Page 31 of Corrupted Torment

I speed through the trees. Branches and leaves whip at my body, but I don’t care. I’ll never let the fuckers take me easily. Evergreens, autumn yellows, browns, reds, and oranges flash past my vision, blurring like a memory just out of my periphery. The siren blasted only minutes ago; I know I have to find somewhere safe to secure myself. To fight the bastards who want to harm me.

The biggest bastard of them all is that fucker Rafferty—the one who has them all fooled into submission. I will never bow down to them. Raff has them all lining up, like good little puppets taking the needle into their necks without complaint. Doesn’t matter that the poison sliding into their bloodstream could kill them. To them, he’s saving them. He’s making sure the bigger, badder men don’t hurt them. HA. He’s manipulated them. He is the worst of them all.

“I’m not here to hurt you.”

Those whispered words while he caressed my face. His grey eyes staring deeply into mine, urging me to trust him. The memory still haunts me. Clouds my thoughts. Messes with my judgments.

I won’t be made a fool of.

It’s been months since he made that agreement. Maybe even a year. I’ve had no problems doing things the way I always have. I’ve not run into a bigger monster. The only one I see hides behind a manic smile and goes to my camp, gaining power from their compliance.

Hidden amongst the rocks above, I stayed to watch the first time they accepted the needle willingly. I stared down at my people as they stood in line. Saw for myself, thesaviourat work. I watched a man get injected by Rafferty. Barely seconds later, the effects activated. His skin started to ripple and crack as sweat beaded at his temple. His mouth tearing open on a scream.

His so-called friends all stepped away from him.

The man had been one of the eldest on the island—in his thirties. He had possibly even been the one who’d found the damn caves our group sheltered in. It didn’t matter, these little mice were all moving away. It was as if he meant absolutely nothing to them. They dared not get any closer to whatever fate beheld him.

Well, except for our hero Huck, of course. I’d watched on as Huck pushed through the gathered crowd. Dario close behind. Raff and his brother held their arms out firm stopping the pair from getting any closer. As if they knew exactly what was to come.

Of course they had. They’d seen this before.

They’d done this before.

I knew I was right not to trust them. Glad I hadn’t given in so easily. The man exploded like the trick birthday cake my uncle once gave me—a cake that had sent my parents into a tailspin. He’d disintegrated into unrecognisable chunks of bloodied flesh. Blood pooling into the dry mud. I felt sickened by the sight. I can now relate to how that cake had given my parents flashbacks with hunks of thick jam oozing onto the floor in a steady drip.

Rafferty was nothing but a snake, one who was to tempt us with the fruit of corruption. I was not one to fall for his calculated lies and deception. I would not follow in the wake of my brainwashed camp.

Even as I watched on, my group moved towards him. They step through the blood of their fallen to willingly take the injection. It stained their feet red. Huck and Dario look on; their faces dappled in flecks of gore, as one by one, our camp mates took their jabs. There wasn’t a hint of reluctance despite their possible fate. It disturbed me more than I could ever describe.

I would not become like that man who had been violently ripped from this world. Trampled over upon his death. There hadn’t even been enough pieces of him left to bury.

That would not be me.

I didn’t need to witness more after that. Leaving camp, I caught Rafferty’s grey eyes. It didn’t matter that he looked tired, or that as I passed, he cast a worried look at his golden-eyed brother. All I could think about was getting away from the horror show that I’d just witnessed.

I’ve avoided Raff since. Any time I caught a hint of him being in the area, I’ve hidden. It may be childish, but the man has destroyed what we once had here. People are forgetting exactly who he is to us. He is the enemy, and if we give into him, we have no hope of freedom. At least I know, when the sirens ring, what I have to do. What I always did before.

I have to run.

Run and fight.

I will not give in; I will not give up.

* * *

The blow to the back of my head comes from nowhere.

I’d heard nothing, seen nothing. Like a phantom raised itself from a void of nothingness to strike me down. I keep my footing despite my fast pace, whirling and trying to ignore the dizziness as lights flash in my vision. Pain splinters through my skull.

As I make out my attacker, his sinister grin and black eyes brings bile to my throat. This man is the one who Raff was truly offering his protection from. Rafferty may be the manipulative snake, but this one doesn’t hide his taint. The brother, Devon.

There're many forms of monster in this world and Devon is the kind who hides under your bed, scratching at the underside of it as you tremble beneath your blankets. He’s the kind of demon who loves for you to become powerless as you try to fight him. For him to break and ruin you.

To destroy you.

I take a step backwards, then another, and another. His smile only grows larger, eyes darkening with the thrill for the hunt, the chase. Like a cat playing with a mouse, he has me exactly where he wants. My head pounds, swirling confusion as I try to think. Nothing is clear, all I that comes to me is—not him.

Anyone but him.

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