4
I’ve never felt pain like it.
My whole body is alight in agony, pure, unfiltered pain that runs through my bloodstream like wild fire ripping through a forest. My hands are restrained by leather binds at my sides, my ankles in much the same state at the bottom of the bed. To my left an IV drip is hooked into my arm and a machine beeps to match the pace of my frantic heartbeat. If I wasn’t in this room, I might believe I was in the hospital, but hospitals don’t look like this.
There are no satin curtains, or million dollar works of art hanging on the walls, there aren’t crystal light fittings or fur rugs in a hospital. A window to my left shows a courtyard, I can see out onto a manicured lawn with a stone fountain spurting clear water into the air. The sky a perfect cloudless blue.
The door to the room bursts open and a woman, dressed in blue hospital scrubs rushes to my side, silencing the machine still beeping wildly at my side. She checks the IV, picks up a clipboard attached to the end of the bed and then grabs some equipment from a box at the end on a counter.
“Where I am?” I rasp, my voice scratchy and hoarse from lack of use. Even talking hurts. Everything hurts.
Her eyes bounce to me, but she doesn’t say anything as she positions the blood pressure sleeve around my arm and hooks something to my finger, pressing a button on a device she holds in her hand.
“I’m talking to you!” I growl, “Where I am!?”
“Please,” She whispers, “I’m not supposed to talk to you.”
“Who told you that?” I ask.
She shakes her head.
I don’t remember much.
We were dancing, Lex and I, and then we took it to a more private area, the office.
I felt free, wanted, aroused and then, pain…
It tore through my abdomen, ripping through my gut and then blood. So much blood. I still remember the way the warm liquid seeped through my fingers, coiling around the digits and soaking through my clothes.
Lex was there. He was frantic.
The calm beast was finally rattled.
He looked… terrified.
I suck in a shocked gasp as I recall the way he looked at me, gone was the darkness in his eyes, the soulless stare and it was replaced with a fear so potent it took my breath away. He was scared for me.
After that I can’t recall what happened. There was a loud bang, a boom really but what happened!?
“Where the fuck am I!? Where’s Lex!?”
“Please,” the nurse begs, eyes wide with fear.
“You can leave,” a hoarse voice says from the doorway. My eyes snap to the newcomer.
“Who are you!?” I snap.
The guy steps into the room, dressed finely in an Armani suit, the color of midnight. His dark hair is streaked with silver but it’s his face that gives away his age. Late fifties but looks much older with deep groves that wrinkle his skin. His eyes are the same color as mine, an emerald green flecked with gold and he’s clean shaven.
I already know who he is, I see myself in that face, the eyes, the shape of his nose, but I want him to confirm it.
Lex is a monster. I’ve always known it, his darkness is something that swirls around him, it’s his aura, his shadow. He’s a terrifying creature but this man, it goes beyond that.
There is nothing there. No soul. No heart. No emotion. It’s just a shell for a beast to inhabit but this beast cannot be tamed or reasoned with.
He looks at me like he would look at dirt beneath his Italian loafer, a speck, nothing, worthless.
You’d be stupid not to fear a man like Lex but not fearing a man like this would be lethal. Where Lex may hesitate, this one would not.