Page 10 of Red Waters

Crash choked out words, “Paying my debt with my life keeps her alive though, right?”

My shoulders shook through my hysterics. Crash knew, all along, he was going to die that night. I had felt his death was my fault, now even more so.

Yury’s voice sounded menacing through the iPad’s little speaker. “It will keep her alive.”

Awareness crossed Crash’s expression. “Wait. We had a deal.”

“And I am keeping it.”

“Is that why you’re recording me?”

I don’t know what Yury did behind the lens of the camera, but it sent Crash into a furious rage. “You sonofabitch!” He attempted to get up. “No! She is not going to be one of your fucking pets—” But he was silenced as Yury unleashed on him.

The recording shook as Yury kicked and screamed, “You stole what was mine…”

I pushed the iPad away, slamming my eyes shut. “No more. Please.” Instantly realizing I sounded like the man I heard earlier, I understood something was being held over his head, too.

Yury accepted the iPad. “Please, what?”

Crash’s grunts from the kicks he’d endured had me righteously angered. “Turn it off!”

Yury grinned, shaking his head no.

“Please!”

“Please, what?”

“I don’t know!”

“Please… Master.”

Loathing what Yury was asking of me, I started to scream. No words. No threats. Just screamed as if truly losing my mind. What I had experienced in the past weeks suddenly compounded and threatened to break me. One simple word was the final bridge to cross. Once I spoke it, I instinctively knew a part of me would be lost forever. I feared I would never return to that same bridge and find my way home.

Merciless, Yury turned up the volume to drown out my hysterics. Crash’s beating pounding over the speakers was vicious. Crash’s involuntary noises—

I leaned to the side of the bed and vomited…

Resting on my weak elbow, I heard Crash pleading through every hit. “Please…” Grunt. “Her heart is limitless…” Grunt. “Don’t take that from her…” Grunt…

I wiped my mouth, not able to hear Crash’s desperation for one more moment. “Please… Master.”

Crash’s suffering ended.

Yury examined the now silent video. “I did lose my temper momentarily.” He put the mini iPad back in his jacket’s inside pocket. “Fire, I need to understand his meaning and the why of his willing sacrifice. I figured the best way is to see it first-hand.” He gestured for me to proceed as if I had the ability to teach love to the heartless. “You will show me.”

Nauseated from Crash’s beating, I tiredly muttered, “How the hell am I going to show you how to sacrifice?”

One word. Only one word, and I knew the answer. “Link.”

My eyes closed as I moaned in anguish for suffering that had yet to come because I knew, as did Yury, I would do anything for my best friend.

“Crash said your heart is limitless.” Enjoying the challenge, he shrugged. “I say everyone has their limit.” He observed my necklace. “You care for him deeply, no?”

As if someone had pulled the drainage plug from my energy pool, an unfathomable weakness set in. I clutched the charm. “You already know the answer or I wouldn’t be here.”

Detached, or possibly completely unaware of his manic personality, Yury explained, “You see, due to who Reether’s mother is, he is technically my property, as are you—”

My body felt as if it were melting. “You’re insane.”