Inceptive

by M. D. Melai

  “No, but we have been friends since kindergarten. She’s like a sister to me,” Olivia replied sweetly.

  Just like Violet and me.

  I thought about what I would do if the roles were reversed, and I was Olivia watching over Violet’s daughter. I knew I would be doing anything and everything to make sure my niece made it out of here safely—I hoped Olivia would do the same.

  “So, when it comes down to it,” I said, catching her attention. “Would you follow the trust of your best friend, or the orders of her father?”

  “You sure do know how to ask some hard questions,” Olivia replied with a half-smile. “The answer is Adela—always Adela. I never liked how Viktor handled business, or anything else for that matter. And especially not the way he handled your mother and you. The only reason I have worked for him this long was to get inside information and be built up as a confidant.”

  “That makes me feel a little better since I’m his prisoner,” I confessed. I was scared of the answer to my next question, but I asked it anyways. “How long have I been here?”

  “Three days,” Olivia exhaled.

  Three Days! Why hasn’t my family come for me yet?

  It was as if Olivia read my mind. “Your family is having a hard time finding us. Since the only detail I know is that we’re near Niagara Falls, it’s taking them a while longer than I expected. They will find us, though. Don’t worry,” she said as she patted my arm softly and gave me a reassuring smile. The problem was it didn’t quite meet her eyes.

  Pure fear swept across my face. Niagara Falls was about six hours from the Holland Tunnel, where I had been taken. How was my family supposed to find me if Olivia wasn’t even sure where we were?

  “How come I have been out for so long?” I asked.

  “I kept sedating you. I was worried about the protrusion on your head, so I thought that would help make the recovery easier on you. You would still be under if Viktor hadn’t ordered me to make sure you were awake today.”

  Why was today important?

  Before either one of us could say another word, James barged into the room. He told Olivia that Viktor wanted to see her and that he would keep an eye on me. The way he said those words made my entire body shiver, and I tried to shrink away from him. It was impossible, though, since I was still strapped to an operating table.

  “Whatever happens, you will be just fine. I know this for sure,” Olivia said as she gave my hand a reassuring squeeze, before leaving the room. He quickly came and stood where Olivia had just been standing. He didn’t say a word to me, just stood there, stared, and gave me the most chilling smile.

  I tried my best to avoid eye contact with him. He terrified me, and I didn’t want him to see it. I was scared if he looked into my eyes for too long he would see it. He already had enough fuel—I didn’t needed to add to the fire.

  Please find me, and soon.

  It was seconds after my thought, when James reached over and picked up one of the surgical tools, turning his back to me. It startled me to know that he was holding a scalpel. With barely any force, the tool could slice my skin wide open.

  “I always thought it would be cool to be a surgeon,” he admitted. “Being in control over someone’s life like that would give me—such a rush!”

  He turned toward me and gave me a haunting smile. He lowered the scalpel until it was inches from my thigh.

  “Just one little prick and you’d start bleeding, but one long cut line and you’d be opened—simply fascinating, isn’t it?”

  “You’re seriously twisted, you know that?” I retorted. I always knew that James was a man to be feared—I should have known that he was also a psychopath.

  He lifted the scalpel and started to intertwine it around his fingers. Then he picked up a clamp and began to examine it as well.

  “I’m no more twisted than anyone else, sweetheart,” he responded. “Like your little toy of a boyfriend. That Halloween night, how could he have been stupid enough to leave me alone? It’s as if he wanted me to do it. Now that’s twisted, my dear—so sadistic.”

  “You would know,” I spit back at him. “He isn’t any of those words either! How was he supposed to know I’d come down the stairs?”

  “So naïve—I really thought we had gotten past that, Lil,” he said, ignoring my question. “He’s exactly those things, and if you believe otherwise, then maybe you’re just the same. But then again, aren’t you? I mean it does make sense after all. You throw your two boy toys around like it’s nobody’s business. It seems to me like you take pleasure in making them miserable.

  “But then again,” he continued, “isn’t that what Emilio does to you also? Keeping you under his thumb and confining you like a caged animal in your own home.

  “All three of you are in this love-crazed triangle, and hurt each other in some way or another. All you three do to each other is inflict pain—whether it is physical, mental, or emotional,” he laughed. “It beats anything I’ve ever done.”

  “James…,” I heard a familiar voice say as footsteps approached the table. “I see you have started the interrogation without me.”

  Viktor’s face came into view as he walked over beside James and stood over me. He had wickedness in his eyes, and the heat radiating from his body only confirmed that he was like a being from hell. But I wouldn’t let him distract me, though, nor would I let James’s harsh words entice me.

  “But I see that you haven’t started any of the fun stuff yet,” Viktor began, letting me know that he had a lot more in store for me.

  “No, I haven’t,” James replied, still holding the scalpel and clamp in his hands. “I was just getting warmed up.”

  That was when the realization hit me. I wasn’t getting out of this. But I wouldn’t go down without a fight—I would not give the two of them the satisfaction. I would die first.

  “So, what, are you just going to torture me until I give you the money? Because you do remember I have to be alive to do that, you know?” I chimed in on their conversation.

  “I’m very aware of that,” Viktor spoke, before taking the scalpel from James and lifting it up to examine it. “But that doesn’t mean that you don’t need some—persuasion.”

  “And don’t worry, the tools have been sterilized— I think. Wouldn’t want you to get a nasty infection, now would we?” James said with a smirk.

  “Aren’t you two smart,” I retorted. “What, no iodine?”

  “Wow, smart girl,” Viktor said, surprised. “I don’t suppose you have any? I seemed to have left mine in my other operating room,” he chuckled.

  “Shall we get started?” James asked, and I could feel the sweat beading on my forehead.

  ***

  The person who came up with the expression ‘the first cut is the deepest’ is a liar. They must not have ever been physically cut over, and over, and over again. Each cut only gets worse and worse, especially if they are happening at the same time and within intervals. All the pain comes together into a burning sensation that doesn’t go away—it intensifies. No matter how hard you wish for it, or how hard you want it to stop, it doesn’t.

  At first, I had screamed out, which only seemed to make them more satisfied. Now, all I could do was clench my eyes and teeth together. The pain was intense, and I tried to keep the tears from flowing down my face, and my screams from escaping.

  I thought I had been in pain earlier, but nothing had come close to what I felt now. My arms and legs were cover in elongated horizontal slices, ranging anywhere from three to nine inches—my guess at least. They weren’t enough to kill me, just deep enough to cause excruciating pain.

  James finished yet another slice of my skin, before pulling the scalpel back. It dripped with my blood as he started to walk around to the other side of me. He had been going from side to side, giving equal attention to each arm and leg. His laugh echoed throughout the room as he waved the scalpel above my thigh. I could only hope that Olivia would come to my rescue.

&
nbsp; Where was Olivia? Why hadn’t she come in here? She must have heard my screams. Did Viktor order her to stay away, to not interrupt, or he would kill her? She assured me, though, that she would not pick his side.

  “Always Adela,” she had said.

  I glanced up to the door, trying to focus on anything else but the pain, and praying it would open soon. I needed to see her beautiful red hair and blue eyes.

  “Don’t bother,” Viktor told me. “She isn’t coming. Olivia’s time has—expired.”

  She’s dead? No, she can’t be. I need her.

  Viktor grinned from ear-to-ear as he glanced toward James. What a sick and twisted family that I was born in to.

  My heart felt for Olivia. She didn’t deserve to die—especially not for me. Not only did I have the blood of my father on my hands, now I had hers.

  “You know,” James spoke, pulling me from my thoughts. “I think it’s time for her to be in a new position.” He followed with a wink.

  Fear. Complete fear engulfed me.

  “I think you’re right,” Viktor approved.

  Within a few seconds, I could feel as I was being brought up into a vertical stance, and then, before I knew it, the table was collapsing on itself and quickly became a metal chair. How that worked—I had no idea.

  My muscles cried out in discomfort from moving into my new position.

  My arms and legs were still trapped in the metal locks, and even in this position, there was no chance of escaping.

  “Now,” Viktor said as he came around to the front of me and put the scalpel inches away from my nose. “This is me being nice—hoping that you might cooperate.”

  “Not a chance, asshole,” I retorted, before I spit in his face, to which I took a backhand to the face for.

  That hurt.

  “I always knew you were feisty,” he said. “I just didn’t expect you to be so disrespectful.”

  “I only respect someone who deserves it,” I snapped.

  His lip quivered into a grin and then he turned the scalpel sideways and tapped the flat surface on the top of my hand. Then he tilted his head to the side and became very pensive.

  “I’m giving you one last chance to agree to give me the money, and if you choose to deny my request, then things are about to get a lot more—well, for lack of a better word, gruesome.”

  “I already told you several times that over my dead body will you get that money,” I seethed through my gritted teeth.

  In one swift movement, his backhand connected with my cheek again. This time sending searing pain throughout my face—I moved my jaw several times before I heard it pop back into place.

  “Is that all you got?” I said in amusement as a wicked smile crossed my face. While it didn’t feel so great being cut up and bruised, the fact that I could get under Viktor’s skin gave me a sense of satisfaction that I had never felt before—I felt in control, but in a weird way.

  “No, sweetheart,” he said with a coy smile. “I have a lot more in mind.”

  “You know my family is going to kill you for this, right?”

  “Maybe? Maybe not? Until then…” He trailed off.

  “Well, then, give me everything you got,” I shouted, “because I’m not giving in. You will not get that money. You will never get that money!”

  “Thank you for giving me permission, because I was looking at your nails,” he said as he lifted my hand off the arm. “If I take off the whole thing, do you think it will still grow back?”

  “Oh, hell yeah!” I heard James say as he came around to the front, an excited grin on his face.

  From my reaction, I could tell that Viktor was happy. I wasn’t sure what my face gave away, but whatever it showed seemed to have given Viktor a newly found confidence. That was until three beeps came from his pocket—a text maybe?

  Maybe that would give him a break and give me a chance to find my new footing before he moved forward with whatever he planned on doing to me.

  But he didn’t do anything. He glanced up at James and tilted his head toward me. James grabbed ahold of my hand, and I sucked in a breath of air.

  “I will ask you once again to give me what I want!” Viktor shouted this time. He was clearly aggravated. Something had set him off—whatever message he just got must not have been good.

  I didn’t answer immediately. I had told him no repeatedly. When was he going to get the hint? Acting like I was really contemplating my answer this time, I wanted him to suffer before I gave him my answer. I was just about to give him another resounding no, when the door to the room burst open.

  “Get the hell away from my daughter,” a familiar feminine voice rang out.

  My eyes fell on Adela instantly, then Benito and Lucas—their guns all pointed and aimed both at Viktor’s and James’s heads.

  Chapter 25

  My eyes shifted back and forth between the three of them. Adela was determined and ready to attack James and Viktor at any moment. Benito was in the ready stance, but his eyes were widened and focused solely on me and my wounds. Lucas was the only one that lowered his gun slightly at the sight of me.

  I could only imagine what they were looking at, since I was just in a tank top and shorts.

  “We’re going to give you one chance to let Lily go, or we will kill you both right here, right now,” Benito threatened.

  Benito’s statement didn’t even faze Viktor, because he walked around to the backside of my chair and held the scalpel to my throat.

  “It’s funny that you all feel so in control,” he said calmly.

  Even though I couldn’t see it, I swear I could almost hear the sound of his signature wicked smile spreading across his face.

  “But if you shoot me, then I may fall backwards and my hand just might accidently nick Lily’s neck, is that what you want?” he retorted as he inched the knife closer to my skin. “And did you really think that it would only be just James and me here?”

  As soon as he said that, five men ushered their way into the room. They circled Benito, Adela, and Lucas, but Adela seemed composed as she gave Benito a quick look.

  I feared for their lives. While mine was protected since Viktor needed me, he could easily dispose of them and not even blink an eye. He had already tried to do it once to Adela, what would stop him from doing it again? And Lucas and Benito meant nothing to him, and he would probably smile at the thought of their death.

  “Wait!” I yelled, halting everyone.

  They all turned their attention to me. I honestly didn’t know if what I said next was going to change anything, but I had to try. I needed to save my family.

  “I’ll give you the money,” I said, almost as if I was out of breath. “But you have to spare my family’s lives.”

  Benito, Adela, and Lucas’s eyes grew wide at my words, but what else was I supposed to do? I needed to save them. They had saved me several times.

  “Interesting proposition,” Viktor said, thinking it over—a little too long for my taste.

  They all stood there and waited while Viktor thought about my proposal. I wasn’t sure if he was taking his time on purpose or if he really didn’t know how to respond.

  The wait became more agonizing as the minutes went by. Viktor had James take his place, and that scared me more than Viktor being behind me. While James held it uncomfortably close, Viktor paced the room. All the guns were still pointed at Benito, Adela, and Lucas, but there was no indication that Viktor had given his men any signals.

  All I could do was pray—pray that everyone walked out of here alive. I couldn’t lose another person that was close to me. First, I had lost Roman to this family, and then I lost my father. If I could prevent them from taking someone else from me, then I was going to do it—no matter the cost.

  “If I may interject,” James said as he lifted the scalpel from my neck, which allowed me to exhale the breath I had been holding. “Couldn’t we just kill everyone and leave Lily with no one and eventually torture her enough to give it to us? I mea
n if we just let them go, how do we know they won’t try to hunt us down again? I think we’d be doing ourselves a service to take out everyone.”

  “If you lay another hand on her, I will rip you to shreds,” Benito took a step towards us. But in one swift move, James pulled a gun out from his backside and pointed it straight at Benito, stopping him in his tracks.

  “Now, there is no need to get worked up,” Viktor said, defusing the situation. “And James, while you do have a good point, I will have to accept Lily’s offer. And I promise that as soon as the money is safely in my possession, then I will let Lily go free—no more harm done.”

  “I’m sorry, but I’m not going to let that happen,” Adela spoke up. “That money is not yours.”

  “Hmm, well I guess it doesn’t matter anymore since Lily offered it to me and I accepted. That verbal contract is between her and me and doesn’t concern you,” he replied harshly. “Will you all please escort Lily’s family out?” He paused for a second as he glanced toward me and then looked back at his men. “And don’t forget to get rid of everyone not related. You can start with Lucas here.”

  “What!” I said as I thrashed around, still cuffed to the chair. As Viktor’s men grabbed Benito, Adela, and Lucas, James spoke my worst fear.

  “Save Lucas for me,” James said laughing. “I have something extra special in mind for him.”

  “No!” I shouted.

  “Oh, and don’t forget,” Viktor continued, “the other one, Emilio. I'm sure he is around here somewhere.”

  “You said that they would walk free!” I yelled. “You said if I agreed to give you the money my family was free!”

  “That’s correct,” he said. “I promised that your family would be unharmed—I never said anything about your friends or lovers. And quite frankly, I think I’m doing you a favor in that area.”

  I watched as four men, one on each arm, hauled Lucas and Benito out the door, followed by Adela. They were all shouting and trying to retaliate, but I couldn’t hear anything, all I could hear was the sound of my heart pounding in my ears.