Homicide is authorized for betrayals of any kind.
Her words, but very much true.
Von murders on command; he doesn’t need to know thewhy. Ido. Especially now, as the new leader of Writhe. Even my son doesn’t know I have assumed that role, and no one besides Rig Croft will until next week when we have an official ceremony. But even prior to this transfer of power, I was working as de facto leader, preparing for my come up.
Why do we kill?
The naked man on the table in front of me would very much like to know, but there are so many reasons it’s hard to list them all.
He is tied with red rope, across his legs, arms, chest, and that plastic bag over his head. It is unmarred, only a black hole sucked into his mouth as he inhales, attempting to scream, but he is running out of oxygen in there.
I glance around the table at my brothers in black robes, Karia’s father, Antwine, beside me, Rig directly across from me. Isa’s dad, he will be very happy with what my son has done tonight for her.
The two of them loathe one another, only when it comes to work.
Naturally, they will end up together. No one else will understand them the way they understand each other. And what other woman could say she spooled intestines with a pitchfork like twirling pasta on a fork, all for Von?
He is lucky.
He knows this.
I place one hand on the table as the man trembles but doesn’t speak. Then I drive the knife into the hole where I believe his mouth is.
Why do we kill?
Rivalries.
Money, stolen.
Drugs, too many.
Secrets, told.
Clashes, disrespect, protection.
I stab the inside of the man’s mouth again, and again, and I hit teeth and it jars my arm and I laugh, the sound muffled from my red mask.
I drive it in again.
Blood spurts along the bag, slick over my blade.
The man is no longer trembling.
I am smiling.
This is why I kept Isa away from death.
It changes you.
It numbs you.
I am giving her a mercy I have not given to my own son.
Sex is easy. Not her job, but the act itself.
Murder steals from your soul.
Von will see.
But so will Isadora.
I already know Lenox Mars is in the hospital from what Von did to him. Tomorrow, Isa will accompany Cosmo de Actis to the infirmary, and she will place a pillow over Lenox’s mouth and she will ruin him just as I am ruining this man.
I tried to shield her, to save her, on a plea from Shella Croft, as long as I could after that Halloween seven years ago.
But Isa was born twisted too.
All of us from Writhe are.
