Page 6 of Born into Madness
I can tell Drew likes having the upper hand, and I let him enjoy it as he says, “The Alphas are one of the oldest frats on campus and the most popular. They throw the biggest parties and are always surrounded by the hottest girls.”
“And yet they still need to render them unconscious before they can fuck them?”
“Whatever,” Drew says. It’s obvious he has a sweet spot for the frat house, and I don’t want to piss all over his man crush, so I let it go.
“Was there anything else in that gym locker when you picked up the pills?”
He shakes his head, blood and sweat dripping onto the floor with his movements. “No, just a baggie with three pills. That was it.”
“What happened to the other two?”
Some color returns to his face as he blushes and says, “I dropped one on the floor and lost it. I put the other two into her drink.”
“Reckless,” I tell him, “but not all that surprising that you fucked it up.”
“Are you going to let me go now?” he asks, and I bite back the laugh I want to give. “I told you everything I know, and I haven’t seen your face. Just let me go, and I won’t say anything to the police.”
“I already told you I’m killing you. I don’t make idle threats.”
“But you don’t need to,” he whines.
“But I want to,” I counter. “And before you can call me a psycho again, I want to remind you that the only reason you’re hanging from these rafters in front of me is because you decidedto use our club to drug someone. That’s it. I don’t give a fuck about your pathetic life and the shady decisions you decided to make. All I care about is what you did once you set foot in The Red Room.”
I tap the blade against his shaking chest. “That’s when you became fair game to me, Drew.” I watch his head sink forward, the hope finally starting to drain away as he begins to understand that he won’t be leaving this warehouse alive.
“I bet you’re wishing you’d gone to a different club.” I don’t give him a chance to respond. Instead, I get to work, sinking the blade in between his fourth and fifth rib so I puncture his lung. Drew screams at the pain, and then quickly changes his breathing to sharp and shallow as he realizes that each breath he takes is going to come at a price. Sweat beads on his face, dripping from his temples as he wheezes and gasps.
I step back so I can see everything. I use dummies at home to train with, but they don’t move like people do, they don’t make noises, and they sure as fuck don’t bleed.
This is far more entertaining.
I push the skull mask up so it rests on my head like a baseball cap, not wanting anything to obstruct my view. Drew’s eyes widen when he sees my face, his mouth opening and closing like a fish as pink, frothy bubbles fill the corners of his mouth.
Grabbing a metal chair, I set it a few feet in front of him and sit. With a push of a button, I start the timer on my watch and wonder how long this will last. The stab to his chest was about four inches deep, but I’d done it on his right side so I wouldn’t hit his heart. Still, there are a lot of blood vessels in there, and it’s very possible I nicked a few.
Leaning back, I keep a tight grip on my knife and rest my hands on my thighs so I can watch the show. Over the next several minutes, the gasps turn to wet coughs, blood froths on his lips before dripping to the floor, and his skin turns a grayish-blue color. Every breath he manages causes a pleasant whistling sound with the exhale until eventually his hands and feet start to twitch as his eyes glaze over.
I break the silence and say, “I’d ask if you have any last words, but I really don’t give a fuck.”
He groans and then lets out another whistle of an exhale before his neck grows slack and his head falls forward. I give him a few more minutes, knowing death isn’t usually as quick as it appears in movies. The best things in life can’t be rushed, so I wait and watch, and as soon as I hear the last exhale, I match it with one of my own.
Something shifts in the room, a subtle knowledge that I’m the only one with a heartbeat in this barren warehouse. Death can be felt. Anyone who’s ever been around it knows this, and I’ve been around it a lot. I’ve become attuned to it, and I don’t need to press my fingers against Drew’s neck to know he’s no longer alive.
Forty-three minutes and sixteen seconds. He’d held out longer than I’d thought he would.
Before I can call someone to come and get rid of him, I get an alert on my phone. Glancing at the screen, I grin when I see my sister’s motorcycle pull up outside. I can immediately tell it’s her because no one else looks as tiny as she does while riding. She’d be pissed to hear me say that, but when you’re barely five-one and you work with a bunch of muscled men, you tend to stand out.
I watch Mia punch in the code from my screen, and seconds later she’s barreling in with a big smile on her face. Unlike our older sister and me, Mia got Mom’s auburn hair and hazel eyes. The pink streaks she’s dyed into it do nothing to hide that. She also got our dad’s love of piercings and tattoos. The small diamond in her nose sparkles when she gets closer and turns herhead so she can get a better look at the dead man hanging in front of me.
“Wow, you showed some serious restraint tonight,” she says while eyeing his body, and then she scrunches her nose up and looks at me. “You cut his nipples off? Seriously?”
I laugh. “It got his attention, and then he just looked stupid with only one, so I evened it out.”
She steps closer to the body, doing a slow walk around him to examine him. No one fully understands me, but Mia comes closest, so I’m not surprised when she sees the stab wound to his lung and pieces it all together. “How long did it take him?”
I tell her the time, and she nods her head. “I would’ve guessed a smaller number.”
“He surprised me, too. He was useful before he died, though. Some guy who goes by the name of Cupid is selling roofies on campus. He has a smart setup, one that I would never be able to track, but I know Niki will be excited to hear about it.”
