Page 11 of Luka

The sting on my bottom flares at the memory, so painfully humiliating I crinkle my eyelids and let out what I hope is a low whimper. If either man notices, they don’t say anything. Both are busy with tasks, the tall one doing … the work with the shears… while the handsome one goes through Piper’s car, periodically walking to the cliff and throwing things, like papers he’s ripped up and the license plate over the edge.

I know their names. It scares me how easily they speak them in front of me. But even though I know them, I refuse to say them in my mind, refuse to humanize them when they haven’t done the same for me. It’s bad enough I’ve admitted to myself that one of them is handsome. But even the Devil has an angel’s body, right?

Of course, the tall one isn’t bad looking. Tall—obviously. Nice thick hair pushed back with a few random curls on top of his head. An athletic build.

But if he was walking toward me on a sidewalk, I would cross the street. Something about his face, his eyes, hisaurais cold. Unfeeling. I have no doubt that the handsome one could kill someone without blinking, but only because of what I’ve heard him say. I can feel this man’s darkness in my bones.

He doesn’t just kill his pregnant girlfriends. He spits on their corpses, removes their fingers and toes, gouges out their eyes, and ties his new victim up with their torn clothing.

“Arseni,” the tall one calls as something—the gardening shears, probably—thumps on the ground.

As footsteps trot this way, I tense, but he doesn’t come to me. I peek over at the two men as the tall one pulls an ax from a bag and gestures to Piper.

I gasp, my bound ankles tugging against cloth with the urge to move. Run. Though even if I could, I wouldn’t. Not while he’s holding the ax.

Handsome puts his shoe on Piper’s chin and drags her mouth open while Tall lines up with his feet shoulder width apart, gripping the ax in both hands like he’s about to strike.

I should look away.

The thought enters my mind, and yet, I’m stuck, wide-eyed with terror watching like if I do look away, the ax will come for me instead.

“Your aim better be good,” Handsome says. “Some of usstill need our toes.”

Without replying, Tall lifts the ax then brings it down onto Piper’s mouth, severing her jaw.

My stomach rolls, and I gag once before throwing up on the dirt in front of me, vomit splashing onto my dress. I dry heave so hard my eyes water until there’s no chance anything is left in my stomach.

“More DNA evidence. Joy,” Tall remarks once I’ve finished, which makes Handsome cackle as he walks away.

Tall whistles. “Arseni, go long.”

I look up from my vomit to see Tall pick up Piper’s jaw and fling it like a Frisbee to the right of Handsome. Nausea roils my stomach, but I hold back my gag this time and watch as Handsome catches the remains and holds it up in a cheer like he’s won his team some sort of championship.

The sight twists his features, making my name for him feel unfitting. He doesn’t look handsome. He just looks evil. Both men, pure evil.

I search for his imperfections, but I can’t find any that are obvious. I can’t see past his words and actions. They’re so ugly.

How can they be so cruel? How are human beings capable of this?

He goes back to the car while Tall takes out pliers and starts plucking out Piper’s top teeth, the bottom already efficiently taken care of. I clench my eyes shut and count to one hundred. First in Spanish, then in English, then I go backward in each language. It actually helps. I can feel my pulse slowing, my lungs pulling in deeper breaths than before.

I’m terrified but strong. I can survive this. In a way, I’m prepared for this. I grew up with a father so afraid of the world, he wouldn’t let me see it.

The world is full of bad men, Lucia. They do not see you as I do. You are not a person, but a prize for them.

He was right. He was so right.

But maybe I can change it. Maybe I canconvincethem that I’m a person, not a prize. I force my eyes open and look at Tall.

Not him. Definitely not him.

I turn to Handsome. To …Arseni.

Maybe. Possibly.

He didn’t kill his pregnant girlfriend.

And he chose to spank me when I ran. He laughed at me, humiliated me, but he could’ve done worse. He could’ve strangled me with the same anger I watched Tall strangle Piper with.

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