Page 24 of Black Hearts

“If anyone refuses to attend, we can probably assume they’re guilty of something, but I think our guy will come.”

“Why?”

“He won’t be able to resist the chance to see us all and secretly laugh at us while he glides around right in front of our fucking faces. He’s been doing it all along, after all. So why would he miss another chance? As long as he doesn’t know I’ve told anyone else about the letter, he’ll be there. It’s just another party to him. Just another chance to mock us.”

The man grunted. “I suppose that makes sense.”

“I know it’s a long shot. But we have to try, or else he’s gonna get us all eventually.”

“Right. I’ll set it up. We’ll do it December 1st. We were going to have a party that night, anyway. I’ll get the word out that it’s compulsory. Perhaps I’ll say we have some new kids coming in, and that’s why.”

“Good idea,” Dwyer said.

“I’ll let everyone know. And don’t breathe a word of this to anyone else. Make him think you didn’t tell anyone, just like the letter demanded. Like you said, if he knows we’re onto him, he won’t show. Obviously, we’d know who it is then, but we don’t just want to know. We want to fucking end him, right there.”

“Yeah. No shit.”

I waved my hand at Dwyer, and he ended the call.

“Perfect,” I said with a triumphant smile. “That went even better than I thought it might. It’s a shame you won’t get to attend the party and see all your friends die, though.”

Dwyer slumped backward, his face white and beaded with sweat. “Just leave my kids alone, okay?” he muttered.

“Don’t worry. I keep my promises,” I said. “We won’t harm a hair on their little heads.”

He eyed my gun. “You said you’d kill me fast if I helped you.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Oh, that’s right. I did, didn’t I? But you see, I never actually promised that part.”

His eyes bulged. “But… you… you said….” he spluttered.

“Sometimes I lie. You’d know all about that. You’ve spent your whole life lying to people and pretending to be a good guy,” I said. I stood up and inspected the torture devices on the metal cart before selecting a cordless angle grinder. “Well, what a coincidence. This is exactly what I need.”

I put the grinder down and untied Dwyer before dragging him to his feet and throwing him on the same table he’d had Celeste cuffed to just an hour ago.

“Help me tie him down,” I said, glancing at her.

“Yes, sir,” she murmured. Still my good girl. She sprang into action, using the ropes to tie Dwyer’s wrists around the metal cuff restraints, seeing as he wouldn’t fit in them.

He blubbered away on the table, begging for mercy. Just like they always did in the end. I picked up the grinder again, removed the guard, switched it on, then turned it on its side so that the blade was facing downwards. At the sight and sound of the whirring steel, he began to scream.

“Turn around. You don’t want to see this,” I shouted over to Celeste.

Her eyes snapped from Dwyer to me. “I do want to see it.” Her lips twisted in fury as she turned her gaze back to him. She was thirsting for the kill, no matter how gruesome and bloody.

That’s my girl.

Dwyer screamed again as I brought the grinder down on his chest. It sliced easily through the skin from just below his Adam’s apple to just above his navel before grinding sickeningly through the sternum bone beneath.

Celeste’s eyes never wavered from the scene as she watched Dwyer’s blood spray in every direction. He let out howl after unearthly howl, even after I turned the grinder off and put it down.

I reached down to the cut-open sternum and spread it apart, giving me access to his heart without having to break the ribs. Dwyer finally stopped screaming as shock set in. Instead he spluttered and moaned as I reached for his heart and pulled it out. “No….”

His heart kept beating on its own in my hands for a few seconds as his skin turned deathly white. Then the throbbing ceased and his eyes turned flat.

“Is he—” Celeste’s question trailed off before she could even ask it.

I nodded and dropped his heart next to him on the table. “He’s gone.”

“That was quick.”

I smiled. “Guess I told him the truth after all.”

She picked up something from one of the metal trays in the room—some sort of metal rod—and stepped over to Dwyer’s body. After dipping the rod in a pool of his blood, she raised it in the air and headed over to one of the walls. Then she slowly painted a macabre warning message on it, her eyes dark and stormy. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING.

“Perfect,” I said. I was so proud of her.

She threw the rod down and wiped her hands on her jacket. “What now?”

I smiled. “Now? We find the rest of the bastards.”

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