Chapter 39 – IVY
Chapter
Thirty-Nine
IVY
The chopper took Venom and me to a rather sketchy looking building on the outside but inside was a state-of-the-art medical facility that I was so thankful for. Venom was treated right away and they tended to my back as well. Six hours later, we were cleared to go home.
Home.
I have a home. And it’s with Venom.
Although coming face-to-face with the stairs I last saw Evelyn on was not something I was prepared to see.
I stand there staring at them, replaying the memories and feeling my world spin.
“Darlin’, don’t torture yourself. You’ve been through enough,” Venom says, then holds out his hand. “We’ll do it together.”
I nod, take his hand, and together we walk up the stairs and into our home.
Our home.
Our home without Evelyn.
It’s a bittersweet reunion, and all I want to do is get to the greenhouse and take a deep breath, so that’s exactly what I do, Venom following close behind. For the rest of the evening, I tend to the plants while Venom rests in his recliner, watching me when I’m within view.
“You’ve become rather good at this.”
“I had a good teacher.”
“Come, sweet beast, take a break and sit with me.”
“Will you read to me?”
“Always,” he says, then pats his thigh, signaling for me to sit on his lap.
“I have a surprise for you,” Venom says when he finds me napping in the greenhouse.
I stretch and rub my eyes.
“Oh yea? Where is it?”
“Basement. Follow me.”
Venom unlocks the door and pushes it open to reveal a completely dark room. He steps further in and a lightbulb flickers on.
My gaze travels to a chair. To the naked, hooded man tied to it.
He’s bloodied and bruised and clearly has several broken bones. But it’s the tattoos on his hands, fingers and chest that tell me who he is.
Nikolai.
It’s been three days since I last saw him, but when Venom pulls off the black hood covering Nikolai’s face, it’s like I never left his mansion.
I had asked Venom what was going to happen to Nikolai and he only told me that he was going to be taken care of. I trusted he would finally meet his end. But here he is, lifting his swollen eyes to me.
“A gift,” Venom says. “No one deserves to kill him except you. Reaper kept him until he could deliver him back here. I told him to keep him alive long enough so you could be the one to finally take what you deserve. He’s all yours.”
Nikolai groans and spits blood on the ground, nearly landing on my bare feet.
I meet his eyes again and a shiver runs through me as I recall every cruelty and how he stole my life from me, and right when I thought I finally gained it back, he showed up to steal it again.
He’s taken so much from me.
He’s taken Evelyn.
I clench my fist and feel a surge of adrenaline. Then I step to him and punch him in the face. It hurts, more than I expected but that doesn’t matter right now. What matters is making him pay. Making him suffer. Making him wish for death only to have it dragged out by me.
I finally hold the power.
This is my life and no one controls it but me.
I hit him again.
And again.
And again.
I scream and unleash my rage on his face, until the images in my mind of his smug smile are replaced with how he looks right now. Bloody, bruised, and defeated.
I step back, chest heaving, trying to catch my breath and look over to Venom, finding him casually leaning against the wall fiddling with the toothpick in his mouth as he watches.
I look down at my split and bloody knuckles and then back to Venom.
“I need something else. Something sharp.”
His grin widens. “That’s my beast. Round two, coming right up.”
He kicks a black bag over to me and I bend down to unzip it. It’s filled with knives of all shapes and sizes and my eyes light up at the sight. “Hey, Venom?”
“Yes, darlin’?”
“Can you teach me how to throw a knife?”
“Of course, darlin’.” He saunters over to me and pulls a bundle of throwing knives from his bag. “If only we had a good target.” He tips his head at Nikolai, “Oh look, how perfect. Will he do?”
“Definitely.”
Nikolai lifts his messy face to look at us. It’s hard to read his expression with how bloody and swollen he is but I imagine he’s not too happy.
“Ffff… uuuhh… ck yyyou.”
Venom positions himself behind me and walks me further away from Nikolai then places the blade in my hand.
“This is the balance point. It’s important to know that so you know how it will rotate.
We’ll start with a half-spin throw.” He places his hands on my hips, “Put your right foot back, shoulder width apart and grip near the blade.” His hand slides back up my body to my arm.
“You’re gonna bring your arm back, over your shoulder and step forward as you release it. ”
I do as Venom instructs. The blade of my first attempt bounces off Nikolai, but I keep trying.
“Adjust your grip, you’re over rotating. Like this.” He helps me adjust then steps back.
The blade flies through the air and finally sinks into Nikolai’s belly. He yelps and I smile.
“Good!” Venom calls out. “Were you aiming for his stomach?”
“His neck, actually.”
“That’s alright. Keep practicing. You’re doing great.”
An hour passes and my back hits the wall as I slide down it and sit, taking a break. I look at Nikolai, several blades sticking out of various parts of his body, oozing more blood.
“St—op. No… more. P—please,” Nikolai murmurs.
“Oh, but now I’ve finally got you to beg.” I stand and walk over to him, gripping his hair and pulling, making him look at me. “You always loved when I begged, didn’t you, Nik? How’s it feel?”
“I—loved… y-you.”
“Stop. You’re incapable of love, you asshole. You’re a monster. A disease that needs to be wiped out. The world will be a better place without you and I’m glad I’m the one who gets to end your existence.”
Nikolai begins to lose consciousness when Venom steps forward and injects him with something. His eyes shoot open and he inhales an audible deep breath before rocking in his chair and shouting things in Russian.
“Adrenaline. To keep him a bit livelier for ya,” Venom says.
I smile. “So thoughtful.”
“If I may, I have an idea for round three.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll be back.”
When Venom finally returns, my eyes go wide at what he’s carrying. Two snakes are wrapped around him, Black Betty and Sally, and more are in carriers.
I grin wide. “No way.”
“Oh yes. Seems only fitting.”
Nikolai sees what round three is and reacts. He begins bucking harshly in his chair and if it wasn’t bolted to the floor, he surely would have been sent flying to the ground.
“No!” With a strained voice, Nikolai begins shouting in Russian again. “Nyet! Nyet! Ne smey! Ty za eto sdokhnesh’, ublyudok!”
Venom steps closer. “No, Nikolai, you’re the one dying when the rest of my girls here get a hold of you. You probably should refrain from moving. You don’t want to upset them.”
“You know Russian?” I ask Venom, surprised, but also not. He’s a man of many skills and talents.
“I know many languages, darlin’. I’ve traveled the world.”
“What did he say?”
“Just empty threats.”
Nikolai goes completely still as Venom transfers his snakes onto him. They begin slithering their way around him as Venom begins to pull out the other girls from their carriers.
“Are these all of them?”
“All except Cora. And Mya must be taking a nap somewhere. Besides, these are the most venomous. We got neurotoxic, hemotoxic and cytotoxic venom here. His body is going to shut down, along with tissue destruction and he’s going to bleed, a lot, from various parts.
This isn’t going to be pretty and if they all get him, it’s going to be unlike any pain he has ever experienced or could imagine. ”
“Good. “
“One other thing, they don’t all get along and can be a bit territorial.”
“They’re gonna hurt each other?”
“Possibly. Especially if they feel like they’re competing. But hopefully Nikolai is enough of a distraction.” Venom releases the last of the snakes then pushes me back toward the door.
Nikolai continues to remain as still as possible, with nothing but his panicked eyes moving.
The tension builds as we wait but then Venom walks over to him and gives him another dose of adrenaline and his body begins to involuntary move, tremors pulsing through him.
“No!” he growls.
And then the first of the snakes, Black Betty, strikes.
With every scream Nikolai releases, another snake sinks its teeth into him. He tries thrashing and shouting, but soon, the effects begin to take hold and like Venom said, it’s not pretty but it’s everything I wished to see become of Nikolai.
He loses control of his bladder, and by the smell, his bowels too.
His body convulses, and as another snake wraps its body around Nikolai’s neck, constricting tighter and tighter, his last breaths are stolen.
His face turns a deep shade of red, then purple as veins strain beneath his skin from the pressure and ew—his eyes begin to swell, the whites of them turning red as blood vessels pop.
They grotesquely bulge. The left in particular protruding unnaturally far, as if it might actually burst—
Nikolai’s left eye flops out of its socket with a sickening pop, still hanging by a tiny cord of nerves and muscles, lightly swaying as the snake continues squeezing.
Another gasp leaves me when Sally snaps out, grabbing hold of his eye and begins to swallow it whole.
“Holy shit,” I say while Venom chuckles.
“I do hope he was still conscious for that.”
We watch just a moment longer as the blood seeps in crimson rivers from his gums, nose, and eyes… or at least where one use to be… as well as the other wounds I had already made.
Nikolai becomes unrecognizable as he dies a gruesome death.
I cover my nose. “Oh god, the smell.”
“It’s only going to get worse. I’ll contact the cleaners. They’ll take care of the rest after I collect my pets. But let's give them a bit more time with him even though I think he’s pretty dead now.”
“You think?”
“Come, darlin’, how about a nice relaxing bath? I’ll wash your hair and even braid it.
I lift on to the tips of my toes and press a kiss to his cheek. “Thank you for this.”
I spare one more glance back to Nikolai, then close the steel door behind me, shutting my past away.