No Happily Ever After

Chapter 31

"Please,let me stop," Ella moaned weakly.

Benjamin Bar stoodoutside the bars of her cell and had demanded for the past hour thatshe spin in circles. It was one of his games. He would wander intothe chamber and make any of the prisoners he chose do ridiculousthings for apparently no reason other than to sit piously and giggleat them. Ella felt thoroughly ill and didn't know how much longershe could go before collapsing. Nicholas and the others growledmenacingly at Benjamin, but the psycho seemed not to notice theircomplaints.

"No stopping,spin spin spin!" he said in his impish sing song way.

Moments later, Ellavomited on the floor.

Benjamin groanedirritably. "Alright," he sighed. "You can stop. Let's play a new game!"

He moved slightlycloser to the cells. "Come sit here close, kiddies!" hedemanded. The prisoners dragged themselves to where Benjaminmotioned and took seats on the floor right behind the bars of thefront of their cells. They all peered up at Benjamin through bitterscowls.

"Let's play,guess my name!"

Nicholas stared atBenjamin darkly, pure hatred apparent on his sallow face. "Weknow your name, psycho," he snarled.

Benjamin lookeddown his nose at Nicholas and tittered, seeming oblivious toNicholas' murderous rage.

"No youdon't," Benjamin insisted playfully. "Now guess! Guess myname!"

The classmates allglanced back and forth at one another, having no clue what Benjaminwanted. They had all learned the hard way that it was critical toanticipate what Benjamin really wanted or expected with his "games"which was often difficult because he spoke in some sort of code thatnobody understood but himself. Cailyn Pure sighed and began tospeak, but was saved from possibly saying the wrong thing by the doorto the chamber swinging open. Mr. and Mrs. Bar strode in.

Benjamin hopped upand down gleefully and turned to hug his parents. "Mommy! Daddy!" he exclaimed.

Mrs. Bar hugged himlovingly, but Mr. Bar refrained, instead giving his son a disgustedlook.

"Mommy,"Benjamin said, his face falling into a childish pout. "I want anew toy."

Mrs. Bar grimaced. "Ben, honey..."

Mr. Bar interruptedher with a frustrated sigh. "Enough, Benjamin," hethundered. His voice was so abruptly angry that every person in theroom jumped. Nicholas made his way to his feet and leaned againstthe cell bars.

"This hasgotten out of control, Benjamin," Mr. Bar said darkly. "We'vegone too far this time, you're out of control!"

Benjamin's liptrembled, and a look of heartbreak crossed Mrs. Bar's face as shewatched her son suffer. "What do you mean?" Benjaminasked.

"I mean SIX! Six is too many, Benjamin. And you've kept them all far too long!"

Benjamin stompedhis foot petulantly. "I'm not DONE WITH THEM!" hescreamed.

Mr. Bar reached outquicker than anybody anticipated and delivered a devastating backhandto Benjamin's face.

"Benjamin, wehave a real mess on our hands," Mr. Bar growled. "A realMESS. Thanks to YOU. Not only are we not getting more, we have toget rid of these SOON! We will need to lay low for a while. Youmust control your... Appetite... Until all of this blows over."

"I. WANT.ANOTHER. TOY."

Benjamin stompedhis foot again, this time so incredibly hard against the stone floorthat it jostled him with a bone jarring pain. He screamed butstomped his foot yet again. And again. And again. The prisonersall watched in horror as he stomped his foot so hard, so many times,that his right leg eventually snapped. His parents as well, lookedon in horror.

When Benjamin'stantrum resulted in a broken leg, he stumbled back and crashed intothe bars of the cell where Nicholas Monarch rested. Nick didn't evenstop to think for one second; he saw his opportunity.

He reached throughthe bars of the cell and placed his fingers around Benjamin's headand across his face. He jerked Benjamin's head hard into the bars,provoking another shriek of pain from the lunatic. With a deeprooted sense of animal fury, Nicholas dug his hands into Benjamin'seyes and exalted as warm blood and fluid began to course over hisfingers.

Benjamin wailed andwrithed furiously against the attack. But Nicholas had come undone. He linked his fingers into the corners of Benjamin's mouth and beganto rip the boy's face in half.

As Nicholas'survival instinct fully consumed him, his assault happened so rapidlythat Benjamin's parents weren't able to act quickly enough to gettheir son out of the prisoner's grasp. Even as Nicholas squeezed andripped, and Benjamin let out inhuman sounding screams, Mrs. Barrushed forward to grapple with Nick's hands. But forces of naturewere at work that were utterly beyond the control of anyone in theroom and in under a minute, he released Benjamin, who crumpled andslid to the floor.

Bloody, eyeless,horribly disfigured, and dead.

The girls had allleapt to their feet and backed across their cells, cowering againstthe wall. They all stared dumbstruck at their sadistic captor, deadon the floor. Mr. and Mrs. Bar stared at him as well, open mouthedand in complete shock. The tomb like cellar was utterly quiet otherthan the grunts of Nicholas' labored breathing. For an endlessseeming time, nobody said a word.

And then Mrs. Barburst into tears. She fell to her knees, weeping over her dead son. Mr. Bar glared angrily at Nicholas Monarch.

"If you comein here," Nicholas said, loud enough to be heard over Mrs. Bar'scries. "I'll kill you too."

They stood lockedin a stare down and then finally Mr. Bar's attention snapped to hisdespondent wife. "MADRE! THAT'S ENOUGH!" he raged.

The weeping womanmournfully looked up at her husband. He raked his fingers throughhis hair, a desperate look taking over his handsome face. He reacheddown and grabbed Benjamin's ankles.

"Help me,"he spat. "We have to dispose of this body first."

As the prisonerswatched the parents wrestle the body of their dead son out of thechamber, they all wondered about Mr. Bar's "this body"comment, which could naturally lead one to believe that there wouldbe "other bodies" soon.