Chapter 23: Death’s New Pet: Chapter 21

What the actual fuck just happened to me last night? He was so fucking awful, taking complete control over my body and forcing it to respond to him so deliciously. Why the fuck did I enjoy it so much?

I really want to hate him. It’s nothing short of sexual assault and yet my pussy is still soaked for him, the next morning. Everything within me begs for him to continue making me feel so good in the worst way possible.

Am I broken? Why do I want him to force me again?

I’ve spent my whole life running from men who force themselves upon my body and yet with Death, it’s different. I must be fucking insane. I know full well that Death intends far worse things on me than any mortal man ever did. And I’m not stupid— this isn’t some fairytale situation where he would stop if I told him to. There is no safe word. There is no escape from him. And yet this thought fills me with too much excitement.

Peeling the material of my jumpsuit from my skin, the usual flash of fear and anxiety of somebody seeing me naked isn’t as prominent as before. Perhaps it’s from the exhaustion clouding my mind and body. Or maybe Death has fucked the common sense out of me.

I feel alert the entire time my skin is on display, and that deep throbbing of panic from revealing my scars to the world. My eyes remain tightly shut, refusing to watch myself.

My stomach growls in hunger, forcing me out of the safety of my room and into the communal area. I pray to be left alone. Lord knows I need it after the week I’ve had and the sinful things Death has done to my body, but I guess the big guy doesn’t grant wishes to murderers.

“Oh, hey!” Prey Three spots me as soon as I slip out of the room. He peers up from his tinned food in his lap and gives me his best smile, but it is not as prominent as before. Something has snapped within his demeanour since starting these trials. Not that I can blame him.

“Hi,” I respond quietly before heading over to my cabinet and grabbing the spam-looking tin out of it. I fish around for a fork before taking a seat on the chair opposite him. Even though I want to retreat to my room and be alone, something in his face tells me he needs a conversation. At least there’s somebody to talk to in these God-forsaken trials.

“How is your leg?”

I grit my teeth and run my fingers around the wound. I refused to look at it whilst changing but it wasn’t agonising pulling a new jumpsuit over it so that must count for something.

“Fine, I guess. How are you feeling?”

“Shattered,” a dry laugh falls from his lips. He then points his head at the furthest door. “Have you heard from Prey One yet? I haven’t seen him since the last trial.”

I shake my head.

Shuffling around in his seat, Prey Three shoves another mouthful of food in his mouth before looking at me. “He looked fucked. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t make it through the night.”

“You think?”

“Yeah,” he sighs. Then, his demeanour suddenly changes. “What do you think that means for us?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like what do you think is next? Will we have to fight each other or something because I don’t think I’ll be able to do that—”

“If we have to fight one another, you fight.” I give him a stern look. “Take no mercy on me.”

“I can’t, you just remind me so much of—”

“Carolina?” the lump in my throat burns.

His whole face twists sadly. “Both of you are distant like you’re always away in a different world.”

Nausea rises in my chest, and I choke on my breath. “Prey Three—’

“It’s Harley. Don’t call me Prey Three. If I’m going to die soon, I want at least one more person to know me for me, not my awful crimes or my shitty situation after death.”

“Harley,” I test the name out quietly. The room feels tense with suspense and uncertainty. I almost don’t break the silence but that nagging sensation within me forces me to speak before I can stop myself. “My name is Scarlet.”

“Scarlet.” A small smile teases his lips. “It’s a beautiful name.”

Scarlet, named after the colour of blood. The colour stained my skin in front of my husband and his friends.

“Thanks.”

“So, Scarlet, any fighting tips you want to teach me or—” He chuckles darkly.

“Yeah, aim for the heart.” It wasn’t meant to be funny, but he laughs anyway.

“I guess I can be grateful that you didn’t keep that knife in the end, right?” he continues using humour as a mechanism to hide his anxiety and I let him. I offer him a lopsided smile, almost revelling in his lightening of the mood.

He runs his hands through his hair and sighs. “These games are bullshit, aren’t they? I’ve only just realised that even if I die, I’m still staying in Hell. My soul is too stained to go anywhere else.”

I ponder on this thought for a while. “I guess but we were going to Hell no matter what so we might as well get a deal out of it too.”

He chews on his bottom lip anxiously. It only just hits me that I don’t know what he wants to do with his win. “What is your deal going to be?”

He pauses. A long silence drifts around the room before he looks back at me with sorrowful eyes. “I want to apologise to my family.”

I frown. “For what?”

“I should have gone down in the cave with them. You know, the one from my trial—” he takes a shaky breath and loses himself in the memory. “We missed our original spot at taking the tour of Dad’s work because I was throwing a tantrum. Didn’t want to go —” He chokes up on his breath and stares off into the distance. A slight tremble takes hold of his body and his bottom lip wobbles. Just before any tears can fall, he looks at me and inhales sharply. “Just one apology, that’s all I want, then I’ll die happy.”

“Harley—” the words are snatched from my lips. How can I console him when I’m actively competing against him? I’m the reason that he will not get his apology. There is nothing I can do or say which will make this situation better. So, I stay quiet, and the guilt gnaws at me.

“But don’t worry about me, Scarlet.” He forces himself to be strong. “I never thought I’d be able to win these trials. I guess I agreed to join just to punish myself for all the wrong I’ve done before.”

“It wasn’t your fault. The cave, I mean. You didn’t know and—”

He shakes his head. “You don’t have to do that. Be kind, I mean. I’ve spent ten years trying to convince myself of that same fact, but it doesn’t work. Guilt is larger than words, I guess. First, I killed my family, then I killed innocent people when I selfishly tried to end myself. Guess I’m just made to murder people.”

It takes everything within me not to look horrified. “Nobody is made to mur—”

I can’t even finish the sentence. Unwillingly, I think back to Leonardo and Maximo. They were most definitely born evil and only got worse. But Harley’s different. There’s something good in his badness, something pure in his mistakes. Is evilness always so clear-cut?

“I am not a monster, Scarlet, please remember that. I lied when I told you I killed a flat full of people because he evicted me. I tried to sound scary and intimidating in case anyone wanted to pick a fight with me—” he chokes as he spills the truth. “I was a coward. I killed myself. Self-immolated, to be precise, I wanted to die the same way my family did. But I was fucking dumb. I thought my fire would be contained in a bathtub. It’s stupid, looking back. I drenched all the towels, lined the door frame and windows, and flooded the room to try and contain the fire. I wish I just hung myself in the woods now. Either way, suicide is a sin so I would have come here anyways, it’s just a shame that I took four people with me on the way out.”

The lump in my throat doubles and it chokes me up. “I killed a whole bus of people accidentally trying to shoot one man. I guess we are not so different.”

He lifts his tinned food and offers me a small smile. It’s full of pain. I find myself gently hitting the tin against his until there is a ringing around the room.

“To deserving our punishment,” he says.

I swallow down my guilt. “To deserving our punishment.”

His eyes twinkle when he smiles and brings another mouthful of food to his lips. However, just as he goes to say something, the room suddenly becomes hotter and hotter until the sweat licks off my skin.

My stomach twists and that anxious feeling bubbles up in my chest. And then I feel it— all-consuming anger. Tears prick in my eyes and my fingers curl into fists. My breath falls short, and I spring to my feet, readying for the fight. Finally, the awful beast reveals himself.

Rage leers over me, eyes burning with flames and fangs shooting out. His large hand grabs me by the arm, and he squeezes tightly. I try to shake him off, but he doesn’t flinch.

“Prey Ten,” he growls before those terrifying eyes shoot back to Harley, “And Prey Three.”

“What the fuck? Let go of her!” Harley starts for Rage, but he easily throws him across the room. I feel the anger bubble up in my chest until I’m choking on the adrenaline. Harley smacks the wall with a hideous thud before tumbling to the floor. I turn my attention back to Rage and I swipe him across the face as hard as I can, but he barely flinches.

“Show me your anger, little mortal. Oh yes, there it is!” he’s delighted as my whole body snaps in half and I try to escape his wicked touch. “It’s so nice to finally meet you both.”

He twists back to Harley and shoots his hand out. Dark pixels fly out, wrapping around his foot and then he tugs until Harley is flying back across the room. Rage secures his gaze on Harley and yanks him to his feet, steadying him when he stumbles. His eyes glare at both of us deeply and then they begin to bleed.

A horrifying shriek leaves my lips as images of Leonardo and Maximo flash across my mind. All the awful torture they inflict on me and the overwhelming emotions that follow. Tears flood down my eyes and my lips turn into a snarl. The anger is blinding, and it takes everything with me not to strike out. And then, suddenly, Maximo appears in the room with me.

Horrifyingly, I see his ugly rearing head in my direction and that cocky grin. His eyes twinkle with some mischievous plan and he reaches out for me. Reason shrieks that it’s not really him, but the rage floods through my veins until I’m fully shaking. My teeth grind together and the vein pops in the side of my forehead.

Fucking kill him. He’s right there! Take what is rightfully yours!

Fury takes full control of me, and I throw myself at my evil husband. He tries to grab me by the arms to stop my fist from connecting with him, but I am far too fast and furious to be held back. I drive my fist into him over and over again until the groans and shrieks of horror flood through my eyes. Blood pours out of his crooked nose, coating my skin in the sticky redness. I beat the evil bastard until my body aches, and everything hurts. A nagging feeling in the back of my mind screams for me to stop, but the anger forces me to keep going. And then, suddenly, Harley is next to me too.

What the fuck?

He beats the living shit out of Maximo too but with the most pained cry as though he is experiencing something different. The whole situation confuses me but I’m only seeing red. My fingers curl around Maximo’s neck and I squeeze tighter and tighter. Then the most horrifying idea of ripping his throat out springs to mind.

Do it. Rip his vocal cords from his throat. Push your hand so far through his fucking neck that you grab his spinal cord. Snap his fucking body in half the way he desires to do the same to you—

However, just as I can yank on the sensitive flesh, I find myself smashing into something hard. Suddenly, I’m flying through the air before I can process it, everything makes me feel dizzy and sick. Large arms secure themselves around my waist and stop me from attacking. Then I smell the familiar musky scent that makes my head swim.

“Calm down, little mortal,” Death’s deep voice. “Snap out of it.”

Red. I see red.

“Let go of me!”

Over his shoulder, I can see Maximo lying on the floor, head snapped to the side. Harley drives his fist into my husband repeatedly and the anger flies through me. “He’s mine! Let me go!”

I use every inch of strength to fight against Death but suddenly, the absolute fury vanishes. Rage’s cry of horror rings through the room and I hear him thud to his knees. Only then does Death relent his grip on me. I push past him, and the horror sinks in.

Prey One is completely and utterly mutilated on our living room floor. His blood and gore seep out into the cold cracks in the floor, his head exploding against the tiles and the stench of his ruined body harasses me.

Petrified, a scream escapes my lips and I stumble backwards until I stumble into Death. “Oh my God!” The tears sting my eyes. “Oh my God!”

I feel Death’s tight grip on my arm. “Stop saying that name here, little mortal.”

“We killed him!” I cry out in horror. “Fuck! We killed him!”

Harley suddenly snaps out of his trance and the terror sinks into him too. His head snaps between the mess oozing into his jumpsuit and at me. A horrified noise escapes him, and he frantically scrambles away. The blood stains his hands and face as he covers his mouth in shock.

“No! That was—”

“He tricked you.” Misery’s voice suddenly rings out and only now do I see her in the corner of the room, hand outstretched in Rage’s direction. He’s on his knees, clutching at his throat, gargling, and choking as something imagery seems to strangle him. The sound is so strangled and horrifying that I want to look away, but the fear forces me to watch this huge beast get punished. However, Rage doesn’t remain on the floor for too long because Death’s mighty fist collides with his chest. He fires dark pixels into the room at his brother, scalding and burning him.

“Death, no!” Misery hisses, releasing Rage from whichever trance she had him in. “Not here, Death, please!”

Rage snaps back into consciousness but cries out in pain as the pixels burn into his skin. Death moves so fucking fast that it’s all a blur. All I can see is Rage’s body smashing into different parts of the room, utterly destroying everything in its wake. He tries to fight back but Death is much faster.

My eyes catch the glimmer of a weapon slashing around, followed by trails of blood on the floor.

“Death!” Suddenly, two more people flash into the room. The Devil zaps just as quickly as the other two men and pushes Death away from him. Rage collapses on the floor, beaten, bruised and utterly disembowelled, but somehow still with a smile on his face. Is he fucking insane?

“Just as I expected,” Rage cackles.

“Shut your fucking mouth, you dirty little cunt. How did you get in here without us knowing? What the fuck are you playing at?” Death is huge and leering over him in his ghastly state. He looks nothing like the man who throws my body around and pleases me. But now, the black mist stains the atmosphere and makes it hard to breathe, and his body bursts through his armour. His back is to me so I can’t see his face and I’m almost glad. “You deserve another death for that!”

Just as Death strikes, Longing is in front of him. She grabs her son’s face and holds him tightly before glancing back at Misery in fear. “Do it, Mis. Stop him—”

Suddenly, Longing is flying across the room as Death strikes her away as if she weighs nothing. And then the most terrifying roar rips from his body, knocking me over onto my ass. When he rears around to face us, the man who haunts my wet dreams has completely transformed.

For the first time in these godforsaken trials, I can truly say that the tremendous beast in front of me completely and utterly horrifies all other versions of fear I thought I’d ever had before.