Page 27 of Heal Me

“That’s Dax’s job,” I say and walk on. Mikhail stirred up a shitstorm when Dax recently passed a full teeth extraction over to me. Every now and then, I’ll indulge myself and let the sadist within me loose, even knowing Mikhail will have a fit, but I’m not stupid; if I do it too often, the damage I cause will outweigh my value, and I’ll be out of here.

“Not this one,” the guard counters. “The buyer wants to see it done. Without anesthetic.”

I halt at this. “Are you for real?”

“Yes, the buyer is here and wants it done now.”

A smile tugs at my lips. I did enjoy pulling out all that girl’s teeth. I could use another job like that. It won’t take more than an hour, and Rex won’t die from getting dinner a little later than usual. Neither will my little songbird.

“Where?” I ask.

“Upstairs. In the trainer’s lounge area.”

I frown at this. No one ever brings girls upstairs—especially not that part of the building. “Why not the auction room?”

“The buyer doesn’t like the basement. He prefers the view from that room.”

I scoff. I’ve heard a lot of snobbery from buyers, but no one has ever complained about the fancy state of the auction room. Chandeliers, expensive carpets, and priceless paintings. You name it. Mikhail has gotten it all to satisfy those rich fuckers and drive the price on the girls up. But I don’t think more about it. Many of those rich snobs have very specific requirements, and even though I haven’t heard this one before, it’s not that strange. So I follow the guard upstairs and through the corridors, past all the trainer’s rooms—those who don’t get a private wing like Dax, Mikhail, and me—and into the living room. In the middle of the room, a girl is bound to a chair, and some sleek idiot is lounging on the couch, nursing a glass of scotch while waiting for the show to begin.

A single set of pliers is already laid out on the shiny mahogany table beside the girl—all I need. I go to the girl and stand behind her, grabbing the pliers.

“All teeth?” I ask, glancing at the buyer.

“Every one of them,” he confirms with a smirk that widens his mouth into a big grin but doesn’t quite conceal the nervousness in his wide eyes.

“You know, I saw this thing the other day, on the dark web,” he starts as I force the girl’s jaw open and close the pliers around the first tooth. Her scream drowns out his words, but he’s still talking as I drop the tooth in the golden bowl on the table and the screaming turns to hyperventilation. His blabbering is ruining the kick I usually get out of these things.

While waiting for the girl to calm somewhat, not wanting to ruin it even more by her passing out, I try to tune out his ridiculous bragging. Something about a woman being torturedand him having paid to have her beaten up and something about him having shot a dog. He talks like he’s a big deal with big balls, having seen all kinds of shit. Glancing at him, I see that half of it is lies—at least the big-balls part of it. He winces as I once again grab a tooth with the pliers and start pulling, and his face grows paler with every minute as I pull out the next three teeth.

Something’s off about this. Needing to find out what, I try to get him to say something that might give me a few clues.

“How did you find this place?” I ask.

“Through the dark web.”

I cast him a sideways glance. There’s no way he found this place online. This place is well hidden, and every person who knows about it also knows not to mention anything online if they want to stay alive. Even if that wasn’t the case, his tapping foot gives him away. I don’t have to be Mikhail to tell that shit. This guy is transparent as fuck.

“How did you really find it?”

“I told you, the dark web,” he says, this time adding a nervous chuckle.

I shake my head. Even the dumbest idiot guard we have here could tell this guy is lying. Tightening my grip on the girl's head, I grip another tooth and yank hard. Deepening my voice, I hold up the pliers with her tooth as I watch him. “How did you find this place?”

His face turns pale as a ghost as he stares from the tooth to my face, eyes blinking repeatedly. “Are you deaf?” he finally says, trying to act all tough.

With a sigh, I drop the tooth into the bowl and cross the room. The guy tries and fails to remain fully upright as I approach him. Grabbing his jaw, I apply enough pressure that his mouth pops open. Before he knows what’s hit him, I have the pliers deep in his mouth, grabbing one of his molars.

“How. Did. You. Find. This. Place.”

“Aaa iin,” he squeals, squirming on the couch and flailing his hands. The tumbler drops to the floor and shatters around my boots as I give a little pull. He squeals like a pig, almost as loud as the girl.Whata pussy.I barely jostled the tooth.

Removing the pliers, I try one final time. “Where?”

“My friend,” he gushes. “He-he told me he knew this place wh-where they do all kinds of crazy shit to women. He had gotten this deal. Some guy named Jan. He couldn’t come here himself so soon, so he offered me the deal. If he would…”

I don’t stay to hear what kind of deal his friend made. I’m bolting the moment I hear Jan’s name fall over his lips.That little shithead; I should have killed him.Irun as fast as I can, through the castle, down the basement stairs, and through the halls, until I reach cell one. It seems to take forever for the scanner to register my finger, and I’m sweating and panting as I shove the door open and barge into her cell, ready to kill. But no one’s there. It’s empty.

For a second, I just stand there, flitting my eyes across the room as if I could find her in one of the crevices of the padded walls.

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