These Vicious Games (Seattle Undeground)

Chapter 27

Past

It took two years for Ma’am to trust me.

Two years for her to drop her guard and give me full access.

My time here has been worse than any nightmare. My body permanently altered forever, as well as my mind.

My only saving grace is Francis.

He manages the house for Ma’am. Some sort of debt he has to pay off. He told me once he didn’t have any family, no one was even looking for him. And damn, I felt those words in my soul.

He breaks the rules for me. Tending to my wounds and giving me small amounts of food when she uses starvation as a punishment.

Francis is so pure, I have no clue what he could have done to end up in Ma’am’s clutches.

But like everything pure, I taint it.

For weeks we’ve been adding rat poisoning little by little to Ma’am’s hot tea. She’s growing weaker to the point where she can barely get out of bed.

It’s all part of the plan.

To free myself and Francis.

Today is the fucking day.

A birthday present if you will.

I’m nineteen today.

And I’ve lost roughly two years under this bitch’s grasp of torture, and I refuse to loose another fucking day.

I walk into Ma’ams room. She looks so small and frail in her bed. Her skin is pale and lips are cracked. Like an old witch that can't feed on the pain of children anymore. All twenty-six of them. She has a grave for them not too far from the garden. The thing is a mockery, hidden by tall bushes of bright yellow and pink roses.

“Hello, pet.” She wheezes out, and I shudder at the name.

I fucking hate it, and it’s all I’ve heard the last two years.

“Ma’am.” I bow my head, setting her tea next to her bed, tucking the papers Franics acquired for me when he last went to Seattle.

“What is this?” She asks, peering at the papers.

I roll my shoulders back, standing taller and towering over her. “Those are papers to sign over everything you own to me.”

She pauses, looking up confused. “And why would I do that, pet?” She sneers.

“Because you’re dying and only I know what from. Sign them or I let you wither away into nothing.”

Her eyes widened. “You little bastard, you’ve been killing me.”

“And I will, if you don't sign those papers.”

She snatches the pen from my outstretched hand, glaring as she signs her name. “Now what?” She asks.

“You die.”

I drag her outside the house by her hair, Ma’am screams, begging for Francis, but he just walks with us, never sparring her a glance. I nod at Francis as I disappear into the forest, her small body feeling every impact of uneven earth, every tree stump.

“I’ll let you go, I swear, just don’t kill me,” She begs, pleading for her life. Making me smile for the first time in years.

When we reach the ocean I lift her up so she's standing, watching the fire rise high where her home once stood. “I’m going to burn everything you’ve ever made into the fucking ground,” I hiss in her ear. “There will be nothing left of your sorry excuse of a life. No one will know the screams and pain you inflicted. Your friends will disappear, your little ring of fucking pedophiles, but today, I’ll start with you and everything you’ve worked for.”

She sniffs, crying as her home burns down to nothing but ash.

“Watch it!” I scream, jerking her head and making her cry out.

But I get greedy.

I can't stop the pure bliss of knowing what it’s going to be like to take her life.

I walk us into the ocean, pushing her head underwater. Bubbles rise and my clothes get soaked as she fights. Leaving scratches on my arms. The last marks she’ll ever leave on me again.

After a while, she stops fighting, but I keep her under until my hand cramps up and I have to let go.

When her body begins to float back up, I panic, pushing it back down. But soon, I realize she’s dead and watch as she floats out into the sea.

That day Atticus died and the Beast was born.

Finding a crooked lawyer in the city of Seattle wasn't hard so I could get the paperwork started on transferring everything from Ma’am’s name into mine. Until that was done, I found trouble in the form of the mafia. I had something I needed from them and it wasn't friendship but somehow that happened too.

But I got what I needed.

One single address of my obsession. Of someone who owed me. Of who I may just kill someday for what she put me through because she made me weak.

And that night I watched her, playing the song she wrote for me.

And when everything was ready, I rebuilt the castle in visions of her and I.

And then, I waited for the perfect moment to snatch her.

Present

She doesn't say anything as she makes her way to the guest room and I don't stop her. Even I can find room inside myself to realize she needs to be alone.

Her mom is a cunt. There is no other way to describe that piece of shit. Her and my father were made for one another.

I pull out my phone and call Francis. I need him to come watch her while I take care of some things. She likes him better anyways.

She asked me for one small favor in the car over here.

“Please, Atticus. Tell me what happened.”

And like everyone else, I denied her, crushing her a little more. If her brain protected her from the memory, why would I be the one to shatter her? I won't. I’ve done that enough by coming back into her life.

Fuck.