AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It’s the darkest form of torture and a horrendous death.
“I don’t know if you’re even real, or if this is a hallucination, or if I’m dead, but I want revenge. I choose revenge. I want them to suffer for what they did to me. I want them to pay,” he growls, and despite his injuries, he manages to sit a little taller.
“So be it.” Diamond holds out his hand, giving him the opportunity like he did with me. He has to want it, after all.
We can’t save them if they don’t want to be saved.
The boy climbs to his feet with a painful groan and lays his hand in Diamond’s, his eyes hardening.
“Take my life,” he says. “Take everything, just let me see them suffer first.”
I glance at the others, knowing we’ll all be covered in the blood of this boy’s enemies before sunrise, and I’m looking forward to it.
Chapter
Thirty-One
“What’s your name?” I ask the boy as we help him to his feet. He’s in rough shape, weak from lack of food and his beating. He’ll take time to recover, but at least we found him before it was too late. He keeps the joker card clutched in his hand as we help him out of the mausoleum. I don’t think any of us want to force him to hand it over. Not yet. We have plenty of time for that.
“Melvin,” he answers, his throat rough. “It’s Melvin.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Melvin,” I reply, helping him make his way across the uneven ground. Many of the graves are in disrepair here, either because they are old or because the caretakers no longer care about this part. The mausoleum is well-kept, though, as if someone tends to it often. Of course the rich get better service even in death. They forget those who can’t afford such a grand statement of wealth.
“How many of them are there?” Club asks, his mind already on the task at hand. He’s likely planning out every detail, wanting to make sure we don’t miss an opportunity. Melvin decided he wants revenge, so we’ll give it to him, even if we have to carry him to each destination.
“Three,” he answers softly. “Two boys and a girl.”
“Do they live close by?” Diamond asks.
Melvin nods. “Yes. About five minutes up the road. We all lived in the same part of town.”
“We’ll drive,” Spade says, gesturing to the car. He knows as well as we do that this boy won’t be able to walk far. His strength is already starting to fail. Likely, he has some broken bones we can’t see or at least some fractures, but he’s being a trooper with the pain. Revenge is a great motivator.
We all pile in Diamond’s black Dodge and follow Melvin’s directions to a subdivision. I’m surprised Melvin came from the suburbs, but I’m not surprised the others do. Sometimes, kids like these can be the meanest, especially if they are their daddy’s little princess or mommy’s little man.
We pull up outside a quaint white house that matches all the others. They are all perfectly manicured and built exactly the same, like the builder could only come up with one design and figured a hundred more would be great. It’s horrible. I prefer the bright splashes of color of the cirque, but this is exactly the kind of place Roger would have liked. That thought only makes me hate it more.
“Who does this house belong to?” I ask, looking up at the dark windows.
“George. He’s the leader,” Melvin says. “The others listen to every word he says.”
Spade pauses. “And how old is George?”
I understand his question. None of us want to kill a kid, but Melvin asked for revenge, and we have to give it to him. Still, it feels a little wrong.
“Eighteen,” Melvin says. “The three of them are all eighteen. I’m the youngest. I won’t turn eighteen until next year.”
“Oh,” I muse. Well, that fixes that. They are old enough to know better. Besides, they tried to kill Melvin and clearly had every intention of doing so. “Well, let’s get George taken care of then. Which window is his?”
Melvin leads us around back and points to a window with a light on inside. The curtains cover it, but we can see through a gap that George is within. He’s sleeping like a baby, sprawled across a bedspread with cowboys drawn on it despite the fact he nearly killed a kid. He probably thinks Melvin is already dead.
Bastard.
Heart reaches up and gently pries the window open. George doesn’t stir, but then again, I don’t expect him to.
“We can’t do it here,” Diamond says. “We’ll take him out to the woods with the others.”
There would be too many potential witnesses if we did it here. His parents are probably snoring away, unaware of the little monster they raised. Unless they are monsters too. Monsters often make more monsters.
