“We have to hurry,” I said.
“What the fuck’s going on!” Enrique yelled as he stormed toward us.
I pushed Garvin into Bo’s arms and pulled my gun. Derek jumped in my way, running at the huge man with his blade in his hand, only to be knocked into the hanging corpses, landing in a crumpled heap at what would have been their feet had they still had them. I took aim and fired my weapon several times, hitting Enrique right between the legs. The gun worked. He grabbed himself, dropping to his knees screaming at first, wordless screeches, then, “I’m going to kill you, you fucking bitch.” It was a name that I had heard from him many times.
“Still haven’t learned my name, I see,” I replied walking up to him.
“I should have killed you the night that I fucked you, bitch,” he replied through clenched teeth.
Enrique started getting to his feet when Bo came running around me with his sword above his head. Enrique threw his hand up to block the blow, but Bo’s blade took his arm off at the shoulder. The man’s screams were almost deafening, but it wasn’t loud enough to stop everyone from hearing Bo’s yell, “You do not treat women that way.” A smile crept across my face as I watched him grope for the place where his arm, use to be. Blood was gushing from his body, and yet he still shot his eyes to me and continued to threaten my life.
“You’ll die down here you whore…you and your little friends,” he yelled, snapping his teeth and getting to his knees.
“Hey, big mouth,” Derek said thumping him on the back of the head. “That’s my mom you’re calling a whore.” Then he slammed a bar that he had found on the floor, into the back of his head.
Enrique’s body flew forward, causing him to land flat on his face. The back of his head was split open, with the front now bleeding just as bad. When he rolled over his nose was busted so badly, that you could see the bone on the bridge. The impact caused a great amount of damage, but he was still conscious. I began laughing at the site of this big mean animal, squirming around like one of the many victims that he had tortured.
“Fuck you,” he gurgled through the vast amount of blood.
“You just don’t know when to shut up,” Brandon said walking up, holding his hand out to, Bo.
Bo looked at me and I simply nodded. Brandon took the sword from Bo, and started circling the big man, who was now beginning to beg. I think we all stepped in a little closer to show that we meant to see his death, no matter what came out of his mouth. “I was only doing what I was ordered to do,” he groveled.
“Were you under orders when you raped, Renee?” Brandon asked, right before he brought the sword down across Enrique’s knee, severing it, pant leg and all.
That was all the pain that the big man could take. He screamed once, then fell unconscious. Brandon raised the sword to take off his head when I told him to stop. All the boys looked at me like I had lost my mind, until I explained to them what I was planning on doing with him. I had Bo grab the torch and hand it to me. This was a task that I wasn’t going to ask anyone else to do, and one that I had every intention of using as a major pay back not only for myself, but for all the others that he had caused such great harm to.
“What are you going to do with the torch?” Derek asked following me.
“I’m going to stop the bleeding before he bleeds to death.”
“Why? He’s a no good son-of-a-bitch. Why would you want him to live?” he asked grabbing me by the arm.
“Just like I said, Derek. I want him to pay for what he’s done.”
“I’m so confused.”
“You’ll understand soon enough,” Garvin called out, coming up the hall holding onto the wall.
I started putting the burning torch to the open wound on Enrique’s shoulder. The sound and stench was more than I could handle and I dropped the torch before I could get to his leg. My stomach contents came up and out uncontrollably. Once I had gained my composure I turned to see Garvin finishing what I had begun. I walked back over, wiping my mouth off. I reached down and ripped a piece of cloth off of Garvin’s filthy garment, then shoved it as hard as I could up Enrique’s busted nose.
“Drag him to the lower levels. We leave him where we find Tanda,” I added, as I wiped his blood off of my hand on the only clean spot left on his shirt.
“Now I get it,” Derek laughed, “Let this piece of shit rot to death.”
“You got it,” I replied, taking Garvin around the waist.
I told Brandon and Derek to go back and get Ashley, because I didn’t want anyone to sneak in and take her while we were down in the lower levels. I told them to explain to her that Sydney would be safe with the curtain closed and the door locked, and that we would be back as soon as we found Tanda. I also told them that they were to take her against her will, if she refused to leave him. I had to think of my little ones, and Sydney was more than we could carry if we were attacked. Garvin, Bo, and I, waited with Enrique’s unconscious body at the end of the long hall for them to come back.
A few minutes later we heard Ashley arguing as she was being held between the boys. Once she closed her mouth long enough to take in a deep breath she began gagging. I met them halfway, and by the time that I got there, she was already throwing up. I bent down and started rubbing her back and instantly could tell she was angry at me.
“He’s all alone,” she gasped.
“I know, Ashley,” I replied standing back up. “But if they get their hands on you…”
“What about him? Do you honestly think, that crazy woman would let him live now?” she asked then started screaming.
“Ashley…Ashley get a hold of yourself,” I yelled, taking her and shaking her.
“I…I,” she mumbled pointing at the corpses hanging on the wall.
I looked and saw the very same dried forms that hung there when I was in the cage across from them. I remembered the one being semi-alive, and how I couldn’t stop thinking about the other man who had no feet. I couldn’t blame Ashley for being shocked at the sight, because it had shocked my very being. I wrapped my arms around her, remembering her age and how I had reacted when I saw the carnage for the first time. I turned her away from it and started down the hall toward the horrific sight that we had caused. I quickly began explaining what she was about to walk up on, then went directly into telling her who the beast was, and that it was all of us who had done the damage to him.
“He’s the one, isn’t he?” she cried, holding on to me in a death grip.
“Yes, he is,” I whispered.
“Then he deserved it, and now I’m not so worried about, Sydney. I was afraid that woman’s man would find him.”
Chapter Fourteen
I introduced everyone to Garvin, and even through the gore on his face you could still see the beauty in his smile. The introduction was short lived as I turned and walked behind everyone, heading toward the large iron door that lead to the depths of hell itself. Our little Tanda was down there somewhere and nothing was going to keep me from opening the one door that I was hoping to never lay eyes on again for as long as I lived. The stench was flooding from under its heavy weight, causing every memory that I had to invade my mind once again, making me want to end what little life that Enrique had left. All of the torture that these bastards put me through was nothing compared to the night that he ripped my virginity from me. And now standing here, I thought of what he must have done before he locked that sweet, tiny child down there. I turned back around and fumed my way back to Enrique and stomped down on his head several times before Bo picked me up around my waist.
“Why don’t you just kill him and get it over with?”
“I’m okay now. I just needed to get that out,” I replied, trying to wiggle out of his grip.
“Are you sure?”
“Bo, put me down,” I demanded slapping at his hands.
“Promise you won’t hit me?” he laughed.
“Bo!”
He laughed even harder as he loosened his grip around my waist. I
told them to grab that piece of shit at their feet, and follow me and Garvin. It took Bo and Brandon to get the iron door open. As soon as the large metal thing swung open, everyone either grabbed their faces or literally began throwing up. Garvin was the only one not holding his nose, he was looking at me. I had my mouth and nose covered with my hand, and looking back through watering eyes.
“It smells like a slaughter house, mixed with a whole load of outhouses,” Derek observed.
“Long death and decay my young friend,” Garvin explained in a soft tone.
“And we’re going down there?” he questioned.
“If you were locked down there, wouldn’t you want us to come find you?” Brandon asked patting Derek on the back.
“Well, if you put it like that, yeah,” he nodded looking up at Garvin. “I didn’t mean anything by that.”
“If I did not have to venture into the depths, believe me, I would not. Please, do not apologize for making such an honest comment.”
I took the first torch off the wall by the door and Garvin took the next. I began the decent and everyone fell in behind me, with Bo shutting the door and coming down last. I could hear the little ones gagging every so often as we made our way down the long stone stairwell that was covered in a thick layer of slime and moss. The walls were wet to the touch and visually nothing could be seen past the glare of our torches. Every step was taken with caution, due to the many pieces of debris that was waiting for unknowing passers.
Ashley held tight to Brandon’s belt with one hand, and her nose and mouth with the other. The rest of us had become as accustomed to the smell, as anyone could possibly get. Ashley’s foot suddenly slipped on the slick stone step, she fell into Brandon, who fell into Derek, who in turn fell into me and Garvin. Bo was the only one standing when we came to a stop, five steps down on the cold wet floor of the lowest level of the estate—the hole.
“Someone’s foot’s in my butt,” Derek shouted, and then burst out laughing.
“I think it’s mine,” I replied with my own laughter. “Is everyone alright?”
“I didn’t mean to do it, my foot slipped on the step,” Ashley said, untangling herself from Brandon.
“Garvin?” I called out, seeing his torch on the floor several feet across the room.
“I’m here, under our young friend,” he replied raising his hand in the air.
“Derek, get off of him,” I said.
“I will as soon as you get off of me.”
Bo stepped down and started helping us out of our predicament. Once we all managed to get to our feet, and had the torches back in our hands, we started looking in the small tomb-like cages for Tanda. Three had been opened and still no sign of her. That’s when panic started to set in. I began calling out her name in a much louder, more terrified tone. I was beginning to think that she wasn’t down here at all. That, those unscrupulous bastards had taken her life and only made Garvin think, that she had been punished by being placed in the hole.
“Someone’s in this one, I can hear them moaning,” Bo said, trying to unlock the slide latch on the top of the solid iron door.
“Oh, Dear God, please be her,” I prayed out loud, as Bo and Garvin lowered it to the floor.
“She is not in here,” Garvin announced backing away.
“What is it?” Bo asked, putting his torch deeper into the dome like cage. “Please tell me that I’m not looking at something that was once human.”
“They have started to decay while life remains in their body. I have seen it before. Starvation has not yet had time to kill them, but the length of time that they have laid in the remains of those who died in there before them, has softened their flesh to the point, that their own has fallen off,” Garvin grossly explained.
“Open all of them. We have to find her, and we have to find her now,” I said and broke down crying.
“We will, Renee, “Ashley replied, taking my hand.
“We have to,” I replied, listening to the deafening sound of Bo’s bullet finishing off the already lifeless corpse.
“Won’t someone hear that,” Ashley jumped.
“Nothing can be heard this deep down,” Garvin replied staring deeper into the room.
There was only one cage left to open and it was the very one that Enrique had forced me into. The very cage that I had stayed in for six weeks the first time that, I was placed down in the putrid hell. “I can hear something.” Derek called out as the latch slid free.
Once the door was down and the light found its way into to the small area, I knew the tiny form was Tanda. She was curled up on her side with her back turned to us. I walked in on my knees with my head bent down. I did my best to keep my hands free of the two inch thick, gore that covered the floor, until I reached her.
“Tanda, honey, can you hear me? It’s me, Renee.” Then I gently laid my hand on her delicate rib cage, and began to weep with relief as I felt it rise.
She moved her head mere inches, then went still. I reached under her neck with one hand, then turned her on her back and picked her up, holding her close to my chest. I rocked her back and forth for a few minutes, then began making my way back out. Garvin was the first to take me under the arm when my head was free of the entrance.
“Tanda…Tanda wake up,” Garvin said, taking her from my arms. “Come my cherished one, just open your eyes for me.”
“Shouldn’t we get her back upstairs?” Ashley asked, watching everything in horror.
“He knows what he’s doing,” I replied, never taking my eyes off of Garvin and Tanda.
“You have returned to us. Now you must open your eyes, so you can see the friends that Renee brought to save us,” Garvin softly pleaded, as tears rolled in small crimson rivers down his cheeks.
He was wiping the thick slime away from her face with the end of his garment, when Brandon took off his shirt and handed it to him. He cleaned her off the best that he could, and kept speaking the whole time about the things that they had planned on doing, once they were freed from this place. Tanda’s head turned into his chest, and then she muttered the words. “I’m sorry.” I dropped down on my knees in front of her and Garvin.
“Hey sweetie, can you hear me?” I prayed she would answer and wasn’t so weak that we had already lost her.
She turned with what little strength she had and opened those beautiful blue eyes and looked at me. “You came?”
“Yes, baby, I came. I will always come for you,” I cried, kissing her forehead.
While we had been working with Tanda, Bo had gone back up and dragged Enrique down to where we were. I was so concerned about Tanda that, I hadn’t even noticed. “What do you want to do with this thing?” Bo asked, kicking the now waking, Enrique.
“He goes where she was. He’s going to die in there just like all of the ones that he walked off laughing at.”
The boys helped me drag him over to the opening. I told them it was my place to roll him into the hell that he had placed Tanda in to die, and a privilege that was all mine. Derek, of course, had to make a comment about me already being covered in the stuff that filled the cages anyway, getting him a much needed slap on the back of the head from Brandon. Garvin sat holding Tanda in his lap on the steps, while the boys held the torches and stood back, while I rolled the not so whole man into the cage. I had to sit down on the floor and push with my feet to get his weight over the opening. It was then that he began to comprehend what was happening to him.
“I would rather you finish me,” Enrique moaned, grabbing at the cage entrance with his only hand, while he kicked for momentum with his only foot. “Renee, please don’t lock me in here.”
“If you answer my question honestly, Enrique, I will think about helping you from dying in this horrifically, terrifying place.”
“I’ll answer anything you want to know, just please don’t leave me down here,” he begged, reaching out trying to touch my leg.
“Did you rape Tanda, before you put her in this cage?” I asked, lo
oking him directly in the eyes.
“Please,” he cried.
I already knew the answer before I asked it, but I wanted him to see the acknowledgement of it on my face. I pulled back the leg that he was reaching for and kicked him square in the face, rocking him backwards and I didn’t stop kicking him until he was far enough in the cage to lift the door and slam it shut.
“You will die in there knowing what you’ve done was wrong. You may never feel remorse for all of the lives that you’ve taken, Enrique, but how long will you survive having to think about it?”
I walked off without one ounce of regret for what I had just done. I felt justified, elated, knowing that he and Annabel would never do the morbid things that they were doing, anymore. Bo had offered to carry Tanda for Garvin, but he wasn’t about to let go of his sister. She had closed her eyes again, but now I think it was in relief of being in the warmth of his arms.
I was the last to take the long maddening trail back up from the depths of Yvette’s secret abyss. The abyss that, I would make sure that no creature would ever journey to again, even if I had to burn the place to the ground by sheer will alone. Enrique would be the last victim to lie in the belly of this beast, though more would suffer, paying for the hell they had caused before all was said and done. I thought as I followed the others, who also walked in silence, about what I was going to tell them. I had already said that we would go in and get those that we were searching for and leave. Two, had paid with their lives for the crimes that they had committed, but the one who made the laws that ruled these wicked walls, was still somewhere being pampered, and more than likely unaware that her home had even been invaded.
It was the sound of Bo opening the iron door that tore me away from my many thoughts. My little ones were the first to take in deep gulps of air that had to smell like roses compared to the stench that they just escaped from. Brandon helped me close the door, and then both of us leaned our backs against it and began to chuckle.
Bloodbreeders: The Revenge Page 12