“In that regard, yes.”
Assuming I’m done with him entirely, I hear his feet pivot on the thin black
carpet and his hand jiggles the doorknob when he grips it.
“Before you go,” I assert, stopping him in his tracks. “Have you ever bought
any girls for yourself?”
Lee stutters. “Well, not here, no.”
“But elsewhere?”
After a beat, he says, “Yes, of course.”
I hum noncommittally, though his answer has my body tightening with rage.
“Sir, may I ask why—” His question comes to a crashing halt when I stand and turn to face him. I’m not sure if it’s my scars, or the look of cold murderous rage in my eyes, but something about my face has his words fading and his eyes
widening.
Blindly, his hand reaches behind him, searching desperately for the door
handle as I approach him.
As quick as a whip, my hands grip him by his throat, cutting off his shout. I
lift him to my height level while he kicks and claws for me to release him, and I
stare into his dilated eyes.
All I see is my own monstrous reflection.
I had told him those girls were human beings, but I never said that I was.
Pulling my top lip over my teeth, I snarl at him. “How many women have you
thrown onto that stage, just to be carted off to a life of misery and suffering?
How many have you taken for yourself and did unspeakable things to them?”
His face turns purple and his mouth flops like a fish, but no sound escapes from his constricted throat. I only squeeze tighter, relishing in the way his veins pop from his forehead. I wonder if I can make them burst open.
“Come on, Lee, I know you have a wife and children. How do you face them
every night, knowing that you’ve condemned people just like them to a
sickening fate?”
Just before he goes unconscious, I release him. He sucks in a huge breath while I force him into the chair that I’ve been occupying for the last two hours.
Purchasing women that he proudly presented to me and fourteen other men.
I deliver one punch to his face, nearly knocking him out cold. It provides me
enough time to grab the black bag I had brought in with me, full of rope and tape. Of course, the two bouncers, Beavis and Butt-Head, checked my bag before allowing me to enter the building, but they had only smiled—assuming
the items were for the girls I planned to buy.
I had smiled back because they’re idiots, and because they were going to die.
Quickly, I dig out the roll of duct tape and bind his hands and feet. He pleads
with me relentlessly, and when that fails, he flops around like a worm on a hook,
but I can’t imagine what he thinks that’ll accomplish.
Next, I fish out my can of lighter fluid and squirt some all over his body. His
eyes widen, and he struggles harder, attempting to break through the tape like he’s the Incredible Hulk.
“Jay? Send them in,” I order.
“On it.”
Leaving Lee to struggle for a bit, I step out to find several of my men pouring
into the building, engaging in a shoot-out, and taking down security in a matter
of minutes. No one is making it out of this auction alive.
While they take care of the employees and guards, I meticulously make my way into each cubicle. Jay unlocks each door for me one at a time, and I walk in, incapacitate the grimy rapist inside, then tie them up just like Lee.
By the time I make my way through all fifteen cubicles, a sheen of sweat is
coating my skin. Most of them were old, but there were a few younger ones who
put up a fight. A very pathetic fight—but one all the same.
Rolling my neck, I release some of the tension in my shoulders.
“All the girls safely in the limo?”
“Yep, and everyone else is dead,” Jay reports.
“Have Michael set up the camera on the stage,” I command, while sliding out
a cigarette and lighting it.
I’m still in the fifteenth cubicle, which is, of course, on the other side of Lee.
The man bound in the leather chair is squirming, begging for me to release him.
Makes me wonder how many children or women have asked the same of him.
Michael saunters on the stage with a tripod and camera in his hand. While he
sets it up, I ask Jay, “Did you figure out how to turn the glass transparent?”
“Obviously,” he sasses.
“Let’s see it then, genius.”
Seconds later, the glass walls gradually lighten until all fifteen cubicles are transparent, and I’m surrounded by men strapped in leather chairs, fighting like hell to get free and failing.
Jay whistles. “Damn, dude.”
It seems all at once, the fifteen men freeze, confused, and petrified as they take in the sight of fourteen others in the same situation as them. Even Michael pauses on the stage, taking in the scene around him with a grin on his face.
Eventually, I watch all their heads turn toward me.
“You see this?” I ask the man next to me. “How exciting. You get to show them their fate.”
“Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. ”
I cock a brow and patiently wait as he prays for a salvation he’ll never receive.
“Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. ”
“Do you think you’ve been saved?” I ask.
“Yes,” he says with conviction.
I smile. “Nine more Hail Marys to go. I want to hear you say them even as
you burn.”
He starts shaking his head vigorously, restarting his prayers as tears fall down
his cheeks.
“Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee…”
I inhale one last time, then flick my lit cigarette onto the chanting man. Just
like the others, he’s covered in lighter fluid, and instantly bursts into flames.
His prayer bleeds into screams, and I’m disappointed that he couldn’t even make it through his second Hail Mary before he succumbed to the agony.
He’s a god-fearing man, but I’m confident the devil will take good care of him.
Leaving the sick fuck to burn, I make my way next door to Lee.
“Miss me?” I ask, pulling out my matchbook and lighting one up.
“Pleasepleaseplease, I’ll do anything! Please don’t do this!”
“Anything?”