24. Alexis #2
Why would someone break all three rules if they knew the consequences to come? Who would be stupid enough to break every single rule, knowing they were signing their death warrant?
These rules… Derek… I sucked in a breath as his name skated across my lips. Jameson was a dark premonition for what fate awaited me.
“Alexis.” Adrian snapped, his voice growing impatient as I stood there, knife in hand, staring down at the person I was supposed to kill. Not only to make a statement but to complete my third and final task. My hand began trembling as I tightened my grip on the handle.
I could do this. Couldn’t I? What was stopping me?
I didn’t know him; he had no emotional connection to me.
And yet, every fiber of my being was telling me to run.
Drop the knife and fucking run. My breaths quickened, and I raised the knife, peering down at my reflection in the blade.
Was this me? Was I a murderous monster who killed without question?
Just doing as I was told, like a good little mercenary?
I sure as fuck felt small in this moment.
Closing my eyes, I inhaled a deep breath before opening them again, staring into the eyes of a woman I no longer recognized. A woman who was going to end the life of someone just because she was told to do it, isolated in a room, surrounded by over a hundred cloaked figures that would bear witness.
I’ve done worse. I can do this. Just this once .
With a long, exaggerated blink, I dragged my gaze to meet those of Jameson, who hadn’t removed his blue eyes from mine once since the hood was removed from his head.
As I gripped his shoulder with my free hand, I mouthed the words ‘I’m sorry’ before plunging the knife deep into his chest, straight through his rapidly beating heart.
This wasn’t personal; it was survival.
A deep grunt and a couple of strangled breaths were all that came from him before his body went limp and collapsed to the floor.
I could have slit his throat, but I couldn’t fathom the idea of spilling blood all over the dais and listening to his gargled screams as he fought for his life.
He didn’t deserve that, at least not from me.
Unlike Monika and Abigail, I held no grudge or reason to end Jameson's life; in my eyes, he was nothing more than innocent.
A hand squeezed my shoulder, and I cringed, the bubble that surrounded me bursting and dropping me back into the Anathema central hideout with Adrian looming over me. The grim reaper claiming his prize.
“Not what I had expected from you. I had hoped for more show and blood, but you completed the task nonetheless.” Adrian's tone was bored, showing a hint of disappointment, like a father who noticed their child got a B instead of an A on a school assignment.
The longer I stood there, the more my guilt began to eat at me, the pieces being replaced with anger towards Adrian. Hands fisting at my sides, I could feel the wildfire burning inside of me, ready to explode.
I snapped my eyes to his .
“We need to talk. Alone.” I demanded, pushing the small amount of confidence I had left into my words.
Somewhere along the line, I had lost myself to Derek—to Adrian. Two sides to a fucked up coin that was my life now. Once upon a time, I was a vicious killing machine who didn’t care about anyone but herself. Then Derek came into my life, and now I didn’t know who the fuck I was.
Was I a lover? A killer? Could I still be both?
Fuck sake, killing this man shouldn’t have been this hard. Cause this much resentment and guilt to gnaw at my bones. It should have been fun, easy, a head on a silver fucking platter.
What the hell was happening to me? Why was I feeling resentment for what I had just done? And why did I show him mercy? The walls continued to crumble around me, and the sanctuary of my mind was destroyed.
“That is all, Anathema. Go. You are all dismissed for the evening.” Adrian spoke, projecting his voice throughout the space, not taking his eyes off mine. “Alexis.” He gestured to the passageway behind us, and I followed his direction.
We entered a small room off from the main central gathering hall, and Adrian closed the door as he stopped behind me.
I spun around, ready to scream at him for the last two tasks he put me through, but before I could open my mouth, a hood was aggressively draped and secured over my head, tightening around my throat.
“What the fuck, Adrian!” I yelled, struggling against the hands that wrapped around my body, pinning my arms against my sides .
All I could hear was a dark chuckle from Adrian before something hard smashed into the side of my head, and I lost consciousness.
When I finally came to, I immediately brought my hand up to the side of my head where I had been struck. I hissed at the sting from the sharp pain that only the lightest of touches created. Definitely bruised. Slowly blinking open my eyes, I took in my new surroundings.
The hood that had been draped over my head was gone, and the cold floor beneath me was wet, the water soaking into the back of my clothing and causing a chill to run down the length of my spine.
I groaned as I rolled onto my side, my head pounding from the blow. When I got up and out of wherever I was now, I was going to kill Adrian. He was number one on my shit list, right next to the fucker who knocked me out. Payback was a vicious bitch.
Using the wall as leverage, I pulled myself to sitting just before forcing myself the rest of the way up to stand.
Leaning my whole body into the wall for support, I slowly examined the room I was in, or should I say—cell.
There wasn’t a lot of light available, but from the torchlight in the hall, I could see the flames reflecting off the steel bars that caged me into this corner of the room.
Fuck, fuck, fuck! Damnit, Alexis …
How did I allow myself to get into a situation like this? Trapped…
Footsteps from outside echoed into the room, and my breathing hitched. From the sound of it, at least two individuals were heading this way. Most likely coming to retrieve me for whatever fucked up shit Adrian had planned.
I hoped one of them was Adrian so I could give him a piece of my mind before putting a bullet in his head. I gripped the wall tightly, my head beginning to spin from the pain, squeezing my eyes shut tightly. This was all just one bad hangover. I’m not actually here.
“Lock it up, Alexis. Your goddamn life depends on it.” I mumbled to myself as I sucked in a sharp breath and opened my eyes once again; the room finally stopped spinning around me. “It’s just you and me. We got this, girl.”
The pep talk helped—a little bit. Fuck, who am I kidding?
Two large cloaked individuals entered the room, and this time, they removed their masks as they approached the bars that sealed me in—inspecting me like a prized mare.
“Adrian sent us to keep you company. Thought you might get a little lonely locked up in here all by yourself.” The first one chuckled. I didn’t need to ask what they were inferring with their statement. How long had I been down here? In this cage?
From what I could see through the darkness, the one who spoke had short dark hair and a strong-cut jaw.
He towered over me, like Derek, so I guessed he was around six feet tall or close enough.
The man beside him was clean-shaven, with long blonde hair draping over his left eye.
He was slightly shorter, but not by much.
Both were built strong, and the cloak did little to hide that detail.
My heart started to race. I stood no chance against these two unarmed, but that didn’t mean I would give up without a fight.
I didn’t know exactly what they had in store for me, but I knew it was nothing good—it never was.
This wasn’t my first time being caged in a room with two intimidating men.
Except this time, I didn’t have Chyler or Madison to save me. I had to save myself.
The tallest reached for the lock on the bars, and I started backing myself into the furthest corner. I wanted to put as much distance between us as possible.
“Don’t look now, Chad, but it looks like you’re scaring the poor thing.” The man with the long hair goaded as he gestured to where I had stopped moving.
Chad dropped his hood and smirked. He opened the door and stepped through the bars before pulling them shut behind him, the lock clicking into place.
“Go stand watch while I entertain our little rabbit,” Chad commanded, not taking his dark eyes off me and licking his lips. Shit.
“Stay the fuck away from me.” I hissed with enough venom to bite.
Never again; I told myself all those years ago that I would never allow this to happen again. I was stronger now, a fighter. I could handle him. He might see me as nothing more than a little rabbit , but he was lurking far too close to the fox den, and I was prepared to bite .
“Adrian’s orders, and you know as well as I do what happens if we don’t follow them.” He spoke coolly, approaching me slowly, closer and closer, one step at a time. A glint of excitement in his eyes. With each step he took, my stomach twisted even further. I wanted to vomit.
Swallowing the bile that burned the back of my throat, I squared my shoulders.
“I don’t give a fuck about Adrian’s orders. Touch me and see what happens.” I threatened while feeling around behind me, attempting to find something I could grip to use as a weapon against him.
“That’s not very polite, little rabbit. Perhaps I need to teach you some manners.” Chad snarled as his hand shot out and gripped me behind the head, pulling on my hair until my face was angled towards his.
My nails dug into his forearm, attempting to break through the skin and cause damage.
“Save some for me, Chad. You don’t get to have all the fun this time.” The other man chuckled from the hall.
This time? I wondered if these two were Adrian’s right hand and were the ones responsible for beating the shit out of Monika.
It shouldn’t surprise me that he would have someone else do his dirty work.
I bet he’d hate for anything to happen to one of his freshly pressed suits.
God, I fucking hated that son of a bitch.
I growled as I looked up at the man who intended to perform unspeakable things on me. It was written all over his face. There was no hiding his vile intentions. To him, I was just some weak and pathetic woman trapped in a goddamn cage.
I could hear Derek’s soothing voice in my mind, which fueled me to resist—to fight.
My dark, twisted, toxic viper.
“You’ll have yours after I get mine. And that all depends on how she chooses to behave.” Chad’s voice was hostile as he pulled me away from the wall and into his body by my hair. I clenched my teeth at the pain; he was gripping it tight enough to rip out strands.
“What’s it going to be, little rabbit? Are you going to make this easy?
… or hard?” He chuckled darkly as his free hand reached inside his cloak, and I could hear the sound of a buckle and a zipper.
The all-too-familiar noise snapped something within me and drove me to the edge of madness.
Was this what it felt like when Chyler flipped her switch? Hollow.
“I've always preferred it hard.” I breathed, and without a second to spare, I released my grip on his arm, moving my hands to wrap around the side of his head.
I dug my nails deep into his scalp and pulled his face down to meet mine.
My lips grazed along the side of his face.
“And I am nothing like a fucking rabbit,” I enunciated every single word with a hissed whisper next to his face before I opened my mouth and bit down hard on his ear.
The bite I took was so hard I could feel the cartilage cracking and crunching from the force between my teeth, and his blood began filling my mouth. At that moment, I was every part of the Alexis I knew myself to be: fearless, ruthless, and a fucking savage animal when cornered .
Chad screamed several curses as he punched the side of my head and stomach several times before I finally released his ear from my grasp, spitting a mouthful of his blood on the floor, most of it dripping down and coating my chin, neck, and chest.
Chad’s buddy ran in to see what all the commotion was about, and I leveled him with a sadistic smile, showing him my blood-stained teeth with pride.
“Still want to play hard with me, Chad? I forgot to mention that I bite. Perhaps your friend wants a turn?” I let out a sadistic laugh, kneeing him hard in the balls before taking a swing at his face.
“You stupid cunt.” Chad snapped as he gripped my throat and slammed my body down onto the hard ground. The air left my body from the force of the fall.
He stood and gave me one hard kick to the stomach before coming back down to straddle my hips as I fought against his hand that returned to my throat, gasping for what little air I could get.
The fall and kick alone had winded me, draining the last bit of life I was fighting to hold on to.
I squirmed under his hold, feeling my lips tingle and grow numb as my eyes rolled toward the back of my head.
The tighter his grip became, the more my vision darkened.
“Chad, stop! We’re not supposed to kill her.” Cloaked asshole number two panicked as he saw the light draining from my eyes. “Adrian specifically stated that she was important and he just needed her to be complicit, not dead.”
My will to fight was slowing and becoming weak. I couldn’t breathe. I needed air.
“Son of a—” Chad sighed, releasing my throat .
I gasped and coughed, attempting to suck in as much air as my lungs would hold. I couldn’t think, and yet words fell from my lips like vomit.
“How does it feel… to be Adrian’s… little bitch .” I choked out between exasperated breaths.
I don’t know why I bothered tormenting him even further. Maybe it was because I had nothing left to fear and felt the need to at least have some fun before I died.
“I’ll show you how it feels, little rabbit,” Chad growled before driving his fist so hard into the side of my head that it snapped sideways, and I was thrown back into the dark.