B0114

If I had learned anything in all of my teachings, it was that words had more power than the truth behind them. How they were spoken. How they were said. If the right emotion backed the statement, it was all that mattered. Even a lie could become truth. But was I lying? Did I mean what I said? Was the passion in my voice just as real as it sounded?

Pistol grabbed my ass with one hand while the other wrapped around my back. His kiss stole any thoughts I might have held, and perhaps that said everything. Afterall, wouldn’t any sane person have fought to escape? Fought their Master to the death for morality? It seemed so pointless and stupid to me. My Master may have been deadly, heartless, a liar, but he wanted me more than anyone else ever had. Maybe even Seth, who’s reminder only had my skin heating even more.

I pulled back, mirroring Pistol’s stare as he took me in.

“It’s final then. This. Us.” He nodded glancing over to the men behind the divider. “We don’t have much time. We kill the rapist first.” My Master turned, pointing to Seth and signaling to the guards. As they moved in to grab him, Seth started to fight and jerk against their hold. Kicks had them grabbing him tighter as they pulled him through a back door, disappearing from view.

“Are we supposed to kill them here? In this room? How?”

Pistol gestured to the shackles on the back wall, and then the rack full of tools further down by the table. My Master pulled me towards them as I still tried to figure out how all of this transpired.

“How did you do this? I can’t even believe I got through the gate. But…them. Seth, he was in prison, and my.” I stopped. “Our dad. How?”

“It’s a little complicated, but I have pull as well as influence. I guess it’s sort of an even trade. That’s yet to be seen. I don’t care either way. This will be worth it.”

I stopped as I took in the older man still watching us. “You hate him.”

“I do. More than anything. He might as well have killed my mom. What he did to her. What he turned her into.” A shaky breath left him as his fury shone through his evil stare. “He ruined her, and he’s going to pay for that. For hurting your mom too. For making our lives the way they were. He has more kids than us, Ashlee. Four women. Eight kids that I know of. All abandoned like us. Who does that? How does someone do that?”

“I don’t know. He won’t hurt anyone else though. He won’t do this again.”

A grin pulled at Pistol’s lips. “No. He won’t. First, Seth. I want you to start. You go as far as you can. If you can’t finish, I’ll take care of the rest. You need this.”

The door opened and I felt sick as the guards marched him in. My body trembled, and I could barely keep standing as old fear and memories returned full force. I could still smell the liquor. Still hear me making excuses. He hadn’t wanted me to stay home. He was responsible for me, and my mom thought I was at their house. I said I was fine waiting at home for her but when he saw I wasn’t going to give in and go back, he pushed his way inside. He tore off my clothes and raped me not two feet from my front door. I fought so hard. I’d screamed so long and hard that my throat was raw. But I hadn’t stopped, and I was lucky the neighbors heard and came home when they had. They saved me from what might have happened afterward, which could have been anything.

“You. Bitch! You must have missed me to bring me all the way out here. Look how pretty you turned out. Fucking cunt. Are you happy about what you did? Hey! Bitch, I’m talking to you.”

Pistol grabbed my hand, his lids so low I could barely see his eyes as he glared over to Seth. “Strip him down and chain him up.” He turned to face me as yells grew louder. “Make this good. I’ll try to hold off for as long as I can but if he keeps running his mouth about you, I make no promises.”

I couldn’t respond before yells started again. “Leave that on. What is this shit? Hey! Take me back. You can’t do this!”

“Go find something off that cart, slave. I’m going to go introduce myself.”

I nodded, turning, only to get spun around for one more kiss. The moment Pistol broke from me, he pulled his sleeves up on his forearms, unlatching his watch to place on the table. The guards were stepping back from Seth’s chained, nude form, but he didn’t look at them as they headed out. He was too focused on my Master as Pistol headed for him.

“Well, look at you,” Seth said, smiling angrily. “Aren’t you a pretty thing for a man? Too pretty, is that what the tattoos and hair are for? A distraction?”

Pistol walked towards him slowly, never breaking his stare as he approached.

“You raped my sister.”

“Your…sister? But you were just kissing her.”

“I sure was. I own her. I can do whatever the fuck I want. That doesn’t change the fact that you raped her when she was a child.”

“Rape. Please. She wanted it.”

Pop!

The hit connected against Seth’s nose so solid, I jumped at the savage connection. Seth’s legs buckled and blood gushed from his nose.

“She was thirteen. Twelve when you started molesting her. You think she wanted that? From you?”

“Yeah, motherfucker, she did.”

Whack!

Whack!

Whack!

The combination of hits could have been done by a professional for how quick and brutal the blows landed. Jab-jab-cross. Jab-cross-uppercut. Jab-cross-hook-cross. Pistol had had training at some point, and it showed with every explosion to Seth’s face.

“Fuck! Fuck, man. This is bullshit. Come on.”

“She was a child. Say it.”

“She didn’t look like a child.”

“She was a child! Say it!”

Whack!

“Fine! She was a child. Guards!”

“No one is coming for you. You’re here because of me. I did this. I brought you here. You are closure for my slave. She deserves that after what you did. Ashlee.”

My head snapped to the cart at my Master’s call, and I grabbed the first thing that pulled to me. It wasn’t the typical knife, mallet, or hammer at the front. Those brought me too close. I wasn’t ready for that. I grabbed the bat resting in the back that was covered in large spikes. It was heavier than I expected, but it was the only thing I felt comfortable using.

“There’s my girl. Good choice.”

Blood was trickling down Seth’s chin from his busted lip. There was even a small river of crimson dripping from the far side of his jaw. The injured skin was already starting to swell, puffing out at the split area under his left eye.

“What the fuck is she going to do with that? Ash…don’t do this. Ash, I messed up. I was drunk. I wasn’t thinking. I tried to stop. I really did but.” My lids narrowed as I drew the bat up over my shoulder. “Ashlee, it was a mistake. I mean, think if I wouldn’t have. You wouldn’t have a son. We have a son.”

A tremor shook my entire body as I yelled and reared back.

“Ashlee, stop. Please! “Ash—”

I didn’t stop. I put every ounce of my strength into my swing. With the way Seth’s wrists were cuffed at his sides, near his hips, the spikes tore and stuck right into his upper left bicep and shoulder. The hard thunk that reverberated in my hand from hitting bone made my palms ache, but I was too busy jerking with all my strength to dislodge the large spikes that were deeply embedded into his now shattered collarbone.

“Fuck! Bitch!”

“That’s my son. He is not yours. He is nothing to you. He’s my son!”

“Fine! God dammit. I need a doctor. Help! Guards!”

Pistol walked more to the side, his arms crossing over his chest. “Didn’t I say no one was coming for you? Ashlee, baby, swing again. Keep going until you can’t anymore. I want this bastard so full of holes, we can see through him.”

The order registered with ease, as if my Master had told me to do something as simple as kneel. The hate I had for the man who hurt me knew no bounds. Had I truly ever feared Seth? I didn’t feel that now. All I wanted was to make him pay. To erase any knowledge of my son from his head completely.

Moving to position myself better, I drew back, soaking in the screams that were already starting. Seth was yelling out for his life. Yelling for help. He was yelling to a God that didn’t reside in these walls. Again, I put my strength into swinging, this time tearing into his abdomen. Blood squirted out, spraying me as I leaned in, tugging back the bat. When I went again, I swung in an upward motion, coming from the floor to connect diagonally. And I went right for the one area that had hurt me the most. Red was running down his leg, squirting out as the spikes were removed from his thigh, sac, and cock. The bat was growing heavier as I aimed for the general location again.

All I could see was the weapon he’d used against me. His actions had scarred me for years. The pain, the trauma, did damage I still wasn’t quite healed from. Hadn’t I been terrified of anyone male after Seth? In the outside world, I couldn’t date. I couldn’t hang out. I couldn’t even have friends with the fear that they’d hurt me too. Men had been a trigger for me in general. How hard had it been even holding a job, or holding a conversation with the opposite sex? I’d forgotten it all through the brainwashing of my training, but that was only because I kept getting told I had bigger things to fear…like death. Like mutilation. Torture. I had a son. I needed my son. To live for him. To survive. I had to find a way to somehow get him back. To see if he was okay. To know he was safe!

“Ash, please! No more. No more! Ashlee! Help! Fucking help me!”

The pool of blood beneath him grew bigger as I kept tearing through layers of his flesh. His cock was split in half, his sac tore open. There were deep jagged gouges all over his legs, stomach, and chest. I kept hearing my Master. I kept seeing Kyle, my son.

Keep going until you can’t anymore. And I was. I was breathing heavily, fighting with everything I had to lift the heavy bat again, and again. Sweat was starting to coat my face and dampen my hair. Still, I tried, sending the spikes sinking right into the sternum of his chest. I pulled back but couldn’t seem to get them free. My body swayed, only stopping as Pistol’s arms wrapped around me from behind as support.

“You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen in my life.” His mouth and nose nuzzled into my cheek, sliding on the mix of sweat and blood. “I should have been there for you before, but you have me now. Let’s finish this, together.”

All I could do was nod as his hands covered mine, and he used his strength to jerk the bat free. Seth’s eyes were already rolling and for the first time I realized the vomit mixing with the blood on his chin. It was sprayed all over the floor and on my shoes. For a moment so momentous and quick, I was seeing everything in slow motion. Details were soaking in on areas I wasn’t even comprehending. A turn of my body this way to swing—Jake’s terror-filled gaze as he watched on. A pivot of that bat this way—the table holding my black dress and shoes. The impact against Seth’s face—cement, caving bone breaking through skin, more blood, teeth flying free of his mouth as his lips made a wave-like motion from the force. Even skin sticking and tugging to the sharp pointed metal as we pulled free. And then we did it to his head again. Three times, but the last to the opposite side.

No more screams, only a deaf-sounding, monotone hum that mixed with an airy gurgle. Eyes were open, but they were gone. Dead from us. So many things. I saw, but my processing was off. Everything was…swaying. Wanting to fade with what I was doing. Bile scorched my throat and mouth, and I swallowed back my own vomit, still under the control of my Master as we went to swing again. The feel would never leave me. The jarring was doing its job imprinting in my brain. Warping me as I knew I’d never escape the vibrating, numbing ache of my hands. Killing wasn’t easy. It was hard. Messy. But worth it to know the man who I thought would be free, would never hurt me, Kyle, or anyone else again. Seth was dead, and me and my son were free of him. It was all thanks to my Master…my brother.