Page 74 of Reckoning

She lets out a laugh that sounds far less strained than I thought it would.

“Your sacrifice awaits.” I state, leading her down.

I’m not sure what she’s expecting, I’m not sure if she even has memories of what the tunnels used to look like but as we open the doors and I reveal them to her, her eyes widen.

“It’s, it’s civilised.” She says.

Yeah, it’s more than that. We painted the walls, put proper flooring down, everything is state of the art. If the entire city above us turns to chaos we could hunker down here, surviving for decades.

Tia meets us on the second level. Technically this place has five floors and then the basement. Some of it are sleeping and living quarters but most is for work, for training, surveillance, storage of our armoury and the basement, well let’s just say it wouldn’t be a true underworld if we didn’t have space for our very own version of hell.

Tia’s hair is up, in a high bun. She’s got her thick black glasses perched on nose. In the cute little pinafore dress you’d think she was more than a little out of place for her surroundings but I know she’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. She likes to be underestimated, she likes to be written off as not being a threat.

“It’s all ready.” She says before glancing at Sofia.

Sofia eyes her warily, like she understands exactly the game Tia is playing.

“It’s good to properly meet you.” Tia says. “I mean, we met before, but it doesn’t really count.”

Sofia nods quickly.

“Shall we get this started?” I ask. Though she’s putting a good show on I can feel her nerves starting to take over.

The three of us head down together. I had the man strung up in the nearest room I could, not wanting Sofia to have to walk past every other fucker we have down there.

As we reach the door I pause, “At any time you can walk out.” I say.

She nods.

“You’re in control here, Sofia, this is your court, however you want this to go down, that’s how it will be.”

She murmurs her thanks, but I can see how tightly she’s clenching her fists. Maybe I’ve misread her, maybe she’s got this and I’m the one overthinking this.

I open the door and that stench hits me like a train. Eric’s been hanging all night and all day so I’m not surprised the bastard has shit himself.

He’s in the middle of the room, suspended from a steel beam. There are eight men, my men, stood around, having made sure the bastard got no sleep. Afterall, they fucked up Sofia’s dreams, they’ve haunted her enough that she’s taken to stalking the streets, the least we can do is return the favour.

On the right wall we’ve had a variety of what I’ll call instruments prepared. They all hang neatly, like this is some sort of hardware store and not a torture chamber.

I glance at Sofia, seeing how pale she looks.

“You want to…”

“You first.” She says already guessing what I’m going to say.

My lips curl into a grin. I’m more than happy to break this man in, to give my Little Devil a performance on how it’s done.

I pick up the bat, not my weapon of choice, but I don’t want to maim him too badly – at least not in any way that will shorten Sofia’s play time.

I swing wide, putting my entire upper body into it and the crack as it hits his leg is pure perfection. He screams out, he jerks, the chains that are stringing him up make a merry little tune as they dance against the beam.

“Did they break your bones?” I ask Sofia over my shoulder.

She nods, rubbing her hand and I stare at the finger that never seems to straighten. I guess that answers that, doesn’t it?

I break his other leg, relishing in the pain he’s now in and then I toss the wood. He’s already a blubbering mess but if I have my way we’ve got hours left of this.

As he’s hanging by his hands, I sadly have to let him down and he falls in a heap, landing right on those broken legs of his. He screams out more, trying to move, but my men are quick to surround him and ensure he’s going nowhere.