Page 27 of Always Watching
With that in mind, I bring the blade I’m holding down in a sudden movement, feeling a small twinge in my wrist as it scrapes against bone before sinking into something thicker—the glance against his ribs is worth it to make sure I don’t stab anything vital.
Just because he’s dying tonight doesn’t mean I’m not going to take my time, after all.
“Do you know why you’re here?”
“N-no.” He speaks through gasps and saliva pooling in his mouth, through pain that makes tears spring to his eyes and his body writhe in an attempt to get away from me even though he’s chained like so much meat ready for slaughter. “I didn’t do anything, I—”
I twist the blade in his side just so I can cut the lie off before it passes his lips. When I lift it up and bring the flat of the blade against his mouth to cut off the sound, he squirms again.
“Try again. I’ll give you a hint. You thought it was smart to look at someone in pain, someone who’d been hurt, andlikeit. You thought you could say something fucking disgusting to someone who wasn’t yours. To someone who…” I pause on the word, not because I don’t feel it, and not because I don’t mean it, but because I’m almost relishing it, saying it aloud. Saying it to this man. Painting it into the air with his blood. It’s like I’m sealing it into existence. I’m speaking it withmurder, even though Ranen won’t know I did it. “You fucked with something that’s mine. You don’t get to do that and live.”
“I don’t—”
“Cas,” I spit out. I use his camboy name so the fucker in front of me will know exactly who I’m talking about. It takes him a second, and I don’t know if it’s because he’s in so much pain, or because he watches so many people online that he has to mentally scroll through the catalogue before he realizes who I’m talking about.
“Fuck… what? Cas?” His eyes are wide, and he looks more shocked than anything when he turns his face up to me. “That’s what this is about?”
I hate the way he says it, like Ranen isn’t important, like what he said to him was… forgivable. “Yes, he’s what this is about.”
The man’s voice is still thick, and the feel of his blood slowly oozing from his side to saturate my jeans reminds me I hadn’t bothered to put on any protective gear before I came down here. That’s fine. I don’t mind feeling it—I don’t mind it soaking into my clothes.
I don’t mind covering myself in his pain.
“I can—” He gasps when I lean forward, but grits his teeth and forces a brave face. “I can pay you. I can give you anything you want. I own my own business, I…”
“Try again,” I growl, because money isn’t what I want here—it’s his pain. His fuckingdeathrattle painting an apology to Ranen across my skin.
“Fuck.Fuck. You’re going to fuckingburnfor this. Some little twink camboy isn’t worth—”
It’s a quick motion to cut someone’s tongue out—it’s fucking messy, though. But I’d put the pair of pliers in my pocket in case I needed them. I wrench them into his mouth and clamp them down, and his bullshit words turn into a high-pitched whine, a whimper, and then a scream that cuts off into gurgling as I saw my knife through the muscle.
He tries to twist, to turn his head as the flood of blood fills his mouth. I slap my hand on his lips to keep him from spitting it out and use my other to grab his jaw and hold his head in place.
“He’s wortheverything, asshole.”
His eyes are rolling now, wild and wide. He’s finally, finallyrealizing he isn’t going to get out of this.
I’ve never felt this good killing. It’s almost euphoric, knowing I’m doing this for Ranen… knowing I cut out the tongue of the bastard who made him unhappy.
Blood bubbles from his nose as he starts to choke on the liquid pouring down his throat, but I keep his head in place. I stare athim while he drowns, while he bleeds out. I don’t take my eyes off his face until I watch the light leave his…
And it’s only once I’m finished that I realize… that was probably faster than any kill I’ve ever made, and somehow it was more fulfilling than all of them put together.
My eyes drop to his tongue on the ground beside him. There’s a small part of me that thinks about taking it with me, presenting it to Ranen… telling him that no one is allowed to talk to him the way this fucker did…
But…
Ranen doesn’t know about me, and I think a tongue aslove languagemight be taking the term a little too literally.
It takes me longer to clean up the kill than it did to actually do it. I’m precise when I hack the body into pieces and careful when I wrap them up in bags. I pack them away neatly in a box to take to the incinerator at the back of the property before I leave.
Dad’s the reason I bought my isolated house. I learned from a young age that the best way to make sure no one discovered what you were doing with the bodies you created was to handle the cleanup yourself.
Speaking of cleanup, I look down at my hands as I walk back up the stairs. I’m not the only one awake. I figured Dad would be asleep by the time I finished… but I also figured I’d be down in the basement for a while.
“Uh, did you have a good time down there, North?” His voice is clearly full of amusement, and I’m reminded once again how lucky I am that I have a family that accepts who and what I am. The only thing Dad ever scolded me for was being sloppy—the only thing he ever forbade me from doing was killing on impulse.
Plan. Plan. Plan. Do it somewhere safe. Do it where you know you won’t be caught.
