AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Santino raised the hammer and used it to lift my chin up, so we were face to face. “Good, then follow me; your lessons of darkness and control that you so desperately want, begin now.”
Hands trembling, I nodded. The feel of the metal against my chin was almost a loss, and his eyes said he knew it too when he pulled it away and gave me his back.
I wondered if he knew, at that point in my life, I would follow him into the very depths of Hell if that was what he asked of me.
He was the only one who saw me. Who said yes, who really got it.
Maybe that’s why some people preferred the monsters under their beds rather than the heroes who rode in on white horses.
The hero came to save you.
The monster, however, came to devour.
At this point in my life, all I wanted from Santino was tobedevoured because maybe then the memories of my past would be devoured too.
Maybe then… I’d get justice for my twin.
Maybe then, if I was ever kidnapped again…
I’d become a monster too.
Santino went to the basement door and opened it. “You need to prepare yourself for darkness.”
“No,” I whispered. “I need to prepare myself for war.”
So, down into the darkness I went, putting one foot in front of the other. Following my monster down the stairs wasn’t nearly as frightening as I thought it would be.
It was exhilarating.
It was better than roaming the huge house or lying in my bed and crying myself to sleep over my brother, over my trauma.
Santino’s back flexed beneath his black shirt. The hammer was still in his right hand, beckoning me, and I had a sick thought of what I would have done if I’d had such a weapon when I was kidnapped.
I would have used it on that man’s balls and relished in the pain on his face when I crushed his windpipe next.
Santino stopped once we reached the bottom of the bare hallway; there was a door on each side, metal.
“What’s in there?” I pointed.
Santino dropped his head a bit, a cruel smile spread across his face. “Bad men who do bad things.”
“Wait, they’re still in there?” I whispered.
“Don’t worry, they can’t hear you. Soundproof walls and a metal door several inches thick, they’d have to be superhuman. And where else would we torture them? Dungeons can be very… convincing.”
I tried not to look surprised as we kept walking past several more torture chambers until he stopped at a giant door right in front of us. It seemed my brother had an entire freaking prison down here.
The lights even flickered like he couldn’t afford electricity, when really, I’m assuming he did it to mess with people’s heads, making them wonder if they would suddenly be thrust into darkness.
I wasn’t sure if I was more proud or terrified.
Santino pressed his thumb to a panel next to the door, a green light flashed where his thumb was, and the door immediately clicked open.
He walked in, holding the door wide.
It was a training room of sorts, though there were a lot of, um… devices that looked medieval on the back wall. I didn’t think I’d ever seen an iron chair, but there it was, sitting in the corner next to the head crusher.
“Mere antiques,” Santino said, watching my eyes widen at the sight. “We rarely use them.”
