Page 79 of Colton
My father’s voice cuts through the noise like a knife.
“Go on, boy. Do it. Prove me right,” he sneers. “Show me just how much like me you’ve become.”
My breath hitches. The voices grow louder, a cacophony of madness in my skull. My finger twitches on the trigger, the darkness inside me surging forward, screaming for blood.
He’s right. You are like him. Always have been.
Shut up!I grit my teeth, barely holding on.I can’t lose control—not now.
He laughs, a harsh, grating sound. “You don’t have the balls, boy. You never did.”
The voices in my head reach a fever pitch, screaming at me to kill him, to end him, to make him pay. I can feel myself losing control, the darkness taking over. I press the gun harder against his temple, my finger trembling on the trigger.
For your mother, for yourself, for Luella! For every woman he’s killed.
“Do it!” my cunt of a father roars, his eyes filled with manic glee as I fight my inner demons not to pull the trigger.
I need Luella first.
Instead, I move the gun to his thigh and pull the trigger.
He screams in agony, crumpling to the floor, his blood pooling around him. The sound is like music to my ears, a symphony of his suffering. I stand over him, my breath coming in ragged gasps, the gun still clutched in my hand.
“Where is she?” I demand again, my voice trembling with barely contained fury.
He looks up at me, his face contorted in pain, but his eyes still defiant. “You think...you think you can break me, boy?” He gasps, clutching at his wounds. “You think you can make me talk?”
I crouch down slowly, the cold metal of the gun pressing into his temple. He winces, a flicker of fear crossing his eyes, but it’s gone in a second.
“I’m not like you,” I whisper, my voice steady, calm—too calm. I twist the barrel slightly, feeling the subtle shift in pressure as I push it harder into his skull. “But I can be. If you want to test me, old man, I’ll show you just how far I’ll go. That was your warning,” I state, my voice low and even. “Tell me where she is, or the next bullet won’t be so kind.”
He chuckles weakly, even as his body shakes with pain. “You think...you think you’re different from me, Colton? You think you’re better?" He spits out a mouthful of blood, his eyes never leaving mine. “You’re just like me. You always were. You can’t escape it. You can’t escape me.”
I shake my head, refusing to let his words sway me. “I am nothing like you,” I hiss. “Now tell me where she is.”
He grins. “You’ll never find her,” he taunts. “I’ll never tell you.”
I snarl, whipping him around the head with my gun so hard he slams into the solid oak desk with a satisfying crunch. The voices in my head are screaming at me to pull the trigger, to end him, to silence him forever. But I know that if I do, I’ll never find Luella. I need him alive, at least for now.
“Fine,” I relent, standing up and stepping back. “You want to play games? Let’s play.”
I know what I need to do now. I need to find Luella, and I need to do it without his help.
But first, I need to make sure he can’t warn anyone or try to escape.
I kneel, grabbing him by the collar and dragging him across the floor. His blood leaves a thick trail behind him, smearing across the cold marble like a sacrifice to the victims he’s killed.
“You like chains, don’t you?” I sneer, pulling him toward the basement door. “You like watching people suffer in the dark, watching them beg for their lives.”
He groans in pain, but I don’t stop. I throw the door open, hauling him down the steps, his body hitting each one with a sickening thud. The basement is cold and damp, the air thick with the ghosts of all the women he’s tortured down here.
I chain him to the wall, the same chains he’s used on so many others. The irony isn’t lost on me, and from the look in his eyes, he knows it too.
“I’m leaving you here,” I explain, standing over him, the key to the chains dangling from my fingers. “Just like you left them. Maybe you’ll survive, maybe you won’t. Either way, you’ll feel every moment of it.”
His eyes widen, but I’ve already turned my back, walking away as his yells echo through the empty halls.
Chapter 36
