Page 37

Giddy anticipation rushes through us as we march silently into the parking lot of the church. The place is packed with cars and seeing how many have the blood pumping harshly through my veins.

Gavel, Cyanide, and I are going through the front entrance while the rest of the brothers fan out around the church, taking up any space that could be an exit.

We’re all loaded down with various weapons.

Guns will be what we make our entrance with, since it’ll be easier to pick off any motherfuckers who tries to escape without facing their justice.

I glance over at the stoic man at my side. Ever since I told my story last night, my grandfather has become colder. Right now, he reminds me a lot of what he was like after he lost Mad Dog. He’s empty inside.

“Are you ready?” I ask him.

There’s a monster peeking back at me. “It’s time.”

With a wicked smile, Cyanide and I each shove a booted foot into the wooden doors. The wood splinters as it caves in, and we step through.

“Honey, I’m home,” I sing out, drawing the eyes of every shit human in this space.

Of course, you can’t cleanse an altar if you’re not cleansed yourself, which means we’re unfortunately greeted by lots of undressed people.

All around us are saggy tits and shriveled balls.

Tiny dicks and hairy pussy. Skinny, obese, wrinkled, smooth, Botoxed, au-natural .

. . we see it all in the group of people staring at us in fear.

My eyes zero in on the familiar man and woman standing at the top of the altar.

I stroll down the aisle between the pews, tossing my head back in maniacal laughter. “Still up to your sick shit, I see.”

“Wh-who are y-you?” Diana Brannigan says, her fingers clutching the fucking cross at her neck as if it’s going to save her from the demons coming her way.

“Awe. I’m hurt. You don’t even recognize your own son, mother ?”

“Apollonos,” she gasps, stumbling back in fear.

“Ding, ding, ding. Tell her what she’s won, folks,” I crow, using my gun as a mic and holding it out to Gavel.

“A death sentence,” he intones.

“What a great prize,” I exclaim, bouncing on the balls of my feet in excitement.

My father watches us with deadened eyes as we draw closer. People finally realize what we’re doing here, and chaos ensues. It warms my cold, black heart when they scream as they try to make their escape.

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star. You won’t get very far,” I sing as I line up my shot. “Up above the world so high, your precious god will watch you die.” My index finger curls around the trigger, and I squeeze.

I shake my ass with a little whoop as it nails a man running away in the temple.

Time wasn’t kind to the old fucker. I did him a favor, really.

“They have them locked up in a fucking room in the basement,” Savior snarls as he marches through the back door. “An entire room of them, Pope.”

Savior has always been careful about taking someone’s life. Each one is a heaviness in his soul that he repents for nightly. I don’t pretend to understand it, but he’s my brother and I respect him.

But whatever he witnessed in that room has fucked with his head because he lifts his gun and shoots.

One after the other, he puts a bullet in any man and woman, with and without clothes on.

Some were only here to watch the fucked-up shit, so they didn’t bother to get undressed.

Savior kills them all without emotion.

Except for two.

My mother is slobbering all over herself as she pleads for her life while my father stands stoically behind the altar without speaking a word.

I’ve seen a lot of monsters in my life, but there’s never been one more evil than him.

“Tie her up, shove something over her mouth, and make her watch what happens when the devil comes knocking,” I order.

“Butcher, get me the kit. Malice, Cyanide, and Manic, place this ugly motherfucker on that slab. Put him on his knees with his hands and feet tied together. I have fun plans for him.”

“Why are you doing this?” Diana asks through a sob.

“Something that I should have done a long fucking time ago. You’re sick motherfuckers and you’re a waste of space on this planet.”

“We’re your parents.”

My laugh has a hysterical tinge to it as my blood pumps through my veins. “You’re nothing to me.”

“He’s ready for you,” Gavel says tonelessly.

“Cillian, that’s your son,” Diana cries.

“My Eoghan died a long time ago. You’re kneeling before my son,” he says, nodding to me.

“Eoghan, help me. Why aren’t you fighting this?” she pleads with the monster on the slab as he stares at us blankly.

I lift my gun, stroking it down her cheek. “Don’t worry, Mother. We’ll all reunite in hell eventually.”

She sags in her bonds, bows her head, and begins to pray.

Eoghan’s eyes follow me as I climb the steps to the altar.

“This could go pretty easily, you know,” I tell him, holstering my gun and picking up the scalpel from the kit Butcher laid out for me.

“Did you know that without eyelids, your eyes will dry out? Have you ever had dry eyes, Eoghan? It’s irritating, but it eventually becomes painful if you don’t lubricate them.

I’m sure there’s a chance your sight would eventually become fucked-up if you don’t take care of them, but you won’t be alive long enough to find out.

Just long enough to experience as much pain as possible before I send you to hell.

What do you know about Rose Dwyer and the son she had? ”

Something akin to recognition flashes across his face before his lips curl into a cruel smile. “She asked for it. That girl was a Jezebel.”

“She was a fucking child, you useless sack of flesh,” I scream in his face.

Butcher holds Eoghan’s head still as I grasp the eyelashes of one lid, and pull it out enough that the scalpel moves through it slick as butter. Pain flares in the blue depths, but he doesn’t make a sound.

Flicking it at Diana, I watch it smack her in the face. I laugh as she screams behind the duct tape across her mouth before repeating the steps with Eoghan’s other eyelid.

“Have you had any contact with Frankie? He has your evil blood running through his veins, so I figured you’d be drawn to each other.”

“Sounds like him and I would have had some fun together. I’m disappointed I won’t get the chance,” Eoghan taunts.

“I’m sure you’ll get a visit from him in hell.”

“Son, the only one going to hell is you. God will forgive me, and I’ll see the pearly gates.”

“Add delusional to the list of what’s wrong with you,” I mutter, reaching over to grab the hammer.

Savior steps up behind my father and yanks his head back before spitting in his face. “You’ll be the first one God will cast out. Banished to the bowels of hell, where the demons will use your body as their personal playground.”

I twirl the hammer around in a circle, warming it up for my swing.

His ugly, flaccid dick hangs uselessly between his legs. It’s done too many bad, bad things.

“If you’re happy and you know it, smash his dick,” I sing as the face of the hammer lands between his legs.

“Woo, boy. Listen to that squeal,” Pretty Boy crows.

“If you’re happy and you know it, smash his dick.” I swing until blood coats the altar. “If you’re happy and you know it, and you really want to show it, smash his dick.”

The pain becomes too much for Eoghan and vomit spews from him, dripping down his chest and mixing with the mess that used to be his dick.

I set the hammer down with a sigh. “You know you’re going to die today.”

“I don’t fear death. My god will welcome me with open arms. He forgives me.”

“We’re going to tear this entire organization apart.

There’s more of you, all connected in one filthy ring, but we won’t rest until we’ve burned every fucking church hosting these depraved parties to the ground.

You’ve gotten away with your sick shit for too long.

It’s kismet, really, that the devil of your own making will be the one to end your cult of rapists and pedophiles. ”

“Do what you,” he pauses as he struggles to get the words out from his pain, “feel you need to do. You know that removing one will only put two more on the board.”

“And I’ll make it my life’s mission to eradicate every single one.”

Eoghan ignores me as his eyes drift from me to Gavel. “Hello, Father. Still sucking dick?” He makes a noise in the back of his throat. “Oh, that’s right. Your little butt buddy is rotting in the ground where your kind belongs.”

Considering his recent chest wound, Gavel moves faster than expected.

He snatches up the hammer and swings. The claw latches onto Eoghan’s throat and cuts off his evil cackle.

Gurgles come from Eoghan as Gavel braces a foot on the altar to anchor himself.

Then he yanks to the side with a grunt and rips the claw through the front of Eoghan’s throat.

“Homophobic piece of shit.” Gavel spits on his son’s face, not an ounce of remorse on his own. “Nobody speaks against Darragh so degradingly. It’s twenty-twenty-five. People can love who they want, for fuck’s sake.”

The light fades from Eoghan’s eyes, and a piece of the darkness inside me fades with him.

I turn to Diana. She’s staring blankly at where her husband lies dead, her body shaking, her skin pale.

She doesn’t flinch when I tear the tape from her mouth.

“Who are you?” she whispers.

I pull my gun from the holster and place the barrel between her eyes. “I’m the monster you all created when you let them bend me over the altar and steal my innocent soul.”

There’s no hesitation when I squeeze the trigger.

Just like with my father, my soul feels different when there’s no light left in her eyes.

Whoever said murder isn’t therapeutic is a fucking liar.

“Joker, call for some safe houses for the victims. See who we have in the area. Malice, you and the others make sure all the corpses are stacked in one room and then soak this fucking church in gasoline. We’re going to watch this motherfucker burn before we leave.

” I holster my gun and roll my head along my shoulders, then I turn to Gavel. “You doing okay?”

He’s taken a seat on the steps of the altar, his hands shaking. His eyes are full of pain when he looks at me, and I can’t tell if it’s from his gunshot wound or from having to kill his own son.

“Yeah. Chest is hurting like a bitch.”

“And him?” I ask, nodding to Eoghan’s body.

“I did the world a favor.” He sighs, dropping his head between his shoulder blades and closing his eyes.

“I never wanted to take my kid out. No parent should have to do that. I was supposed to love him, but how the hell can I love something so fucking evil, you know? I just wish it didn’t take his mother so long to see it.

It’s fitting, if you think about it. I helped bring him into this world.

It should be me erasing his evil from it. ”

Not long after I came to Gavel, I asked about my grandmother.

He explained that she fell in love with someone else.

That man helped her see how bad Eoghan actually was, and they left the church not long after she realized it.

It was about two months later when they were both killed in a car crash.

It was ruled accidental, but Gavel and I had our suspicions when he found out that their brakes were cut.

There wasn’t much we could do from here, though.

Eoghan told me once that she could see the ungodliness in me and that’s why she never wanted anything to do with me.

Then she was just dead, so it’s not like I could ask her anything about it.

“How are you, kid?” he asks quietly. “You taking out your mom and all?”

I snort. “Takes more than just pushing me from her cunt to be my mother. The way I see it, I just took the trash out.”

There’s an apology in his eyes for the hell I endured in this godforsaken place, but he doesn’t say it out loud. We both know he has nothing to apologize for. He showed up when it mattered. He rid this world of the monster that haunted my nights for so fucking long.

Hannibal comes over and squats in front of Gavel. “Let me check your chest.”

Gavel scowls at him. “I’m fine.”

“Sure, you are. Doesn’t mean I ain’t going to check to be sure,” Hannibal says, not the least bit intimidated by the fierce look on my grandfather’s face.

I laugh, wrapping fingers around Gavel’s shoulder gently. “I’m going to check on all the kids. Get them ready to move to the safe houses.”

“Is there anyone in law enforcement here that we can trust to help facilitate?” he asks.

“Doubtful. Looks like the church had most of them on the payroll. We can’t take that chance.

If it wouldn’t land us all in prison, I’d walk into that department and open fire on all the ones we knew for sure were guilty.

They won’t do anything with all this because they’ll be worried their involvement in this sick operation will come to light.

It will, just not until I know we’re all safe.

We’re going to rip them apart, just like we will this entire fucking sex trafficking ring using churches as fronts. ”

“It’s going to be hard to get them to trust us,” Cyanide adds.

“My charming personality will win them over.”

Cyanide snorts while Gavel laughs, but I just turn on my heel.

I don’t know what’s so funny about that.

I’m fucking exceptional. People love the shit out of me.

Most of them, anyway.