Chapter Twenty-Seven
M y eyes darted to him, then to the door. My mind was a whirlwind, teetering between staying frozen in place or making a desperate run for it. But it wouldn’t matter—Kyle was too close, and the gun within arm’s reach made my chance of escape non-existent. Either way, I wasn’t leaving this room without some kind of infliction—or worse, death.
“What did I even do to you, Kyle?” I asked.
Kyle turned to face me, peeling his hoodie and shirt off in the process, throwing both off to the side as the malicious chuckled surfaced again.
“You honestly don’t know, do you?” He said.
“No I don’t. It was a harmless text-"
“Harmless!” Kyle screamed, interrupting me, “Do you know how many times I’ve been rejected, been given the same text response? A guy can only take so much before he..." he paused, “before ending up going crazy.”
“I’m sorry,” I stated, “I had no idea.”
“It’s too late for apologies, Drewe,” he snarled. “The damage is done. The emotional, mental wreckage you caused–it’s all done. And now, you’re going to make it right.”
Kyle’s stance shifted becoming more of a venomous mix of anguish and fury, though his eyes remained stuck on me, a potent amalgam of anguish and fury. He advanced slowly, and I instinctively retreated.
“Kyle, please.” I pleaded, my voice fractured by desperation. “Whatever you intend to do, you can still stop! You still have a chance to change it all. We can move behind this.”
Kyle shook his head, a hollow smile growing on his face, “No sweetheart. You don’t understand. This isn’t something we can just ‘work through’. This isn’t a mistake. This is about retribution. An eye for an eye. A heart for a heart.”
He stepped closer, his bare torso faintly glistening under the neon lights. Kyle’s eyes were now empty, devoid of humanity. In a matter of minutes, he became more terrifying than the gun.
“Hurry up, get into the contraption,” he growled, gesturing towards the leather cuffs bolted to the frame behind me.
“Kyle, please?—”
“Either you get in there,” he growled, “or I shoot you right now. Then your boyfriend. Then your friends. Either way, I’m going to get my revenge.”
My throat tightened as the weight of inevitability crashed down on me. He was going to win. I had no choice. The sting of defeat spread across my face as I stepped forward, raising my hands in surrender.
Kyle moved behind me, locking the cuffs around my wrists and ankles tighter than expected. The leather bit into my skin, the restraints holding me firmly in place. I couldn’t see what he was doing, only the sound of his shuffling behind me.
“I don’t care if you scream. Or plead. Or try to talk me out of what I am about to do,” he said, his voice cold and detached, “You’re going to feel.”
The words rang in my ears, each one a heavy blow to my psyche. Kyle moved in front of me, inches from my face. For a fleeting moment, hesitation surfaced across his features, like a ghost passing through. His mouth twitched as if he wanted to say something—but he didn’t. He pulled back, pursing his lips closed.
“Wh..." he started to say, “What is it?” I gently whispered, my voice breaking, “If there’s anything left—anything stopping you— just say it.”
He blinked, almost startled by my words.
Kyle reached up, fingers touching the side of my face with eerie gentleness as his thumb traced my cheekbone, “No. No more talking. You had your chance.”
I closed my eyes, striving to focus, to think of any possible way to reach him. But there was no hope. There was nothing left. No more convincing. This was my fate, and I needed to accept it.
Moving out of view, the shuffles of his feet could be heard. Kyle moved to an area along the wall that showcased every leather and steel tool Leo had collected.
My heart raced with an unrelenting fervor, anticipation permeating my senses, hearing the rustling of items—dreading what he was planning.
“This one,” he muttered, to himself.
And before I could think of the worst, the sound of a whip cracked through the air. Its sinister hiss punctuating the silence before.
“Drew,” he started, “You wanted to know how much you hurt me? I’ll make you understand just how much.”
My jaw clenched tightly as I swallowed back the rising tide of terror that clawed at my throat, ready to erupt into a scream. All I could think about at this point was Leo and my friends, hoping they were able to break free from their own restraints and get help.
Leo.
The man who has completely captivated my heart.
I’m sorry.
Maybe if I had told Kyle face to face of how I felt instead of through a text, things could have been different. You and I would probably not have to worry, constantly looking over our shoulders in fear.
“If this is where my life ends, Leo I love you more than words could ever express. You are my every heartbeat, my every thought. I have found a kind of love that fills every corner of my soul, that lifts me on my darkest days and makes every moment radiant. You are the one who has shown me what’s true, boundless love feels like, and for that I am endlessly grateful,” I whisper.
Saying those words out loud, letting them escape beyond my lips, felt good. This—this was what I truly longed to say to Leo. The things I said before, they mattered, but these trenchant words felt different—like they carried the weight of everything I’d been too afraid to admit.
”I’m so sorry,” I said, gripping the edges of the contraption, laying my head sideways pressing against it willingly for what was ahead.
Kyle’s arm moved in a swift motion, and then forward making the whip slice through the air with a resounding crack. The first strike landed across the center of my back like a bolt of lightning, searing, paralyzing. The pain blossomed into excruciating pain making me let out a guttural scream.
My body convulsed while the feral leather tore into my flesh. The sting quickly morphed into steering agony that spread across my skin in rivulets of fire. I could feel the ridges of the whip leaving their imprint. The initial shock of it was overwhelming, my vision narrowing, tunneling from the painful lash.
Another strike followed, along with the pain that now ran the length of my spine. The unfurling waves forced my teeth to grind fearing they might shatter. Tears welled in my eyes, blurring my vision as I fought to surpass a sob.
“Kyle,” I managed to gasp.
He ignored me.
Another lash swung and this time curling around my side nearly buckling my knees, the cuffs biting cruelly into my wrists as I strained against them.
“You have no idea what it’s like,” Kyle snarled.
Looking back out of the corner of my eye, his face was again contorted in fury.
”You walked away, hell, they all walked away like it was nothing. Like I was nothing.” he said, his words venomous.
They left nothing but his truth.
I squeezed my eyes shut as the whip struck for a fourth time. My skin was ablaze now, as if layers were being stripped away, exposing the raw muscle and bone beneath, carving deeper. The searing heat from each wound spread outward, the burn intensifying with every heartbeat, until the agony merges into one endless wave.
My teeth sank into my lip, the metallic tang spreading across my tongue in order to keep from crying out.
Just as the pain subsided, another whip cracked again.
My head hung low, my breathing shallow and ragged. My lips trembled as I tried to compose words, but there was nothing. Kyle’s breath hitching behind me.
The whip cracked again.
“FUCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!” I screamed, my voice cracking.
My body now felt heavy, my spirit worn thin beneath the unrelenting onslaught that seemed to go forever. I could feel myself slipping, the pain threatening to drag me under. The edges of my awareness now frayed.
Each lash tore through the fragile remains of my resilience, unraveling what little sense of self I had left. The pain was omnipresent, a relentless inferno consuming me whole, leaving no room for escape and no reprieve.
The leather cuffs chewed into my wrist, tearing the skin a bit open with every agonizing twist. My blood oozed out in a thick, crimson line against my clammy skin. It slithered down my arm, leaving a glistening trail that pooled at my elbow before spilling over. The drops hit the floor with a wet, nauseating splat, each one spreading into jagged little stains mocking my helplessness.
Kyle’s laughter echoed, brittle among the dungeon walls, “Are you fucking getting the idea, sweetheart? Do you finally understand the extent of your wrong doing? Actions come with consequences.”
I could not respond.
More tears streamed mingling with the sweat that dripped from my brow. Every thought I had, every feeling being felt left me and in its space was nothing.
The whip lashed out again—this time, with a sharper, more stinging force. The impact snapped my body forward, my ribs aching as I struggled to draw my next breath. My vision now splintered with stars.
I struggled to lift my head, my strength was depleted.
I hung there.
There was nothing left of me.
Just a hollow shell.
My world was slipping away into a haze of pain, every muscle locked in agony, every nerve aflame. My ears filled with a high- pitched ringing, muting Kyle’s cruel laughter, his bitter words of anger.
This wasn’t just about how he felt about what I had done to him. This was all of the years of pain and despair he had suffered, poured into each strike given to me.
”You are such a fucking pathetic-" a voice said, breaking through my thoughts.
Then, amidst the clouding of my mind, a sharp, piercing sound shattered through it all. A gunshot. My body jolted at the noise while my senses momentarily shocked into clarity. Kyle’s voice was quickly replaced by an awful silence, a stillness so profound that it seemed to freeze time.
Was that a gunshot?
He shot me, didn’t he?
This is what he wanted.
I managed to lift my head, looking over my shoulder, blinking through the blurred fog of my vision from the pain and tears, I saw Kyle stumbling to his knees. His face was struck in a bit of confusion as he looked down to see a bullet hole through his left shoulder. Kyle placed a hand over it, finding his palm covered with blood.
“What the-?” Kyle rasped, his eyes widened with disbelief.
Just behind him, I saw Leo. My boyfriend’s eyes were wild, as his face filled with anguish. A gun trembled in his hands. Leo was standing in the doorway, panting with a sharp rise and fall of his chest visible even from where I hung, strapped and broken.
Leo was holding a different gun in hands, probably one he owned for emergencies.
“Cheshire,” he choked out, before shooting Kyle again in the thigh.
Kyle’s legs gave way beneath him, his body crumpling to the floor unconsciously. Blood seeped from both wounds, pooling on the round around him.
Leo wasted no time, placing the gun behind him in the waistband of his jeans as he scurried over to me. His eyes flickered over my body, taking in the blood and welts, his expression twisted in a combination of horror.
“Baby! Drew, look at me!” he urged, his voice thick with emotion frantically fumbling to free me, “Stay with me.”
He quickly clicked the restraints open, his strong arms catching me as my body collapsed against him. Lowering me gently to the floor, his touch was both urgent and careful. My throat tightened, each attempt to form words dissolving under the weight of the searing pain radiating through me. I couldn’t catch my breath, each inhale was harder than the last. The simple act of breathing felt like an insurmountable struggle, tearing its way in and out.
Leo gently pulled me into his arms, tightening around me, and I could feel his muscles holding me up.
“You’re going to be okay,” he whispered, over and over again, rocking me, “I’m here. I’ve got you. I’m not letting you go.”
The tears that escaped my eyes now were no longer from pain, but from the flood of emotion that urged through me, love.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, “I love you.”
My mind starts to grow unconscious.
The hope of being with Leo one last time was what kept me going through it all. The thought of seeing him, touching him, hearing his voice again.
“Drew!” Leo screamed, “Hang on! Stay with me! An ambulance is on its way.”
The sounds of his voice started to slip into darkness.