Page 59 of Monster's Obsession

I mean, he already had blood all over his face…

“And then I’ll let you eat me,” I murmured, still embarrassed.

With that promise, he swept me up in his arms and prowled out of the closet and away from the nest.

And we did indeed eat cake and…other things…for the rest of the day.

CHAPTER 14

SEVEN

Istood at the edge of the cage, watching the small monster huddled in the corner, carefully staring at his dirty feet like they held the secrets of the universe. There were other monsters and cages around him, some of them screaming in agony. But the boy didn't look up. I knew he wouldn’t.

Not until they came.

He’d stayed in his own fractured world, because that was what he had to do to survive.

One of the monsters in the cage next to him began to violently retch all over the floor, the vomit a dark blood color that signaled his end was coming. I knew he was sick. There was always some kind of disease going around the camp. Special diseases of their own making since monsters would normally be invulnerable. The blue-skinned monster that was also in that cage eyed the bile carefully, plastering himself against the walls, knowing that if even a speck of the vomit got on him, he would die as well.

But the boy still didn't look up.

I heard the footsteps then, and my insides went cold, knowing what I was about to see. This scene was one my dreams took me to frequently. The day when the boy would completely fall apart, and never be the same. I wanted to scream at him to run, to do anything he could to get away, but I knew it was useless. There wasn't an escape for him.

They appeared then, outside the cage, terrifying creatures with long black snouts filled with razor-sharp teeth, and eyes that glowed a garish green color. They were enormous, even for monster standards, and they were scourges on the world. The Varicash.

“Ready to play?” one of them purred in a gravelly, scratchy voice that reminded me of nails against a metal wall.

Please wake up, please wake up, I chanted, not wanting to see this again. But of course, my mind kept me trapped in the dream. Watching.

The fact that the boy didn’t look up only made them angry. The one who had spoken stepped into the cage and grabbed the boy by his rail-thin arm, giving him a shake to get his attention.

Still, he didn’t look up.

“Maybe we’ve finally broken him.” One of the others grinned, lime green spittle that almost matched the color of his eyes dripping from his teeth.

“Or maybe it means we haven’t broken him enough,” the other one answered, his groin tightening in anticipation of the horrors of what was to come.

“We will tonight.” The room filled with the nasty sound of their laughter.

He dragged the boy from the cell. The monsters in the other cages didn’t make a sound. They didn’t call for help. They didn’t protest. Even though they knew what his fate would be.

I was forced to follow the boy as they dragged him out of the warehouse and down a hallway with sterile white walls until they got to a gleaming ten-foot silver door that stood in stark contrast to the pristine perfectness of the connecting hallway. The one not holding the boy knocked twice, and a few seconds later, the door slid open with a groan, loud music and red light streaming from the room beyond it.

He dragged the boy inside, and I begged myself to wake up once again.

But of course, I didn’t.

We walked into the room, where other male and female monsters were strung up on devices, being tortured for their Varicash masters’ sexual gratification. He was the only child there, a place no child should ever be.

The monsters torturing the others stared at the little boy hungrily.

And then it began. And I watched as the boy was broken. I watched as the others came out of him.

I watched and I wanted to die.

It was a terrible thing to be forced to watch your rape over and over again every night in your dreams.

It was an even worse thing to know that because of it, you’d never be whole again, nor would you be able to be with the woman of your dreams. That those nightmarish creatures had won and the scars they'd left behind would ruin your entire life.