20. Piper

Chapter twenty

Piper

I 'd always imagined it would be Cain who finally killed me. Maybe through an accident of some sort, or maybe he finally got fed up with my annoying habits. Of all the things I'd heard in the whispers, and all the events I'd foreseen, I'd never actually bore witness to my death. It was the one great mystery left for me, and for a while I used to think it was a good sign that I hadn't, since that likely would have meant that death was imminent. But when the past and the future began to fade into darkness, leaving only the overwhelming present, I realized that maybe my death would be foreshadowed in a different way.

Because why would the whispers stop, unless they recognized the futility of telling me things that I would never live to experience?

How was I meant to accept that I would die so soon after I'd finally become… happy? My Little Spider, the shining beacon in my soul, I needed her like I needed the blood in my veins. She kept me tethered, and she made me feel valued. And now I've deserted her and the two babies growing inside her. Not by choice, no, but I should have seen this coming.

I'd only meant to clear my head. Walk for a couple of hours, feel the wind against my face as I contemplated this foreboding silence I'd never experienced before. Addy had been so upset. I had felt her panic as she gripped my arm and, instead of staying with her like I should have, I'd selfishly walked away, hoping my talisman would ease her anxiety while I was away. The longer I walked, the more I realized that I'd need something more than a charm to beg her forgiveness. That was how I'd ended up at the little pawn shop a few blocks away.

My perfect Little Spider deserved something special, she deserved something normal. I'd gone in, no particular plan in mind, and I'd walked out an hour later with an antique ring tucked into my pocket. It was nearly dark out at that point, and I'd stopped on the curb, listening to the wind and opening my ears for whispers, an old habit I'd yet to drop. Nothing, not so much as a murmur. The silence was deafening, making my ears ring as I inhaled slowly, watching the cars pass in front of me.

The nagging feeling of eyes on the back of my head had me turning around. I half-expected to find Cain looming over me, ready with a tirade and threats of disembowelment. Instead, I found a small woman staring at me, her eyes glazed over like a sleep-walker. "Hello?" I frowned, snapping my fingers in front of her face. She didn't react at all, not even a blink. My skin prickled, and I reached for my charm that was no longer around my neck.

Fuck, well, that was bad timing. I stepped to the side, trying to move around her. The woman reached out and grabbed my wrist, and I snatched it away, the feel of her skin against mine making my teeth itch. I heard a small snap as one of my trinkets ripped off my wrist, landing on the ground between us.

Bad omen, very bad omen.

Tires screeched nearby, bouncing off the curb, and I turned to find a large van pulled up behind us. Hands caught me between my shoulder blades, shoving me toward the door, which opened and swallowed me up. I landed on my stomach and something slammed into my back, pinning me to the floor.

"Knock him out!" someone hissed, the voice rough and wrong-sounding, like a fork caught in a garbage disposal. Something pinched the back of my neck and the world around me faded into blackness.

I didn't know how much time had passed. Consciousness flitted in and out with the breeze, my head lolling on my shoulders, too out of it to wake up fully. Voices filtered in and out like a weak radio frequency, passing me snippets of information that meant nothing to me.

Did you kill him?

I pushed him into traffic.

That's not what I fucking asked.

The sound of flesh hitting flesh made my eyelids flutter, and quiet sobs filled the air. The voices faded out as the darkness enveloped me once more. I was starting to get used to the comforting emptiness. It wasn't confusing or bright. My skin didn't ache from missing Addy's touch. I just… existed, floating in nothingness. It was peaceful, if only I wasn't so lonely here.

How much did you give him? He should've woken up by now.

The full dose. He's big. I was worried it wouldn't work!

Well, wake him the fuck up. I'm bored.

The emptiness was abruptly flooded with water, and I gasped, choking as some of it went into my lungs. I opened my eyes, coughing violently as I blinked at the light invading my vision. I didn't recognize where I was, not even from my dreams. It was rare that I didn't see a place and just knew it, having experienced it someway or through someone else. I tried to wipe the water off my face, but my hands stayed where they were, and I looked down only to find them duct taped to the arms of the chair I was sitting in. My shirt was torn at the front, and my lip stung like it had been recently split open.

I glanced up at the blank-faced man – like the woman who pushed me – holding the empty bucket in front of me. His eyes were glazed over, and I shivered at the emptiness in his gaze. "So you're the pretty boy fortune-teller, eh?" someone rasped in the darkness. It was the same voice from the car, the one that sounded like rusted gears grinding together. "Didn't see this coming, I guess."

"Hello, Jake," I sighed, and he chuckled horribly, limping into view. My sweet Spider had done a number on him, and the fire had helped as well. He was now as twisted and mangled on the outside as he was on the inside. Most of his body was covered in burns, some still bandaged and trying to heal. Leaning on a cane for support, he dragged his right leg behind him as he approached, wheezing with the effort.

"Little brother tell you all about me?" He smirked, the burnt skin on his face stretching with the movement. He was grotesque to behold, but I wasn't afraid of him anymore. His face had haunted my dreams for years now.

"No," I replied, slouching down in the chair. His puppet, the man who'd woken me, was still frozen nearby, his eyes unfocused as he waited for his next command.

"Does it hurt yet? Being away from that vicious cunt of yours?" he snarled, clearly having first-hand experience with that withdrawal. It did, in fact. Every bone in my body was alert to the fact that Addy wasn't nearby, and each one was desperate to climb out of my skin and get back to her by any means necessary. Rather than answering him, I just shrugged, staring out at the small sliver of sky visible through the only window in whatever hell this was.

Something mumbled in my ear, and I turned, trying to catch the words before they disappeared. It was nearly a whisper, almost something worth listening to. It made me wistful.

"Hit him." A fist collided with my cheek, snapping my head back against the chair. I groaned and spat out a mouthful of blood, having bitten my tongue.

"Two down, and two to go," he mused, cocking his head at me. "I'd been hoping that by ruining your sad little excuse for a business, the loser in the sunglasses might off himself and make my life a little easier, but no. Oh well, he was easy enough to take care of. My little brother is next. I'm not killing him, not yet at least. I want him to suffer while all his friends die, one by one, and he's not there to save them." He sighed wistfully. "Hit him again. Hit him until your hands are broken," he ordered his puppet, taking a step back.

The blows were mechanical, completely devoid of emotion. One after the other, they rained down on me, my face, my chest, my ribs, back to my face. I felt my skin break open, bones cracking as the assault went on. I didn't know how long it lasted. There wasn't a clock down here to tell the time. A particularly nasty shot to my temple knocked me back into my quiet empty place, and I relished the peace while I could, knowing the pain would be returning soon. I wanted it to be over. Let me dissolve into nothing, become a whisper of my own, leave me free from the agony of too much knowledge and too little understanding.

"Wake the fuck up!" Jake snapped, and I wheezed as I fell back into my body. My vision was tinged red around the edges, bits of the world in front of me fuzzy and distorted. I tried blinking, but it didn't help remove whatever was in my eyes. He must've knocked something loose in there.

"I want you to feel every second of this, just like I had to feel my skin cooking off my bones," he snarled. "Now, you're going to help me send a little message to your fuck-buddies back home, so stay awake." I stared at the blurry shape of him as he hobbled toward me, trying to think.

"I don't have my phone on me," I coughed, blood dripping down my chin. Truthfully, I thought I lost it. I never used it anyway. Probably would have been smart to have it this time, especially because of the whole kidnapping thing. I would earn a big ‘I told you so' from Cain for that one, I was sure.

"You're quick for a nut job," Jake muttered, and I felt him tugging at my hand, wrenching my fingers so they were splayed out against the arm of the chair. "I want to send something nice to Addison. Something that she'll know is from me." I blinked as the holes in my vision grew larger, hiding more and more of my surroundings from view. I guess it was nice. It meant that I couldn't see Jake anymore, at least.

"Most people would choose flowers," I offered, and he laughed humorlessly.

"No, I want a more personal touch for this," he replied coldly.

I was glad my vision was fading. It meant I didn't have to watch as Jake's knife bit into my skin, slicing down in a violent thrust until the metal reached the wood underneath. I was glad I couldn't see the crimson rivers of blood pouring down onto the floor, or the way Jake grinned as he picked up my freshly severed finger. Unfortunately, my other senses were still well intact.

The pain of every nerve ending suddenly exposed to the air.

The smell of blood invading my nose.

The sound of the splatters as the droplets formed a puddle underneath the chair.

The taste of copper as I bit my tongue to keep from screaming.

I ran for the comfort of the dark, empty place, but my screams followed me this time, echoing through the void and making my head pound. I hated that Jake was the last face I'd see, his mottled skin haunting me in the safety of the darkness. So I thought about Addy instead, trying to picture her face as best I could. Hopefully, I could die imagining her gray eyes instead.

I'm sorry, Little Spider.