“For this, I’ll make time. Micah would want me to.” I wasn’t lying. She’d be disappointed if I left without retribution.
Tanner examined my resolve and offered a swipe from his pocket. “Make it quick.”
I disappeared through the archway and retraced the map from my shotty memory. With the lingering smell of bleach, my previous state of helplessness and vulnerability burned through my circulatory system, saturating each nerve ending in twelve months’ worth of fury and wrath.
I crept into the office adjacent to the operating theatre, Burner’s head bowed over an ostentatious desk. Before he could process my intrusion, I’d already lifted his bulk, slamming his back against the hard desk’s surface, his head tilted backward over the side, hanging mid-air, his Adam’s apple bobbing.
Burner dared not move in my presence, his eyes crazed with panic. My favourite look.
I retrieved a cigarette from my pocket, lit the tip and let the ashes fall over his sternum. “I wish I wasn’t on a deadline.”
His words blurred into a convoluted mess. “Psycho. The lobotomy wasn’t my idea. It wasn’t up to me. I was against it.”
I cackled. “You think I give a fuck about that? You’re a dirty excuse for a manager of Oakview. You don’t know the meaning of the word recovery.”
“I’m s-sorry.”
“If only that would save you.”
“Hold on, we can work something out. I’ll bring in Dr Chaser.” Wrong move, asshole.
I tilted my chin at Tanner. “Give me a hand.”
He followed my instruction, his arm muscles bulging as he restrained Burner to the desk. When he was situated, I placed one hand on Burner’s forehead, the other grasping his chin.
Burner tried to talk through my restrained grip. “Plea—"
“Not another word from that serpent fucking tongue. My only regret is my shortage of time, so this will have to do.” He struggled beneath me and Tanner as I shoved a hand into his mouth, his stretched throat battling for air, gurgling from the invasion. With a final grunt of effort, I ripped his lower jaw clean off his face.
I examined my work…not the smoothest extraction. I hadn’t intended to kill him instantaneously, I at least wanted him to bleed out for a bit. But due to my rush, I nicked an artery along the way, his carotid now severed and spurting an intermittent fountain of red all over the floor.
Three down, one to go. Then the Terror Squad will be eradicated.
As I turned for the exit, Tanner and Emerson crowded the open archway, assessing my handy work with clinical precision.
Tanner swept a clean hand through his wavy hair. “A bit too messy for my liking.” I didn’t know how he’d remained so clean. I was a fucking mess.
I flicked the butt of my cigarette on top of Burner’s cooling corpse. “I’ll admit, I’m a bit rusty.” I hitched a thumb towards the operating room next door. “Only practice will help with that.”
“I like it,” Emerson said, giving a one-shouldered shrug. “Can we help? We need to hurry this along.” My eyes widened. Her words were in disparity with her pixie-petite appearance and soft-spoken voice.
I shook my head at the conflicting image and spared a wink. “Who would I be not to include my in-laws in the fun?”
Tanner rolled his eyes and Emerson groaned.
I entered the operating theatre with pizzazz, opening my arms wide. “Let me introduce you to Dr Mudlark, otherwise known as the mad scientist!” The man in question stood on the opposite side of the room, a drill contraption loose between his hands. His mask dropped and absolute terror coloured his face as he processed my blood-drenched clothes.
I glanced at the patient gagged and strapped to the trolley, recognition flaring at the sunshine man. Dead flowers still wove through his matted hair, his eyes begging for rescue.
Disgust laced my taste buds from the fresh remainder of my most recent capture. I lit another cigarette to expel the taste. “You depraved fuck,” I spat at the doctor.
“What is this?” Emerson asked, stalling at the threshold.
Tanner rounded the gurney with intentional strides. The atmosphere pitched below freezing, waveforms of pure threatening menace radiating off his flesh. I practically got high off the potent fumes. It was fascinating to watch the rapid transition from a stoic waveless shore to an inevitable soul-destroying tsunami.
Dr Mudlark stood frozen, his pallor transitioning into a dusky green. Tanner removed the drill from his stiff fingers and examined the instrument. “You weren’t even going to knock him out?” His frigid tone added to the pressured ambience.
My mouth curved into a shit-eating grin, unrestrained delight tickling my insides. Pretty Boy had been holding out on me.
I released the gag from Sunshine Boy’s mouth and pulled on the buckles restraining his limbs. At his victim’s release, Dr Mudlark miraculously found his balls and launched for the door.
Emerson tsked, preventing his exit by a swift kick to his legs, his old bones ricocheting off the tiled floor.
“The goddess provides…the goddess provides,” Sunshine Man repeated, his deranged gaze bouncing over the doctor’s body.
Tanner palmed the drill over to me and assisted Emerson with replacing Sunshine on the trolley with the good doctor, his gurgled screams cut short as a gag was shoved between his teeth.
While they applied the restraints to his bucking form, I laid a loose arm over Sunshine’s shoulders, guiding him to the head. “Your devotion has not gone unnoticed, and the Sun Goddess has decided to reward her most faithful subject.”
He vigorously nodded, muttering praised nonsense. I turned the switch on and the pointed drill tip began to spin on its axis. I placed the vibrating, humming hunk of metal into his bony hand, his gaze raising to mine with the undeniable glimmer of hunger.
In the depths of his orbs, I saw the same excessive thirst that all us crazy motherfuckers were afflicted with. I got the impression this hadn’t been his first visit with Dr Mudlark, and he had most likely fallen victim to numerous questionable experimentations in the past. He needed this more than me.
No further words were required.
With Dr Mudlark strapped tightly to the trolley, we left Sunshine Man alone with his tormentor.
Emerson hummed next to me. “Spence is going to be so pissed she missed out.” She sounded pleased.
