Page 77 of Six
“Fascinating,” Meg whispers.
“I guess we don’t have to take him down if we have Ollie with us.” Rami raises his hands in the air in a “what did I say” pose when Meg shakes her head at him.
“What usually triggers your attacks?” Ollie asks, his tone is soft again. I can hear it in his voice that he wants to understand.
“They are rare. Before today, I hadn’t had one in four years. The red haze overwhelms me when I let my emotions run free, when I’m not able to keep a tight control on my anger, fear, and anxiousness. My brain makes me relive the pain from those years, and I get lost in it.” Ollie keeps caressing my cheek, and I close my eyes and lean into his comforting touch. “Usually, I’m good at calming myself down. With Meg’s assistance, we found a few things that help.”
“Music,” Ollie utters.
I nod. “Breathing techniques, sex, exercising.”
“So, that’s why you’re huge,” Lori states.
I shrug. “These last few months have been frustrating. And when I found your father and his friends beating on you, I just…snapped.”
“I’m sorry.” Ollie pushes a hand over his mouth.
“Don’t be. Didn’t you hear a word Meg said, kitty? It’s those scientists’ fault.”
“How can you do that to a kid? I hope you liquidated them!” Lori suddenly and angrily spits out, earning amused looks from all around.
“That’s actually what they do,” Linda says. “Whatever Dick forced you to do is small compared to my boys’ side business.”
“Which is?” Ollie turns to me.
“We find people like Dick or Lenny, that police can’t or won’t arrest and we…liquidate them,” I tell him. My arm automatically pulls him closer to me, like my body is expecting him to run, fingers tightening in his hair.
“Liquidate, as in kill them?” he slowly asks.
“We have our fun first. But yeah, that’s the goal,” Raph blatantly offers.
Ollie blinks a couple of times. Then he turns his face to Sully and Lori, expression blank. Sully’s different-colored eyes look huge on his face and his mouth is wide open, while Lori’s perfect eyebrows have disappeared behind his curls.
“Why?” Ollie looks at me again, his eyes flickering between mine. Studying. Peering inside my soul.
“I can only speak for myself, but punishing evil is my revenge. I was too weak when they kidnapped me. I couldn’t defend myself. Couldn’t punish them. Now I do, on behalf of others. Their torture filled me with rage. I unleash that rage on people just as vile as them,” I try to explain, something I’ve never done before. Never felt the need to. Not even to myself.
“We only torture and kill very bad people. No kids or animals,” Rami turns to Sully when he says animals. His words are met with silence.
“Sometimes, bad guys make the best good guys?” He tries again, glancing at Michael, since that’s his way of describing us.
“Look…” Gabe moves away from the window and takes a couple of steps toward us. “Those scientists fucked us up. We can function asdecent-ishhuman beings and still be part of this society.”
“But for whatever reason you, need to let it out on bad people to do that.” Gabe and Lori share a long stare before it’s broken by Rami’s, “Very bad people.”
“Isn’t it dangerous? Aren’t you afraid to get caught?” Ollie doesn’t look disgusted or scared, just shocked. I also catch the well-hidden, but not completely buried worry in his eyes.
“We’ve been doing this for years. We follow a code and have a system,” Raph sounds as bored as usual.
“Okay. If it’s evil people and-and the police can’t catch them, and you get enough proof of what they did before liquidating them, I understand,” Sully says surprisingly. “I mean, Ollie and I have witnessed horrible things done to innocent people. We were lucky in a way. Dick made us steal, sell drugs, fight, and more, but… Wait, are we bad people to you?”
“Fuck, no!” Rami is the first to reply. “You are survivors, just like us.” But Sully doesn’t seem convinced.
“Did you enjoy doing those things?” Gabe asks him.
“Never.”
“That’s your answer.” Gabe’s no-nonsense ways seem to get through to Sully. Who would have thought?
