Page 81 of All Your Hate
“The bed’s there which means it must be…” Bones picks up a diamond-encrusted skull off a high shelf and holds it in front of Grayson’s face. “Smile for the camera!” When he tips it forward, a small black camera falls from the eye socket.
“Screw you! Both of you!” Grayson spits out and Bones slams the skull into the side of his head. It shatters on impact, leaving a nasty cut on Grayson’s cheek.
“The only ones screwing will be me and my little viper over your corpse when we’re done with you. Speaking of—did I say you could stop touching yourself?”
“I’m not doing that while you torture a man!”
Bones narrows his eyes at me. “You either help me torture him or you can thank me for doing all the work by letting me watch you come.”
As much as I want to see Grayson die for everything he’s done, I don’t think I have it in me to do it myself. “I can’t.”
Bones pulls a pair of pliers from his pocket and waves them in front of me. “You sure? You won’t even need to get your hands bloody?”
“Please, don’t make me.”
He sighs, his shoulders drooping. “Fine. I’ll be your personal executioner this time, but think about what he and the rest ofthem would have done if it was your sister in your place. Would you still say no?”
If I knew he or anyone else had touched her then I’d want them screaming in agony.
“Where is she?” I direct my question at Grayson.
“Who?”
“Summer, my sister. You and your friends, do you have her?”
“No! I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
I don’t believe him in the slightest. Bones doesn’t seem to either. He grabs Grayson’s leg and manages to pull his sock off while taking a few kicks to the ribs.
“We’re going to play a little game. How does the rhyme go again? Oh yeah, this little piggy went to market.” Bones grabs Grayson’s big toe, bending it upwards until Grayson is screaming and there’s acrunch.
“Fuck, it’s been a while since I’ve felt that. I always forget how good it is.” Bones moans in appreciation and tips his head back.
He’s getting off on this. Why am I surprised? I seem to have forgotten how much of a psycho he really is.
“You ready to talk?” Bones asks.
“Yes! Yes! Just please don’t do that again!”
“We’ll start small since we’ve already started that way.” He gives Grayson’s gnarled toe a wiggle and spit flies out of his mouth as he hisses out in pain. “The company you work for, it’s a front, right?”
“W-what? No.” Sweat beads on Grayson’s forehead and he looks ready to pass out.
“You honestly expect me to believe you and a bunch of guys were just hired to watch over her?”
“It—it wasn’t like that exactly.” Bones grabs another toe and Grayson goes silent before quickly saying, “We already worked for the Abatos. A couple years back one of the guys heard crying from the basement. Word got around and soon enough everyoneknew. We came up with a plan to keep quiet about it as long as we got to make use of the girls ourselves and got our pay raised.”
“So you knew I was there against my will and you chose to hurt me?”
“No—” he breaks off into a cry as Bones snaps the next toe.
“I don’t like liars.”
“Did you really do those things to me while I was drugged?”
Grayson looks anywhere but at me as he says, “Yes.”
Bones holds the pliers out to me and I take them. “Your turn. You don’t have to kill him, but at least give him back some of the pain he inflicted on you.”