Page 135 of Morally Corrupt
"I can manage," Bianca replies in her expressionless manner.
The crowd is going crazy, saying she doesn't have the guts, others asking what a woman's doing up there, and so on.
Bianca doesn't seem bothered as she goes to the table next to the grill and chooses a small knife, testing its sharpness on her own thigh. Once satisfied, she licks the blood off it and turns towards the man in the chair.
Many people are clapping at her display, but they stop when she kneels in front of the man and studies him. He now has holes in most areas of his body, including one on each cheek.
How he's holding on I have no idea… but I'm pretty sure they must have fed him some sort of drugs for him to withstand this type of pain.
Bianca takes the knife and slowly makes a deep incision from his sternum to his belly. She then cuts thoroughly through flesh and muscle to reveal his ribcage. At this point, the crowd is going wild, with the presenter egging them on.
Bianca casually goes back to the table and picks up a drill, which she then uses to cut through his ribs. How she even knows to do this, it's beside me…
I watch in awe and terror as she calmly takes a retractor and widens the gap between the ribs to reveal the man's beating heart. He's still alive… but his shallow breaths indicate that he won't be for much longer.
The presenter quickly checks and announces to the whole crowd that he's still breathing, praising Bianca's technique.
Once the heart is in full sight of everyone, Bianca steps aside and lets them watch for a few seconds. She knows this is all for show, and she's giving them exactly that.
Before going back, she gives me a quick look and mouths, I'm sorry. It doesn't hit me for another moment, but she's apologizing for not keeping her promise not to kill anyone.
She leaves all instruments on the table and turns to the man, her right hand going straight for his heart and ripping it from his chest in a bloody shower—everyone gasps at the barbaric display.
The man's eyes, a second ago wide with terror, are now stuck forever like this.
Bianca's standing in the middle of the stage, the heart bleeding from her hand. Her eyes look at me, but it's like she doesn't see me anymore.
When the presenter prompts her, she goes to the table and cuts the heart in half, spreading it on the grill. She tends to it for a while until it's clear it's done. She grabs a knife and a fork and cuts into it, bringing the bite to her lips. Her mouth opens, and she starts chewing and swallows.
To anyone else, she probably looks unconcerned with what she's doing, maybe even enjoying it. But I know better. I see her eye twitch like I've seen it before in extreme situations, and I know.
I know she's doing her best to keep her calm.
Just like I know what a sacrifice she's made for me.
When she's done, she leaves the stage amid raging applause from the crowd. She comes back to our box, quietly taking her seat.
"B… are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she says in a small voice. This time, her eyes are no longer blank.
They are bleak.
46
BIANCA
"You're not doing that." Adrian paces around the motel room, his face muscles taut.
"It's our best bet. What did we succeed yesterday? I swear not even bleach can remove those images from my eyes, and I've seena lot…" I say, shuddering at the thought of last night's events.
After almost gagging on that man's heart, I've tried to put myself together and not show how much I'd been affected by what I'd done.
There are some things that evenIconsider too much. Adding cannibalism to the list now… I almost want to hurl just thinking about it.
And itallhad been for nothing.
After the auction had started, we'd watched, observing every single person bidding. But without any additional information, there's just been no way to weed out Jimenez. We might know he's usually at the Block, but if we don't know what he looks like, we're back to zero.