Stay Away (The Beocraftian Gambit - Book One)

CHAPTER NINTEEN: TORTURED

Kevin left the hospital without informing Mrs Lena—or the Inspector. He made sure not to mention anything about what Landry had said to either of them, especially Lena. He was more worried about how she would react to the news.

When he arrived at the park, he spotted a small crowd that'd gathered. Heart pounding against his ribcage, he shuffled towards them, eyes bulging as he got closer. He struggled to move past the throng. As he walked up to the front, his hair stood on end when he saw Mirabel's body, lying naked in her pool of blood, her face hideously disfigured and burnt. She had multiple stab wounds on her chest and several cuts on her face.

Kevin felt a cold shiver go down his spine, his body trembling, his knees buckling. His lips were shaking as tears escaped his eyes, sliding down his cheek softly. He looked down at her little face.

It wasn't supposed to end like this.

Mirabel's face was bruised and covered with great blotches. Her thighs and abdomen had been lacerated. Her mouth was frozen in an open scream and her eyes shut tight with trails of dried tears beneath them. She must have cried so much that she got tired of crying. From the anguished look on her face, one could easily tell she had died a painful death.

He knew the blotch of a different colour was an inflamed mark caused when the skin had been exposed to a boiling surface. He immediately recognized the marking to be very similar to the one he'd seen on Loretta's neck right after T-Murek poured the acid into her mouth to burn her throat and prevent her from screaming any further. He looked over at the little girl more closely and noticed that three of her ribs had been broken. Every wound and marking on her body shared eerie similarities to the wounds T-Murek had inflicted on Loretta.

His tears fell painlessly down his cheek and then dropped on her blooded forehead. He folded his finger into Mirabel's hand. Most of the hair on her head had been pulled off as a result of something hot pouring on it. Looking over the burnt hair hanging above her head brought back painful memories—memories of a year ago that he longed so much to forget.

T-Murek walked over to the table. After he'd gently dropped the spoon on the table, he put on some plastic gloves and picked up a bowl full of burning fluid from the burner. Then he looked at Kevin, an ugly smirk crossed his lips. "You want to know what this is? Then observe closely." He held the hot bowl carefully as he walked towards Loretta.

He stopped in front of her to watch her whimper in pain from the acid he'd given her. Blood dripped from her mouth as she sobbed. T-Murek could see her tongue; it had been burnt off completely, leaving blood to flood inside her mouth.

T-Murek gently raised the bowl to empty its contents over her head. Loretta was shaking terribly as hot oil rained down on her. The oil hissed after it touched the hairs on her head, burning them off. Her skin shrank from the hot oil that trickled over her. Her eyes bulged out in pain. She opened her mouth wide as though she'd wanted to scream, but no sound came off, not even the slightest breath, only bubbles of blood formed within her throat. Her voice box had completely been damaged.

T-Murek looked over at her with a satisfied smile on his face as he watched her suffer in pain. Some of her hair was burning off and dropping to the floor. Blood trickled down her forehead. The top layer of her head had become so soft. T-Murek grabbed the remaining portion of hair and forcefully pulled them out—with little effort, dragging off her scalp along with it. Her skull became partially exposed. He could see her milky white skull as blood rushed in to cover.

Loretta's head vibrated from the enormous pain she felt. The hot oil which rolled down her face had blinded her left eye. Her face was sore and completely covered in blood. T-Murek looked over at Kevin, a wicked grin on his face.

For a moment, Kevin sat to watch what'd become of the lady he'd once fallen in love with. He'd fallen in love with her beauty, her cute smile, her tender voice, but all of that were now gone. And left behind was a hideous creature.

"Imagine the pain she feels right now," T-Murek grinned, turning to him. "Imagine feeling this much pain and not being able to express it." He laughed with so much excitement. "Isn't this beautiful?" he jabbered.

Loretta faded away, her eyes slowly closing. Her head dropped. T-Murek quickly rushed to her and cupped his fingers over her jaw, taping her cheek gently. "No! No! No! No!! No!!!" He kept tapping her chin repeatedly as if trying to wake her from a deep slumber. "You can't die just yet," he fretted.

Loretta slowly opened her eyes, staring blankly at T-Murek with weak, lifeless eyes. She was slowly dying.

T-Murek let out a loud sigh of relief. "Phew, for a second there I thought you were going to die on me. Never scare me like that again. You almost gave me a heart attack," he berated.

Then a sinister thought hit him and he turned sharply to look at Kevin. "Have you ever wondered what her heart looks like? Have you tried to imagine how it would feel if you hold it up in your hands?"

Tears dropped from Kevin's jaw and spilled on the chair on which he sat.

"I'm dying to know what her heart looks like when her chest is torn open," T-Murek simpered, walking over to the table. Gently placing the bowl on the table, he picked up a scalpel, and returned to where Loretta stood. Standing over her, holding the scalpel in his hands, he gently sliced her chest open.

Loretta let out a soft, inaudible gasp as T-Murek tore through her skin, her hands shaking as the blade travelled down her stomach slowly and painfully. T-Murek dragged the blade to tear through her skin, stopping just above her belly button. Then he pushed his fingers through her chest, reaching for her heart. Blood trickled from her chest as his hands travelled deeper. Her eyes were wider than ever as pain tore through every nerve in her body.

When he finally found her heart, he held it in his hand. T-Murek was puzzled when he didn't feel any heartbeat. He looked up at her face and was utterly disappointed to see that her eyes were closed. T-Murek gave her a gentle slap on the chin. She felt lifeless and cold. She was already dead, and it devastated him. He forcefully dragged her heart out and left it to hang from her chest.

Kevin just sat there, staring blankly at her body. He didn't utter a word. Only stared. Tears flowed down his eyes. He appeared broken, eyes bloodshot. T-Murek took the gag off his mouth, and Kevin slowly looked up at him, eyes blurred by the tears.

"T-Murek," he called out to him, his voice weak and almost inaudible.

T-Murek smirked at him.

"Please... kill me," he begged. "I beg you." His voice had no trace of life.

"I can't do that. At least not yet." T-Murek leaned towards him, whispering in his ear. "I made a promise to your mum not to kill you until you come of age."

A knot formed in his throat. "You knew my mum?"

"I killed your mum—" he whispered in his ear. "Just as I killed your dad—and your brother too. I killed them all, every single one of them. None was spared."

Kevin felt his throat burned. "I had a brother?" He swallowed hard.

"You didn't know?" T-Murek ranted. "Oh, of course, you were still a baby when I sliced your mother's throat open."

He swallowed hard. "What do you want from me?" he asked, his eyes fixated on Loretta's lifeless body.

"I want to see you suffer," T-Murek whispered coldly in his ears. "Everyone you love dies." Then he stood up and left. He stopped when he reached the door. Without turning to look at him, he said, "You're twenty-four now. A year from now, you'll turn twenty-five. I'll be back. Be ready when I return."

Kevin's expression was numb.

Light penetrated the room as he opened the door and left. Kevin heard the door closing. T-Murek was gone, leaving him tied to the chair to watch Loretta's remains. His head dropped, and that was the last time he ever saw T-Murek.