Page 8

Adrik

To watch the little rabbit hyperventilate was amusing. She didn't know what pain and suffering was. Not like I did. She didn't know what true starvation was—to linger between life and death. I once had hope when Yuri offered me food, but I didn't realise that the food he fed me came at a cost. He made me who I am, and for that, I slit his throat, giving him an easier death than he deserved.

"Do you know what a craniotomy is, krolik? It’s a procedure. A window into the mind. The soul. I’ve always been fascinated by what makes people tick. What makes them—break,”

I said, my voice calm and as clinical as the room.

“Please... you don’t have to do this. I’ll do whatever you want. Just—just don’t—”

she said, her voice trembling with her eyes wide in terror.

“Shhh, little rabbit. This isn’t about punishment. Not anymore. This is about understanding. About control. You see, I need to know what makes you so—resilient. What it will take to break you,”

I said, mocking her with a cajoling voice.

“This isn’t control—this is madness. Y-You’re a monster,”

she said as the panic raised her voice.

“Perhaps. But monsters are made, not born. And you, my dear, are about to meet the monster within me,”

I said before pointing to the traitor. “This? This is justice. He betrayed me. Betrayed the Bratva. And betrayal... requires retribution.”

The rabbit was correct. I am a monster. I am the monster that this world created.

She shook her head in disbelief as it fully dawned on her that I could place her in that chair. Her eyes were locked onto the traitor, and I knew her services were as good as mine.

“Vadik, take the gag off before you begin. I do enjoy the screams,”

I told the doctor, who followed my instructions.

“Please, I’m sorry! I’ll do anything—”

the traitor said, his voice hoarse.

“You were paid handsomely by the Bratva for a purpose. To allow our permits to go through and our goods to move freely. You got greedy, and this is a result of betraying the Bratva—betraying me,”

I said to the soon-to-be-dead police official before nodding to Vadik.

When the drill whirred into life, a high-pitched scream made Ania flinch. The saw drowned out the traitor’s cries. I looked away from her when the sound of the saw met with bone. The wet, grinding crunch that made the rabbit’s stomach heave. The traitor screamed a raw, guttural sound that echoed off the walls.

“Fascinating. Isn’t it? The human skull is stronger than you’d think. But it's not strong enough. Watch closely, little rabbit,”

I said casually as if discussing the weather.

Ania’s breath came in shallow gasps. Tears streamed down her face as she watched the horror unfold. It was satisfying to finally see those big, fat drops of tears pouring out of her. The traitor’s screams faded into whimpers, then complete silence.

His eyelids flickered, and his facial muscles began to twitch, with crimson streaks of blood running down his face—the same slick blood on the doctor's white gloves. The doctor worked with precision, removing the top of his skull as if it were the lid of a teapot to expose the fragile pink brain tissue beneath.

"See, little rabbit? This is what happens to those who betray me. This is the price of disobedience. Remember that,”

I said, wanting her to break, but remember who was responsible.

Vadik set the drill aside, picking up a smaller instrument. Ania can’t look away, frozen, trapped in the nightmare that I created for her. I glanced at Viktor, but his eyes were gleaming with a twisted fascination as he watched the doctor.

What a sick fuck! But we both loved to watch when the light went out of their eyes.

“Now, let’s see what secrets you’ve been hiding,”

Vadik said with a dark chuckle as he picked up a scalpel.

“You will be having a small procedure with the doctor. An explosive one should you try and hop away from me,”

I said to her as she whimpered. “I trust you understand the new terms of your employment?”

The traitor began to speak, but the words merged into one another as the doctor sliced away.

The words became incoherent babbles until his mouth opened, and drool began to drip down his lips.

There was a vacant look in his eyes as Vadik worked on his brain.

He couldn't have timed it any better as the rabbit started to sob, beautiful gut-wrenching sobs that sent shivers of delight through me. She collapsed on the floor with her forehead touching the grimy floor.

Ania’s body trembled as Viktor yanked her upright by her hair, her sobs reduced to hollow, broken gasps.

Her face was pale, streaked with tears and smudges of grime from the floor.

But it was her eyes that struck me the most—those once-bright, defiant eyes now dull and lifeless, like the glassy stare of a doll.

They were empty, void of the fire that had once burned within her. It was as if the horror of what she was witnessing had extinguished something deep inside her, leaving behind only a shell.

“Do you understand?”

I growled at her, my voice dangerously low, insistent on her answer.

Ania’s lips parted, but no sound came out. Her gaze flickered to the traitor on the chair. Her eyes returned to me, but they didn’t truly see me. They were distant, haunted as if she were staring through me into some unimaginable abyss.

“Yes...”

she said, her voice a broken whisper.

The word was barely audible, but it was enough. My lips curled into a satisfied smile. Though her empty gaze concerned me about her future performance, it didn't take away from my ultimate victory. No one said no to me.

There wasn’t fear in her eyes. It wasn’t defiance. It was something far worse—surrender. The kind of surrender that came from a soul already halfway to the grave.

“Good. Remember this moment, little rabbit. And remember—you belong to me now,”

I said, stepping closer to her.

Ania didn’t respond. Her eyes remained fixed on some distant point, unblinking, unseeing. The spark of life that had once made her unique was gone, replaced by a hollow emptiness that even my cruelty couldn’t penetrate.

She was broken.

And I had been the one to break her.

***

“This is diabolical, even for you, Batushka,”

Viktor said after he returned from dropping the rabbit off to our gospozha. “I left Pyotr with her as you instructed.”

Madam.

I took no offence to his words because he meant them with reverence by calling me father.

“You know I am a sore loser. I needed her intact for a number of reasons,”

I said, thinking about her naked body that the madam would be working on cleansing from the inside out. “She named herself a rabbit, and now she will become one.”

“She bought the idea of an explosive being inside her,”

he said as I nodded for him to help himself to a drink. “When she woke up, she kept touching the back of her head.”

I smirked, remembering when she passed out, thinking we were planting an explosive device inside the base of her skull.

“A simple tracker that she won't be able to remove,” I said.

Viktor shook his head and drained his vodka back in one go like a savage.