Page 101 of Darkness Falls

The knife pushes into my skin again, making me shake. Pain courses through my entire arm, and the stinging sensation only gets worse every time she brings the blade down. I try to pull my hands up, but the blonde guy she calls Ky holds them firmly in place.

A few moments later, she pulls the knife away from my skin and holds something up. My face goes pale while I try to processwhat I’m staring at. It's the flap of skin with Rogue’s brand from my arm. She cut off my fucking brand.

"There, now that we've taken care of that, let's get down to business."

She walks over to the cart to grab some more things and then comes back to me. She's lost her mind.

"Remember when you called me weak? Let's see how weak you are."

"You crazy bitch!" I yell as I feel the blood from the cut on my wrist dripping onto my legs.

A hand slaps the back of my head hard. "I told you not to talk to my girl like that. Now, apologize."

"Fuck you," I grind out through the pain.

"That's not very nice." He grins. "What do you think, wanderer? Should we make him apologize?"

"I don't know, Ky, he's kind of full of himself. An apology from him won't mean much anyway."

She clicks the blowtorch on, and my eyes instantly go wide. "What are you doing?" I yell, but she ignores me.

She holds a metal bar in front of the flame of the blowtorch. "Remember when you told me that my father took it easy on me? Let's see if you feel the same way."

She doesn't give me a moment to react before she brings the flaming metal down over the bloody, skinless patch on my arm. I cry out, shaking in the chair, feeling the way the heat sears the lack of flesh on my body.

Myvision blurs, and black spots spread across my eyes as the darkness threatens to pull me under. The pain is too much for me to handle. Every single nerve feels like it’s sending shooting pain through my entire arm, and it's not long before I lose consciousness.

I don’t know how long I was out, but when I blink my eyes open, all I can focus on is the pain on my wrist. It's throbbing with every single beat of my heart like it has a heartbeat of its own. I try my best to focus on not letting her get to me, but I can't stop focusing on the pain. Her fingers dig into the wound, and I lose all sense of everything.

"Stop!" I scream, letting her win. "I'm sorry!" I say, immediately regretting the words. I hate that she got them out of me, but this is pure torture.

She laughs. "Not so tough now, are you? You made me feel weak and took advantage of me. This is just a warm-up. I hope you enjoy your stay here because nobody is coming for you and you won't be leaving alive. I'll be back to put your body through hell, over and over, and when I finally decide that I've gotten enough revenge on you for being a massive piece of shit, I'll cut your dick off and shove it down your throat so I can watch as you bleed out."

She digs into the wound on my arm again, and my entire body betrays me. My head sags to my chest as I feel something warm running down my legs. I've never felt more humiliated in myentire life.

"The coward pissed himself," I hear the man say, and I lift up my head to see the way Callie looks down at me with disgust.

I open my mouth to curse her out, but she brings the hot metal down to my skin again, and everything goes dark. The last thing I see before I pass out is the way she smiles as she pulls off another chunk of my flesh.

Chapter 47

Callie

Damien has been in the basement room for three days now. At first, when the guys told me they were planning to keep him here, I thought they were talking about the cell below the pool house. I'm not going to lie; part of me was disappointed even thinking about the piece of shit sullying a place that has fond memories for me.

Sure, it was where the guys kept me when they kidnapped me, but it was also the first place where I was able to connect with them. It was the first place I started to really grow into the person I was always meant to be.

I realized some of my strengths, and now I’m a person I can be proud of. If you had asked me a year ago if I would be torturing the guy I was forced to marry to death, I would have told you that you were out of your mind.

I've been stopping by to torture him a few times a day for the last three days, and for the first time in a long time, I feel like I can breathe fully. Today is the day I'm going to end him for good.

The guys have been dropping in periodically to visit him, too. Sometimes with me and other times on their own. Barrettdecided he was going to rip out every single one of his fingernails one by one yesterday, and I've got to say it was pretty satisfying to watch him beg Barrett to stop.

Damien tried to make himself out to be this big, tough man who could persevere through anything, but he's been crumbling more and more every day. Kyler waterboarded him for a solid two hours the first day, and just this morning, Seb had some device in there electrocuting him.

I should feel bad for the things he's going through because, at the end of the day, he is human, but when someone is vile enough to torture you, kidnap your loved ones, and kill people to get at you, they don't deserve sympathy.

Avery stopped for brunch this morning, and as I sit across the table from her, I can't help but see how much she's changed since Damien took her and kept her in that cell. She's not her usual outspoken, free-spirited self, and it makes my heart hurt. She didn't even want to have mimosas today, and we always have them with brunch.

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