Deviant

Chapter 28

Elias

Before I can usher Rowen into the room, she grabs Lucy’s hand and offers her a quivering smile.

“Be careful in there, okay?”

“I’ll try,” Lucy replies meekly.

“Come on, babe. The sooner we get this over with, the better,” Lucas says, offering a weak smile to us both. “Good luck in there. I mean that.”

I give him a curt nod because I know he does. But since luck won’t save them from whatever hell awaits them, I don’t offer it back to him.

Rowen lets go of Lucy’s hand, straightens her shoulders, and picks her chin up, looking like she’s gearing up for a fight.

“You ready?”

She nods.

“Then let’s do this,” I belt out loud enough for the other couples to hear me.

“On the count of three,” David says, unable to contain his excitement. “One… two… three.”

And with that, I open the door and swing it open, bringing Rowen with me as I step inside.

The fuck did I just walk into?

“I can see why they call this the red room,” Rowen says, staring at the walls all covered in the same deep red as its door.

But it’s not the walls that have my attention. It’s the two large chairs in the middle of the room, facing each other.

“Are those—”

“Electric chairs? Looks like it to me,” I answer Rowen’s question before she even has the time to finish it.

“Well, that’s not creepy,” she muses as I chuckle.

“What’s so amusing?”

“You sound like Andy and Harper.” I smile.

“Yeah, that is something they would say, isn’t it?” she retorts, a relaxed expression back on her face.

But as we approach the chairs to investigate them further, the door to the room slams shut, a loud click telling us we’re locked inside.

“Looks like we’re only leaving this place when they want us to,” I inform, pointing to those damn cameras that always seem to follow us around.

“What do we do now?” she asks, her nervousness reappearing.

I’m about to walk toward her and kiss her, just so she doesn’t have to think about this shit, when our watches decide to vibrate and ding at the same time.

Sit.

“Seems like our hosts don’t like to see us on our feet. So considerate, aren’t they?” I goad while walking over to one of the chairs.

“They’re too welcoming, if you ask me,” Rowen retorts sarcastically, slowly walking over to the empty chair in front of me. “Do they look old to you? I mean, they can’t actually still be working, can they?” she asks, carefully lowering herself to sit down.

Place your arms on the armrest.

Back upright.

Legs spread wide.

We obey the command, and as soon as we do, two silver latches fall around our wrists and another two around our ankles, binding us completely to the chair.

“Don’t look that old to me,” I mutter, aggravated when I can’t pull free no matter how I try.

“Elias?” Rowen shrieks in fear, only to be interrupted by another text.

Today’s game is Truth or Dare.

Each of you must answer each other’s questions honestly or face the consequences.

“Are you jackasses for real? What are we? Eight?” I curse at the cameras.

“Stop antagonizing them, Elias. Who knows what they’ll do?”

I stare at one camera and snarl, “Let them try. I’m not scared of them. You hear me, fuckers?! You don’t fucking scare me!”

“Elias!” Rowen shouts to grab my attention, but the bubbling rage inside me for whoever is behind The Scourge is just too strong.

So far, all I’ve seen is a blind old man and two mute girls who don’t like making eye contact, much less being a threat to me. As far as I’m concerned, those who have held Blackwater Falls hostage all these years are nothing but cowards. Even now, as they keep us all captive, they don’t reveal their faces. Instead, they hide behind screens, watching everything through their precious little cameras.

“Elias,” Rowen calls out again, this time using that sweet, calming tone of hers to try to simmer my rage.

“I’m fine.”

“Are you? Because this isn’t a game. We have to come out of this intact,” she warns, but it’s the concern in her voice that slaps me awake.

“So we’ll play a little game of truth or dare.” I shrug, looking impervious to it. “How hard can that be?”

Rowen lets out the breath that she was holding and relaxes in her seat.

“Check above your armrest,” she orders. “Are there five tiny bulbs on yours as there are on mine?”

I lower my gaze and confirm that, in fact, there are.

“Okay, so by my count, that means each one of us has to answer five questions truthfully. Or…”

“We get zapped. I get it, Rowen. No need to clarify.”

“What questions should we ask, though?” she whispers over to me. “I’m guessing probably personal questions, huh?”

“The more personal, the better,” I grunt with a smile, still tugging at my binds.

“Okay,” she bites her inner cheek—a tell she has anytime she gets upset, agitated, or just pissed off.

Glad to see I’m not the only one that’s pissed.

“Come on, Roe. We don’t have all day,” I provoke when she goes quiet on me. “I know there must be a million questions that you’ve been dying to ask me. Now’s your shot.”

This gets her attention. I can tell by the little glimmer that shines in her gorgeous eyes.

“Ladies first.” I smirk, calling this game to a start.

“Okay, fine. Let’s start off with an easy question, shall we?”

“By all means, let’s,” I reply, keeping my smug grin intact for the cameras.

“How many times did you hear me and Aidan…”

“Fuck?” I finish for her.

“Yes,” she affirms, her cheeks turning that pretty color I like.

I glance over at the lifeless bulb and then back at her.

“I think you’ll have to ask the full question for this to work.”

“Okay, fine. How many times did you hear me and Aidan fuck?” she asks, using my own vulgar terminology against me.

But even from where I’m sitting, I can see that the light on her chair turns orange, signifying that it has registered her question.

“That all depends. Did you ever fuck my shit-stain of a brother outside of my home?” I taunt, only to feel thousands of volts of electricity run through my entire body.

“Elias!” Rowen shouts, but I’m still struggling to understand what just happened.

I honestly thought the electric chairs were just for show—a scare tactic at best. With no conduit, like a soaked sponge or wet towel, I didn’t think they could do that much harm.

That’s on me. I miscalculated.

If that little shock therapy taught me anything, it’s that the chairs are highly efficient—enough to stop a heartbeat, at least.

“Are you okay?” Rowen asks, the second orange light beaming to life. “And please be careful with how you answer that.”

“I’m fine. Just fucking pissed,” I growl, pulling at the steel restraints as I straighten up.

The minute the words are out of my mouth, the second bulb on her chair turns green.

“You have to answer a question with a truthful answer. You can’t answer a question with a question.”

“I got that, Roe,” I curse under my breath. “But my question was fucking relevant,” I bark out at the camera that is watching us. “Assholes.”

When one of my own bulbs turns orange, I see the pricks decided to accept my question.

“Fine, then, no. I never slept with your brother aside from in your home,” she replies, her eyes begging me to answer her original question truthfully now.

“Then yes. I heard you two going at it every goddamn time. Happy, motherfuckers?” I seethe, my full focus still on the camera.

“Why would you do that?” I hear Rowen ask me, confused.

“I just did, okay?” Another zap, only this one is twice as long as the first one. “Motherfuckers!”

“You have to answer truthfully!” she shouts over the loud humming sound.

“I get it! I get it!” I bark back, beads of sweat starting to drip from my forehead. “I got off on it, okay? Happy, you bastards?!”

“You got off on it?” she whispers, but the damn light turns on again.

“Jesus Christ, woman, you’re killing me here. Yes! Okay, yes. I got off on it. At first, anyway. Then it got real sad, real fast. Hearing my piece of shit brother getting his, while every little moan you made sounded empty, devoid of any true passion, fucking killed me. It sounded like he was having all the fun, while you just lied there, doing math in your head, like counting the minutes until he was done.”

“Then why—”

I stare her down before she’s able to finish that sentence.

“I don’t know.” I let out a deep exhale, answering her just the same. “I thought maybe if I was there with you, even with a wall between us, you wouldn’t feel so alone. ‘Cause even with that dipshit humping you like a bitch in heat, I could tell you weren’t into it. I just couldn’t figure out why you put yourself through it, if you took no pleasure from it.”

“I didn’t think you even registered my existence back then, much less cared,” she says, careful with her wording to ensure it comes out as a sentence instead of a question.

“I didn’t care then, and I don’t care now. Next question.” I wave off, needing to get off this fucking topic.

“You’re lying,” she accuses me angrily.

“Hmm. If only we had a machine that would force me to tell the truth?” I rebuke mockingly. But since my sarcastic remark was formed as a question, one of the bulbs on my chair turns orange, obliging her to answer me.

These assholes are really fucking with me.

“We do have such a machine. You’re sitting on it.”

I scowl at her, knowing she feels like she has the upper hand now.

“Tell me the truth. Were you interested in me at all back then?” she asks me point blank.

“Are you hard of hearing? I told you that I didn’t care for you then, and I don’t care for you now.”

When the electric chair springs to life, I’m not one bit surprised.

But when it goes a full two minutes, sending volt after volt through me, I start to regret my bullshit answer.

“Stop being so stubborn and just answer the questions truthfully!” Rowen yells, sounding more worried than annoyed with me.

Sweat drips down my face as I pant for breath, but the ‘fuck you’ smile on my lips to whoever is watching this show never wavers.

“Please, Elias. Please,” she all but begs. “Just answer honestly. Don’t make me watch you get hurt.”

Fuck.

Why did she have to go and say that shit for?

“Even if you interested me back then…” I start, still struggling for breath. “You were off limits. Therefore, you didn’t exist for me. You couldn’t exist to me.”

“Because I was Aidan’s girlfriend?” she counters, confused since neither of us ever hid our animosity toward the other.

If only Aidan had been the problem.

“No, Roe. Not because you were his, but because you were hers. ”

That shuts her up real quick.

To me, Rowen was always Nora’s girl.

She will always be hers.

And these last couple of days that we’ve been together, I somehow forgot that.

With each lingering kiss, she purged it from my memory.

With every little moan, every little low murmuring sound, she made sure to melt it away from my memory.

But I can’t put the full blame on her, no matter how much I would like to.

Because, like her, I was eager to overlook her treacherousness, too.

Eager to pretend Rowen didn’t betray my sister in the worst way imaginable.

“Was it you in that alley by the park, the night of the Harvest Festival?” she asks, sensing that the man she’s starting to grow feelings for is no longer in the room with her.

But when I don’t answer her and instead point my gaze to the green lights blinking on her chair, her lips dip into a deep-rooted frown.

“Looks like you’re out of questions to ask. Better luck next time.”

My turn now.

“Do you still want to die?”

She looks taken aback at the question as if surprised I need the reminder.

“Yes,” she says after a pregnant pause. “I do. Very much so.”

My back molars grind at the conviction in her voice.

“You dying won’t bring back Nora.”

“I know that. Don’t you think I know that?” she mumbles, head hung low. “But why should I get to live when she didn’t?”

“My thoughts exactly.”

She lifts her head back up with that fucking grateful expression once again plastered all over her face.

And how I loathe to see it there.

“Did she suffer?” I ask, balling my hands into two fists.

“Elias… I don’t think—”

“DID MY SISTER SUFFER?” I yell at the top of my lungs.

I watch her swallow back her tears as she shakes her head.

“It was quick. She died quickly.”

I push my rage down so I can have the strength of mind to ask my next question, knowing that it will be the nail in Rowen’s coffin.

“Was she scared? In the end, was she… scared of dying?”

Tears stream down her cheeks as she nods once again. “Yes.”

Nostrils flaring, I look deep into her eyes and utter, “Then that’s how you’ll die, too. Choking on your own tears and fear.”

My hatred for the girl who stole my sister away runs so deep that I don’t even register when all the lights turn green on my chair, releasing me from its grip.

“Elias…” Rowen sobs as I jump out of the chair.

“Don’t fucking say a word to me. Not one. If you don’t want to die right here in this room, then keep whatever pitiful excuse you were about to say to yourself.”

I charge over to the door, only to see it’s still locked.

“Henry, if you’re out there, open this fucking door! Get me the fuck out of here!” I yell, banging my fists at the damn thing.

When I hear a clicking sound, I turn the knob and start to race out of there.

Yet, I haven’t taken two full steps out when I see a disheveled Lucy, sitting on the floor crying.

“I killed him,” she says between sobs. “I killed Lucas.”