Chapter 41 – Elijah
41
ELIJAH
M adness has been my favorite companion since my damnation. I have always felt its shadows twisting my mind, urging me to unleash this monster from its cage. It claws at the walls of my head and has never been stronger than at this very moment.
Kill them all.
Kill them all.
Kill them all.
Physically, death courses through my veins; each heartbeat carries the same sound, the one of vengeance, with the beautiful voice of Zanae, screaming for help when she was in front of this man.
The world turns black, completely cold, and the monster emerges, finally, reborn for the woman for whom he too has fallen.
Romantic almost.
I become this creature of pure and unbridled madness, thirsting for blood. The Devil as people love to call me.
“Don’t worry, baby, I’ll tear the heavens for you,” I promised, as if she could hear my thoughts.
I’m going insane.
I will pursue eternity itself if she was taken from me. My love burns endlessly for her, consuming everything in its path. The devotion I feel for her bordered-on that maniacal anger, I am prepared to descend into the darkest corners of my own psyche to save her, even if I lose myself in the process.
Behind the wheel, her eyes were looking back at me on my arm. The taste of Zanae’s blood on my hands, the memories of her smile hours ago, it was killing me.
They tried to kill her, but she’s not a monster, and it takes one to kill another.
Oh Lukas, you’re so fucked.
Touching her once, and I had in my mind a vengeance, but now? Now it’s not even vengeance, it’s the will to commit a fucking massacre.
Arriving at the motel where Brian guessed they were hiding, I emerged from the car, ready to unleash the worst part of me on them. I located Lukas in one of the rooms, after threatening the receptionist.
Seated on a black worn-out chair, he looked up with a mix of surprise and trepidation, this fucking cunt doesn’t know who the fuck he’s facing.
Ugly motherfucker.
“How the hell did you find me?”
I smiled coldly at him, my hands in the air. “The Devil always tracks his prey, and I was looking for you, Lukas, I hope you’re happy to see me. Because I am.”
Every step I take is dripping with a primal menace. I’m going to eat him alive and spit out his bones before crushing them under my foot.
“Why did she send you? Why would Zanae’s own bitch of a mother unleash a monster like you on her? Tell me, Lukas, I’m listening.”
Lukas, attempted defiance, making this ugly face again, “You think you’re going to scare me? You have no idea who you’re dealing with. I know you, you don’t scare me. Your shadow may scare others but little boy, I knew your mother too. She was beautiful, so I sent her to a mercenary who had mental health issues... Sadly I didn’t know it back then. She suffered before he put an end to her miserable life.”
In the blink of an eye, I seized him by the collar, my fingers digging into the fabric like claws. “You’re fucking pathetic if you think you could use this card on me. Try something else please. I’m annoyed, Lukas, you’re dull and fucking irritating.”
My grip tightened around him, while he struggled to speak. My eyes bore into his, demonically, searching for death in them.
Game on.
He was bound and bruised, gasped for breath as I continued my little pursuit of answers. The red of his blood didn’t even satisfy me, it wasn’t fucking enough, I needed more, I needed to see his brain spilled on the ground, to fucking destroy his heart with my own hands.
“Why would Zanae’s own fucking mother send you after her? Speak, this is the last time I’ll ask Lukas, you know I’m not really the patient type.”
I lifted his chin with the blade. Not the flat side, the sharp edge, slashing his skin underneath.
Fucking red.
If I can’t see brown and amber, I’ll paint everything in red until I see those colors again.
He was bloodied and battered, a fucking garbage, fucking trash, “You think you can break me? You’re nothing!”
I smiled at him, cutting through his visible skin on his arm. Blood splashed all over my face. “I’m not nothing Lukas, don’t hurt my feelings like that... You don’t know how much I want to cut you open and watch the life drain from your eyes, absorb it back into you, and repeat the process until your soul begs me to stop.” I seized him by the hair, forcing him to meet my eyes, “What do you say, Lukas. I can be your worst nightmare or your salvation. Choose.”
Lukas, barely able to speak from all the cuts and blood on him, managed a sinister grin. “She’s just like her mother—weak and deserving of punishment.”
I leaned in.
“The stupidest thing you did was try to kill the woman I love. And now you’re covering for the one who shot at her. Where is she, Lukas?”
He remained obstinate. “You won’t find her, Volkov. She’s always a step ahead.”
I pushed a finger into one of his cuts, his screams were exquisite. “I want answers, not just hear your fucking voice, it makes me even more mad, do you want me angrier?”
With each refusal to divulge information, my actions escalated.
Carnage. Annihilation. Hell.
If he didn’t want to help, then he was useless.
I enjoyed every fucking part of this.
Every time I see his fucked-up face I think of how much Zanae was scared, how unwell she felt with him when he fucking touched her.
“You think you can scare me with your little torture, Volkov?” Lukas sneered, attempting one last act of bravado, his mouth full of blood.
I replied with a manic laugh. Poor bastard.
“You’re already dead Lukas, no need to scare you.”
I pushed him on the ground, he was broken, completely wrecked, and laying at my feet.
He spoke, his voice low, both perverse, and depraved. “I loved having her when she was younger, the sounds she made, the way her pussy took me. I bet she’s better at it now.” He continued, “She tried to scream at first, so I shut her up and fucking destroyed that little cunt. She couldn’t scream, so she just cried. Is she still crying when you fuck her?”
Without letting him finish, I took my blade and cut his tongue out.
“Then, it’s only fair to silence you, just as you silenced her. Don’t you agree? Shut the fuck up.”
He really tried to scream.
But to my own pleasure, only guttural, agonized gurgles escaped his now gaping mouth. Saliva and blood trickled down his chin like grotesque waterfalls.
Teary eyes wide open in horror, pleading for my pity that his silenced throat could no longer articulate. But I didn’t care.
He’ll never find salvation; all I had to offer him was retribution.
Brutally, punishingly, and obscenely.
“I said. Shut. The. Fuck. Up.”
Fury was my potent elixir, pumping through my heart with a visceral satisfaction. He was terrified, and he deserved more pain, more death, more oblivion.
My woman suffered too much, far too much.
“You hurted the most precious thing I had in life, Lukas.”
My knife traced a line on his abdomen. “You abused her, traumatized her, and left her for dead.” The line moved downward. “I found her that night, bruised, stained by her own blood, empty, gone.” Cutting through the fabric of his pants, my blade plunged into his flesh, severing his disgusting member. “I didn’t know then what you did, but I already wanted to cut that dick off you.” As I continued cutting through his skin, he tried to scream but choked on his own blood.
Now, that piece of shit lay on the ground, penis severed. I smiled. “Do you know why penectomies are the epitome of torture for a man?” I paused, grinning at his suffering. “The physical pain of that punishment isn’t the worst part. It’s about stripping away from disgusting men like you the very thing that defines masculinity, power, and twisted pride. The humiliation and loss, the act of leaving a man forever diminished, unable to ever regain what was taken from him.” A slow, and dark laugh escaped me. “You took something from her that she’ll never regain. What better way to serve retribution than by taking something from you?”
Relief crossed his eyes, thinking he was going to die this easily.
He thought I was done? I was just starting.
The flickering flame of the lighter in my other hand mirrored the fire I saw in Zanae’s eyes. The shadows on the walls mirrored mine, dark and empty without my light. I found a whiskey bottle and began to spread it on the man who was attached to the chair.
If her flame wasn’t burning anymore, everything that was left of those fiery amber eyes would burn him from the inside out.
“I think it’s time for you to purge your soul and embrace the consequences, Lukas. Literally .”
As the flame danced atop my lighter, I approached him and kneeled in front of him. I lit my cigarette on the flame. The dread and fear in his eyes intensified realizing the fate I had chosen for him.
Death by immolation.
“Have you ever heard the saying, ‘Hell is empty, and all the devils are here’?” I mused, a haunting grin playing on my lips, as I dropped the lighter on him.
The room was a witness of what was happening within my soul, Zanae’s flame engulfing everything within me. There was only the gentle sound of my despair screaming to break free and the fire I ignited, devouring the flesh of the man before me.
The man who had hurt the love of my life.
Stillness and silence engulfed me. I could see her clearly, laughing, reading her book, humming those songs she loves.
But she was hurt. She was always hurt.
I didn’t know someone who suffered that much could bring so much joy. My strong Zanae.
Her face appeared again.
But this time it was bloodied. Bruised. Dying .
And then the sadness became furious again.
Welcome to the fucking inferno inside my mind, Lukas.
The fear on his nasty face was fucking delicious. The initial shock on his ugly visage gave way to unimaginable agony being devoured by the fire.
10.
Fire. Amber. My love.
I observed with complete detachment; I didn’t care a bit. In fact, I loved hearing him try to scream without his tongue as everything in him burned, just like my Zanae couldn’t.
The acrid disgusting scent of scorching flesh mingled with the smoke in the room. I smiled at the scene before me. “She wanted to kill you herself, stabbing you until all that’s left of you are scraps of skin and flesh.” I stopped, taking a long agonizing breath, “But she was shot. My Zanae deserved justice, Lukas. And you’ve delivered it to her in the most poetic way possible. Burn, as she almost did that night.”
I took a drag, tilting my head to savor the sight in front of me, and threw the cigarette on him.
“Consider this my parting gift. Tell Hell that Zanae and the Devil send their regards.”
They played with me, thinking they couldn’t make me a bigger monster than I was before Zanae, but now they’ll know.
I was an abomination without her.
I grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and wrote a message for the woman who orchestrated it all.
Dear Zanae’s Mother,
Your pawn has fallen.
Immolated, he found his redemption.
Consider this a taste of the inferno you’ve unleashed upon yourself.
Sincerely,
— The Devil.
I placed the letter beside Lukas’s remains and ashes, ensuring it would be the first thing Zanae’s mother would see upon her return.
A man entered just after with a fire extinguisher to stop the fire but all he found was ashes and me admiring my work.