Page 105 of Black Ledger

His voice. The Man in Black.

One of my worst tormentors. The man who stared at me until I couldn’t see anymore. The man who maimed me and broke me. The man who promised to one day kill me.

His cruelty was scarred across my irises. I’d never be able to forget what he did to me. His face haunted my nightmares and lived at the back of my corneas. He was the last man I’d seen. The one who ripped my soul out of my body and left me mangled and forever destroyed.

I’d never forget him.

Fear coiled around my throat like a snake. I wanted to scream and claw my way out of my cage, but I’d never be able to escape.

“Ah, she remembers you,” the guard said. “That’s the first sign of true lucidity in weeks.”

“Yes, My Little Dove will always know me.”

My nostrils flared, and I felt the cold concrete against the palms of my hands.

“Leave us.” His voice was the whisper of the devil.

I wanted to scream no, to run and try to get out, but my body was far too broken to escape or fight or do anything.

I blinked. A haze of black formed in front of me like ink spilling on a table.

“I’ve come to keep a promise, My Little Dove.” His warm hands cupped my face, the calluses on his fingers scratching against my cheeks. “The powers that be have finally approved your termination.”

“Please,” I croaked, my throat dry from disuse. But I didn’t even know what I was begging for. Death? Help? Salvation? I didn’t know. “Please.”

“Shhh,” he whispered into my hair. “Shh, I’m here to end your pain.”

I whimpered as he kissed the top of my head.

His hands left my face, and the weight of his body disappeared from in front of me.

I heard a metallic creak, then the sharp, echoing splashes of water hitting the clawfoot tub. It felt like the echo of thunderclaps. The water slammed against metal, again and again, until the sound dulled to a steady roar. But each drop of that water felt like a death knell in my coffin.

The blackness entered my field of vision again, and he said, “This will only prick a little bit.”

A sharp sting pierced my arm. Pressure followed, and the cold needle slid beneath my skin. The medicine entered my bloodstream like a punch.

I whimpered but didn’t beg anymore. There was no point in begging. I’d learned that long ago.

A slight weakness clawed at the edges of my muscles, but I still managed to keep myself steady as the man’s presence left me. Then I heard a sliding sound, like an avalanche on a mountain, and the crackling of ice as it hit water.

My muscles began to twitch, and I tried to curl my fingers into fists, but nothing happened.

I sucked in a breath and listened as he poured more ice into the water. I pinched my eyes shut for a moment, and then I knew.

He’d given me a paralytic drug, and it would be only moments before I lost control of all my muscles. There would be nothing I could do to stop his plans for me.

Eventually, my knees buckled like a marionette that had all its strings cut at once. I couldn’t catch myself, and I hit the floor with a thud.

“Oh, Little Dove, you’ve fallen.”

I felt the pressure of his hands beneath my knees and around my back. Carefully, he picked me up, walked me to the bath, and slowly placed me in the tub.

The moment my skin hit the water, I sucked in a breath, shock radiating through my bones. The water slid over me, the freezing ice stinging against my skin.

I let out a scream.

My teeth began to rattle, and my whole body shivered. The shaking was violent and unstoppable.