Chapter Thirty-Eight
Ash
Iwas proud of how Cal held his head high as we both walked into the kill room, and the door closed behind us.
Did I feel a tremor running through him, as I rested my hand on his back?
Sure, but then he’d almost died in this room too, so that made sense.
In fact, he’d had his first kill in here, so maybe it was a little poetic that he was ending things here too.
My dad would say it’s ‘biblical’ which was a word that felt fitting for the assholes we were about to end.
“Callum! Stop this at once!” His father demanded, trying to get up from the floor, but Ethan tutted at him and shoved him back down.
“Stop what? This is what YOUR GOD WANTS!” Cal yelled at his dad, and fuck me, that’s hot. Does he realise how sexy he is when he turns savage like that?
“Callum, please. We’re… we’re your parents. Your mum and dad. We love you!” His mum was trying the ‘we love you’ card? Cold bitch.
I opened my mouth to speak, but Cal beat me to it.
“You wouldn’t know love if… wait… this is love.” He turned, grabbing my face and slamming his lips against mine, and fuck yeah, I’m here for this. I slid my hand around the back of his head, my tongue dancing with his as our moans filled the air.
“Gross. You’re practically my brother, Ash,” Ethan murmured, and Em groaned.
“He’s literally my brother, dammit. Can you guys like… not? You don’t see us making displays like this.”
We pulled apart, and gazed into each other’s eyes for a moment, and I could see him settling into this, accepting that it had to happen, that it was the way things were supposed to be.
They had to die, because they’d been an obstacle for us our entire lives.
They’d brutalised him, tried to beat and rape his sexuality out of him, because how dare he love who he wants. Fucking sickos.
I kept hold of him, dropping my voice really low.
“You okay?”
He nodded, still cupping my cheeks as he breathed slowly.
“This needs to happen.”
I glanced at the two fuckers on the floor, and grinned back at my boyfriend.
“Wanna fuck in front of them first?”
“BLASPHEMY!”
“Disgusting boys. Filthy!”
Both of Cal’s parents yelled out in pain, and I knew Em and Ethan had done what they could to shut them up. It wasn’t enough, but they were about to feel hellfire raining down on them. Ha. I’m being biblical again. I’d have to tell dad later, he’d be so proud.
“Listen up, fuckers, you’re about to die. Do you wanna hear why?”
I groaned. Ethan was a loose fucking cannon.
“Thought you wanted to tell them what we did first, Eth.”
His grin widened. I swear, my sister married the fucking Joker.
“Oh yeah. You’ll like this…” He crouched down in front of Cal’s father, and I cast a glance at Cal to make sure he didn’t mind Ethan taking the lead, but he just smiled, nodding at me.
He slipped his hand into mine, and I squeezed it gently, trying to offer him whatever support he needed, even though he didn’t necessarily look like he needed any right now.
“That asshole Gordon… you guys know him, right? Religious zealot, likes raping kids to try and make them straight?”
Their gasps were like music. I wished we’d recorded this so I could use them as my ringtone. Was that fucked up? Nah. Probably not.
“What did you do?”
Ethan turned to grin at us. “I was covered in blood, wasn’t I? Not that it was his. Blaze was the one covered in his filthy monstrous blood. He died crying like a little pussy, and then? Then he was burned to ashes, along with that entire fucking evil compound of his.”
The yell of outrage from Cal’s cowardly father came seconds before him trying not to be a pussy, as he lunged at Ethan and tried to best him in a scrap. Fucking idiot. We ignored Cal’s mother, because she was just screaming and crying, but we watched the attempt at fighting back with laughter.
“This is the guy you were afraid of?” I asked Cal, knowing it was probably a callous question, but he needed to see the fucker the way the rest of us did. He was a coward, pure and simple. Pathetic. Evil, but lame.
“Seems so stupid now, but kids are weak,” he said, darting to the side suddenly as his mother tried to run for the door, “Ah ah ah… don’t try being a hero now, mother.
That time passed long ago.” He guided her back down to the floor, a firm grip on her shoulder, and she stared up at him in horror, tears pouring down her cheeks.
I’d say if I had a heart, I’d feel bad for her, but it turns out I do have a heart, just, I don’t feel sorry for cunts, so yeah. Whatever.
“I’m your mother! Why are you doing this?”
Ethan stopped playing with the father, and knocked him back on his ass with a bleeding face, and a definitely broken nose.
“Bored now. When do I get to gut this fucker like a fish?” Ha. His insanity was playing right into their fear, so it was perfect.
“Soon, former teach, soon.”
“WHY?” Cal roared, in response to his mother’s question, as he dragged his t-shirt off, and turned to show them, and all of us, the scarring on his back.
I heard Em and Ethan both suck in a gasp of shock, and I nodded at them.
My nod to them was full of words I didn’t need to say out loud.
Yes, he was abused. Yes, his parents are total fucking monsters.
Yes, this is all deserved. Yes, they die right here.
They both nodded back, as if they could hear or read everything I was thinking.
“You needed correction,” Cal’s dad said firmly, still unapologetic, even in this situation where he had to know that remorse might be his only way out.
“You need murdering,” Cal replied, backing up to me again, my hand instantly settling on his back, trying to soothe the past pain from those scars he’d wear forever.
“Want Ethan to do it, babe? He’s itching to get a knife in that cunt.”
“How DARE you!” Cal’s father roared, and honestly, at this point, I think we were all getting bored.
Cal shrugged. “Don’t care. I’ll watch from the office.” I kissed his forehead, and watched as he punched in the code I’d given him on the way down, and the door hissed open. His mother made another dive for safety, but this time, Em took her down, slamming a fist into her face, with a savage grin.
“No escape for you, bitch! You’ll pay for every scar on our new brother’s back!”
Her words sunk in, and I sighed with happiness. Mock my family all you want, but we’re the real deal. Full of love and protection for each other. Willing to fight to the death for our family. Willing to accept anyone if one of us wants them. That’s what family is.
Cal
I couldn’t be in there, and not because I was weak, or felt any kind of guilt for it, but because I didn’t need to be the one dealing the killing blow. I’d had my time of taking a life, and I didn’t want to do it again, even theirs.
“I’m bored. What’s going on?” Fuck! I spun on my chair as Ren stepped into the small office, his eyes immediately finding the screens as the screaming began in earnest. I stepped in front of them, lifting my hands.
“You don’t need to see this, kid. Go back upstairs and watch some TV or something.”
He folded his thin arms and glared at me. “I’m not a kid.”
Fair. He’d been through so much that he’d probably aged more inside than anyone else his age.
“Who’s being murdered?” Such a strange question.
One that should strike fear into all of our hearts, but instead, we’d become accustomed to it.
Violence and murder were just two things that were the norm to us now.
I dropped back into my seat, and let him join me, while I wondered if it was the right thing to do, or a really really wrong one.
“My parents,” I said quietly, leaning my elbow on the desk, my chin in my hand.
There was something oddly anticlimactic about the whole thing now.
I watched as Ethan crowed with delight, blood splashing his face as he tore into my father with his knife, while Em was trying to goad my mother into a fistfight, and Ash just watched, laughing.
Every now and then he glanced at the camera, like he wanted to meet my eyes and share this moment with me.
“They deserve it,” Ren said softly, resting his hand on my shoulder, “just like mine.”
I tore my gaze from the screen, looking carefully at the boy we’d ‘adopted’, and I could see the sorrow and pain all over his face, the glimmer of tears in his eyes.
“Ren, did they do more than what we already know about?”
He lifted a shoulder, feigning carelessness.
“Ren?”
He pulled his hand back, leaning his elbows on the desk, his eyes firmly on the screens as blood flew, and Em and Ethan wore an unhealthy amount of it.
Ash was staying blood-free somehow, just skirting around them and taunting them.
Egging his family on, as they committed murders right in front of all of us.
“Ren, you can tell me anything.”
He sighed. “They didn’t abuse me or anything. They didn’t really care that I existed. Maybe that’s why it was so easy to ship me off to your cunty uncle.”
Jesus. “Neglect is still abuse, Ren. You’ll never have to worry about us ever stopping caring about you.”
He pressed his lips together, but his shoulders shook a little, his small body fighting emotion and god only knows what else. No. Not god. No. I can’t…
“You have a family now, Ren. We’ll always be there. Me and Ash. Those two sick fuckers own there, and their three parents, and other siblings.”
“But I’m not really family. I’m just some kid.”
I grabbed his shoulder and dragged his chair to the side, so he had to look away from the screen, away from the shit that’d give us both nightmares for a long while.
“Family isn’t blood, Ren. It’s who we choose to love. We’re choosing you, and maybe one day you’ll choose us right back. We’ll protect you. We’ll help you find your dreams and follow them. We’ll always be here to support you, and listen, and whatever else you need.”
His lip trembled, and he fought the urge to dart his gaze away from mine. He didn’t want to deal with the emotions here. He wanted to hide from it all. It wasn’t up to us to decide which he chose, only he could do that, but I wanted to spare him pain.
“Always, Ren.”
He choked back a sob and stood up, practically throwing himself at me for a hug, so we stood there, hugging it out, while my parents were murdered by our new family, and the next phase of our life began.
“Cal?”
I hummed a response, watching as Ethan merrily flicked blood all over the kill room, and Em berated him for it. The looks they were giving each other told me Ash should get out of there, and the cameras should be shut off. FAST.
At least this stuff was over now, and we could start building a family together, a future.
“Can we kill my parents too?”
Fuck.