Page 104 of In the Light of Sin

He turned his head, glancing at me from the side, his eyes as black as his fucking heart. Blood was smeared, his usual black slicked-back hair falling haphazardly, tinted with the men’s blood.

“Chasm,” Jordyn’s weak voice broke the spell we were under. She was weeping as she was saying the name of the blueprints I took out of here when Joslyn and I came here. “No one was supposed to know about Chasm.”

Her eyes shut, her body going limp. I would’ve thought she was dead if it wasn’t for the shallow rise and fall of her chest. Heavy footfalls sounded behind me, but I suspected it was Husk and Tyrant. I still heard the distinct sound of a bat pounding against flesh in the other room. A low whistle left Tyrant’s lips as he surveyed the floor at the corpse with the hand-sized hole in his back. “Jesus Christ, what did you do, Hex?”

Besides V, Hex fought bloody. He rarely joined the fight. He couldn’t control himself when he went through a blackout spell that was caused by violence. He killed anyone before they even reached out to touch him. It’s why we all stayed clear of him. He knew where every organ in a human was. And he knew how to remove them with his bare hands.

I eyed Hex curiously as he walked over to her. He bent down and picked her scrawny frame up, her oversized shirt sliding down her shoulder. He looked around the room at us, his black as-night eyes telling us if we spoke of this to anyone, our tongues would be cut out. He started to walk, Husk and Tyrant stepping out of his way as he cradled an unconscious Jordyn in his arms.

“Go,” Tyrant told me as V was already smashing his bat against the head of one of the dead men. I knew all these assholes would be mutilated at his hands. “We got this.”

“Gonna check the rest of this place out,” Husk turned on his heel and headed straight for the basement. Tyrant followed his six as the sounds of footsteps and a baseball bat splintering against the dead were the only things left in the house.

I walked out the front door, stopping as I saw Hex throw his leg over his bike, Jordyn still in his arms. It was an awkward maneuver as the front of his body pinned her to the front of his bike, the back of her neck dangled over one of his forearms, and both of her knees were propped over the other one.

He sped off without another word, and I wasn’t far behind him.

* * *

Hellbound.

A simple name with a horrific meaning.

The soul of everyone who entered was sent to Hell.

Nyla, Joslyn, Oakley, and Jordyn were the only ones let out of the reaper’s grasp.

I followed Prez down to the basement. The smell of death was potent in the air. It was hot down here, the crematorium taking up almost a third of the space. But that wasn’t what our attention was drawn to as we hit the final step.

It was the two cowering figures on the same wall but in opposite corners. The chains rattled as their barely clothed bodies shivered with fear. They spotted us, trying to make themselves small so we didn’t see them.

But they had our full attention.

Prez walked ahead of me, going to the right corner of the room. A shirtless man was there, his eyes gaunt and gray skin full of tract marks. He tried to look like he was worth something, trying to sit up tall, but physically unable to do so. Hex beat him pretty good but spared him by chance.

“You know, I used to be like you.” Prez stopped in front of him, the strung-out man barely able to crane his neck to look at him. “Barely alive. Only living for my next hit. Thinking the people I surrounded myself with were the only ones who would ever give a damn about me…” He crouched down. To the man’s credit, he didn’t pull away when Prez got right in his face, spitting his truth. “But they hated me more than I hated myself.”

He looked wary at why Prez was speaking to him as if they were equals. They were at one time, but not anymore. Prez got out of his shit and built an empire surrounded by lost souls people would prefer to have dead than steal the air they breathe. After a few minutes of staring, Prez’s eyes slightly glassed over, and he stood up. It was a look he got more often since he found Nyla. He tried to shut it out before anyone saw it, but we all did.

And it let us know maybe the man we’ve had blind loyalty to wasn’t the man we should be following.

“But don’t worry.” He reached for the hidden gun he always kept in the back waistband of his pants, the trigger he cocked echoing as he pointed it at him, a move that even shocked me. I thought he would have at least asked him questions before ending his miserable life, “I’ll save you from the hatred everyone thrusts upon you. Consider me your God.” His finger pushed on the trigger, “And this is your mercy.”

Bang!

Jordyn’s screams almost busted my eardrums as the thud of the nameless man’s body hit the concrete floor of the basement, his eyes falling open as his face was in my direction. Probably had no one missing’ him, had no place to go to but a gang full of people who only loved him for what he could do for them and not him as a person. A fuckin’ sad life to live. Alone, full of people who only wanted you for one thing.

The small window illuminated Jordyn, who was still screaming for help as her eyes refused to leave the man Prez had just shot. She was rocking back and forth, breath heavy and hoarse. I wonder if she was remembering her first night here? When Prez did the same exact thing, but only this time, she wasn’t getting out of here alive.

“You got a few options here, Jordyn.” Prez bent down, and she backed up but could not go anywhere since he backed her into a corner. “Be useful for once in your life and help us out, or?” He smirked, eyes darting to the man with the blood pouring out of the hole the bullet had just put in his brain. Her small form began to tremble uncontrollably, her head going from side to side, making our leader sigh.

“You’re fuckin’ pathetic,” he spat at her. She closed her eyes, gripping her greasy blonde hair praying this was all a fucked up nightmare. But this was the reality created for her. “You can only be loyal to the ones offering you something.”

“Tell me what you know about Chasm.” She shook her head, cowering into herself, but Prez wasn’t having any of it. He gripped her by her blonde hair, pulling as her eyelid popped open, and he forced her to look at him. If looks could kill, Jordyn would be lying in a puddle of her own blood.“What do you know about Chasm!”

“Nothing!” Her cries were frantic, doing everything she could to relent Prez’s tight grip on her hair. “I promise, I know nothing!”

“Your promises don’t mean a fuckin’ thing around here.” He tugged tighter, face centimeters from hers. He was seething, a crazed look of slight desperation on his face. His jaw was tight, the fine wrinkles around his eyes showing with his anger. “Why were the blueprints in your parents’ house?”

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