3. Lucia
3
LUCIA
I can taste Piper’s blood.
I don’t know how it could be possible, so I tell myself it’s all in my head. I keep my eyes closed so I won’t see what the tall one is doing to her because if I can’t see, I can’t smell what my mind conjures up, right? I can’t taste?
Wrong. I can hear. So I know. I know what’s happening, even though hardly any blood spills from the fingers and toes he methodically clips from her body with the crunch of a pair of gardening shears. And I can taste it.
I gag at the sound of a crunch, my eyes opening on instinct, but am quick to hunch over to face the ground. My hands are tied behind my back with strips of Piper’s tank top. The tall one cut it up while the handsome one held me in place, as if I’d try to run again after what he did to me.
The sting on my bottom flares at the memory, so painfully humiliating I crinkle my eyelids and let out what I hope is a low whimper. If either man notices, they don’t say anything. Both are busy with tasks, the tall one doing … the work with the shears… while the handsome one goes through Piper’s car, periodically walking to the cliff and throwing things, like papers he’s ripped up and the license plate over the edge.
I know their names. It scares me how easily they speak them in front of me. But even though I know them, I refuse to say them in my mind, refuse to humanize them when they haven’t done the same for me. It’s bad enough I’ve admitted to myself that one of them is handsome. But even the Devil has an angel’s body, right?
Of course, the tall one isn’t bad looking. Tall—obviously. Nice thick hair pushed back with a few random curls on top of his head. An athletic build.
But if he was walking toward me on a sidewalk, I would cross the street. Something about his face, his eyes, his aura is cold. Unfeeling. I have no doubt that the handsome one could kill someone without blinking, but only because of what I’ve heard him say. I can feel this man’s darkness in my bones.
He doesn’t just kill his pregnant girlfriends. He spits on their corpses, removes their fingers and toes, gouges out their eyes, and ties his new victim up with their torn clothing.
“Arseni,” the tall one calls as something—the gardening shears, probably—thumps on the ground.
As footsteps trot this way, I tense, but he doesn’t come to me. I peek over at the two men as the tall one pulls an ax from a bag and gestures to Piper.
I gasp, my bound ankles tugging against cloth with the urge to move. Run. Though even if I could, I wouldn’t. Not while he’s holding the ax.
Handsome puts his shoe on Piper’s chin and drags her mouth open while Tall lines up with his feet shoulder width apart, gripping the ax in both hands like he’s about to strike.
I should look away.
The thought enters my mind, and yet, I’m stuck, wide-eyed with terror watching like if I do look away, the ax will come for me instead.
“Your aim better be good,” Handsome says. “ Some of us still need our toes.”
Without replying, Tall lifts the ax then brings it down onto Piper’s mouth, severing her jaw.
My stomach rolls, and I gag once before throwing up on the dirt in front of me, vomit splashing onto my dress. I dry heave so hard my eyes water until there’s no chance anything is left in my stomach.
“More DNA evidence. Joy,” Tall remarks once I’ve finished, which makes Handsome cackle as he walks away.
Tall whistles. “Arseni, go long.”
I look up from my vomit to see Tall pick up Piper’s jaw and fling it like a Frisbee to the right of Handsome. Nausea roils my stomach, but I hold back my gag this time and watch as Handsome catches the remains and holds it up in a cheer like he’s won his team some sort of championship.
The sight twists his features, making my name for him feel unfitting. He doesn’t look handsome. He just looks evil. Both men, pure evil.
I search for his imperfections, but I can’t find any that are obvious. I can’t see past his words and actions. They’re so ugly.
How can they be so cruel? How are human beings capable of this?
He goes back to the car while Tall takes out pliers and starts plucking out Piper’s top teeth, the bottom already efficiently taken care of. I clench my eyes shut and count to one hundred. First in Spanish, then in English, then I go backward in each language. It actually helps. I can feel my pulse slowing, my lungs pulling in deeper breaths than before.
I’m terrified but strong. I can survive this. In a way, I’m prepared for this. I grew up with a father so afraid of the world, he wouldn’t let me see it.
The world is full of bad men, Lucia. They do not see you as I do. You are not a person, but a prize for them.
He was right. He was so right.
But maybe I can change it. Maybe I can convince them that I’m a person, not a prize. I force my eyes open and look at Tall.
Not him. Definitely not him.
I turn to Handsome. To … Arseni .
Maybe. Possibly.
He didn’t kill his pregnant girlfriend.
And he chose to spank me when I ran. He laughed at me, humiliated me, but he could’ve done worse. He could’ve strangled me with the same anger I watched Tall strangle Piper with.
He’s my best hope for survival. I could tell the tall one would’ve chosen to just kill me. Handsome convinced him to let me live … even if it was just for now.
I watch Handsome. Arseni . I watch Arseni as he turns and goes back to the car, and when he finally looks at me, I don’t let my eyes leave him.
He smiles at me. It definitely isn’t kind, but it isn’t cruel. It’s … playful. Sadistically playful.
That isn’t good either.
I drop my eyes to the ground when I can’t help myself and listen to him chuckle. Then I go back to counting. I reach two hundred when they start loading Piper into a body bag that they then fill with rocks and fling off the ledge.
My mind clears of numbers when they walk back to me, no more dead body to deal with, only the captive girl.
I swallow and wish I could cross my arms over my chest.
“Up,” Tall commands.
I open my mouth to tell him my ankles are tied but stop myself. He knows. Of course he knows. He just wants to watch me struggle.
Breaths shuddering, I hesitate a few seconds before shifting onto my knees and digging the toes of my sandals into the dirt. I flatten my feet on the ground and push myself to stand, focusing on my balance, and am halfway up before I lose it.
Arseni grabs my arm as I go to fall and hauls me to standing. My eyes naturally find his as I lean his way, searching for some shred of compassion in his toffee irises. His head tilts as he peers at me, smiling.
“I think she likes you,” Tall comments. I can’t tell for sure because he sounds teasing, but I think I detect jealousy in his voice.
“Everyone likes me,” Arseni replies.
“Choose.”
I’m still staring at Arseni when Tall speaks, so it takes me several seconds before I realize he was speaking to me. I still don’t look at him.
Arseni elaborates. “We’re going to share you,” he points between the two of them as if I needed the clarification. “Choose who you go with first.”
My lip trembles as my eyes well with tears. I lower my head to the men’s shoes—Arseni’s sneakers, Tall’s black boots—when I can’t stand to meet Arseni’s eyes any longer.
His words are enough to give away the kind of man he is and the difficult task of making him see me as a person, but even worse is his tone. There isn’t a drop of hesitation. Not an ounce of pity.
He wants to use me, then hand me off to his friend, then use me again. He’ll probably gag me when I try to tell him my name.
“Choose,” Tall presses, sounding impatient.
But I have to try.
“Arseni,” I whisper, my voice cracking.
Arseni lets out a whistle of victory before taking me by the waist and throwing me over his shoulder. I let out a yelp as he starts toward Piper’s car, his palm sliding beneath my dress to flatten against the spot he struck.
My face burns and body tenses. I try not to think about what’ll take place once we leave here, try to put numbers in my head instead, but my mind freezes as Arseni suddenly halts and grasps my bottom so tightly I gasp.
I look up at Tall, blank-faced by his car. He’s peering our way with his eyes narrowed in question.
Arseni pulls something from his pocket.
“Fuck!”
With a quick jerk of his shoulder, he shrugs me to my feet but doesn’t bother helping me steady myself. I stumble into him and fall to the ground once he backs away from me, barely turning my head in time to avoid my nose connecting with hard earth.
“Something wrong?” Tall asks, although he sounds noticeably more chipper.
I let a moment go by before I peer up to see Arseni showing Tall his phone.
Tall scans the screen before a large grin stretches across his face. “Oof. Terrible timing.”
“Fuck you,” Arseni spits, then starts grumbling in the language they spoke earlier.
Tall is still smiling when he replies, and Arseni waves him off, stomping to Piper’s vehicle as he mutters. He looks annoyed instead of angry. Defeated.
He isn’t taking me.
My eyes widen as I struggle to get to my knees, my heart racing when Arseni climbs in the car and drives away.
Tall walks up behind me. I can’t summon enough bravery to turn to him.
“Looks like it’s just you and me, senorita. ”