Page 142 of Watch Me Burn
“They did.”
I wait for her to connect the dots. Confusion furrows her brow, then smooths out as understanding hits. Her hands fall from my face as her eyes snap to mine, wide with shock.
“Damien, what are you saying?” Her voice trembles on the words.
My gaze shifts to the fire, hands gripping my knees to resist touching her, before meeting her eyes again.
“The night of my sixteenth birthday, he showed up at my dorm. They were mostly empty because it was Thanksgiving weekend. There were only three of us there, I think. I was shaken awake just after midnight and dragged out of bed. He demanded I come home but wouldn’t tell me why. When we got there, he led me down to the basement. There were four dogs and six cats in cages. He'd been starving them for a week.”
Luna’s face drains of color, and her eyes fill with a horror that tears through me. She doesn’t even know my worst sin yet.
“I finally fought back that night. I was bigger than him by then. Stronger. So, I grabbed the bat from his hands, and I—” I swallow. “I broke every bone in his body. One by one. Just like he’d done to dozens of innocent animals. Just like he’d taught me to do. And I made him beg, just like I used to beg.”
She reaches for me again, and her thumbs stroke across my cheeks, wiping away tears I didn’t realize I was shedding. I haven’t cried since the night the last animal died in my arms.
“My mother heard the commotion and came down to the basement. When she saw what I’d done, she started screaming. Calling me a monster. Telling me she wished I’d never been born.”
“That fucking bitch.” The words explode from Luna, sharp with anger I've never heard from her before.
“She grabbed the bat and came at me.” I need to purge myself of this hate-filled memory. “Screaming that I should die the way my father did. That it was all my fault all those animals died. If I’d just killed Rex that first time, my father would have stopped.”
“No.” Luna’s fingers tighten on my cheeks as she rests her forehead against mine. I close my eyes. “You are not to blame for those animals, Damien. Do you hear me? Your father was. Only him. And your mother for letting it happen. That little boy you were deserved protection. Those animals deserved protection.”
“But they didn’t get it. And that’s when I understood my father’s lesson. I was meant to protect them. But I couldn’t.” I open my eyes, letting her see the darkness that lives there. “So, I’ve spent the last twenty-five years making sure noanimal suffers the way Rex did. The way all of them did. And if I can’t or I’m too late to stop it, I avenge them. I make sure their abusers suffer exponentially worse.”
“What happened to your mother?” Her voice is hesitant, and I suspect she knows the answer already.
I pull away from her and close my eyes again, letting my head fall forward as I drown in the memory.
“I wrestled the bat away from her and told her I was calling the police. I was finally going to expose them as the monsters they were. She grabbed a pipe and started toward the cages, and I snapped. It took one swing. The bat connected with the side of her head. She died instantly.”
Luna’s breath hitches, and it sounds like she’s suppressing a choked sob. I can’t bring myself to look up and see what her eyes might show.
“I fed the animals and released them behind our house. Then I cleaned up any traces of my having been there and hitchhiked back to school. I was at lunch in the dining hall the next afternoon when the police arrived to tell me my parents had died in a suspected home invasion. They’re the first two I killed. I didn’t regret it then, and I don’t regret it now.”
I expect her to push me away and rush out of here. Never look back. But she doesn’t. Instead, her soft lips brush against my forehead as she whispers my name and “I’m so sorry.”
I stand, needing space to think, to breathe, to figure out why telling her this feels like bleeding out. I move to the window again. The forest spreads before me, swallowed in shadow. The darkness goes on and on, reflecting the void that's taken up residence inside me.
“So, they’re why you started hunting animal abusers?”
She’s trying to make it simple, but nothing about me is simple.
“No, it’s bigger than that. It’s about justice where the system fails. It’s about consequences for those who think they’re above the law. Just like my parents.”
“Oh, Damien.” She chokes on my name, the sound caught in a sob that rises from somewhere deep in her chest.
The window reflects her image back at me, tears cutting paths down her cheeks, her shoulders shaking, and her face twisted with grief. The weight of seeing her cry for me presses down on my chest until I can barely breathe.
“Don’t cry for me, little doe. I don’t deserve your tears.”
“The little boy you were does. Those animals do.” She swipes at her cheeks. “That’s why you said your mother got what she deserved?”
“Yes. They both did.” The words are final and unchangeable, just like my past. “They left me a substantial inheritance and my father’s real estate development firm. Blood money. That’s all it was. The executor of my father’s estate oversaw my care until I turned eighteen. First thing I did was liquidate my father’s company. Sold every property, every asset. I wanted nothing they’d been a part of. I used the proceeds to start the Wolfe Group.”
She crosses the room behind me, her feet quiet on the hardwood floor. Then her scent hits me. That subtle peach fragrance I’ve grown addicted to, the one that’s become as essential as my next breath. It fills the space between us and pulls at something deep in my ribs.
“Wolfe Technologies came first when I patented the surveillance technology I developed while trying to keep bullies out of my bedroom at school. I think I told you I was a scrawny kid until I was sixteen, then I shot up and filled out like a giant.” I see the barest hint of a smile on her lips in the glass. “Then came the foundation to support animal rescue efforts. I poured every dime of profit from Wolfe Technologies into it. Finally, my acquisitions firm. It targets those who try to escape accountability by using their wealth. First, I bankrupt them, then I kill them.”
