Nick followed the sound of those tiny running footsteps that reached his ears, the things he’d do to the little rabbit when he caught her in his grasp, how he’d squeeze the life out of that tender little neck before he snapped it like a twig. The look on her little face would bring him sweet pleasure as he caught sight of her.
There was nowhere to go now. She was trapped.
No matter where she ran there would be no escape.
He paused when hearing the loud crash of thunder as it rumbled through. It almost sounded like something heavy had fallen to the ground. It couldn’t have been the door that led to the basement; an ordinary person wouldn’t have been able to force open the door easily, it was far heavier and thicker than the rest of the school. Still, the sound freaked him out, like the roar of a monster announcing its arrival.
Not that it mattered, he kept going, listening to the sound of Amalie’s steps, only to see something small and dark come his way, slamming into the concrete wall near his head. What the fuck was that? To his shock, he saw that it was a child’s black shoe. The same shoes that were on Amalie’s feet. The little bitch was chucking her shoes at him?!
Did she think something like that would work?
That answer soon came when he heard another sound in a different direction, he followed it only to find the other shoe waiting for him and nothing else.
Nick stopped, then frowned. He couldn’t hear Amalie’s footsteps anymore. Was she hiding now?
He found himself smiling at the thought, did she think hiding would help her? After all, she was wearing that bright yellow dress, she could be spotted a mile away with something like that, even more so if he turned on the lights.
He reached over to the circuit breaker that was nearby and went to turn on the lights in the basement. But to his confusion, the lights weren’t working.
Shit.
This wasn’t right, Nick had purposely messed with the surveillance cameras the moment Amalie and that bitch arrived. But it shouldn’t have messed with the whole electrical system. The storm must have knocked out the power.
Thankfully it wasn’t completely dark, and if anything, it would work to his advantage. No kid could stand the dark, especially in an unfamiliar place. He’d just have to entice her to come out. And the best way for that was to mock what they cared about most.
“You know, even if I don’t find you, I could easily leave you trapped here, no food, no water, and go back and deal with that girl. She told you to run, and you couldn’t even do that right. You could have done anything else but try and climb out a window. How stupid do you think that was? She’s unconscious thanks to you, bleeding out, think they might have to lop off her arm if that keeps up. That is if she lives. Because if I don’t find you, it’ll be up to her, do you want that on your conscience? Sacrificing her so you can just keep hiding? Don’t you think that’s selfish?”
Nick intended to keep going but stopped when felt someone watching from above, he looked up to the shelves but saw nothing, no way, could she have somehow climbed her way up without making any noise?
And the feeling of anger he got, it was in this direction, but there’s no way she could have done something like that.
Until he heard the sound of small feet, he turned to see Amalie staring at him, with only her black stockings covering her feet. Nick then realized that she must have taken off her shoes on purpose, to not only try and distract him but also to be silent.
Yet the closer he looked at her, he realized that some of her clothing was torn, had she climbed up the shelves?
Had been watching him the whole time? Then the feeling that set him on edge, was from her. Was she trying to see if she could find another way out from atop those shelves? What a terrifying little girl. Something like her couldn’t have been a normal human. But who cared what little things she did now? She fell for it and was back on solid ground now meaning she couldn’t get away anymore and was now all his!
His grin grew only to falter briefly, for he expected to see the terror in her eyes. Instead; he saw anger, a type of rage he’d never thought he’d see in the eyes of a seven-year-old girl. Even better! She wasn’t the type to show fear. Even as her tiny body quaked it didn’t show on her face, it was a shame, he didn’t want to kill her now since he wanted to have more fun with her, but he had no choice at this point. He had to kill her before fleeing the country. Her expression gave him such a feeling of euphoria.
She was beyond angry with him. Good.
“Aw, are you mad at what I said, that I’d hurt your fwend?” he asked her childishly to demean her, but Amalie didn’t answer. “It’s your fault, if you had just gone with me from the start she would have been fine. But don’t worry Amalie, when I’m done with you, I’ll treat her real nice, I promise.”
He expected to hear her shout, a tiny squeak demanding that he not hurt her if only she knew. But instead, what he saw was her little form stopped shaking and followed with it was a look he never expected.
She was smiling.
The little bitch was smiling at him.
“What the fuck are you smiling at?” he demanded in anger. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be, not at all. She was supposed to quake in terror, in fear, to beg for her mommy and daddy as he laughed in her face like when he grabbed her. Not this. “Well?” he roared as he took a step forward. “What the fuck are you smiling at?”
“Me.” Another voice hissed in his ear as he felt something rest on his shoulders, sending a chill down his spine as if he were hit with a bucket of ice water. Before his face exploded with pain and fell to the floor, when he had, he was greeted with more jabs from a steel-toed shoe that kicked him hard in the gullet, causing him to gasp for air. Out of his good eye, he could make out the form of another. It wasn’t Elain. It was a man.
Amalie’s father.
“Disgusting,” He heard Alastor growl as he was grabbed by the throat and pulled up against the wall, surprised at the sheer brute strength of the lean, slender man to be able to drag a man of his weight. But then if he trained his body for strength and not make his muscles bigger there wouldn’t be a drastic change to his body. Nick never pegged such a man to be a strength trainer. He shouldn’t have assumed but it was too late for that now.
Through his one good eye, which hadn’t been good for long being punched there a mere second later, he could only see the calm, composed anger that radiated off the man’s body, but his eyes held the violence that threatened to break out. His smile taught as if he were a ferocious animal containing his teeth from view.
The man gave him more blows to his face, as Nick was too incapacitated to fight back, each time he tried, he just got knocked down more. He could only feel his face swelling up and bruising all over. He wasn’t too sure if his jaw was still intact.
Suddenly, the blows stopped as the man dropped Nick like a stone. Alastor moved away from his now crumpled form to the little girl. Nick could just barely see through the swells around his eyes. But he could make out the man had turned his full attention to his daughter who had barely moved from where she stood. Alastor knelt to her level and gently, lovingly, cupped her tiny face with hands clad in black gloves as he softly whispered a question.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Did he touch you?”
Dread filled Nick. If he got a beating from just threatening the stupid brat, God knows what else this man would do if she answered truthfully.
Nick caught her glancing at him, a worried expression clear on her face before Alastor tilted her head back towards him slowly. He covered her eyes from the side like the blinders for a horse so she could only look forward at her father.
“Sweetie,” he says in an almost endearing tone. “I need you to be honest with me. You know I don’t like it when you lie.” When she remained silent, hands over her mouth as if to stop herself from saying anything, Alastor leaned forward, his forehead touching hers as he gently pulled her hands away from her mouth. “Amalie, please answer me. Did. He. Touch. You?”
She closed her eyes. Was that an expression of regret? No, he doubted that was it. It was more like defeat as she finally parted her lips and softly said. “Yes…”
Then silence.
Long suffocating silence.
When the man looked at Nick, it was the most horrifying thing he had ever seen.
Alastor was smiling, eyes his smile tugged on his features, splitting wide open to show teeth in an almost maniacal grin with his grey eyes filled with fury.
He looked more monster than a man. Like a demon.
Alastor looked like he wanted to devour Nick in that instance, rip him limb from bloody limb. But that didn’t happen, instead, he turned his attention back to his little girl, his expression returning to normal the instant he looked at her. His smile never left, not even in his voice.
“My Darling Dear, I want you to go and wait in the car,” he says. “Elain is already there. No need to worry about her at this moment. She’s safe, she’s in the back seat, still out cold, but no permanent damage was done to her.” He then placed a kiss on her forehead. “Go on now.” She scampered away, only to stop and look back to her father merely made a motion of his hand, telling her to get going.
As her tiny footsteps echoed in the distance, the man slowly stood to his full height, silently waiting for something. It took Nick a minute to realize what that was. He was waiting till he no longer heard Amalie’s footsteps, just how sharp was his hearing? What kind of monster was he facing?
“Now then,” Alastor drawled in a hiss as he made his way over to Nick’s crumpled form and knelt to the broken man’s level, elbows resting on his knees. “I need you to answer my questions, Sir. It’ll do no good if you lie to me, understand? I want us to be completely transparent with each other.”
Another moment of silence.
“Where did you touch my daughter?”
When Nick didn’t say a thing, too terrified to answer, he was hauled up to his feet, back pressed against the wall and backhanded across the face. Hard.
“Where?” Alastor hissed out.
“H-her chest a-and thigh…” It was barely even that when the other girl tackled him to the floor before attempting to choke him out. The bitch. He didn’t even get that much barely even touch of that little brat’s skin.
Without a second’s hesitation, Alastor dragged the man by the throat towards the back exit door, a metal door that was so heavy and old, caked with rust. Alastor slammed him so hard that Nick’s bones rattled against the old rusted metal. This man was a monster, a demon. No normal person had such strength, yet Alastor made it look effortless.
“I should kill you…” he says rather plainly, only to then drop the man, falling to his knees and hands like a dog as Alastor looked down on him as though he were lesser. “Every fibre of my being wishes to do so, so badly. To drain your flesh of blood like the pig that you are. Perhaps with that drain over there.”
Nick’s eyes flicked to the very drain; it hadn’t been used in years.
What made it all the worse was how Nick pictured it, of Alastor dragging him to the drain, forcing him to kneel with his throat exposed as a knife pressed to his exposed flesh as he screamed for bloody mercy at the hands of such a terrifying being as his throat sliced with a knife to be bled like a pig. Was that how Alastor intended to kill him, as Nick had imagined?
“But,” Alastor drawled in that singsong voice of his that somehow made it chilling to Nick’s ears. “A death for you would be far too quick, too simple. Too easy. After everything you’ve done, I have half a mind to rid the world of your pathetic existence, yet I cannot help but think of something far better for you, especially after what I was told from a rather helpful source. With that in mind,” He knelt to the man’s level, grey-silver eyes wide as if to swallow Nick’s soul as his smile was covered with his hand as if deep in thought. “Would you care to know? My pedophilic friend~?”
Before Nick could answer, the old door metal opened, and from where Nick was all he could make out with the swelling of his eyes was that of combat boots as dark blue jeans were inside the neck of the boots the smell of rain filled the air. Someone had managed to pry open the metal door from the other side.
“Ah, too late. You took too long to answer,” Alastor told him as if he got a question wrong on a quiz show. “Now you’re going to find out no matter what. I was going to be lenient somewhat given the history I found of your familial background, but I changed my mind. As did this individual. And really…” he leaned in close and whispered like a snake flooding his brain. “You don’t deserve it.”
Before Nick could respond before he could even let out a scream, he felt a sharp prick in his neck and his head began to spin as he collapsed to the ground. They drugged him with some fast-acting narcotic. And as his consciousness slowly began to fade, he could hear Alastor speak to this other person.
“Do what you will, but don’t kill him. Not yet, I’m sure a certain someone would be more than willing to have fun with him. You know what to do…”
Whatever it was that they were planning Nick greatly wished, that he would never wake up, for he felt the nightmares of his childhood would be far more preferable than what would be in store the moment he opened his eyes.
* * *
As Alastor walked quickly through the school’s open doors to the parking lot, he saw his daughter sitting in the car, in the back seat with Elain. She wanted to make sure that the teenager was alright. Bless her little heart.
Tapping the car’s passenger window, he waved when his daughter looked at him through the car window. He opened it, and kneeling, he asked her.
“What do you want to do, Amalie? Home? Or hospital?”
It didn’t even take her a second to answer. “Hospital. I want to be sure that Elain is okay. She was hurt because of me.”
“You sure?”
She nodded.
He stood up. “Very well, hospital it is then.” He then closed the door to the back of the car before entering the driver’s side, looking at her through his rear-view mirror. Seeing that she was already wearing her seatbelt. And even have Elain wear one while the girl’s head rested in Amalie’s lap. His smile grew faintly. She was such a smart girl.
As he pulled out of the parking lot and began to drive to the closest hospital that he knew of as fast as possible, he had to be convincing after all, he glanced back to see Amalie looking out the back passenger seat blankly and asked. “Is he gone?” she didn’t specify what kind.
“Yes,” he tells her simply.
“Good…” was all she said, and that caused his smile to grow, showing teeth.
She really was a good girl.
* * *
Elain thrashed about, her mind panicked lungs and throat burning, right arm hurting. But none of that mattered. The only one who did in that very instant was one little girl.
“Amie!” Elain bolted upright, heart hammering in her chest, only for her to instantly become dizzy and lightheaded. Grasping the railing of the bed she didn’t recognize as she tried to clear the fog from her mind. Trying to get her bearings in her surroundings. It didn’t look like the school. The moment she looked around she knew precisely where she was.
“How are you feeling, Miss Ortiz?” Elain froze before turning to see Alastor sitting by her side. Dressed in a white dress shirt with a light blue sweater overtop and tanned slacks. She reached for his hand with her right, only to stop and stare at her arm. The bandages were different, crisp and clean. Tears welled up in her mismatched eyes as she remembered what happened.
As that bastard of a man, no, he wasn’t even that, tore her graph off her arm in response to her trying to gouge out his eye for strangling her.
“You deserve this.” His words echoed in her mind as grief, frustration and anger filled her, as her throat burned with a need to curse the worst expletives she knew of.
She then shook her head; this wasn’t the time to think about herself. “Amalie!” she says, swallowing her tears as she pushes aside her frustrations. “Where… where is she?”
Alastor gently placed his hand over hers, his smile reassuring. “Don’t worry, she’s fine. Your mother is with her getting looked at.” When she paled, thinking the worst, he added. “As a precaution, she wasn’t hurt. She managed to get away as you told her to do.”
“And that man?” she asked as he removed his hand from her shoulder.
Alastor was silent for a moment. A hand covered his mouth as he spoke. “On the run, I heard the commotion when I arrived at the school to collect you both and saw him chasing her. He knew that he had no chance of getting away with what he had done, so he ran to the basement. I chased after him, but he ultimately escaped through an old fire exit.”
“Oh… I see…” she said as her body began to shake.
“Miss. Ortiz?”
“I’m sorry…” she said, her voice shaken and filled with shame as she looked up at him with tears falling. “I should have done more. I should have…” her words stopped as Alastor leaned in close, gently pulling her to his side and hugging her.
“It’s not your fault.” He says softly, his words whispering in her hair. “You did everything you could. That is all I could ever ask. You were brave, you were wonderful, and you went above and beyond for my daughter and me. If anything, I should have gotten there sooner, then both of you wouldn’t have been hurt.”
She continued to sob, uttering apologies as he continued to hold her close as he ran a hand through her hair she gripped his back tightly with her left hand, clawing at his clothes as she cried uncontrollably.