Ripping the blade back from his skull, I jumped to my feet. The other prick was crawling away. My muscles twitched as I closed in. He heard me, and looking back over his shoulder, he called out. “Fuck, please. Shit, don’t kill me.”
I ignored his pleas. But he kept on screaming, shouting like a fucking pussy. His voice incensed me.
He needed to fucking die.
Leaning down, I gripped his hair, bending his head back to bare his throat. I didn’t wait this time, the need to spill blood burned too strong. Raising my hand, I sent the blade into his throat—once, twice, three times, four. And I counted all the way. I counted every strike, his blood splashing up my arms and down my cheeks. I counted from one to eleven until that fucker was stone cold dead.
But the flames were still too strong in my veins. The kills hadn’t taken away the screams. The screams were in my head… his screams were in my head. Those loud screams. Then the quiet screams. Then the silence.
The motherfucking silence.
Then I thought of his face. And I couldn’t touch him. When he needed me to touch him, I couldn’t. Because I was evil. I had evil in my veins.
The flames. They needed to be out. They all needed to come out. Finally, all of them, once and for all...
I staggered across the ditch. I dropped one knife to the ground, and tightened my grip on the other.
“Fuck! Flame! No, brother. Stop. Talk to me. What the fuck’s wrong? Talk to me!”
I lifted my head. AK… AK was there, he was talking to me, but the sound of the flames roaring were filling my ears, burning me from the inside. I watched his mouth as I lifted my knife and slashed it across my stomach. I hissed as I felt my flesh tear. I closed my eyes as I felt some of the flames leach away. But I needed more. I needed them all gone. I couldn’t live with the screams in my head anymore.
I slashed across my arm. I slashed across my chest. And the blood ran out. But the flames were still inside, I could feel them under my skin. The screams were still inside. His cries, his screams were still inside. Her screams. Her screams as he hurt her, as he beat her.
Tears ran down my cheeks as I thought of his little face. His little face screaming. His little hands reaching for me. But I couldn’t touch him. I was evil. I had the devil in my blood. I would hurt him. I would hurt him.
I registered movement. Red hair? Then I saw Vike. “Flame, stop. You’re gonna fuckin’ kill yourself! I don’t wanna touch you, brother, but so help me God I will if you don’t fucking stop.”
‘No,” I snarled and backed off, my blade held in front of me. Vike stopped. He watched as me I lifted my blade and slashed it across my abs.
But it wasn’t enough. They weren’t going away. None of it. My head was too full. It was all too full; my chest, my veins, my head… all too full.
A hand suddenly knocked my blade from hand. I reached forward, but an arm grabbed me from behind.
My body shook harder and harder as the arm curled around my throat. It squeezed and I roared. I fought like fuck to shake free. But the hand was too strong. Another set of hands grabbed my arms. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t fucking move! And now more hands were touching me. Touching my skin. Stopping the flames from getting the fuck out.
“Get him in the fucking truck! We’ll take the bikes and dump the stiffs. I’m calling in Smiler, we need more men out here. Fuck! Get him back to the compound before his psycho ass takes us all out!”
Black spots filled my eyes again as the arm around my neck blocked my breathing. The darkness was coming, I couldn’t fucking stand the darkness.
“Fuck, Flame. What the fuck is happening?” someone shouted, but I was going under. I could feel the blackness coming for me.
“What the hell went wrong, AK?”
“Fuck knows, but I think the day has arrived.”
“What day?”
“The day when Flame has fucking snapped once and for all.”
“Shit!” a voice yelled.
Then the darkness came, but the flames?
The flames and the fucking screams remained.
Chapter Seven
Maddie
Viking burst through the trees that led from his cabin up to Mae and Styx’s house and my heart began to race. Something had happened to Flame on his run. I knew it when he did not turn up at nightfall as we had planned. And whatever it was had taken him away from me for two days.
Two long days.
And his best friends AK and Viking had been missing too. My nerves were in shreds wondering what could have happened to him? And the way Viking had hurried, the way he had bolted into this cabin just now, had sent a shiver of fear down my spine.
Suddenly, raised voices sounded from the living room directly below.
It was Viking. I recognized his voice.
I approached the shut door. My hand hovered over the doorknob, but I just stared. Fear held me in its grip. But then Viking’s voice drifted up the stairs. His frantic voice… his distressed and upset voice.
Flame, I thought, he was here about Flame.
Moving on instinct, my hand landed on the doorknob and I slipped through the door, a cacophony of loud voices overwhelmed my senses.
Steeling my nerves, I slipped down the stairs. On the downstairs landing I slipped into the shadows. There I waited and I listened.
“He’s fucking lost it this time, Styx. Fucking tapped out crazy. I don’t know what the fuck to do. What’ll get through to him?”
I could see Viking pacing the room, Styx and Ky were sitting down listening to the running commentary from Viking’s mouth. The rest of the Hangmen looked on, confusion and apprehension etched on their features.