CHAPTER 12 ALFIE #2
I look to Caden, waiting for him to take this one. He’s resting his fork on the table, has a finger over his lips while he studies her. He can explain this shit to her, surely, if she’s going to be here for the rest of her life then she should know these things.
Thankfully, he does. “It’s called The Cleanse. We surrender any pleasurable act or substance to revert to the most primal versions of ourselves. It’s for connecting with our purest form. To tap into our basal instincts.”
“Why though, what do you get out of it? To me you all seem like you’re on the verge of suicide.”
I stifle my grin, she’s not wrong, to be honest. It really does test the mental stability.
“Because,” Cade continues, and I’m pleased to note he still sounds patient.
“You take time to get to the roots of where we grow from. All this technology, money, artificial bullshit, it’s all fake.
We enjoy it because that’s how we’ve evolved, but it’s brainwashing and trivial.
When we starve ourselves of everything that brings a quick dopamine hit, it reminds us of who we were and who we’re meant to be.
Cavemen had none of the things we do today, and they were probably the happiest version of us. ”
She frowns. “This makes no sense. It’s half-hearted. I’ve seen you on your phones, you definitely spend money otherwise how could you eat, Alfie drinks coffee like water, and sex… cavemen probably fucked more than we do now, since there were no video games or Lego to fill the day with.”
Caden shifts in his seat. “For our line of work, it’s impossible not to use technology, so we improvise.
We do what we can. As for the food,” he points to her plate, “that venison came from the woods outside, and we have an allotment for our fruit and vegetables. No chemical, lab-grown shit in my house. Alfie can have whatever the fuck he wants. We abstain from sex and other stimulants because it sharpens our focus and mental strength. It tests our discipline and resilience to temptation.”
El’s eyes flicker to mine. I struggle to meet them, finding the food on my plate very interesting.
“Why can you have what you want?”
Everything in me bunches up. I take long enough to reply that Caden answers for me.
“He’s in recovery.”
I suppress the urge to hide under the table.
El clears her throat, and it compels me to look up at her. All she does is give me a smile. Soft, sweet, comforting.
She’s telling me she doesn’t care.
I let out a breath I didn’t realise I was holding. I didn’t realise I cared what she thought of it. Of me.
I smile back at her, helpless to do anything else and wanting nothing more than to bolt out the room.
She turns back to Caden. “So what ends it? What’s the reward, the point?”
Fiz chuckles low beside me, I give him a smack on the leg.
“The point, Elodie,” Caden says, and there’s the drop in patience I was waiting for, “is having the best prepared mental state for The Hunt that comes at the end of it.”
Some of the colour drains from her face. “The Hunt?”
He nods slowly, clearly enjoying the wash of fear sweeping over her expression.
“The Hunt. Tapping into our primal form doesn’t end with no caffeine or pussy.
We use our honed minds to hunt meat in the woods.
Then, when we come back, we return to our usual modern, maniacal selves. We party, we drink, we fuck.”
She doesn’t react to this, only says, “What meat, exactly?”
Smart girl.
Caden lets a devious smirk cross his lips. “What do you think?”
Her chest dips in a sharp exhale. “You’re all sick. You’re the most fucked-up unhinged people I’ve ever met.” She shoots to her feet and goes to run away. Fiz and I are on our feet, but it’s Caden who catches her.
Grabbing her by the arm and swinging her back round, he sneers, “Where are you going, Elodie? There’s nowhere to run.”
“Let me go! You’re a bunch of sickos!” She thrashes in his grip.
He crashes her down onto the table, glasses and cutlery flying as her back smashes on top of it.
He has her pinned down by the neck and, fuck, if it doesn’t make my cock twitch seeing her like that.
She struggles and squirms, scratching at his arm, but Caden’s vice grip on her throat keeps her from getting anywhere.
“Now you listen to me, sweetheart, us sickos are all you’ve got. And the longer you push us, the worse it’ll be when we finally crack. Do us both a favour, watch that fucking mouth of yours. I won’t tell you again.”
“I’m leaving here. You can’t stop me. I’d rather get mauled by your stupid dogs than stay here another minute!”
The fury clouding over Caden turns his eyes almost black. “Those stupid dogs were easier to train than you are.”
“I’m not an animal to train! I’m a human fucking being and I’m sick of being treated like I’m something less.”
The crack in her voice at the end has me wincing slightly. All she’s ever known is what Cade’s doing to her now. I have to hold myself back from stepping in. It’s not that I care, I just have too much empathy today.
“When you start acting like a human and not some wild animal, you’ll be treated as such.”
El’s fist comes flying at an impressive speed and cracks Caden on the jaw.
His head jerks to the side and he whips it back, a lethal calm I know too well sweeping over him.
He swishes his tongue around his mouth for a moment and purses his lips.
A glob of red saliva strings down from his lips and drops almost majestically onto Elodie’s face.
She expels an outraged scream and frantically swipes at her face, trying to get rid of the blood now dribbling across her lips.
Then Cade hauls her up and out of the room, leaving the thuds of her kicks on the floor and her deafening screams as she fights him echoing in our ears.
I drop back down to my seat. “Fuck, man, this is turning into a right headache. I just wanted one nice dinner.”
Fiz goes back to his food, unfazed by what just went down. “He needs to whip her into shape. Beat her down a little and it’ll be fine.”
Something tells me it’s going to take a lot more than that to tame this wild little fox.