He fell to the ground, jerking the chain attached to my collar, forcing me down with him. I was so high on adrenaline, everything that happened seemed vague and surreal.
The door was kicked open, and while I tried to get up from the floor as Vadik kept screaming, holding the side of his face, Lucio and his men came storming in.
I wasn’t sure what was happening, but the second I felt arms around my body pulling me up, I knew it was him.
“Doe.” Antonio helped me straighten then wrapped his arms around my shoulder. “Jesus Christ, Doe.” I was still in a haze of adrenaline, rage, and fear. But when I felt his familiar heat spread through me, I came down, reality slowly sinking through the cracks in my soul.
“Antonio,” I whispered as more tears poured down my cheeks.
“It’s okay.” He placed his jacket around my naked body then wove his fingers through my hair, pulling me close again. “You’re safe. It’s okay.”
“I’m sorry,” I said softly as I buried my face in his chest. “I’m so sorry.”
“Stop it.” He placed his hands on my cheeks, forcing me to look up at him. “You did nothing wrong.”
“Antonio,” Lucio interrupted, and we turned to face him, “what do you want us to do with this fucker?”
Lucio had Vadik restrained, blood pouring from the side of his face. The sight of his blood was probably the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
I narrowed my eyes. “So, you do bleed,” I said to Vadik. “Youarehuman.” I stepped away from Antonio, closer to Vadik.
“Doe.” Antonio reached for my hand, and I turned to him. It only took one look for him to know what came next. It was the best feeling in the world, being so in sync with someone.
Antonio nodded to Lucio. “Tie the fucker down.”
I searched the room until I found the necklace Vadik had removed from my neck before putting the collar on. It was on the top of the cage Vadik had kept me in, and when I picked it up, I felt Antonio move in behind me. I felt his hands brush against my neck as he swept my hair over my shoulder. No matter the situation we were in, his touch always felt like silk against my skin.
He unlocked the collar and pulled it off, throwing it across the floor. I handed him the necklace, and when he clipped it in place, he leaned forward, lips touching the edge of my ear. “Make him suffer.”
I closed my eyes, placing my palm on my necklace. The blade clicked loose, and I flicked the pad of my thumb across the sharp edge.
Antonio stepped back, and I turned to face Vadik, who was now tied to a chair. Lucio stepped back when I moved forward, my eyes focused on the devil in front of me. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve dreamt of this moment?”
Vadik’s chest rose and fell with his rapid breaths. “You don’t have it in you,” he sneered.
I stepped up, leaned down until I was eye to eye with the fucking boogeyman before ripping his shirt apart. “I’ve always had it in me.” With the blade pressed against the hollow of his throat, I pressed the tip into his skin. He hissed, but as I slowly pulled the blade down, tearing through his skin inch by inch, his moans turned to screams. Blood oozed out, dripping down his chest. The louder he cried, the more determined I was to gut him.
Down…down…down, I felt the blade slice through his flesh. More and more, louder and louder, his screams filled the room.
I pulled the knife from his flesh. “This is for every girl you’ve ever hurt.” And then I jabbed the blade into his chest, twisting, before tearing it out again. I stood, placing the knife at the top of his other ear. “And this is for the girl you killed before you cut off my ear.” The blade slid through the skin of his ear like a hot knife through butter.
His eyes rolled back into his head, and I knew I didn’t have long before the pain would let him pass out…or die.
With his hands tied behind his back, I climbed on top of him, straddling him, my eyes focused on his face contorted in agony. I held up my blade, one hand covering the other. “And this…is for me.”
I put every ounce of strength I had into my arms, screaming as I stabbed the blade into his groin. He cried out, his face red, blood oozing out of him from every corner.
But then I lifted my arm, stabbing him again…and again…and again. All I saw while tearing this monster’s flesh from his body was the ten-year-old girl whose life was ruined by men like him. Ruined by my…father.
I saw her face. Her innocence. I saw the little girl who witnessed her mother bleed to death. And while the face of that little girl occupied every fiber of my being, I continued to slash the blade through Vadik’s body. Over, and over, and over again. The more I cut through his flesh, feeling warm liquid splatter on my face, the more I wanted to keep going…until my screams eventually turned into cries. Sobs. Heart-wrenching sobs.
Two strong arms grabbed me around my waist, pulling me off Vadik’s lifeless body. “Let me go. Let me go!” I kicked and screamed. I wasn’t done. I wanted more. I wanted to spill every ounce of his disgusting blood, drain his body of every drop.
“Doe, stop. He’s dead.” Antonio pressed my back against his chest, but I kept thrashing. I wasn’t fucking done.
“Doe! Stop!”
I cried so hard, it hurt. My chest hurt. Every bone in my body hurt. The gut-wrenching pain echoed in my cries as I toppled forward, my core feeling like it had been torn in half from the pain.