The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 1 (The Fallocaust Series Book 2) (93 page)

I looked over at my cuffed left hand. I twisted it around in the shackle as I most often did to occupy myself. Though this time I bent my wrist back to see just how deep I had chafed my wrist.

My insides stirred, the first reaction sans violence that I had managed to pull from myself in quite a while. Soon after, adrenaline followed, or perhaps it was the cold reality of the task ahead of me.

My wrist was worn down, a bloody, swollen ring filled with sticky, clear liquid, broken scabs and tendons that flexed and twinged like the cords of a guitar. Seeing the flesh so damaged, so worn through had given me the most transgressive and morbid of ideas.

Without hesitation I put my teeth to the inflamed flesh of my wrist...

... and I started to eat through it.

There was no second-guessing my decision, no inner debate over what I was doing. This pain was nothing compared to what I had been subject to for the last several weeks. This was Sunday fucking dinner.

So I chewed, like a wolf with its leg caught in a trap I chewed through the warm flesh, ripping and swallowing any good chunks of meat I got. There was barely any flesh to bite through though; it was all mostly ropey, stringy tendons and blood.

I left the larger veins I saw intact but I chewed through every tendon I found. The white ribbon that gave my fingers movement was chewy and tough but I severed them. Each finger twitching and tugging as I nipped the white string before they fell into paralysis.

Blood was flowing quickly from my wrist when I finally chewed the flesh away from my bone. The red pulsing veins just waiting for the last sever. My hand and wrist looking like a chewed apple, the bone its core.

I took a deep breath and sat on the bed facing the wall, taking a moment to get used to sitting up. I had lost a lot of blood and my head was swimming, wave after wave of dizziness doing their work on my already battered body.

But I was the fucking Reaper and pain didn’t control me. Pain was nothing but a discomfort for a mortal to remind themselves they’re only human.

And I was a chimera; I was not human.

I wedged my hand into a tight space between two of the iron rungs, palm down, and leaned back, then I shifted myself so my feet were pressing against the head of the bed

Then with a stifled scream I pushed my legs into the iron rungs, and pulled my arm.

I clamped my teeth as the pain overwhelmed me, but I pushed through it and twisted my arm. I could feel the bones snapping more than I could hear them. A sickening sound that travelled up my arms and centered in my brain.

Then with a gasp I felt my hand detach and with that the cuff whipped itself behind the rung it had been looped over and fell onto the bed, bloodied and still holding my severed hand in its steel mouth.

Overcome by pain I lay on my back gasping I wanted to stay there to catch my breath but blood was squirting out of my severed veins.

So I rose, before collapsing onto the floor. I crawled over to the dark corners where Kiki hid and opened one of the dresser drawers. I took out a sock and quickly, with only my remaining hand and my teeth, tied off my arm.

I was free. I managed to put on a zippered jacket draped over the chair and in the pocket I placed my severed hand, I zipped it inside and looked around for something to defend myself with.

There was nothing, everything had been taken out of this room. Not a gun or a knife to be found. I ground my teeth before tightening the makeshift tourniquet and walked towards the door.

The door opened, they never locked it, they had no need to. I walked through the thick wood door and saw a long hallway in front of me. I wasn’t that conscious when they dragged me into this room; though all I needed was a window.

I managed a few steps before I sank to my knees. I swore under my breath and struggled to rise, craning my ears to try and listen for Nero or Kiki coming back. All I could hear though was the adrenaline rushing through them and the steady trickle of blood from my severed stump.

I looked at where my hand had used to be. My two arm bones were poking out, like snowy glaciers in a bloodied sea. Absentmindedly, without even knowing what I was doing I bit on the end of the biggest bone and crunched down on it as hard as I could. I heard and felt the familiar snap of bone and then the sound of splintering as I ripped the tip of the bone off.

I could see the red marrow in the center but what I was more interested in was the actual bone. I had done what I had needed to do. Instead of a rounded edge the piece I had bitten off had made the blunt end sharp.

With a half-sane smirk I struggled to my feet again, I put my good hand on the wall to help balance myself and started trying to find a door.

Back and forth. One foot in front of the other. I pushed the stump of my arm into the crook of the other to stem the flow of blood and concentrated on walking. Trying to ignore the intense pressure in my chest from my broken ribs, and the dizzy consciousness-ending delirium that was creeping to the forefront of my mind.

Then I reached the end of the hallway, filled with furniture of the highest standard all arranged like the photos in magazines. I swept it with my gaze and started walking towards a door to the right.

I opened it and stepped through.

A legionary was standing guard at the door.

He looked at me and for a split second all did was stare at me in shock. I must have been a sight to see. Too bad for him that split second hesitation was my opportunity.

As he reached behind him to grab his gun I jerked back the ruined remains of my arm, and with as much force as I could muster, I stabbed him in the neck with the chewed and sharpened bone.

The legionary let out a gurgled scream. I ripped out my arm before stabbing him again in the neck, blood squirting from the wound and showering me in red.

I fell to my knees as he dropped to the ground, another nauseas wave of dizziness claiming my head. I bent over and tried to catch my breath as the legionary died beside me.

I took his handgun, knowing I wouldn’t have the strength to roll him onto his stomach to get his assault rifle. I wouldn’t be able to hold it properly with one arm anyways. So I grabbed the pistol and held it in my good arm and staggered to my feet.

But my position had already been uncovered. I looked up as I heard the scuffling of feet.

“Stop right there!” one of them shouted.

Why do they say things like that? I raised my gun with a trembling hand and shot the legionary. To my luck I managed to hit him; he flew backwards and landed on the ground. Dead before he even hit the floor.

I stumbled past him, seeing a pool of dark blood start to gather behind his head, and staggered on. I knew my clock was winding down, guns were loud and this mansion, I believed, was swimming with chimeras.

I needed to find a quad, a dirt bike... I had to find so many things before I died and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to.

No, failure couldn’t be my option.

With this in my mind I put one foot in front of the other, leaving a trail of red behind me. All I could hear was the sound of blood roaring through my ears, and my bare feet scraping up against the carpet. I was naked save for the jacket on my back, holding my severed hand.

I rounded another corner and breathed a small, cautious sigh of relief. I was in what looked like the entrance to a hanger or a storage room and chances are those rooms held doors to the outside.

I closed my eyes for a brief moment to try and find an adrenaline store before taking a step into the large, box-filled room.

Then I heard the familiar laugh... and my heart sank.

“Smart. I would have never thought you would sever your own hand. I underestimated you,” Nero chuckled. I heard boot steps behind me but I refused to turn around. “You were so close too. The hanger for our vehicles and planes is just behind those walls. I’m tempted to give you a bike just so I can hunt you and fuck you again.”

I didn’t know what to do; I was too light-headed from blood loss to do anything but keep walking. Several stacks of boxes were in front of me and I thought I could see windows behind them. I kept walking, squeezing my bleeding stump in the crook of my arm.

When I felt his hand take my shoulder and pull it back, my mind broke.

I whirled around and took a swipe at him with the sharpened bone of my severed arm. Like what my teeth had done to Kiki I slashed his face to the bone. Opening up a large gash from his ear to his nose. It ripped half of his nose clean off.

With a desperate cry I raised the gun and shot him in the chest. He stumbled back and hit a stack of boxes behind him.

I heard a loud thud and I realized that the kickback had made me drop the gun. I reached down on trembling, weak knees to try and pick it up but he was already on me.

Nero pushed me to the ground and fell on top of me; the blood from his face dripping on me as he pinned me down with his body.

I clenched my teeth but a scream of frustration and anger sprung to my lips. As he shifted himself into position and took his cock out of his pants I twisted and hollered with every last ounce of energy I had.

My mind was thrown into insanity as he pushed his already hard cock into me. Once again feeling desperate and trapped, made worse by the fleeting taste of freedom now dissolving into nothing around me, I screamed loudly. I no longer cared to save the dignity he had been systematically robbing me of for weeks now.

Nero grabbed my chin and pursed his lips at me. Laughing at his newest plaything, one that I knew must’ve tickled every single transgression he had inside of him. I wasn’t an obedient sengil or the spineless scientist Perish. I was a toy that fought back, screamed obscenities back, and raged as he plucked at the last strands of my pride.

And as if he knew that he was finally breaking past the greywaster-born pride I had been raised with, he smiled, the corners of his mouth rising and seeping self-satisfaction. He knew I was edging my rope and he knew, if only just for now, just for tonight, that he had Chimera X in his hand.

“I ain’t gonna stop fucking you, until you call me baby, hunny-cakes,” Nero growled. In an act that only solidified his state of smug pride he leaned down and kissed my mouth, licking the upper and lower lip with his warm tongue.

I snapped at him but he held me down easily, then with a groan from his mouth he started to drive himself into me, hard.

“I will kill you. I swear on Killian’s life you will be the first immortal I kill!” I snarled. Words were all I had now. Until I could escape, words were all Nero had left me. “I swear I will put your rotting skull up in my skyscraper as a warning to ALL OF YOU that I AM THE FUCKING KING!” I screamed. Desperation swept through me, taking me to places I never thought I would be. I was trapped, I was trapped and I wasn’t in control and it was literally driving me insane. Every thrust, every toying word stripped my nerves and my resolve bare. All I wanted in that moment was to burst out of my skin. Kill them. Kill all of them!

I screamed and thrashed my arms, his cock mercilessly pounding into me, his voice laughing and bringing me sweet taunts that fell on ears blocked out by my own mania.

Then behind Nero a silhouette appeared, a man with a black ski mask over his face and a buttoned up duster. Before I could deduce whether he was real or not he raised an assault rifle and shot Nero several times in the side of the head.

The side of Nero’s head blew off and immediately he collapsed on top of me. I could feel his cock go flaccid inside of my body as the crater on the side of his head oozed blood and pureed brains on to my chest and neck.

Two of them were there now, pulling Nero off of me.

But my mental state won out over the notion that these two were here to help me. As soon as they pushed Nero off of me I snarled and stared them down.

One of them held out a hand. “Reaver, we’re here to free you. Can you walk?”

The low vibrations rumbled in my throat. I stared them down and didn’t move.

“Just grab him, he can’t do very much damage to us,” another one whispered. That voice... I think I had heard it before.

Before I could snap my limbs away from them they both grabbed me. Immediately I thrashed and howled. My head automatically filling me with dire warnings that they were going to take me back to Nero’s room. And with that alert blaring inside of my head I hollered and screamed as loud as I could. I knew there was little sense to it but my mind was gone. All that was left were the primal instincts of a wounded, wild animal.

They both carried me and were soon joined with a third waiting by the door. I tried to keep twisting and thrashing my body but within seconds I was exhausted. When they took me out of the storage room and into the one next to it I was too weak to do anything more than growl.

My bare feet dragged against the floor, I couldn’t even hold my own head up to see where they were taking me.

I realized as we passed through the doors though that I could hear a plane in the distance. Were they taking me to Skyfall? Why were they masked?

I managed to raise my head just as they were stepping onto a Falconer, and saw the third one take his mask off.

Reno?

“Oh, baby...” he sobbed.