Melissa

H ad I thought getting my fingers chopped off was excruciating? Had I thought being choked an inch from my life for minutes on end was too much? From the way Elec held to my neck, dragging me to my new cement grave, I knew we hadn’t broached the definition of pain. He was going to torture me.

All those times I’d glimpsed him making people suffer, I thought it’d been hot. I longed to see him release his rage. Glimpsing the power of his body through such primal emotions just did it for me. But now I was going to be at the receiving end of his rage, and that sparked a fear in me so great, I couldn’t begin to process it. I couldn’t even understand or make sense of why he’d want to go to that extreme.

Elec was going to hurt me. Like…really, really hurt me. Me. LaRoe. His teacher. His lover. His damn friend. So, I lied for a few years. It wasn’t constant. I fucked him pretending to be someone else. So what! It could have been worse. I could have made him suffer in pain. I didn’t. I made him feel good. I helped him forget his past and work through his grief. And yet I was the bad guy? It didn’t make sense. It was wrong. So was everything about the Gardens. No one here was innocent, including me. Yet, I was the one having to pay for the sins of my pleasure? That didn’t make sense.

If this would have been over Braddock, fine. Slap my wrist and tell me not to do it again. I get it. But he didn’t do that. I wasn’t in trouble over Braddock. This was about him. About that bitch, Vivia. I told him the truth. I told him everything. I hadn’t harmed him. Not yet. But here I was, being drug into a cell for a crime I didn’t get the chance to commit. That wasn’t fair. Ron…well…Elec knowing about that wasn’t very good. Maybe I would have ended up here anyway. But this was me. I didn’t deserve to die.

“Pl-se.”

“Don’t you fucking ask for mercy. You deserve this. You did this .”

His grip once again tightened. My mouth opened and air barely managed to force its way through in a hollowed pinching sound. Elec gave me a shake, using his free hand that still held the bloody knife to point across the room to the rack of tools. Master One didn’t hesitate to jog over. Tears were blinding me.

“Tongue ripper. I’m done listening to anything she has to say.”

I gave a kick, trying to scream and twist free. Lack of oxygen left me panicked and on the verge of passing out. I managed to meet with Shane’s eyes as he grabbed the tool and turned to head for us. The look was fleeting. Dismissive yet full of fear as he rushed back over to us.

“What the fuck happened when you left that courtroom? Elec, you have to talk to me. The Council?—”

“Knows! They’re fucking watching. They know everything. Hold her goddamn head.”

Elec let go of my throat, and I was suddenly swept from my feet and slammed to the ground. Any air I had was gone at the impact, but I still managed to yell out in a raspy, barely existent voice.

“No! No! Elec, don?—”

“Don’t let go of her head.”

The pressure of Elec’s knee on my chest as he hovered above with the big pliers stole the pain from my missing fingers. I was going crazy. I was trying to shake them loose. I was hitting against Elec’s arms as they came down. It didn’t help. He quickly pinned one underneath his other knee causing me to scream from the pain that made me feel like my severed digits were going to explode. But that scream sealed my fate.

Metal pushed into my mouth, probing, clamping. My tongue got caught between metal, and more, I screamed. Pain merged with pressure, and I gagged as he stretched out my tongue further than I knew it could go. I could barely catch my breath through the gag before blinding fire sliced right through the muscle. Blood flooded the back of my throat. There was an unresponsiveness within me as fear skyrocketed. Almost a calming horror. He’d really just cut my tongue in half. He’d done it. To me. I knew he meant to hurt me, and he continued to, but he was actually going to go through with it. Why, even now, did I feel so shocked that this was happening? Terrified, yes, but mostly hurt and shocked.

“Nhhhh!” I retched, choking on the gurgling blood. Shane let go, lifting as Elec stood, jerking me to my feet.

“No words. No taps.” He moved in, only inches from my face. The blood was so hot as it poured from my chin, making a river down my exposed cleavage from my opened shirt. I was shaking as Elec glared deep into my eyes. “You truly killed her for me. Every part of her. I thought I loved Vivia, and I think I did once. Now all I see when I think of her is you. I see her right now, but not because of your power. You ruined her. I hate you for that. I hate you for making me… hate her . I hate you both. Today, you’re both dead to me forever. You wanted a cold, detached Main Master. You got one. I’m going to show you just how fucking perfect for this job I am.”

The door opened, and Nineteen staggered inside. The side of his head was bandaged, but he was still covered in blood. It soaked his blond hair and drenched the entire side of his shirt. Elec took a long look at him, nodding at some unspoken message or bond between them. Seconds passed as I cried and fought to get out of Elec’s grasp.

“Have the guards hit the alarms. Wake everyone up. Broadcast this room live on every single television in this fucking place except Medical and the Nursery.”

Nineteen nodded, moving his face towards his clean shoulder. Warmth flooded down my legs, burning my ice-cold skin. Urine pooled at my feet and Elec’s lips tugged back on one side.

“You wouldn’t believe how many people do that when I’m about to kill them. You should be afraid, . There’s not going to be much left of you when I finish. Not together anyway. I’m going to hang your filleted skin on the main gates so everyone coming through those doors will know what to expect when they cross me. I’m going to give your meat to Pearl to feast on as an apology to what you did to her mother. You’re brain I’m saving for Braddock as a gift for taking his. You’re going to be dissected piece by fucking piece. And right there on my desk, I’m going to keep your heart. It’s all I have left of Vivia since you stole the real thing from me.”

Alarms blared through the room drowning out my monotoned, mumbled denials and pleas. I was pulled over to a pair of hanging cuffs where my wrists were clamped in. I could barely reach the floor with my toes, but it didn’t matter. They locked cuffs around my ankles as well, holding me in place with a short chain. I pulled hard against the metal hoping the blood would help me slip through, but it was impossible. The sharp edge tore into my skin, doing what it was meant to: hurt me.

Elec paced. And paced. The alarm cut off and he nodded, running his bloody hands down his chest. He still clung to the knife as if it were part of him now. And maybe it was. The distrusting, murderous glare came back to me but only for a moment as he began to speak.

“I’m a patient man. I’m understanding. I listen when spoken to. I help when needed. I’m a damn good Main Master. Perfect, really. But not everyone believes so. For those of you who attended the trial tonight of Jett LaRoe, you’re aware of this woman here getting removed. She is the former Mistress Two, stripped of her title after her attack on me in my private quarters. But it doesn’t end there. A few weeks back, the Gardens uncovered evidence of possible crimes against her patients. As we investigated, we waited until we were sure. At that point, we revoked her license and sent those of you who attended her services to a new doctor. Had she not come to hurt me tonight, LaRoe would still be exactly where she is right now. She has had her husband killed. Her son killed. And now, she tried to kill me . No one ,” Elec growled, “will come after me and live to tell about it. Let this be a lesson to any of you who ever think to cross me. Your death will not be swift. It will not be easy. You will suffer, just as she will. Woman. Man. It matters not. An attack against the Main Master equals an unequivocal, horrific death.”

Elec lifted the knife, pausing as the door opened again. He couldn’t hide his confusion as three men entered in long black hoods. These were different than the Garden’s cult of killers. These were Council. The red underlining of the robes as they grew closer told me that. It was more than I could take. I was trembling to the point of almost convulsing. My head bobbed, and I nearly passed out.

Silence played out as the cloaked figures moved to the shadows against the far wall. And Elec didn’t speak. He lifted his knife, sticking the tip into my skin just below the shackle of my left arm. My scream was foreign as he dragged it down, splitting the skin. It was so deep and demonic sounding that I didn’t even recognize my own tone.

Lights flickered, and again I swayed. Still screaming. Still thrashing. No…I was trying to run. My legs were all over the place as instinct left me attempting escape, but I wasn’t moving. Elec was cutting just past my elbow, sawing the skin towards my arm pit. It didn’t matter that I was still wearing my blouse. He cut through it like it wasn’t even there. I know, I saw . I saw everything as I stood, suddenly watching myself from feet away.

I was out of body again. Gone. Gone. I was watching the blood spread and cover me even more. Seeing the muscle split open wide as he started on my other arm. I even found beauty in his face as he lost himself in whatever madness was plaguing his mind. And it must have been madness. His eyes were intense. Perfect teeth bit the smallest amount into his bottom lip as he made the long slice to the other arm pit. He moved back to just shy of the shackle, pushing the tip of the knife under my skin, flicking the blade to separate my skin from the muscle on my arm.

How many times had he watched videos of Everleigh Whitlock do this exact thing? To West’s face? To others. The Council still had those tapes of Whitlock when everyone thought Bram was dead. I gifted those recordings to Elec one year as a Christmas present. But Bram hadn’t been dead, and he was far from dead now. He was close. Too close to our world. Once upon a time, not too long ago, the Council had told me secrets. At the time I had thought it too dangerous to get so close. Perhaps I had been wrong. Maybe I wouldn’t be here if I would have hooked them more often. Sleeping…? No. They were right here with us. They’d been ready. They weren’t in my control anymore, but they’d be in Elec’s. Eventually, he’d make sure of it. This was just the beginning of his mastery. He’d get better. He’d become more dangerous. Untouchable, thanks to this.

“ Stop looking at me .”

Had I been? Yes. Perhaps even dissociated, I was still begging him to spare my life. To search out our connection. Search out his love of Vivia. But there was no love there anymore. I killed that, just as he said. With the death of love, Elec became the perfect Main Master. My flawless creation.

“I said stop.”

A shocking pop snapped me back to my body. Agony from the knife registered as he began digging one of my eyes free. I was going in and out. Dark. Light. Yells. So many yells. Were they mine? Were they his? Ours? I liked the thought of them being ours. Even if they weren’t the kind I wanted us to share.

We were ending this together. He was using me as the ultimate example of his position. I would have wanted him to do that. I would have wanted this to happen had I not been the one on the other end of his hate. But I was, and the further I felt myself fall away from reality…the more I was okay with that. Elec was making me proud. Even if it was my death, it was us doing it together. He was the ultimate Main Master, and I had created him. My work was a success. I…was a success.