Page 24 of Claiming Charlotte

11

ROWAN

Ipaced in front of Richard. I’d been doing this for a couple days now, and he looked like death. I’d cut every inch of his skin, a pound of flesh for every person. Leaving the mask on him throughout his torture, he was brought to the brink of suffocation over and over again.

I continued to show him how it felt to be on the receiving end of the torture, and the life was slowly fading from his eyes as he sat tied to the chair, soaked in his own blood, but it never felt like what I did to him was enough. Not after seeing what happened with Charlotte.

Horrified to find that I was enjoying myself, I couldn’t tell if it was the torture I liked or if it was the fact that I was getting revenge on a man who hurt the one woman I’d ever loved.

Either way, I felt sick to my stomach at the things I’d done, and I was tired. Time to finish this. My eyes glanced around the room and focused on what to look for. There was no sledgehammer down here, so I had to look for the next best thing.

Against the wall stood a steel beam no longer than my arm, so I stalked over to it, picked it up, and held it in my hand feeling the weight of it. It would take a lot of power, but if I mustered enough it would do the job.

“Richard Walker, you have been charged with rape, trafficking, and being a complete dickhole. How do you plead?” This would feel amazing.

Met with an arrogant silence, I shrugged, lifted my arm over my head, and brought it straight down onto his right knee. Years of pent-up anger and frustration used to brutally shatter this man’s body, and I loved every minute of it.

“How. Smash. Does. Smash. It feel? Smash.” I said through each breath as I destroyed his other knee.

“How does it feel to know YOU will never walk again!”

Instead of throwing down the beam I brought it hard across his face and watched his teeth fall to the floor.

“You took everything from me!” Smack. “She’s never going to be the same again. She didn’t deserve it!”

My emotions were starting to get the best of me; he would suffer, one last time. With heaving breaths, I fixed the mask onto his face again, and I could hear his labored breaths through the filter.

“Charlotte will never love you, Rowan,” Walker mocked. “Not after this. So, moldable at this point aren't they? Give her a bone or two and she will be back where she needs to be. On her knees.”

Growling, I flicked?the dial on the remote and watched as he struggled to draw in a breath, smashing it in front of him. The look of realization on his face was priceless, and I gave him one last upturned smile as he struggled weakly against his restraints.

Kneeling to his level watching his face turn purple I said, “How does it feel to know you’re going to die? Is your life flashing before your eyes?”

Playing with him was the most satisfying thing about the whole ordeal. “I got down on my knees and crawled to her, you know? She grabbed my cock so assertively, and she claimed me. And I let her. Did you ever think I would be the one to kill you?”

“You are indeed the monster I’d always thought you were. You just needed to be placed in the right situation to fully embrace it.” He croaked out.

When he stopped struggling and a cold, dead look overcame his face, the situation became surreal to me. I’d killed people before, but they were quick deaths; I never stared into their faces as the life left their bodies.

It set a whole different aura about the room, and about me. I felt numb and I didn’t know what to do next, what to do about Charlotte. How could I help her? She’d looked so damaged, so hurt, when I saw her just a few hours before dealing with Walker. Now that the biggest threat was out of the way, and I didn’t know what to do.

Closing the door behind me, I headed toward the main staircase and smirked. “I’m only the subject of my creator.”

Any light that Lottie brought back diminished the moment I saw what they did to her. The Walkers had been judged, and I was the executioner.

Ascending the stairs I headed directly for the kitchen needing to clean myself up. A few people noticed my state and backed away or gasped, but quickly went along with their other duties. There was no stopping me now and they would all pay.

Letting the adrenaline settle, I turned on the kitchen sink and ran my bloody hands under it making sure to scrub at my forearms and dug under my fingernails furiously. Watching the red water swirl down the drain, I felt as though I were caught up in a whirling tide myself. The last time I’d felt so lost, I found my escape with coke, and as I cleaned my hands off, I found myself yearning for a hit.

I’d promised Charlotte I would never touch them again, I promised myself too, and I'm going on five years sober, to ruin everything would be asinine. She’d be so devastated if she knew I even thought of it. The longer I stood there, the more I craved the high, and that was what I needed just then. I think.

I needed to be able to think in order to help Charlotte through her own head. I may not ever find out what exactly was done to her, but I had an idea, and they branded her like everyone else. The fact that she pushed even myself away at the slightest touch, with a fear tinted in her eyes, told me what I needed to know, and how badly she was violated. The way her mind worked, the emotional turmoil will be her downfall, over the abuse itself. Her mind was no doubt a minefield and I had to help her before she imploded.

The video Lacey forced me to watch crossed my mind, and I quickly shook it away. I knew that it had only been the tip of the iceberg. I needed to forget. I needed to help Charlotte. I need coke. Slamming the heel of my hands on the counter, I pushed myself away from the sink and grabbed the keys to the bike as I dialed a number in my phone.

The diner was dim, and smelled of fresh coffee, or perhaps?it could have been the two cups that sat in front of me as I sat and waited in the window seat. He walked past and I sat up straight in the booth, the bell chiming behind me.

I haven’t spoken to Demitri in years, not since Thomas saved me from the Walkers. Chasing the high wasn't really important anymore, it was the option of its availability that lured me in, and I had unfinished business with him anyway. Meeting D was a risk in itself. The man was a rat, always out for himself, and that's what he will always be. That was why he still worked with them, too bad the hand that fed him was gone.

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