Page 78

Rachel

The sun was beginning to creep through the clouds by the time Dante finally tired and closed his eyes.

My body was sore, and every part of me ached. He had fucked me in so many positions; I felt stretched and strained. I wanted nothing more than to sink down next to him and give myself to the pleasure of sleep he was experiencing.

But there was something I had to do. A final part I had to commit to in order to rid myself of the shackles confining me.

I placed a kiss on Dante’s temples, and slid out of bed, creeping backwards, keeping my eyes on him. I opened the door, freezing as it creaked, but he didn’t stir. He was lost in slumber.

I snuck out and pulled a hoodie over my head and pulled the hood up high.

I pulled open the garage doors and slipped beneath it. I kept my hands on the bottom and slowly lowered it, cringing at the noise it made as I removed my fingers and let it bang against the floor.

“Who’s there?” Ben called, his voice strained and petrified.

I didn’t answer. I just walked towards him, keeping the hood over my head as I inspected the damage Dante had inflicted.

His left eye was so swollen, he couldn’t open it.

His nose was bent at a grotesque angle, his lips swollen and split.

As he panted through panic, I saw some of his teeth missing, and when his tongue came out to wet his lips, there were fleshy welts along it, letting me know he had bitten it more than once.

His arms were pinned above his head, the wrists bleeding and raw, with blood running down the length of his arms, some fresh, some dry. That let me know he had been here more than a few days. There were gashes along his biceps, and huge patches of skin removed in places.

His torso was black and blue, not an inch of him without a bruise. I grinned to myself, thinking he looked like a sheet of tie-dye. The marbled effect of all the bruises bleeding into each other had a sort of sickening beauty to them.

I could tell from his breathing that he had more than one cracked rib, and there was a huge slash across his stomach.

He was completely naked, and when I looked closer, I could see pins sticking out of his dick, and I cringed as I noticed one of the pins stabbed straight into the tip of him.

His legs were also black and blue, the knees bent at a weird angle, and three of his toes were missing.

“Who are you?” he spluttered.

“Oh, Ben,” I said, pulling the hood down and revealing my face. “You know who I am. You knew from the minute you saw me earlier that I’d be back.”

I pulled a stool and placed it in front of him and sat down, staring up at him.

“It’s weird,” I said with a small laugh.

“You’ve been in so many of my nightmares over the years that it’s strange to see you in person again.

I built you up to be more than you are. You seemed larger than life as you haunted my dreams, as though you could reach out and crush me with your bare hands.

And now… nothing.” I said simply. “You’re a regular man, made of flesh and blood, the same as me. ”

“Rachel… I’m s-sorry,” he sobbed.

“Are you? Or are you sorry that Dante found you? You’re sorry I managed to find someone to care for me, despite being your victim? Or are you sorry you didn’t do more to ruin me? Sorry you didn’t disfigure me enough?”

“Alex—”

“Oh, I know. It wasn’t all you. Alex was the leader.

Whatever you did to me, Alex was ten times worse.

I know. I was there. But Alex has already paid for his crimes.

He’s dust in the ground by this point. But you,” I looked up at him again.

“You’ve been living free, benefiting from the sadistic little kingdom Alex created.

You might not have been the worst abuser to me.

Alex owns that title. But I bet you’re the worst abuser to some other girl out there.

I bet you’ve had your fair share of captives over the years. ”

“I sw-swear to you… I swear. We left all that b-behind when Alex—”

“Was murdered? Mm, I’m sure you did.” I pushed myself up and approached him.

“Except, I know that’s not true. I might not have been around all these years, but I’ve kept an eye on you.

I’ve looked at the news as girls went missing – and would you know it, so many of them were last seen near your haunting grounds. Isn’t that strange?”

He didn’t say anything. His one good eye went wide, almost pleading with me.

“Of course, I didn’t know they were your haunting grounds. Oh, I knew you were still a part of it, but who would have thought little Ben had it in him to be a leader? And not just a leader, a pretty fucked up leader at that. How many girls have gone missing now?”

He shook his head once more.

“Once might have been a coincidence. Hell, even two. It’s a bad part of town, after all.

But last I counted, there were eight. Eight girls, Ben.

Eight girls with families worried about them, who loved them.

Eight girls who you stole from, whose future you ruined.

Or did you extinguish their future completely?

It doesn’t matter,” I said, my voice hardening.

My hand reached to the side and, with a quick look, I found the object I was searching for.

“It doesn’t matter, because the eighth girl will be your last. You can’t cause anyone else anymore pain.

” I stood on my tiptoes and brought my face close to his.

“You’re nothing, and you’re done.” I planted a hard peck to his lips and pulled back with a grin at the same time as I stabbed the knife into his stomach, into the wound Dante had already created for me, and twisted.

He screamed in agony as I twisted further, and then yanked it across his stomach, slicing him even deeper.

I pulled the knife out and pushed it back in with all the force I had in me and slashed his stomach once more.

I stepped back as his back arched in pain, widening the wound even more. He screamed until his throat was hoarse, and then his head flopped forward at the same time as his intestines spilled out of his stomach.

Dante was right.

I wasn’t scared of what I had seen. I was scared that I liked it. I was scared that it made me think of all the things I could do that would be worse.

I’m not scared anymore.

I was no longer a victim. I was a protector. A protector of me, and all those other girls who had no one to protect them. I was a protector of the night, against these animals who preyed on the vulnerable.

And I fucking loved it.