Chapter 36 Declan
As I walk through the front doors of the compound, I am met by my whole family. I had only called Dad, so he must have told them.
“Are we going to take bets on how long they will last?” Finn asks. “Brian’s a pussy.”
“They all die today,” I say through gritted teeth. “Xavier wants it finished.”
“So he knows?” Dad asks.
“Yeah, Aunt Alessia told him everything.”
“And he’s okay with it?” Conor asks.
“He said that he is. Let’s get this over with so I can get back to him.
” I walk to the hidden door leading to the basement and continue to the subbasement.
I can hear one of them yelling and begging for help.
I like the sound of it. Following the sound, I find that it’s Brian.
He’s strapped to a metal table in the center of the room.
“Please make them stop. Please! I can’t take any more!” Brian screams.
I step closer to the table that holds the piece of shit. Apparently, the boys have been having fun with him. He has cuts and some really bad bruises all over him. He’s also missing a couple of fingers; the stumps are cauterized.
“Told ya he was a pussy.” Finn smirks. Brian shrinks back as far as his restraints will allow him. So Finn is the one who has been inflicting some of the damage.
“Did the others beg for you to stop? Did Xavier beg?”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“No, you are only sorry that you are here. You are only feeling sorry for yourself. But don’t worry. I’m here to stop the others.”
He looks up at me through the one eye not swollen shut. I recognize the hope in his eyes. But he should know that there is no hope for him.
“Oh, thank you, thank you. I won’t tell anyone what happened. I’ll leave town.”
“You’ll be leaving, just not alive.” I pick up a thin, sharp blade from the table and ram it into the side of his chest to the hilt. He screams. I grip his chin and force him to look at me.
“You are experiencing two things. First, pneumothorax — your lung is collapsing. They tell you never to remove the object that is puncturing the lung, but I’m not concerned with proper procedure.
” I yank the knife out. “Now, hemothorax — your chest cavity is filling with blood.” I can hear the sucking sound with every labored breath that he takes.
“It could be minutes or hours before you die, so I’m going to see your brother now. Don’t worry, I’ll be back to check on you in just a bit.”
He is no longer screaming. His breaths are coming in short gasps, and you can hear the bubbling.
“You miscounted,” Ronan says as we walk to Brad’s cell.
“How’s that?”
“A sucking chest wound is actually three things he feels. Three, not two.” I stop and take in Ronan’s expression. He’s serious. He’s on the autism spectrum and needs things to be orderly. It’s one of the reasons why he is so good with computers. His mind works like the code he writes.
“I’ll make sure to correct that if he is still alive when I get back to him.”
I open the door to Brad’s cell. He is sitting in a chair. All of his toes and the tops of his feet are crushed. His head is hanging forward. At first, I think he has passed out, but he slowly lifts his head.
“Just kill me already.”
“What, you’re not going to beg for your life like your fucking pansy ass brother did?” I ask.
“Fuck you.”
“Now that’s not very nice,” Conor says from behind me. “He’s here to end your suffering, and you’re being rude. Plus, you make it seem like you haven’t been enjoying our time together.”
I look at the damage done to his feet and hands, then back to Conor. “Your work?”
“Yep, Mom wanted to make sure that it was just these three involved.”
“Did you get the information?”
“Yes, and fuck you, Dec. You’re not the only one who can interrogate a target.
It’s just the three of them. The brother and Kevin decided to kidnap and torture the first one together.
Brian told Kevin he would pay him to find a toy no one would miss.
Brian here learned about it and, instead of stopping the duo, decided to join them.
Supposedly to keep them from getting caught.
Personally, I think this one got off on it even more than the fucking brother did. ”
“Good thing he won’t have the chance to hurt anyone else,” I say as I take an ice pick from the table by the door.
I place it right above his heart. “I gave your brother a medical lesson, but I think I will skip the whole explanation.” I push the pick in slowly.
“Like how you are experiencing cardiac tamponade.” I bury the ice pick in his chest. I press my weight into it and hold it for a few seconds before ripping it out.
I tap his cheek with the pick. “I’ll be back to watch the life drain from your eyes. ”
“You may want to go back to the brother before you hit the last one. He’s not looking too good.
” Ronan tells me. I head back to the brother.
His breathing is worse than when I first left him.
It won’t be long before he is dead from drowning in his own blood.
I pick up the same knife I used to puncture his lung and nick his carotid artery with it.
“Let’s speed this up, shall we?” I say as I watch his body shudder and seize. He takes his last ragged breath and is no more. “One down, two to go.”
Kevin is strapped to a chair, much like Brad. The only difference is that instead of his feet being shattered, it looks like he has been through a paper shredder. “Who worked on him?”
“I did,” Ronan answers. “Since I had time, I decided to check the theory of dying by a thousand cuts. However, I have only made it to about three hundred. You sure we can’t keep him around long enough for me to finish?”
“No, they end today.” I walk over to Kevin. “Do any of you know if we have any lemon juice?”
“I’ll go see what I can find,” Ronan says as he takes off.
“Kill me, please.”
“Oh, I plan to, just not right this second. My cousins had their fun with you, so I think it’s only fair that I get to hear you scream, too. That was your big thing, right? You liked to watch and listen?”
He shakes his head, trying to deny what I already know is the truth.
He would have sat there and watched Xavier be tortured and raped by those bastards.
This son of a bitch is the one responsible for them putting their hands on him in the first place.
Using the same knife that I ended Brian with, I add my own nicks and cuts to Ronan’s.
“No lemon juice, but I did find some low-odor acid,” Ronan says as he hands me the gallon jug.
“Low odor, huh?”
“Yeah, well, you know how mom hates really harsh smells.” I take the cap off, and sure enough, it’s not that bad.
“Fuck please don’t. Just let me die.” I ignore his begging and pleading.
I tip the jug up and pour the acid across his shoulders and chest. The bubbles start almost instantly, and so do his screams. It only takes a couple of minutes and a few more pours before he passes out from the pain.
Oh well, I’ll come back to him. Time to take care of Brad for the last time.
Brad doesn’t need any help going to hell, as I walk into the room, he is taking his last breaths. Even though his eyes have a hazy quality to them, I know that he sees me. I’m the last thing he sees.
Ronan is still watching Kevin when I enter the cell for the last time today. I am going to deal with Kevin and then go home to my A Ghrá.
“That apparently is some really strong stuff.” Ronan points over to Kevin.
His skin is sliding down his chest and back.
I pull his chin up with the tip of my knife.
I don’t know if he is dead already or is almost there.
I don’t give a fuck either way. I push the blade into the side of his neck and then pull it out.
If he wasn’t dead before, he is now. I look down at the knife in my hand.
I’m Xavier’s weapon, and this is my tool.