Revenge

by E M Courier

  “I’m not going to kill him,” he pinches the bridge of his nose.

  “Can’t you hand him over to the police?”

  “It’s been sixteen years. There’s no evidence and they already ruled it an accident. Worst thing he’ll get is at least ten months for involuntary manslaughter. This is a case we need to take into our own hands. My hands. To make sure he is properly punished.”

  “And Scarlett?” Liam’s voice softens.

  “Fine,” he says through gritted teeth. “Now is that all you wanted?”

  A sigh sounds through the phone. “Alexander, please. Come home. Stop this madness. End this obsession.”

  “No,” he hangs up and slams his phone down. He would scream at the top of his lungs right now if he could. He doesn’t want to wake Scarlett sleeping just two doors down.

  Alexander tells Gavin about the moment he shared with Scarlett in the hallway. Gavin groans wishing his hands free so that he can cover his ears.

  “And you know what?” Alexander taunts. “She believes me. She knows the truth. Knows that you a murderer and she hates you.”

  Gavin cries out. “I was the one who took care of her all her life! I was the one who was always at her side providing for her and loving her. It was more than her bitch of a mother ever did. My dear darling, Hazel. You leave her alone!” He screams.

  “Hurts doesn’t it?”

  “Leave her alone! Don’t you fucking touch her!” He shakes his head from side to side withering in his restraints.

  “You should see how she responds to me. She loves me.”

  “End this, Novak. Just end this. Kill me and get on with it!”

  “You see,” Alexander circles the chair Gavin is tied to. He runs his fingertips along the sharp blade of the knife he’s holding. “For sixteen years I’ve been in agony over my little sister. So, I think in sixteen years after I’ve thoroughly used your daughter and thoroughly snuff any light on your eyes...then I will grant you death.”

  “Fuck. You,” Gavin spits at Alexander’s shined black shoes.

  “Your daughter will soon enough. I’ll be her first,” he smirks enjoying the blushing angry red tone to Gavin’s face. “Don’t worry though, I’ll be sure to show you everything. What would you hate to see more, her hating it or her enjoying it?”

  Gavin struggles and screams earning a laugh from Alexander.

  “A little of both?” Alexander raises his brow. “Pain and pleasure is a perfect mixture. I know just how much she loved it when I spanked her...or when I choked her.”

  “You’ll fucking pay for this one day, Novak,” Gavin’s eyes are ablaze with rage.

  “I already am,” Alexander stabs the knife into the wood chair directly next to his head. The old man pisses himself from fright.

  Alexander’s lips curl in disgust as the wetness on his dirty pants grows and the smell of urine stinks the basement. There’s no way he’s taking care of this mess. Gavin will have to wait until Alexander bothers to call one of his helping hands to assist in cleanup.

  With one final laugh and a triumphant look, Alexander shuts the lights off leaving him in total darkness and exits the basement. The thrill of pissing Gavin off and causing him emotional distress is a feeling like no other to Alexander. The large smile on his face will be hard to get rid off after seeing him so scared he wet himself. Yet, there’s still tension in his body refusing to allow him this moment of peace and relaxation.

  The tension coiled in his shoulders. The tension that makes his stomach feel empty and his heart hollow. The beautiful image of Scarlett comes to his mind. Every time he torments Gavin It torments Scarlett as well. Promises of making his life miserable by making her miserable. By twisting her mind and brainwashing her to crave his body. To use her for his own selfish reasons. To show Gavin that he no longer owns her—Alexander does.

  Scarlett is awake sitting at the edge of her bed, naked. Alexander watches her on his phone through the surveillance cameras again. Her hands run through her shiny hair in frustration. Her lips are moving, but he can’t hear anything. Not because the video doesn’t have audio, but because she is mumbling. He watches as she begins to pace her room, his eyes roaming over her body and particularly taking in the globes of her ass and the swells of her breast.

  Alexander looks careful as she places a hand on her throat—the same way he did to her that time in the hallway. She closes her eyes and he can bet she is remembering his hands on her. It’s getting increasingly hard to ignore the hardness in his pants.

  From the moment he met her face to face, that day she was late to her first day as his secretary, he hated her. He hated her so much that he went as far as to thinking about killing her. The thought of Gavin searching for his missing daughter not knowing that she was dead. To have him search for years in agony with no answer to what happened to his daughter. He almost did it. He almost went through with the plan until he really looked at her.

  Her cheeks were rosey and her eyes wide with excitement for her first day and it’s new possibilities but also wide because she was scared of him. She didn’t look expensive, nor beautiful, but she looked plain and normal and innocent and he became curious. Scarlett worked harder than anyone he had ever met, she was forgetful but terribly apologetic and ever so pleasing. She always had this sad look on her face but when she smiled, it brightened his whole day. Her shy closed-lipped smile that made her cheeks raise high enough that her eyes squinted. She made him smile.

  For the first time his obsession in getting his revenge subsided. Just for a moment, because of her smile. Things didn’t seem so grueling, life didn’t seem so serious, not when she was around trying her best to be a perfect secretary. She was so full of faults and so human that she seemed perfect to him. It was easy to forget everything when she came in everyday that he had to force himself to think of why she was there in the first place—to lead him to her father.

  Then they went to dinner and he felt everything change. He felt jealous that Liam was even talking to her, hating that she was spreading her smiling joy to anyone but him. As Alexander sat across from Scarlett that day at dinner he realized just how much she reminded him of his sister.

  Truth be told now knowing that they’re half-sisters he can see the resemblance, but what really struck him was the similar personalities. He enjoyed her company because it reminded him of better days when Ellie was still alive.

  Though Ellie and Scarlett have a world of difference, Scarlett makes him feel the happiness he thought he lost September Thirtieth. She found him a new purpose and a new sense of self. Bringing back emotions he buried for so long that after their dinner he went home and he mourned for Ellie. Something he never did for those sixteen years because he refused to accept the fact that his little sister is really gone.

  When Scarlett is calmed down, Alexander enters her room. He carefully steps closer to her until he is standing in front of her. She is sitting at the edge of her bed staring down at her hands. Alexander is towering over her, grabbing her chin to make her look up at him. She looks lost.

  “I want to talk to him,” she asks.

  He didn’t need to ask who. “Okay.”

  “Really?”

  Alexander nods, “You deserve to know the truth.”

  ***

  The white satin robe feels soft against Scarlett’s body, but foreign. The past week and a half she has been here has gotten her accustomed to being naked.

  It’s been a few days since Scarlett requested to see her father. Alexander told her to give him some time and she did. She doesn’t know what he needed to time for, but was glad. She wasn’t sure if she could face him right away. Even now she isn’t sure she’s ready.

  As Alexander and Scarlett stand side by side in front of the door leading down to the basement, her heart thumps in her chest. She wipes her sweaty palms on her robe. Alexander unlocks the door and when he turns the knob opening it, all Scarlett can see are the first five steps descending into darkness.

  Al
exander takes the first step but in a panic Scarlett grabs onto his arm, holding tight. He gives her, what looks to be a sympathetic look. He places his hand on top of hers and promises, “I won’t let him hurt you. I’ll be right by your side.”

  Alexander turns the light switch on and the room down below seems less scary to her. When they reach the last step Scarlett is too scared to look around, her eyes glued to Alexander’s back. He moves out from in front of her and places his hand on her lower back, guiding her to her father.

  They make a right turn from the stairs walking down a short hallway and into the room at the end of it. Alexander has to unlock that room, too. It’s dark until the light is turned on and when it is, the man in the middle, tied to a chair, winces from the light he might not have seen in days. The room smells horrible, like a portapotty mixed with a morgue. Scarlett has to hold her breath.

  Her father looks different. His usual tan skin is pale, his clothes dirty and covered in spots of blood. There a bruises and cuts all over him and it took her a moment to realize the scabs on his hands are from his nails being peeled off. She is going to be sick.

  Gavin picks up his head to look at her. His eyes quickly roam to her neck. “Did he fucking do that to you?” His anger makes her flinch.

  She grabs the collar of her robe and pulls it over her neck to hide the marks there.

  The day after she requested to see her father Alexander was nice. He was tolerable and kind and for once she didn’t feel so alone in this place. They had breakfast, lunch, and dinner together. It was pleasant and he didn’t even feed her himself. She didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. When it was time to go back to her room, Scarlett stripper her robe and headed toward the bathroom to take a bath. Alexander followed her. She could feel his presence behind her.

  His hands gripped her hips pulling her ass back into him. His arms tightened around her while his hands roamed her body going over her stomach and grabbing her breasts. Just as she was about to protest he pinched her nipple, rolling it in between his fingers. Her head fell back onto his chest. That was when his mouth descended onto her neck. She remembers how it felt to have his fingers around her throat. The pressure he put while he looked in her eyes….she throbbed for him. She wanted it again. She wanted to feel his dominance and that made her feel conflicted.

  Her mind shut off while her body let him do what he wanted. He sucked on her neck until the skin was covered with his mark. His hands massaged the inside of her thighs but never went where she needed him desperately.

  “Tell me you want me,” he said.

  She didn’t. She couldn’t.

  So, he left.

  But the next day he did so again, making new marks. He asked and she still didn’t give in.

  Her father looks repulsed by the marks on her body. Scarlett feels self-conscious and looks away from his scorching stare.

  “Did he hurt you?” Her father asks brokenly. “Honey, please. Are you okay?”

  Before she can answer Alexander jumps in. “Scarlett is going to be asking the questions. Not you.”

  “And if I don’t answer?” Gavin throws back.

  “Then I hurt her.”

  Scarlett’s eyes widen and her father catches her reaction quickly rebutting with, “Don’t touch her!”

  “Comply and everything will be okay,” Alexander shrugs casually.

  This is a different Alexander than she’s seen the past few days. He’s cold and unfeeling. He looks and is acting like a shell of a person. His anger frightens her and recently she has felt safe with him, but in this moment she’s not so sure.

  Would he really hurt her?

  “Did you kill my mother or did she die from cancer like you told me?” She asks.

  “Cancer,” Gavin responds quickly.

  Alexander rushes to Scarlett’s side roughly grabbing her hand and taking her pinky between his fingers. He’s about to snap it when her father shouts, “Wait!”

  Scarlett’s mouth is parted in fear, her pinky still at his mercy. Alexander stares Gavin down before his shoulders slump and he admits, “I murdered her. She was a cheating whore.”

  Alexander drops Scarlett arm and she protectively grabs her hand and pinky with her other hand and holds it close to her chest. “And you meant to kill Alexander’s sister?”

  “She was your mother’s daughter. The result of an affair.”

  “That doesn’t answer her question,” Alexander says menacingly through gritted teeth.

  “Yes,” Gavin’s jaw ticks with frustration.

  “Why?” Scarlett’s eyes water. “How could you do something like that?”

  “Sweetheart,” Gavin sighs sadly, “I never meant to hurt you. I’ve always loved you, my little girl. I tried to protect us. Your mother was hurting you because she left. She didn’t care about us, not like I care about you. It’s always been you and me, Scar…” he trails, “Right?”

  “You lied to me!” Scarlett turns her head away unable to look at him. How could he say he did it to protect her? How was murdering two people protecting her? “You lied about my entire childhood. My name isn’t even Scarlett! Right?”

  He shakes his head defeated. “It’s Hazel Katherine MacIntrye.”

  “Oh my god,” she starts to pace. “Where was I born?”

  “New York City.” He confirms everything Alexander told Scarlett. “Scarlett, please, I love you. I’m sorry.”

  “I can’t,” she turns away from his pleading stare. “I can’t forgive you. Not right now.”

  “Let’s go,” Alexander says softly as grabs her arm. She lets him lead her out of the bathroom. Her mind dizzy and her heart heavy with sadness.

  Scarlett can hear Alexander shut off the lights and lock the door, it all sounds muffled as the world around her spins and slows down. A stabbing ache in her brain starts to throb and black spots fill her vision. Her balance is off and she feels like she is about to fall. She doesn’t know where she is.

  Where is she?

  Who is she?

  “Hazel.”

  “Hazel.”

  The voice calls her, but she can’t see anything.

  “Hazel,” the softness of the woman’s voice feels safe. “Hazel,” she calls one more time before Hazel opens her eyes. “Hazel honey, we have to go.”

  Little Hazel rubs her eyes tiredly. She yawns as she looks out the window to see it’s still nighttime. “Where are we going, Mommy?”

  “We have to go,” she sounds sad. Her eyes are red like she’s been crying. “Grab your teddy bear and lets go.” Scarlett’s mother helps her out of bed.

  They hold hands as they tip-toe through their house. The downstairs is a mess. Mommy and Daddy must’ve had another fight, Scarlett concludes. Her mother’s hands are shaking and Scarlett looks up to see tears spilling from her mother’s eyes. One of her eyes are black and swollen. Hazel asks her what happened but Mommy tells her she has to be quiet.

  The sound of footsteps coming from upstairs causes Hazel’s mother to move in a panic. She scoops the little girl into her arms causing Hazel to drop her teddy bear. She screams for it. “Teddy!” Reaching out as if her little arms could grab her most beloved stuffed animal.

  “Violet!” Her daddy screams. His boots clunk down the stairs, meeting them halfway to their escape. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Her father’s voice is slow and sloppy like it always is when he drinks too much.

  “I’m taking my daughter and we’re leaving,” Violet says with a brave face.

  Hazel’s father laughs as though it’s the funniest joke he’s ever heard. He steps forward ripping Hazel from her mother’s arms. Hazel screams and Violet screams.

  He sets Hazel down and stands in front of her, blocking her from her mother. “You stupid bitch. You don’t think I know where you’re going?”

  “Just let me leave, Gavin,” Violet’s voice trembles.

  “You’re never going to leave,” he slaps her across the face. The smacking sound scaring Haz
el causing her to cry out.

  Usually when her parents fight she hides upstairs in her closet and holds her teddy close. Her teddy is her best friend. He keeps her safe and keeps her company when her parents voices get too scary. When the noise becomes so much that she cries loudly just to drown out the sounds.

  She crawls across the floor to reach for her teddy. Just before she can grab it’s arm, her mother picks her up and then her father takes hold of her. They both have her pulling and hurting her. She sobs causing her mother to let go and her father to win.

  “Baby, I’m so sorry,” Violet puts her hands over her mouth.

  “Now you did it,” Gavin spits. “You fucking bitch,” he looks down at her and shakes his head, “Hazel, stop crying.”

  Hazel doesn’t. She continues to cry she’s so scared and wants her teddy.

  Gavin shakes his daughter. “I said stop it!”

  It only makes her wail harder.

  “Leave her alone!” Violet reaches for her daughter.

  Everything happens so fast for Hazel, one minute she’s in her father’s arms, the next minute she is on the floor is pain. Next to her are her parents, her father is on top of her mother. Her mother is laying on the floor and her father’s hands are around her throat. She is making a terrible gagging noise and her eyes are so wide that it makes Hazel look away.

  But only for a moment.

  Hazel pounds her little fists on her father’s back, “Stop Daddy! Stop!”

  “Get off me!” He pushes her hard.

  Hazel falls on the floor, the hardwood hurting her butt on impact. She begs her father to stop, her mother looks like she is in so much pain. She’s struggling. She’s fighting.

  She’s stopped.

  She’s sleeping.

  She won’t wake up.

  ***

  CHAPTER NINE

  Alexander’s hands are on Scarlett’s shoulders shaking her back into reality. It takes her a moment to realize her surroundings. She’s on the couch in the living room. Alexander looks horrified and Scarlett realizes then that she is screaming. Her heart rate is beating wickedly fast and her breathing coming in short, fast spurts.