Page 24

Chapter 23

Eve

The unmistakable smell woke up Eve, a mouldy, fishy odour she was all too familiar with. The realisation hit her like a jolt: she was aboard a boat, but the quiet sound of the boat surfing the waves made her guess she was not en route to the open sea, yet.

Just great . Her head was throbbing stronger than the last attack, the dry blood stuck to her scalp, pulling on her hair. This dick didn’t miss. Despite the nagging ache in her head, she tried to assess her situation.

She was naked and really not happy about it. She turned her head to the side, pulling a face when the sore on her head disagreed with the movement.

Her tender wrists were secured to a wooden cross in the shape of an 'X.' On the plus side, her feet remained free — a small comfort in her current circumstances but she would take anything positive she could.

Glancing around the unpleasant cabin, she deduced it seemed to belong to some sort of small fishing vessel, maybe even a personal boat. Hence the disgusting odour. Except sushi, Eve didn’t like to eat fish, and she hated this smell.

She tried to move her hands, but her efforts were met with a numbness indicating she had likely been in this position for some time. Her upper body screamed its discomfort, but despite her lousy situation she came to hope Zorfield was still alive and that the boys were looking for her. She would never forgive herself if Zorfield died because of her, not that she would survive much longer in the company of the killer. Killers.

Riiiight. Two pairs of shoes. She let out a frustrated growl. They caught her before she could be a prepared bait, not fair. Which kind of serial killer does that?

The only door in the room creaked open, the rusted metal opening with difficulty, revealing a tall, fat, well known grouper-face. Eve couldn’t hold back a disdainful snort. Johnny. He appeared even worse than in her memory, his outfit made of a have-know-better-days tank top and grey sweatpants covered in various stains, showing his boner underneath.

The Gods of Grey Sweatpants should have put some rules about who is allowed to wear those.

“Fantastic,” she muttered, the fear growing inside her turning to shame. Shame that this grouper guy swam right under her nose all this time and she didn’t spot him for what he was.

Before she could say a word, gathering all her collection of best insults, a second figure joined their little party. Standing in the shadows of the door, his voice resonated in the room, chillingly familiar.

“Hello, Eve,” he purred.

It felt as though her heart was being ripped out of her chest, leaving a hole in what used to be her body.

“Erik?” Eve asked, barely recognising her own voice “What the fucking hell??”

She tried to move pulling on her ropes, furious at him, but more importantly, furious at herself for failing to detect his psychopathic side during all their years of friendship. Does Mira know? Is he hurting her as well and I didn’t see it?

Erik advanced towards Eve, while Johnny placed a leather case on the table, meticulously revealing its contents one by one, giggling at every new tool. Eve pouted, being the torturer was way more fun than being the torturee.

Ok quick quick, make them talk, classic but efficient . Her thoughts rushed through her mind, hoping Cyrus and especially Ian would be smart enough to pinpoint who the fuck the killer was. Killers. Damn, she would never get used to that.

“Erik, I need to know why, what happened?” she begged, watching him move closer to her, examining her naked offered body.

The man scoffed. “Trying to win some time, Eve? Really?”

Yes you idiot, I read many thrillers.

“You know how curious I am, I think I’m owed a fucking explanation,” she whined unable to hold back her repulsion when Erik positioned his hands over hers, slowly moving them over her body, squeezing any bit of flesh he could.

“More,” he whispered.

“…More … what?” she whimpered when he painfully squeezed her nipples, rotating them in such an unnatural way she thought he would rip them off. A shiver raced through her, a surge of fear rushing through her body. Images of previous victims crashed into her mind, she knew what these two men were capable of, and she was not going to have any kind of fun right now.

He finally released her breast, standing there looking at her in disgust.

“More of everything darling.” He glanced at Johnny and nodded in confirmation when Johhny showed him something in his hand. “I hadn’t done anything before I met you, was just living my life, with my boring wife, my boring job. The only highlight was when some fascinating killers were active, I wanted to catch them, not to punish them, but to UNDERSTAND them. To know how it felt to be rid of all judgement, to just do whatever you wanted, without hearing whiny protests from my wife or some random whore. When I met you, I wanted to fuck you. Obviously.”

“Obviously,” Eve mumbled.

“But you didn’t show any kind of interest for me, and well, Mira was there anyway.”

Eve’s heart quickened as Johnny approached her with a shiny scalpel. She tried to not look at their erections as a retching took her by surprise, she, who was usually more than resistant.

“Then, war happens.” Erik smiled. “Ah the war, Eve, it was marvellous.”

“Marvellous is not the term I would have chosen.”

“Come on, I know you had your fun too, we all did, even Cyrus you know. He always liked the blood.” Erik stopped, his eyes seeming to look at an ancient memory. “It changed us, all of us, more or less. And some of us, like you and I, we took such a liking to killing. We never truly stopped. Right?”

So he knew about her extra-curriculum activities. Nothing surprising in that, but still, this was upsetting. Sure hope the Guild never learn this.

“We.Are.Not.The.Same.”

“Well, you kill men, I kill women. You aren’t the tenderest murderer you know. Slashed penis? Really?”

“I am PUNISHING men, assholes really, I am not raping them and torturing them for no reason.”

“Does that make you sleep better at night to think that?” Erik mocked.

“Actually yes it does, thanks for asking.” She was not a psychopath, he was!

Fury boiled inside her when both men heartfully laughed. That’s why she was killing men, because they were all fucking annoying. Except maybe three.

Erik stopped laughing. “Anyway, you know what we do to our little friends, we may cut you a bit, but we are gonna fuck you so much, and so hard, you will wish we just killed you.” He leaned in close, smirking. “Do you want to know what our favourite part is? I was not a big fan at first, but the feeling of it, God, that’s the best. I let Johnny fuck your pussy while I take your ass, and seeing how you seem to handle Cyrus, I am sure you will enjoy yourself. Slut one day, slut every day.” Erik smirked. “I am so glad I placed cameras in your flat before I rented it to you.”

That explains a lot.

She didn't take her gaze off his for a second as Johnny brought the blade to her cheek nor did she make a sound as the bladed slash her skin, running down the length of her cheek, hot blood rushing, flowing from the raw wound.

“Not the face you fucking idiot,” Erik growled. “You know I don’t like uglies.”

“Sorry boss,” Johnny chuckled, his laugh causing Eve another retch. She quickly forgot about it when the scalpel went down, following the shape of her chin, her neck, her clavicle, cold metal against her frozen skin.

“Thanks to me at least Johnny here is ameliorating his taste. He killed the prostitute first you know, I was not there. She was not that pretty. And she was fat, I don’t like fatties either, I got one at home already.”

Johnny mumbled something, still playing with his scalpel.

“ He made a mistake that day, didn’t you Johnny?” Erik asked, watching Johnny from above his glasses.

“Yeah boss.”

“That’s how I found him. Here he was, like me, easy to convince to get better. So when you accepted my offer, oh Eve, how glad we were. Johnny here even brought your picture home. Of course I was a bit surprised when I learned you were going around killing some randoms… that changed our plans a bit.”

“Fucking psychopaths.” Eve rolled her eyes.

She took a deep breath, ready for the pain when Johnny moved the scalpel to her right breast. Her lips pinched when he started cutting, deepening the blade in her soft curve, going down further, almost to her nipple. The pain was so strong tears welled in her eyes, she didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of begging, but this was the worst pain she had ever been through, and it was just starting.

Erik continued, though, she would have rather have him without her being sliced open, this was not how winning time was supposed to work.

“Then both together, it was easy, so easy. Johnny would use his uniform to get the girls to open their door, they never saw us coming. When we learned Roisin was one of Cyrus’s conquests, we thought we may as well try to pin it on him, Cragnum was so gullible he went with it. We didn’t even plan it, but Cyrus is such a fuckboy it was easy to find previous partners.”

“Ok stop talking now.” Eve breathed, watching the scalpel destroy her. Tears running down her cheeks, she moved her head aside, not ready to watch her breast being cut in half, then she saw him. A shadow jumped into the room, pushing Erik out of the way, throwing him against the mouldy wall with a bang, knocking him out. Johnny still under the shock of Cyrus’s arrival, gave Eve the chance to put her last strength together and raise her legs, catching him in a choke between her tights, squeezing, focused on annihilating him. It took longer than necessary, her strength not at her best right now, and she didn’t stop when Cyrus came to her after checking on Erik, watching her. Murdering. That’s what she was best at. But she didn’t care.

Exhausted she finally released Johnny’s body, and it fell on the floor like the slug he was. Her legs shook, her entire body so weakened by the co ld that she didn’t protest when Cyrus tenderly cut her ties, and she collapsed onto him, her face drenched by what she thought was sweat, was actually tears. Eve sniffled, grasping her lover’s neck with her weakened arms, letting him take her away from the nightmare. He gently placed his leather coat on her naked body, but it didn’t stop the shivering.

They walked past an unconscious Erik but ignored him.

“The Duo is on their way.” Cyruswent first through the narrow door and helped Eve climb the two steps. He reached the side of the boat, pulling back the gangway to allow them to walk out when Eve felt a sharp pain in her back, she tried to turn, wincing under the cold metal.

“Cyrus!” she called, now perfectly awake. Erik held her, his ragged breath in her ear, his arm surrounding her throat, a knife now pointing straight at her eye, threatening Cyrus to make a move.

Cyrus turned on his heels, his eyes blazing with fury, his fist clenched by his side.

“Not a move Cyrus, or she loses her pretty eye.” Erik walked them backward towards the guardrail, instinctively trying to put some distance between the giant and himself, too bad he didn’t consider who the biggest threat on this boat was.

Eve clenched her body.

“It’s not him you should be afraid of, Erik.”

In a swift movement she had blocked his hand holding the scalpel and gave him a hard, nose-breaking headbutt. Feeling his imbalance she pushed on her legs, knocking them into the water, listening to Cyrus’s furious calls.

She knew her body was weak, but she also knew in water, there was no man who could stand a chance against her. She used to freedive with sharks for fuck’s sake, Erik forgot that. As soon as their bodies entered the frozen water, she felt him panicking behind her. She rotated in the water like a mermaid, her limbs floating naturally in the dark water and saw the shadow in front of her already struggling to reach back to the surface, his coat and shoes slowing him down, his nose bleeding all around him. Eve propelled herself towards him, he had lost his knife in the process and had no way to protect himself. She caught him between her legs, surroundings his thick waist, holding him and reached for his face, placin g her thumbs on his eyes, pushing, squeezing, listening to the beautiful gargling sounds coming out of his mouth. Maybe he would even drown before his eyeballs exploded. Who knows.

With satisfaction she felt the budge of his eyes receding under her push, his hands tentatively trying to push her, but it was too late. A few more seconds and she knew he was gone, two bleeding orbits in place of his eyes.

Eve let his body float away, bringing herself back to the surface, surprised Cyrus didn’t jump in to rescue her. She let out a long breath when she was finally out of the water, and she saw Cyrus.

“You jerk!” The man was peacefully observing her, his elbows on the guardrail, a smirk on his mouth.

“You seemed to have this specific situation under control,” he retorted, and for good measure he threw her one of the rescue buoys.