Page 88 of Tear Me Down
She reaches into her purse with her free hand and pulls out the only thing that might mean as much to me as Ashia does. My whole world, everything we both wanted, and right now my worst nightmare.
“We found this on your bathroom counter… She’s pregnant, Damien.” I reach out with a quaking hand and take the small white stick from her grasp, taking in a short, silent gasp at the tiny word on the display. She was waiting for me… To tell me… She’s probably so scared… To think of what they could be doing to her… To them… “You need to stay cool, because we can’t waste time sedating you,” Serena demands. I look at her and my face must be horrifying, because she yanks her arm away from me and jumps up, like I’m something unholy. My grip on the test tightens, certain to never let go of it, and I draw a strained breath, determined not to lash out just yet.
“How long ago was she taken…” I say not realizing how shaky my voice is.
“About five hours ago,” Carter interjects. “We went to get her the moment the warehouse blew, knowing you’d need her here, but she was gone when we got there. All the men at the house are dead, and there were signs of a struggle in your bedroom. We have the one dead body from where she fought back.” That’s five hours I should’ve been with her… Rubbing her stomach… Telling her how much I love her…
“What do we have?...”
“Video surveillance. They took out the guards first then made their way inside, and then they took her in an unmarked, black van. We’ve tried the plates, but it’s registered to a small car across the state.”
“Show me the video...” I demand as I force my legs over the side of the bed.
“D…”
“SHOW ME!” I shakily scream as I stand, and the force pulling on every tube and wire only furthers my resolve… If I wasn’t so enraged… So fucking terrified… I’d probably feel how much pain I'm in, but I don’t… The only pain I'm concerned with is hers…
Carter pulls his laptop out of his bag and immediately starts typing, glancing over at me every couple of seconds to see if I’ve lost it. I can’t, not yet. I need every ounce of information I can gather before I start to tear this city apart. He sets the computer on the counter, and only after he looks at me one last time does he press play.
“This is when they got in,” he says, almost in a grieving way. I see as five men, obviously highly trained, make their way through the guards. They were silent, and quick—concealed by the darkness of the night. By the time they realized what was happening, it was too late. After the first three of my men drop dead from bullets to their brains, they start to scramble. After two more are ambushed and taken out silently, I see the last guard running inside to get to her, only to be taken out at the bottom of the stairs. I hear grunts and groans the whole time, but I’m not sure if they were loud enough for Ashia to hear through our thick walls.
“This is the view of the bedroom.” Carter strains to speak as he clicks the keyboard to switch cameras, showing me the inside of our sanctuary. She’s pacing the room looking at the stick, and then her phone, probably to see if I sent her something… That sweet woman does that about three times in thirty seconds… The gesture both warms and shatters my soul.
Please God, Satan, Zeus, whoever… I'll never keep her waiting again… Just let me get to her… Give me something to go off of…
She looks up at the ceiling with teary eyes, and flashes those canines in a genuine smile… My little wolf… So happy and free, completely unaware of what’s about to happen to her…
When she sharply turns her head to the door, a chill runs down my spine.
“Damien?” Her sweet voice rings out, bringing tears to my eyes, but I blink them away quickly to see clearly. As much as this is killing me, I can’t miss a single detail, and as torturous as this will be, I’ll watch it a hundred times to be sure I get every element.
She takes a step toward the door, grasping onto the handle with excitement, only to halt, making it clear that her instinctual sense of danger kicks in. She quickly walks to the bathroom, briefly stepping out of view before the sound of our shower running fills the feed.Fuck, she’s so smart.I then watch as she walks out of the bathroom and looks around the room, clearly trying to decide where to hide before she walks toward the door and slips into the small cut out in the wall behind it.
They enter the room, and fear immediately overtakes her features. Her eyes are wide, and she covers that beautiful mouth with a shaky hand… Three men walk in, but she doesn’t know there’s more…
Quickly and quietly, she slips out from behind the door and starts to walk out while their backs are turned, when a man appears and back hands her across the face, which sends her spinning to the floor… I can feel my body starting to tremble, and the rage bubble underneath, but I can’t stop watching. I can’t look away… She scrambles as she tries to crawl away, but her feet slip out from under her as he grabs her ankle and pulls her closer.
“DAMIEN!” she screams, and her high-pitched wail brings literal pain to my chest. My whole body shudders to the sound, and the agony is unbearable… She called out for me… and I wasn’t there…her screams did nothing but fill a void, and they either fell on deaf or dead ears. I watch as he mounts himself on top of her and tries to wrangle her in. “GET OFF OF ME! YOU FUCKING VIPER!” She then manages to kick him off of her, and as the others lunge for her, she acts, taking one of our lamps and swinging it with all of her might. It smashes into one’s head, and then she quickly grabs a shard and stabs a different assailant with the piece.
Her fight is valiant, and that force I always knew her to be rises to the occasion, but it’s just not enough. I continue watching, without ever blinking, as she then scrambles to her feet—only for one of the other men to yank her back by her hair, causing her feet to flail out in front of her by the brute force, and she screams again. She's almost immediately silenced as he smashes her head into our dresser, and she instantly goes limp... I shakily back away from the laptop as he roughly throws her limp body over his shoulder, and watch as blood makes its way down her face…
“Get the fuck out…” I shakily command as my sight begins to un-focus and back again with the erratic pulse coursing through me.
“D…”
“GET THE FUCK OUT!” My vision goes black, and everything is thrown into shade, covering the world around me in darkness. I begin ripping every tube and wire out of my body as Carter grabs Serena and runs out, knowing that nothing and no one is safe from me anymore. As my chest heaves with heavy breaths, I can feel the pain from before try to break through the wall of my psyche, but I won’t allow it to.
I can’t get to her like this…
Toughen up you worthless shit! SHE NEEDS YOU!
I jerk my fist back and slam it into everything in my vicinity, not spending a single moment registering the physical pain. The glass cabinets, the countertop, the heart monitor that doesn’t seem to shut the fuck up, it all falls victim to my rage. I release a feral roar as I continue my rampage, throwing medical supplies and the debris from my attack around the room.
My soul has been taken from me.
Any ounce of humanity is stripped from me.
They’ll feel my wrath and beg for the Devil to take my place.
