Master B-0077

“You have thirty-seven minutes.”

The cuffs locked around my father’s wrists and the guards left the room, leaving me, Ashlee, and Jake together in silence. Seth’s body was gone now. Only the mess of our anger was spilled all over the floor in dark red puddles and smears where his feet had left a trail from them dragging him out. He’d been nothing but a broken pin cushion of our aggressions by the time we finally got done with him.

“Killers. Freaks. That’s what the two of you have turned into?” He glanced around the room. “I’m not sure whether to be proud or disappointed. Do one of you want to explain to me why the hell I was drug out of bed at two in the morning, days ago, only to be brought here to witness this sideshow horseshit?”

I kept quiet, devoid of words as I stared at the man who’d completely altered my very existence.

“You hurt my mother.”

Ashlee walked forward. Blood speckled her face and hair, saturating parts of her jeans and shirt. She didn’t look afraid or even hesitant. She looked well past pissed.

“Your mother.” He let out a long breath. “God rest her soul. She was a good woman. Stubborn as hell, but she raised you right in your youth. Or…I thought she did. I’m not sure how she’d feel about you kissing your brother like that, but hey…what do I know? I’m the one in cuffs because of you two.”

“What do you mean ‘God rest her soul’?” Ashlee’s eyes jerked to me but went back to him. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Oh, you didn’t hear? I probably wouldn’t have either had I not been traveling through on one of my stops. She passed not too long ago. Horrible car accident. A pile up on the interstate or something.”

“What? No, you’re wrong. No. You have the wrong person. My mom is fine. Kyle.” Ashlee turned in a circle, looking as if she didn’t know where to go. I pulled her in close, feeling her clutch to me through her panic.

“Kyle is fine. I was waiting for the right time to tell you about your mom. I’m sorry. It hurts losing your mother.”

“But…No.” she sobbed, breaking as she collapsed in my arms. “Not like this. Not like this!”

“Shh. I have this taken care of. I told you everything will be okay, and you trust me, right? You know I got you. Come here.” Taking her to the table, I pulled out a chair, sitting her down. She was still crying, barely able to catch her breath as I wiped the tears and kept my stare locked with hers. “No more. She’s in a better place now, I promise. Ashlee, you need to calm.” Again, I wiped more tears. “Use what you’re wearing and clean yourself up. Put on your dress and heels. Clear your head. Don’t even look back towards that bastard over there. He’s dead to you now. That’s done. Focus on yourself. On something good that’s about to come your way.”

My hands cupped her cheeks and my lips pressed into hers.

“We’re family. You and me, Miss Perfect. We’re blood. You may be my slave, and I may hurt you at times, but I also do the impossible for what’s mine. Never doubt me. Never question my actions. Be good and obey, and I’ll move mountains for you. I’ll slay dragons.” I leaned towards her ear, shoving my fingers through her hair to squeeze. “I’ll bring you your son. Nothing is beyond me when I want something bad enough. He’s coming here right now. Not to stay, but you get an hour.”

“Kyle’s coming? Here? I can see him?”

The sobs returned as she clutched to me but faded as she sucked in deep breaths trying to stop herself. I pulled back, meeting her gaze. Ashlee could never know the truth. There was no point. All she had to know was her son was going to be okay, and that she needed to trust me.

“That’s right. I’ve been talking to the Main Master. I told him who we were. I had to. I didn’t have a choice. The rules here are very strict. They naturally had to look into records because of the connection, and Kyle’s name came up. He was in the system after your mom passed. The Main Master is having him brought to me. I won’t let him have a life like I did. I’m going to raise him, Ashlee. I’m going to do my best so that he never suffers like we did.”

More tears…and something else. Something I couldn’t read, but I knew it was just her processing the information overload.

“Think about it,” I said, lowering my voice even more. You only get to see him twice a year for an hour each time, but I’ll have stories. I can’t bring my phone in here, but I’ll have pictures I can keep in my wallet. You can still see him as he grows. You can know how he’s doing. I’m going to spoil my nephew. He’ll have it all. Good tutors. An amazing place to live and grow. I’ll print out all the listings. You can even help me pick out which home is the best environment for him. This could be good for both of us, Ashlee. Great, for him. His life will be set.”

Arms wrapped around my neck, pulling me in to hold tight.

“Thank you.” She sniffled, her body still going through the motions of sobbing regardless that she wasn’t making a sound. “You don’t know how much this means to me. I’ll be the best slave. The most perfect slave.”

“I know you will.” She wasn’t going to have a choice. I may have been having the feels lately, but in time, I knew things might change. Maybe even me to an extent, but to think I’d never hurt her again was pointless. I would. Maybe a lot. And maybe what I told Elec was the truth. Maybe some day I would kill her, but in the meantime, she’d still have more than she would have had I not embraced the idea of my nephew—my only surviving family on the outside world I’d ever claim.

Knocking on the glass divider had us turning to look. The Main Master was pointing to his watch, and I knew the fact that he was even up here meant so was Kyle.

Pulling back, I let go, standing.

“Get dressed. Make yourself look as presentable as possible while I take care of this. Kyle’s waiting.”

There was no hesitation as Ashlee began stripping her clothes off. I turned, reaching over to grab a knife from the rack. The blade was a good six inches long, and it curved along the length, coming to a sharp pointed tip. When I turned to face my father, his lips tightened.

“So, this is how we end?

“We never began.”

“I spent the first four years of your life with your mother.”

I lunged, closing the distance as I slashed the blade across his chest. He was still dressed. The shirt was slit where the blade had cut through and blood was beginning to soak into the dingy white cotton, webbing out color into the material more by the second. “Don’t you mention my mom. You destroyed her. You fucked her head all up.”

“Her head was already fucked up.” He winced, his teeth becoming exposed as he grimaced through the pain. “Why do you think I left? Your mom had issues. She was a drunk. A junkie, long before she lost herself to it after I took off. Just because you don’t remember doesn’t mean it wasn’t true.”

“What I remember are the fights. What I remember is hiding under the table while you knocked her on her ass more times than I can count. You broke her arm.”

“She fell wrong. I didn’t break it.”

My eyes closed through the deep breath. When I was opening them, I was already reaching up to his ear. I brought the blade down hard, cutting it off.

“Look at that. Your ear fell off. I don’t think it had anything to do with my knife.”

Yells were filling the space as Jake thrashed against the cuffs holding him in.

“You crazy son of a bitch. You crazy fucking bastard.”

“Bastard. You got that right. I have you to think for that. You were never a father. Not in my first four years, or any time after that. All I got from you was your bad blood. You pretended I wasn’t even there. I guess that was a blessing.”

“Let me out of these chains, son. You got your point across.”

“I’m not your son.” I reached up, using the knife to cut through the shirt so I could see the body underneath. There was nothing impressive or even distinct about it. No scars. No tattoos or even muscle tone of that matter.

My hand angled, moving the tip of the knife a few inches above the deep gash running over his pecs.

“Son. Son, please. You’re angry. You hate me. I understand that. I hate myself. You don’t have to do this. Let me go and you’ll never hear from me again. No one will. I’ll disappear. I’ll—”

“Go back to what you know?” Each word had me pushing the sharp tip a good inch into his skin as he yelled out. “Fuck you. You’re done hurting people. If I didn’t have someone important waiting on me, I’d spend hours, days, making you suffer like you made all of us. Instead, I’m going to leave here knowing you did. Do you know why?” I pushed into the right side of his chest, hitting bone, only to pull free and stick him again, this time finding a location where I could go deeper.

“Christian—”

“No!” I stabbed the knife in the three places guaranteed to back up my threat. My father gasped, his eyes like saucers as he looked down, only to jerk his gaze back to me. “Don’t you fucking dare call me that. That is not my name. That boy died on a dirty kitchen floor, holding his mother’s hand as she choked on her own vomit. Holding her fucking hand!” I spun, only to turn back through my rage. “I hate you. I’ve hated you for as long as I can remember. Today, that hate dies right here. You roughly have a few minutes to live. Within seconds, your lungs are going to fill up, and it’s going to get hard for you to breathe. Your liver is punctured as well as your kidney. I hope you have fun bleeding out. You’re going to do that all alone, just like you lived your life. All by yourself. No one will save you. No one will be here to hear you beg. To hear your confessions or regrets. How does it feel to know not a soul is even going to mourn your death, or know you’re gone? Pathetic. But me and Ashlee, we’ll know. Don’t worry, I’ll smile every time I think about you in this room, gasping for air, choking on blood, wishing you had someone to hold your hand like she did as the fear kicks in for your impending death.” I turned my back to him, dropping the knife. “Ashlee, let’s go see our boy.”

“Chris—Christian. Please.”

The click of heels echoed throughout the room. I reached my hand out to her, bringing her fingers to my lips. I didn’t look back at my father and neither did Ashlee as she took my arm and I led her to the door. My father continued to yell out, but that didn’t matter anymore. He’d suffer in there by himself, alone, just how it was meant to be. And me, I said I’d drop my hate for him, but I wasn’t sure how that was going to happen with how unsatisfied I felt. He’d brought me to the Gardens, and now he was going to curse me to stay there, releasing this anger on every slave I could.

“This way.”

Elec’s hands unclasped as he walked forward, taking a right and leading us two halls over. Ashlee was shaking as she grasped to me, but she held tight, keeping her pace steady. The moment we stopped in front of the door, I turned her to me, searching her face to make sure she’d gotten rid of any blood she might have missed.

“You look beautiful. You can do this. Smile. You’re about to see your son again.” I tucked a saturated red lock of hair behind her ear, waiting for her to smile before I turned to Elec.

“The moment you both walk through the door, your hour starts. You are not to mention the Gardens. You are not to say the term slave or Master. The truth will come in time. As of now, you’re at a retreat to make his life better. To make him happy. You’re not sick. You’re not unwell or stressed. You are not sad. No key words that point to negativity. Everything is positive. If you neglect to follow the rules, you lose half the time for your next meeting. Do both of you understand?”

“Yes, Main Master.”

Our answer was in unison. The door opened and we headed inside. What I walked into was not a room I was expecting. It was a…nursery, just like Pete had mentioned. A room with cribs, small beds, and toys everywhere. Although the space easily held fifty children, the only one in sight was a small blonde boy sitting a good twenty feet away playing with some toy cars on carpet resembling a racetrack.

“Kyle?”

At the sound of Ashlee’s voice, the boy’s head whipped around. For seconds he stared, his brow drawing in confused. I knew the moment he realized who she was. Green eyes flared and he jumped to his feet, sprinting right for her.

“Mom!”

Ashlee rushed forward, crouching to catch him as he dove into her arms, but I didn’t move. I couldn’t as Elec’s hand grasped my bicep, clamping down as I went to step.

“Give them some time. We need to talk. I’ve had my people looking into Kyle the last few days. He’s a smart kid. Extremely bright, which is good news for all involved. It’s the reason I want him brought here every time you return.” He glanced over, coming back to peg me with a hard stare. “I want to make something extremely clear. That boy is an investment. My investment. Your lifestyle—”

“Will not be an issue.’ I jerked my arm free. “He won’t be exposed to anything that will hurt him or alter our plans.”

“You better make sure of that. I know everything so don’t try at any point to get something by me. I”m the first call you make in any situation. Good. Bad. I don’t care if he scrapes his knee while he’s playing. It’s me you reach out to. To Kyle, I am more than some man watching over him, and he’ll find that out soon enough. This is the first project I’ve overtaken personally for my lifestyle, and I don’t intend for anything to fuck up this boy’s path. Do you want him to have a good life? To be the best? The most powerful? To be feared and respected no matter where he goes?” He glanced to Kyle, only to return back to my eye contact. “You asked this of me. I believe you were genuine. Keep that mentality. Do your part, and his future will be set. If you fail after I gave you warning, I’ll take more than your nephew. I’ll take your life, and then I’ll take hers. All the boy will have left is me.”

Elec left me standing there, plastering a smile to his face as he approached Ashlee and my nephew.

“You must be Kyle. My name is Elec. You and I are going to be really good friends. Why don’t you show me and your mom this car you’re playing with.”

There were no words as I watched the switch flip inside the Main Master. It was like he was a completely different person. I took in the nursery, knowing this went so much deeper than rumors or speculation. Where I thought I had everything figured out and under control, I couldn’t stop the warnings that revolved as I watched Elec. All of our futures might have been set, but at any wrong turn, I risked losing it all. Like dominoes, we would fall if I made a mistake. That’s what happened when you made a deal with the devil. It was all or nothing. Luckily, I’d been in Hell long enough to know how not to get burned. I’d comply with the Main Master’s rules, and in time we’d all be rewarded. I was in deeper now, more than ever, and after the shit I’d been through, I deserved to be here. I deserved my family, my new life, and I sure as fuck couldn’t afford to let anyone get in the way of that. Not even myself.

The End