Page 39 of Darkest Descent

Still, Hunter threw us into long planning sessions, plotting how we would do it, dreaming up outlandish schemes and researching the worst torture methods imaginable. Hunter also told us that Dad was watching live when Alice overcame him. He didn’t know when Dad stopped watching, what he saw, if he even got as far as Alice’s attack. But Dad wouldn’t have seen our newfound dynamic, and we could use that to our advantage.

In one of his more manic moments, late into a rainy evening, Hunter sucked in a breath and looked up.

“We should kill one of you,” he said, eyes darting between us. Alice and I were on the sofa by the window, overlooking the woodland as it sloped down into the distance. The cabin was high up, with long views that made it seem like we weren’t trapped in here at all — sunlight shone in, giving the secluded building a warm glow. Hunter sat opposite us, emailing back and forth with Dad, getting more riled up with each minute. Two days had passed since everything came to light, two days of gentle touching, tender fucking and loving on each other. Though much remained unfinished between us, none of us were willing to disturb this new normal we’d found ourselves in. Not yet.

We had to deal with all the horrors that had gone down, and Hunter promised to, but only once he finished what he started with Dad. He had many shady resources from his time living on the streets, working hard to build up a nest egg and some dangerous allies who had skills we didn’t - weaponry, tech, falsifying documents. He’d thought of it all, spent the last few years of his life to reach this moment. Hunter needed this to be personal, and I agreed. There might be easy options, but none of us wanted that. We all needed to see the final moments with him alive in the world.

“Fake it, I mean,” Hunter clarified when Alice and I shared a confused glance.

Alice leaned forward, sliding her feet from my lap to mimic Hunter’s hunched position. “Fuck it, kill us both. Then he knows he’s not getting one back like he so wishes — that he lost all his children because of his abuse.” It had her excited, buzzing with it. Her eyes widened, her breathing picked up. “Make it look really fucking bloody, too.”

Hunter’s gaze lit up, flashing like we’d seen before when we were under his thumb, and I knew I was in for a long few hours with these two. I had a feeling they would always be the bane of my fucking existence. But right now, I wanted nothing else.

The first time we tried to appear dead, neither Alice nor I had been convincing enough, so now we were waiting for the sedatives to kick in to make us floppy and slow our breathing - we both kept blinking, fidgeting, and Dad was too discerning not to notice. Alice painted our faces with soot to gray our skin and lips. We’d messed with the lighting in the basement and used the old blood stains to finish the effect. Along with red paint and well-placed ketchup, it looked like it might do the job. Fingers crossed convincing enough on camera that the last of Dad’s hope shattered. Not hope that Alice and I were okay, no, it was that hope for his legacy, his reputation. How would be explain the deaths of both his children? He must have already spun quite the tale to explain our sudden disappearance.

As Alice grew floppier, the sedative taking effect on her faster than me, I found myself worried, a bit scared. Her eyes went blank as seconds drifted by and her body slumped over, caught by Hunter, who was studying us both closely. He’d measured out the safe amount of sedative for us both, so I’d taken a little more, but I’m sure he under-guessed, unwilling to harm us now. An interesting switch-up.

“You good?” Hunter asked me as he positioned Alice on the floor, pushing her limbs to their unnatural limits to make her appear as freaky and corpse-like as possible. I nodded, taking in all he was doing to our sister. I remained upright for the moment, my eyes still able to focus, so I watched them. Alice was drooling, almost unconscious, her blinking slowing, cumbersome.

Hunter looked grim as he yanked her clothes from her body and spread her legs so her ass was up and her pussy was on display — so Dad would be forced to confront the still-healing wounds. The plan was as close to reality as possible, he’d overdosed us both. We didn’t have the equipment to make fake injuries, so the man would have to see the drug-addled corpses of his children rather than tortured to death. I hoped it was enough to ruin him on a bone-deep level.

“It’ll be okay,” Hunter promised Alice with a whisper to her ear, kissing her cheek and nuzzling his nose into her for a moment. Despite all he’d done, he seemed reluctant to do this now. “After this, I’ll run you a hot fucking bath, with bubbles and salts, and feed you chocolate covered strawberries.” It surprised me to see any kind of sentiment from him, and I hoped Alice was still awake enough to hear it. He had softness in him, it was just that no one had ever been there to capture it, to nurture it. Alice could do that for him.

Hunter caught my eye and winked, unashamed at what I’d witnessed. Good. “It’s your turn,” he said, striding over to where I sat resting against the wall. My body didn’t work as I wanted it to as he positioned me beside her, turning my head so I could see her slack face. Her eyes were open and glazed, drool pooled from her mouth. She was unconscious for sure. Good for her.

Hunter kissed me on the mouth, licking my bottom lip and sighing, before crossing the room to get his phone. I listened to his steadying breaths as he braced himself. Despite our planning, the result was unpredictable. Dad’s reaction might go either way - he could believe Hunter and not care, or he could be devastated and angry. The worst would be him not believing it at all. All this for nothing.

Hearing the video call ring through made me jolt. Or it didn’t. My reflexes were fucking slow. I tried to will my fingers to twitch, but they refused me.

“Hello, Father,” Hunter said, and my blood ran cold at the sound of his voice. It was like before, so stony and vicious. All a show. It made images of the first time we’d seen him roll across my vision. That mask he’d given up so fast, the bitterness in his tone and the merciless way he’d abused us.

But hearing Dad’s voice, the man who cared so little for us, the man who’d touched me and forced me to touch him, that was infinitely worse. “Hunter,” was all he said, exasperated, over it already. “Your eye is injured. Did my preferred children manage to get one up on your pathetic self?” Sickening. It sounded like he was outside, maybe at a party or somewhere public, a park maybe. Someone must have taken him for a stroll in his wheelchair. He could move around a little at home, but he hated that his legs didn’t work right anymore and outside, he had to admit defeat. Something he despised doing and avoided as much as possible.

“You might want to sit down for this,” Hunter goaded the man, ignoring Dad’s comment, and I heard him walk closer to me, tension increasing in the room. “I got bored with waiting around for you to come to your senses.”

“For fuck’s sake, boy, get over yourself. You need to fucking learn your lesson that I don’t care about you. I don’t want you,” Dad spat his vitriol, though from the shift in the background air, he’d moved inside for privacy - must be at home, then, the only place he was comfortable maneuvering by himself. “Give me one back and fuck off into the shit hole you came from.”

“That won’t be doable anymore,” Hunter said, and for a long while, there was no response. I think he must have shown Dad our bodies. The only sound was Hunter’s slow, measured steps circling us. His boots strode by my head and I kept my eyes open and distant, staring right at Alice, slowing my breathing to the shallowest possible. She looked dead, her entire body slack and gray from the lighting above.

Hunter moved the camera into her face and prodded her cheek, getting no reaction.

“I killed them both,” he said, mocking. “Oops.”

Dad’s breath shuddered, and Hunter took a moment to show me the phone screen as the camera was facing front ways towards our sister. Alice looked like a fucking corpse, so much so I wanted to reach out and touch her. Confirm she was still warm. Dad’s face was on the screen too, smaller than Alice’s, in a little window, he seemed sicker than before, tired. Pissed.

Finally, Dad spoke, and though his words were cold, the tone of his voice filled with fear. “I don’t believe you,” he said. “They might just be drugged. You wouldn’t kill your only piece of leverage.”

Hunter stood and marched away, presumedly turning the camera back on himself. Still, I stayed in position. Listening. Waiting. Would it be enough?

“I never wanted anything other than to make you feel as shit as you made me, Father dearest,” he said. “And to think, all the horrible things I’ve forced on your dear twins and none of it worked. I’ve fucked them, tortured them, made them fuck each other, and you didn’t care. I could release all the footage on the internet, cut it special, so it looks like they fucking wanted it. That would ruin things, wouldn’t it? Poor, mourning father garnering sympathy, only for the world to find out they were incestuous, dirty fuckers. And you made no attempt to save them.”

Hunter continued to rant at him, his voice breaking and angry as Dad waited it out. At last, when Hunter couldn’t get any more words out, but his anger was pouring from him, Dad responded.

“You don’t do that, and I’ll tell you who your mother is,” he said, voice cold and distant, gloating, like he thought he had a trump card. And the atmosphere shifted. Hunter staggered back, and I fought not to jump up and run to him. His rage was a desperate thing, a scary thing. And minutes passed where I was unable to see his expression but could feel it. The air was thick with it. Hot, even. My body tingled with numbness, the sedative pushing me a little closer to the brink, but Alice didn’t flinch even once.

Hunter spoke in a low, terrifying voice to the screen, and I feared we’d lost him to his madness. To the thing that made him take us and commit all those atrocities upon our bodies. “If you look away from what I’m about to do, I’m going to come to the house and destroy you, Father. If you turn away, even fucking blink, then it’s all over for you, your family, your company.”

“Hunter—” Dad said, but Hunter must have shot him a glare as he walked back over, because he halted whatever he was about to say.

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