Such a Beautiful Lie to Believe In

Things were suspiciously quiet since we got back here. They know what’s been done, yet they’ve done a pretty decent job ignoring me entirely, which I was ridiculously grateful for. I laid down on the couch and closed my eyes, thinking about how my life used to be merely two weeks ago. All of this happened because I’m friends with Governor Schwarzenegger.

Does that mean I’d be safe now if I didn’t know him? No, it doesn’t really matter…they still plan to hurt him in the end, so I suppose the fact that I’m involved is irrelevant. All it means is that it’s up to me to save the day, clearly. I almost laughed remembering when I drunkenly told Brian to call me Super J, back when I still thought that he was a normal guy, a great guy.

Apparently ‘Super J’ is going to make some sort of grand appearance soon because I know that me by myself would never be enough.

The silence barrier was broken when someone kicked the front door open and threw a body onto the floor. I took one look at the recently changed fire red hair and knew who it was. “K-Kathy,” I mumbled, running over to her side immediately and helping her up.

Her skin was starting to severely scab over from what ever Matt had done to her before their arrival. Why the hell did they have to be bringing other people into this? They never did anything. Fuming at the thought, I spun around and faced Shadows, who had entered the room after hearing the ruckus.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing? You have no business involving my friends in this. It’s me you want, so just be a man and leave it at that!” I shouted, giving him a slight shove in his chest, which obviously didn’t do much.

He chuckled as he gently removed my hands from his body before walking past me and greeting Matt. “You want to know why we brought her into the picture?” he asked, kicking her lightly in the ribs. “It’s because you haven’t been doing your job. You’re right though, I shouldn’t have to bring more people into the picture, but clearly you don’t like it that way.”

He crouched down and rolled Kathy over so that she was laying on her back. She glared up at him as she struggled on her elbows to sit up. Shadows reached out and pushed her back down, resting his foot on her stomach. “It might be in your best interest to just lay down and relax while you can. Once all the others get their asses down here, you’ll be wishing you were laying down,” Shadows said.

Kathy sighed as she laid her head back down on the tiled floor, extending her neck so that she could look at me. I couldn’t help but let a couple of tears fall. I didn’t know what they planned to do with her, and I didn’t want them to have an opportunity to do so. “Joie,” she said quietly, “don’t cry over me. They’re not gonna kill me, so I’ll be fine.”

“But I’m the one who messed up. This shouldn’t have to do with you,” I defended.

We weren’t given much more time to continue our pep talks. Synyster Gates, the Rev, and Zacky Vengeance all came downstairs at once. Apparently Johnny was out doing some investigating on the post-party reaction. “Wow, nice work, Matt you actually found one of them!” Zacky cheered, staring at Kathy with a sick grin.

Shadows stepped forward to carry Kathy further into the living room, where there was plenty of space. Syn approached me and sat next to me on the couch. “What are you doing?” I asked as he wrapped an arm tightly around my frame.

“Making sure you stick around,” he replied. Why didn’t he want to participate in the festivities? Whatever his reason was, I didn’t exactly care. I was just glad that Kathy only had to deal with three. Then again…each of the three were wicked in their own ways.

It wasn’t until they began to encircle her that I started to worry heavily. “C’mon guys just let her go,” I pleaded, “this isn’t about her, it’s about me!”

Shadows glanced over his shoulder, “Syn, keep her quiet.” Syn wasted no time doing as he was told and clamping his hand tightly over my mouth.

“And just for the record,” the Rev added, “this is still about you. We’re making sure you learn to never disobey us again. You get to watch from the sidelines instead of playing in the game this time.”

My eyes widened in horror once I realized what he meant. They were going to do something horrible to Kathy and make me witness it.

Zacky walked into the kitchen and made a few noises that sounded like cabinets opening and shutting. “I didn’t think we’d get to use these bad boys so soon,” he smiled, returning with a small cardboard box in his hands.

Each of the three dug into the box and pulled out some weird metal string contraptions. What the hell could they do with limp pieces of wire? They all exchanged amused glances before raising the wires above their heads and bringing them down onto Kathy’s body. Now it made sense. There were small metallic balls on the end of each of the wires – just like a fancy, more pain-inflicting whip.

Kathy cried out and fell to her knees after the first round. Her scabs happily reopened unleashing gushing waves of blood onto the white carpet. “Oh don’t start crying yet,” the Rev said leaning forward and running his finger along her tear-stained cheeks, “the fun’s only begun.”

I could see a look of resentment fill her eyes. She angrily lunged forward and ripped the whip out of his hand, backing out of the circle with an angered expression. “Don’t come near me!” she shouted, trembling anytime someone made the slightest movement.

Shadows laughed and shook his head before he sent his whip flying toward her, having it wrap around one end of her whip, with the ball making contact with her hand. She yelped as the wire was tugged from her own hand, leaving a thin scratch behind on her palms.

“I have an idea,” Zacky announced randomly, setting his whip down on the coffee table.

“Do tell,” the Rev encouraged.

Zacky faced Kathy and said, “You want to get out of here alive, don’t you?”

“Of course, dumbass,” she spat.

Zacky ignored her crude anger and continued speaking. “Ok, then there’s only one more thing you need to do before that can be a reality.”

Shadows and the Rev exchanged highly confused looks.

“You have to take this rod here,” he explained, reaching for some stick extended out of the fire place, “and brand your friend over there, right across the heart.”

Kathy glanced over at me, hoping for some sort of reaction, but I couldn’t do much with a giant hand consuming my face. I rolled my eyes, wondering why they never learn, and bit down onto bits of flesh on his hand. He groaned slightly before drawing his hand from my face. “Just do it, Kath. I can’t stand to watch this anymore. The sooner you get out of here, the sooner you can go make sure Alex is alright,” I insisted.

“No way, Joie. I’m not going to hurt you to save myself. Plus, if they have a brander like that, it clearly means something significant. I’m not going to put you in a worse situation,” she replied.

“Don’t worry about me, please. I’m already screwed, so I’m sure I’ll be able to take whatever they got.”

Kathy remained silent for a moment, probably contemplating the situation. She stared down at the cut that had started bleeding on her hand. She has to do what he said, otherwise there’s no telling how much more she’ll have to endure. Although, at the same time, a deal from them usually is not much of a deal at all. They could just be saying this to her, hoping that she’d do it, and then continue to beat her up afterwards.

“I’m not going to do it, and that’s my final answer,” she sternly said, glaring at the three of them, “so fuck off.”

The Rev grinned broadly as he stepped closer to Kathy. “You, my dear, are rather brave. But stupid nevertheless,” he whispered in her ear.

He ran his bony fingers down her back, breathing on her neck. She looked ridiculously uncomfortable, which I don’t blame her at all for. I watched him closely, knowing that he was trying to pull something. He raised his free arm behind his back and it was then that I saw he was still holding his whip.

“Kathy, look ou–!” I tried to shout, but Syn tackled me back onto the couch, sealing my lips with a vile, unwanted kiss. She didn’t get the message in time.

The whip spun around her neck until the length was entirely used. Kathy’s eyes were wide with surprise. Her hands scratched away at the metal around her neck, but it was mostly useless. It was tied too tightly. Her face began to pale and her knees grew weak. Her eyes closed shut and her body hit the ground.

As soon as I heard that sound, I bit down hard on Syn’s lip and shoved him off of me to see her lying there. I leaped up off the couch and turned her onto her back. I quickly unwrapped the coiled metal and glared up at the Rev. “If your mother fucking skinny ass killed her, I’ll destroy you!” I venomously shouted, feeling for a pulse. Lucky for him, I found one.

I looked down at her body, covered in random scrapes and lacerations. She needed to get back to the hospital so that these wounds could be tended to. In some cases, she may need medical attention for some of the deeper cuts and for potential internal bleeding.

“Well now that that’s been taken care of, Matt why don’t you take the body out of here. Take her wherever you want, drop her off, I don’t care,” Shadows said, eyeing the mess that has been made on his floor.

Matt nodded before reaching down and dragging her body out of the house. “You better take her to a damn hospital!” I shouted, watching intently as he put her in the trunk of his car.

Why is it I have a feeling that’s just about the last place she’ll end up?

“I hate you all,” I declared, suddenly. All of them looked at me with confused expressions. “You’re all monsters, that’s why you’re doing this. You can’t keep a girl around long enough, much less find one to keep in bed, so you need to resort to this pathetic bullshit. You couldn’t succeed living a normal life.”

“What was that?” Shadows asked menacingly.

“You heard me,” I growled, standing my ground.

“Clearly someone didn’t learn from their lesson of the day,” the Rev laughed.

“Clearly someone wants to get his balls crushed today,” I mocked, grinning once he covered his lower area with a look of panic on his face.

“Enough of this,” Shadows boomed, “Vengeance, take her upstairs and watch her until we come up with yet another punishment.”

Zacky nodded and gripped my arm tightly before dragging me up the stairs. “Looks like we’re about to have some fun alone time,” he laughed before closing the door behind him.

I eyed the gun that was sticking out of his pants. Maybe this could be fun…fun for me, that is.