, you got my pliers?” I ask.
“Here you go,” he says, prepared as ever.
“Ivan, can you hold their heads? I just need to take a souvenir.”
“You collect teeth?” Ivan asks.
“Yep. Another hobby,” I say as I quickly remove their canines and place them in individual baggies that Lucas had written their names on.
“I really like you, Carlos. We have a lot in common.”
“I forgot to get Enrico's tooth!” I say, kicking myself for not remembering. But Lucas pulls out another bag from his pocket.
“I got it.”
We both laugh. That would've ruined my day, not remembering to take a piece of that shithead.
“Are we ready to go?” Dima says from behind me, moving closer along with Lev and Noah, who is still walking around with brains on his bat.
“I’ll take the one on the left,” Noah says, and puts his bat on the ground, removing a long sharp blade from his hoodie. How he can wear a hoodie in this heat is beyond me.
“You can take the one on the right. Gabriel is mine,” I say.
Noah shrugs and walks up into Bruno's face where he has to lean down because he is so tall. Bruno is still whimpering with the paddle stuck to his stomach. But it’ll be over very soon. Noah carefully runs the tip of the blade down Bruno's neck. He looks mesmerized by it, playing with his food before devouring it. He then grabs Bruno's hair and tilts his head back, exposing his throat.
