Antichrist

Pushing through the doors, I stop when I hit outside, the gravel crunching beneath the soles of my shoes. There were five miniature houses built side by side. Would she test my patience and enter one knowing that’s well within breaking my rules? She seems to be testing me more lately.

I take a step forward, my eyes snapping to the house in front of me, where Lana stays. My mouth curls into a smirk as I close the distance. Bringing my foot to the door, I boot it down until the locks on the latches tear away from the frame. Someone screams, but I don’t give a fuck who it is because I find Meraki on the floor, pulling back the timber flooring, her hair wild and eyes wide. She didn’t expect me to follow her, much less catch her, which means she has probably been trying to help these girls all along. All of which come from an island that is so beneath the scum of hell, I almost feel right at home there. Lana is different from the others. She’s defiant and is on her last straw to be put down.

Meraki stops what she’s doing, lowering the panel back to the floorboard.

“Don’t be shy, honey.” I lean against the doorframe, crossing my legs at the ankles. “Show me what you’ve got.”

Lana hiccups from her crying, and I lower myself down to Meraki’s level, bringing my eyes to hers.

“Come on…”

Mer slowly pulls back the panel, burying her hand in the gap and pulling out a silver object. I knew it was a gun before she even closed it, because whatever else would be in there?

I look between the two of them. “This your big plan, hmm? Kill me, run away, live happily ever after?”

Meraki still hasn’t said a word, and usually I would love it. I loved when she was so afraid of me that her fear crippled her speech.

I lean forward to take the gun when Mer raises it up and points it at my head.

I smirk down at her. “Go on, honey…”

“Just let her go…” Mer’s eyes stay on mine, and I watch as tears drop down her cheeks. “She’s been through enough, you got what you wanted, you took her baby! Now let her go.”

I take a step forward. Mer cocks the barrel.

“I mean it, Luca. Let her go. Please.”

“It’s cute when you beg…” I launch forward, my hand wrapping around the pistol just as she pulls the trigger. Click. Her mouth parts and her eyes crawl up to mine in mercy when she realizes there are no bullets inside.

Popping open the barrel, I flash the chamber at her. “Empty… surprised?” I dig into my back pocket and grab one silver bullet. “I don’t like surprises, which is why I make sure I know everything.” I slide it into the chamber and roll it before clicking it into place. “Including little hiding spots for cute little guns.” I grip Meraki by the hair and yank her to her feet.

Lana wails in the background, crawling up the remainder of her bed and shuffling off the bloody sheets.

I throw Meraki down onto the bed, her head landing right beside Lana’s afterbirth. She peers up at me from damp, angry eyes.

“Luca, please.”

I could see right through her facade. I always could. She pacified my hunger for pain, power, and release, but her demure nature was as fake as her orgasms.

“Just kill me…” Lana cries, and my head snaps up, a hand covering Meraki’s mouth. Wrapping my hand around Lana’s frail ankle, I pull her body down the bed. “Please!” she screams, lying flat and lifeless beside Meraki. “Kill me.” Her features void of emotions, her face drained of color.

“How much blood did you lose?” I ask, tilting my head.

“Just kill me. Kill me—”

I grab her by the cheek and squeeze, pulling her head right beside Meraki.

“Shut the fuck up. How much blood…” I run my finger down the side of her neck and over the white silk robe now stained with blood and bodily fluid. “Did you lose?”

I know the exact moment Meraki knew what I was going to do because her body froze beneath my grip. Her head starts shaking side to side, her mouth moving beneath my palm.

“Kill me. Kill me.”

My hand moves from Meraki and I pick up the afterbirth lying beside her and place it on top of Lana’s moving lips. Her eyes break first as tears start streaming down the side of her temples, hitting the blood-stained sheet.

“Luca!” Meraki yells from below me.

I know that if I brought the gun to her own head, she wouldn’t stop. No, Meraki wasn’t afraid of death. She would be one day though… one day when she’s happy, living her life, she will be afraid of death. That is when you kill someone like Meraki. Not when she’s fighting below you for another person without any care for her own life.