Page 18 of Tainted Serenity

Apart from the door to my right, diagonally ahead in the corner, the room has nothing interesting. The walls are crumbling, the smell of mildew all too clear, and the walls are full of graffiti that seems to have been sitting here for far too long. Maybe from other people Arthur has captured.

Is he keeping her captured, too? Torturing her the same way he does to me?

Even thinking about my little precious doll causes an unimaginable pain that strains my head, forcing a groan out of me that soon turns into rage. They’re fucking deliberately keeping my doll from me, and I feel my mood shifting into a weird mixture of devastation and rage. I take a deep breath, my chest caving in from the pain as I try to calm myself down.

Footsteps from outside make my heart beat faster, and my head slowly lifts as I’m careful not to injure my neck, which has already been in an all-too-uncomfortable position. The sounds echo between the walls in the corridor, accompanied by loud breaths that cause me to grind my teeth while I turn to look at the door completely.

“Hello, Grey Madden.”

It isn’t until Arthur—dressed in his well-ironed suit and expensive cufflinks—stands inside the door that I notice he has managed to enter the room completely noiselessly.

I hate that my mind is this broken and confused right now, making me the target and prey when I have always been the predator. The hunter becomes the hunted.

I will burn this building until nothing remains but its ashes, until all the evil has been evaporated and eliminated. I will show them all exactly what kind of predator I can become, especially when it comes to her.

Speaking her name feels forbidden without her presence to soothe my nerves, as if it is somehow an omen that will ruin everything I have fought for and remove the chance of meeting her again. She has always guided me through the darkness, even when I refused to accept it. I fucking accept it now, not being able to stand her absence.

Breaking myself out of my reverie, I choose a spot on the wall to stare at, refusing to reply to Arthur and deliberately disrespecting him in a way of defiance.

I fucking bend for no one; listen to no one. They can try all they want, try to break me, but I won’t sell my soul away to the devil so easily.

“You shall answer me when I talk to you.”

His voice is cold and gruff, as if he has been smoking cigarettes for the past thirty years. Still, I don’t lift my gaze or reply.

His steps are slow as he gets closer, a tactic he uses to scare me, but it doesn’t affect me. Instead, he walks as one usually approaches a scared animal, fearful of how said animal will react. Will they flinch away or attack? Flee or kill?

Right now, I couldn’t care less what he thinks of me. I never really cared about anyone’s opinion except for my brother’s. Thinking about my brother makes my heart ache in ways I never want it to, and it is in moments like these that I wish everything could return to how it was before I met my little gorgeous doll, who changed me forever with no way of ever going back. My heart bordered on the line of emptiness, only a single pumping organ doing its job of keeping me alive, but nothing more than that. She has poisoned me with her words, seduced me with her caresses, and I allowed her to devour me entirely.

Do I regret it? Fuck no, but life was easier before without emotions.

A cold hand settles against my chin, and I see how Arthur’s liver-stained fingers grab hold of my head and tilt it upward, forcing me to at last meet his eyes. They are nothing more than darkness, feasting on souls for what they deem to be the greater good.

I still taste the blood in my mouth from when his guard split my lip with a baton. Ridding myself of the disgusting taste, I spit it out, gleefully observing how my saliva hits him in the face. Despite the fatigue that has taken hold of me, I feel the corners of my mouth lift into something resembling a smirk, amusement filling my features.

I stare right into his eyes, watching them become darker as anger takes over, one of the veins on his neck thickening as he tenses. I recognize the feeling of anger all too well and know how it can torment the brain like a drug. Then Arthur stands up again, and it’s not until seconds later that I feel the hard impact on my fingers, hearing the sound of something breaking that reverberates through the walls. I feel the searing pain coursing through my fingertips, cascading through my hand in agonizing ways.

A painful, guttural scream slips from between my lips, a sound I hadn’t intended to let out. The scream bounces off the walls and taunts me, but what taunts me the most is Arthur and the guard behind him. The laughter takes over the echo of my scream, and I watch as he stares down at me with distaste, as if I disgust him.

Anger roars through me, so violent that it is not possible to control my emotions or the adrenaline rushing through me. With the new profound energy, I manage to rise to my feet, but they feel like jelly and are unstable. All the while, I can feel their gazes on me, silently judging and taunting me for being this pathetic.

“Strain him.”

Though the old man’s voice is low, it sounds like he’s yelling in my ears, giving me a headache. As my vision slowly becomes hazier, I notice how the guard moves closer to me, stalking forward at an incredibly fast speed. Before I know it, he’s pushed me up against the wall, my back slamming against the hard stone wall and the back of my head hitting it. I close my eyes from the sudden dizziness, and then I can no longer move my arms. Handcuffs are tied around them, securing me to the wall in chains.

“Level one,” Arthur orders under a breath, and confusion coats me.

What does he mean?

But then I feel it; my arms are slowly getting spread apart by the chains as the guard maneuvers the machine I’m apparently restrained to.

“Now, will you behave?”

He comes closer to me, his breathing echoing in my head.

“Fuck you,” I spit.

“Level two.”

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