Page 74 of Sadistic Retribution

I lower myself down, tilting my head. Without another word, I slice both of their throats. I jump back, anticipating the spray and frown when it doesn’t happen. Fuck. Not deep enough. Irritated now, I grip the blonde’s hair, slicing hard, then doing the same to the brunette.

The blood sprays up and out in an arc, coating the walls of the shed. Perfection. I get a few drops on me but am far back enough to not get the full effect.

Their eyes glaze over, the life fading from them. My job finished, I leave the shed and the door standing wide open. I need them to be found. It's so much more satisfying when others can see what I’m capable of.

Purge

I'm salivating at the prospect of bringing down our fathers, and of cracking open this shitshow of a place. I'm parked in front of my monitor; the others crowded around me. We all have our phones on the desk with the pics we took open for us to go through.

“Anyone hear from their mothers yet?” I ask, while my face is buried in information.

They all shake their heads. Fuck. All we can do is keep trying.

Switching focus, I look to Harris. “Harris, when will we know if there’s proof, or not?”

“When I hear back. In the meantime, let’s concentrate on the shit we got from Augustine’s office.”

I nod thoughtfully while I peruse the pictures, looking for patterns. I first look at the files the Director has on our families. It seems to be dossiers of information. Names, ages, family history.

Wait a fucking minute... is this what I think it is? I pick up my phone, zooming in on the page. I point to the top right corner. “See this? There's a tiny number seven in Italian in the top corner.Sette.”

“Okay...so what do you think it means?” Hunter questions.

“The rumored seventh family, maybe?”

“Like what, bro?” Trikk raises his voice, the inflection changing at the end.

“I'll be damned!” Hunter exclaims. “You could be right. Great job, Purge.”

I keep scouring the other documents, moving on from our family files to the one marked Solomon. It appears to be anotherdossier, but there’s a blank page—maybe a missing one. The last third of it is blacked out.

“The fuck does this mean? What could those old people be hiding? How are they connected to The Retreat?” I muse out loud.

“Let me handle that one,” Harris offers.

Frost curses. “The one on Killer—there are multiple photos of her as a child. On the back of each is the word ‘update’, and a date. Why update the director? What the fuck do they know about her?”

“I bet she hasn’t even seen these,” Synn adds.

“There’s something encrypted in the file of information. See where it looks like a bar code? I'm going to crack this—right fucking now.” I move to my keyboard, inputting the numbers in, as well as the words “bar” and “code”, as well as “QR”. I wait while it processes. It only takes a moment before it finds results. My jaw drops. “Guys! It says, ‘Seven must be contained’!”

Harris pales. “The seventh family—it has to be! What does she have to do with all this, though?”

“I will find the fuck out,” I say with conviction.

“Whoa, what the fuck?” Razor raises his voice. “There are random people blurred in the background of this photo. She looks maybe three or four?”

I snatch up his phone, zooming in as closes I can. “It’s too blurry to detect identity. Harris, can you clear this up?”

“I’ll add it to the pile. And I’ll get my contact on the seventh family angle.”

I sigh, rubbing my eyes. The last thing is the file on Augustine. There's the task list, which we still need to decipher. Dates are at the top and bottom. The bottom one must be time of employment and the top the date the task list was made.

“I’m taking copies of all this and handing them to my contact. There should be answers soon, boys,” Hunter tells us.

“Argh!” Synn complains. “Time is not on our side.”

Chapter 26