Page 216 of I Will Mend You
“There. I’m doing it,” he rasps.
“Too late.” I tighten the tourniquet, pick up the knife, and position its blade against the base of his left testicle.
Delta breathes hard, his chest rising and falling like bellows.
“Tell me, Father,” Xero drawls, “how does it feel to finally taste defeat?”
He screams, the sound ringing through my ears.
The power is mine now, and I revel in it.
NINETY-SEVEN
ONE YEAR LATER
XERO
I push open the heavy iron door with a loud creak, letting out the mingled scents of decay and filth. The cell is damp, dark, and despondent, reflecting the time I spent under Father’s control.
He lies on his back, chained to the floor, twitching and flinching with each drop of water from an overhead pipe connected to the septic tank. Every bone in his body protrudes to form a perfect outline of his skeleton, and he looks like he’s in his eighties instead of his late fifties. More importantly, he’s devoid of his nipples, testicles, and a penis.
I walk around the cell’s perimeter, unclipping his chains from the rings on the wall. They clink as Father pulls himself up to sitting.
“Xero?” he rasps, his voice barely more than a whisper. “What else are you taking from me now?”
“Your life,” I say.
He chuckles, the sound more like a cough. “You wouldn’t let me die. Not when you can prolong my misery.”
“I have something you need to see.”
After attaching a chain leash to his collar, I yank him up, eliciting a satisfying groan. I drag him out of the cell and into a dim hallway, making him crawl after me on his hands and knees.
The catacombs remained compromised until we obtained the names of Father’s outstanding associates. With the right cocktail of truth serums, he helped us locate the instructors who were absent during the raid, along with all his contacts at the police department and FBI.
Our entire team of operatives coordinated numerous simultaneous assaults, striking them down in a single night. Shortly after, we returned to the Parisii Cemetery and restored the catacombs as our headquarters.
I continue through the hallway, with Father panting behind me like a hound. Months of torture have broken his body, but his spirit remains intact. Part of him clings to the hope that I’ll overcome my so-called daddy issues and we’ll bond.
“Xero,” he says through labored breaths. “Slow down.”
I quicken my pace, my heart soaring as the walls echo with his pitiful cries. Finally, we reach our destination, a chamber where Amethyst awaits on a stone bench with a box of popcorn and a projector.
A double dog bowl sits on the floor, with one section filled with fresh water and the other a thin gruel containing every vitamin, mineral, and antibiotic required to sustain Father through his captivity.
He recoils at the sight of my little ghost, his chains rattling. “What’s she doing here? You told me her vengeance was complete.”
My lips twitch. After Amethyst took his left testicle, she forced it down his throat. The following month, she took his right and stuffed it in his ass. She spent weeks keeping Father in suspense, letting him linger in paranoia and terror of when she would take his penis.
When she finally ended the old bastard’s wait, she made it a spectacle. His screams shook the catacombs but were nothing compared to the misery he’d inflicted on hundreds of innocent children.
I thread my gloved hand into his hair. “You no longer hold her interest. This little outing is about something else.”
Amethyst picks up her popcorn. “You’re safe with me. I’ve moved onto bigger and better things.”
Father’s gaze darts between us, his haggard face contorting with confusion. “Then why am I here?”
“It’s movie night.” I take my seat beside Amethyst and gesture at the dog bowl. “We even brought you a snack.”