Page 99 of Fighting Shadows

“Do you see those scales?” he nods. If you can cut off a pound of your flesh precisely on the first try, I’ll let you go.”

“That’s all?” he asks, eyeing me suspiciously.

“That’s all,” I say.

Charlie lifts the knife to his shirt and slices down the middle, “I can take it from anywhere?”

“Sure. If you can cut enough off without passing out,” I say, crossing my leg over the other as I watch an array of emotions flit over his face.

Everyone always thinks a pound of meat is nothing but a few pitiful slices of flesh, and then they’re free. Still, the fun thing about this game is unless he’s willing to cut himself open and cutout a third of his liver, he’s never leaving here because the knife I’ve given to him is too dull and small even to get close to the weight he needs.

Charlie’s screams fill the room as he cuts flesh from his stomach, the dull knife tearing at the skin, and blood covers his pants. When he finally has his piece of flesh carved off, he drops the knife to the floor with a clatter and throws the skin onto the scales.

Getting up from my seat, I make my way to the rolling table, kick the knife away, and then turn to Charlie, who looks up at me triumphantly. “Weigh it then,” he smirks.

“Do you want to play another game before I do?” I taunt, knowing just from a glance that it’s not enough.

“What do I get?” he asks.

“What do you want?”

“I want her,” he says firmly.

“You think I would bargain with my daughter?” I sneer.

“You gave her up once, Kelvin. It’s how I got her to trust me. It’s so easy to get a kid's trust when they don’t have their daddy, and her mother never gave a shit about her. I loved her; I was her everything.”

“You groomed her!” I shout, my finger digging into the wound on his stomach, ignoring his screams, “She’smydaughter, and you’ll never see her again.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Weigh it, and then let me go,” he pants out through the pain.

I laugh because I can’t help it, so I click the button to power on the electronic scale; the number jumps up and stops at 0.4 pounds.

“Looks like you’ll be here a little while longer, Charlie,” I tut, ignoring his screams of outrage, “Shall I show you how to carve out the perfect pound of flesh?” I ask, smiling manically at theman before me and lifting a machete from Dominic’s little table of horrors. I pin his free hand down to the chair arm and swing the machete down, severing his left hand in one swoop.

Autumn

The others arrived about two hours ago, appearing from Dominic’s second favorite room, as he likes to call it, with orders from my Dad to leave him and Charlie alone.

They all pulled me into their arms, whispering to me that I was finally free, but I needed to see him in that room to know that he was never leaving it, just like the other man Dominic had killed for me.

Noah sits next to me, his body pressed against mine, and I try to ignore how much comfort it brings, “Are you ok?” I ask Noah, turning to face him.

“I’m fine, Strange Girl, are you?” he asks, his hand cupping my face, and I lean into it.

“I just want it to be over. I want to say my piece to him and then never think about him again,” I say; a tear leaks from my eye, but Noah catches it with his thumb, soothing it away with his thumb.

“It’s done now, Autumn. You can be free now and live without fear that he or Jane is going to pop up again. You can be happy,” he says with such conviction that I nearly believe him.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be fully happy, Noah, not without Chlo.”

“I get it, I do. I never knew her, and my heart hurts for never getting to, but you have six men who love you, who would do anything for you to be happy, and little Chase who already looks at you like you’re his whole world. You might not think it, but you will be happy.”

I jerk back, staring at him with wide eyes, but he mouths ‘later’ to me as my Dad appears from the doorway to the basement, blood splattered over his shirt and face.

“Dad!” I shout, rushing over to him and scanning him for injuries.

“It’s not mine, Little Monster; it’s all his,” he says, pulling me into his arms, “We need Doc to keep him alive; I may have severed something.”

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