Page 19 of Corrupted Torment

“I’m Huck and this is Dario. Glad we ran into you when we did. I’m not sure you would’ve made it otherwise,” Huck says, his face sombre. Hazel eyes cast a look over Dario, who gives a firm nod. “Come on, let’s get you home. It’s safer there. There is a lot you’ll need to learn.”

He’s not wrong. Though safe isn’t exactly a word I’d use. I rather think of it as a prison.

CHAPTER8

RAFFERTY

Age Eighteen

It’s taken a while to readjust to life since I left the confines of solitary. A year inside the same four walls successfully did its damage and I still bear the scars. I wouldn’t survive it again. I’m lucky to have remained sane. Though am I truly sane? That split is still inside of me. One that widens more and more each day.

A purring contentment growls in the back of my mind as I stroll through the forest. No longer confined to the walls of the facility. The Doctor says I’ve become mature enough to leave, to run free. I don’t trust his motivations, but the temptation of it is too great to question.

My beast is a constant reminder of where I’ve been and of the differences between me and my brothers. The growling, howling monster lurking within my mind, giving its opinions when I don’t ask for them. Always needing that satisfaction of freedom and companionship.

I’ve told no one about him. Not even Aiden.

The risk seems too high. It’s not that I don’t trust Aiden. The walls here have ears, and I can’t risk being made into an experiment. It’s not exactly below this place. Hell, maybe the other half of myself is some experimentation gone wrong. I won’t be parted with him now.

The doctors have taken my other brothers off the island today, and it’s only us who stalk the woodland. Animals don’t seem to sense us; they remain still until our soundless stalking footsteps approach too closely. My body is primed to chase, to hunt, to play, but I suppress the urge, despite his rumbling protest of displeasure.

I am not an animal. Not like my brothers.

Since I have been gone, their fight has become one of dominance. One that Devon has easily taken control of. There’s a darkness inside my brother, one I fear has become rotten to the core. I had once thought he may become a problem, now I know he is one.

His dominance controls the others, seeing how they all fit into the pack. This time next week I’ll get my chance to prove myself. I’ll be going with my brothers to see exactly what it is they do when they leave the island. What gets them so hyped up, and let my beast have his fill. For the only thing I have been told is that when they leave, they hunt.

* * *

AGE EIGHTEEN- A FEW MONTHS LATER

I don’t let the deafening shriek of the siren penetrate my mind as I lock down my prey. Readying myself for the hunt. I don’t let the growls, hisses, and grunts inside my mind affect my decision. If I wanted his opinion, I’d ask. He needs this as much as I do. It’s been months since the first hunt, and nothing would steer me off course.

The blaring noise is a signal for them to run and hide. Their only warning to escape us. To those that even bother to try anymore. My Wildcat has never given up her fight. I wait long minutes for the silence to overtake the screeching din, my target never wavering.

I tilt my head and watch as my auburn-haired prey steadily runs for the treeline. Slowly, this girl has sunk into my skin. She’s an obsession. A passion I can’t let go of. I’m fixated on her as she attaches herself to every molecule of my being. Fate brought me to her, to protect her until she is ready. I will never let another lay a hand upon what is mine.

I stalk, I hunt, I catch, but I could never let myself harm her. She’s far too precious to allow anyone to damage her pale skin. She’s a beauty in the making, a delicate soul that is no more than thirteen. Her skin is sallow, and her body is nothing more than a toothpick. I desperately want the chance to help her, to wrap her in my arms, but this is all I can do.

For now.

My eyes skim to the left, catching Devon’s gaze that also follows her. Violence brims through my veins. My beast howls, begging to be released. Despite the games we played as children and the tendencies of my brothers, they do not encourage us to inflict violence on one another any longer. Someone has thinned enough of our herd.

If he hurts my Wildcat, I won’t be held accountable.

I snarl in his direction. Devon’s cruel face turns to me, taunting darkness in his eyes. He’d been to this island long before I had. Muliercula, an island entirely filled with kidnapped girls and women. Back when I’d been suffering in the white room, he’d been here hunting the women of Muliercula; it's a whole new level to the games we’d once played.

When I saw her, strong, confident and wild, I knew she was something special. I have been told she hadn’t always been so. Muliercula changed her irreparably. With just one look, she caught me. My soul had cried out that she was mine, and my beast had wholeheartedly agreed. We needed her like the oxygen we breathed, and we would have her.

One day.

When I had finally been allowed in on the secrets my brothers already knew, the damage to my Wildcat had already been done. Devon had been the first, and the others followed in his wake. Devon saw my fixation right away, and she became a shiny new toy once again in his eyes. He had a new quest: to destroy her personally.

So far, he’d failed.

He mocks me at every turn. Repeating the vile things he had done to her, the things my other brothers did as she wept. I held my tongue as I listened to him spew his hatred. Walking away as his cruel laughter followed. She had been lucky to survive.

I’d caught the remnants of his victims before. Some had been left for dead, broken, bruised and bloodied. Unable to walk again where he’d destroyed them. It was a kindness to kill his victims, rather than leave them to suffer. Her, along with others, he’d just taken what he’d needed to sate his ruthless desires and left them in his wake.

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