12. King

[Warning: Mentions of torture]

" Wakey wakey, little snaky."

I groaned at the sudden voice. My eyes felt very heavy and I didn't even want to bother and open them up. My head was pounding hard and warm liquid trickled on to my neck, making my golf shirt stick to my skin. I opened a single eye, while the other one was shut close, to get a glimpse of where I was.

I couldn't see anything, that's for sure. A light bulb directly shone over me, ignoring the space around me, leaving it in the darkness. I opened my other eye and peered to see where I was. I tried to move my limbs but I realised I was tied to a chair. A tight rope forced my arms behind the chair while chains were wrapped around my ankles.

" And she's awake," a voice erupted from the darkness.

" Where am I?" I softly said, not recognizing my own voice.

" And she speaks!" another voice mocks. But this one was familiar.

" ENOUGH!" another said, the Italian accent hard as he uttered a singular word. He was most definitely the boss.

Three men strutted over and I caught a glimpse of their figures. The light somehow made their faces sparkle. The more they moved closer to me, the more I was curious about the sparkling until they walked into the light.

Diamonds.

Expensive looking diamonds embedded on each of their masks. They were all dressed in expensive black suits. The one with the black diamond mask, carried an ice Rolex around his wrist while the others were gold. I couldn't stop myself from being awed by their masks until I realised something was familiar about the masks.

" What am I doing here?" I softly asked, tears threatening to fall down my eyes.

" You see, we want to know how you know Dominic Santiago?" Blackie said, strutting over me.

" Who?" I asked with furrowed eyebrows and the chuckling erupted.

" DON'T LIE TO ME! " Blackie roared, making me jump up from my seat. His accent is thick and rich.

" I... really don't know what you are talking about," I said and he shook his head.

" You do know what I am talking about," Blackie seethed calmly, which seemed psychotic.

" So, you tell me Diego didn't drop you outside of your apartment on Sunday?"

I froze.

I stiffened.

How did they know about the kidnapping?

How did they know Diego?

" So, you were behind my kidnapping? And you kidnapped me again? After letting me go?" I asked, shocked.

Why? I thought I was free.

" Kidnapping?" Emerald asked.

Since no one kindly introduced themselves to me, I'm naming them from the diamonds they have on their masks.

" So, your kidnappers drop you off at home and smoothly talk to you? Such nice kidnappers, I presume."

" Who are you?" I softly asked.

" I'm Ghost," Emerald responded.

" He's Zeus," he said, pointing at Ruby, and before he pointed at Blackie, I knew who he was.

King.

I have heard about them before, but never exactly took the stories about them seriously. I had always associated their stories with myths because I had never thought that the world they live in existed in ours. The things they did were way beyond evil and dangerous. I even heard that they never got caught.

Especially Ghost.

Most people don't even believe he exists. They believed that he was some angry, evil soul that still floats around the world in order to kill the living. No one ever saw him coming, nor even saw him. He was just...never there.

" Exactly," Ghost spoke, and I got frightened by the thought that the myth of the dangerous trio was not a myth, but that they were real.

" Are you going to kill me?" I asked, the only thing in my mind, but all they did was chuckle.

" Soon," King stated and I flinched," Now, how do you know Dominic Santiago?"

" I don't know who that is!" I yelled out in frustration.

" That's not the answer we want, or is it, King?" Zeus said, and King shook his head no.

" Please let me go?" I pleaded.

" Let her go, Zeus," King said, and I felt relief.

Zeus walked over to me and cut the rope from my wrists and unlocked the chains from my ankles. I looked at them for approval to stand and King signaled me to. The chair was thrown across the room and I flinched.

" Come" King coldly said and I strutted over to him and stood close to him only to get punched in the face, making me fall back on the cold, cemented floor with a thud. I groaned in pain as my ear burned in pain. Chuckles erupted from the whole room and I frowned. I peered over to see a lineage of figures hidden in the dark. My tears are burning in my swollen eye.

How evil can King get?

" Get up!" he roared in anger. I tried to get up, but my body was too numb in pain.

He dragged me up and held me up, only for him to let someone kick me hard in the back, making me fall over and graze my face on the ground. Tears fell from my face but my sobs chained themselves down in my throat. My back was in immense pain.

" Do you still don't know what we are talking about?" King coldly seethed, his Italian accent stronger and scarier, yet still so familiar.

I shook my heavy head no but he didn't like that answer, so he dragged me across the room with my feet and pulled me up to stand. My legs somehow were unable to stand for themselves and my back was in sheer pain. Ghost appeared and emerged from the darkness with a whip.

" Come here," Ghost said and I whimpered, but King threw me over, making me scrape my knees as I landed hard on them on the ground.

Zeus dragged me over to Ghost, scraping my knees more and leaving a trail of blood on the ground. Zeus plopped me over to Ghost and he caught me. I glared at him for a while, pleading with him with my eyes, and his breath hitched before King's voice erupted from the darkness.

"Fallo! Che cazzo stai aspettando?"

Ghost pulled me up and Zeus wrapped chains around my wrist, letting me go only to realize I was hanging. My feet weren't touching the floor anymore.

What were they going to do to me?

Zeus covered my eyes with a white cloth, enhancing my four other senses as my sight was taken away from me.

I felt it before I heard it. It stung my back so badly. I tried to hold in my scream but I couldn't. I screamed aloud before sucking in my breath. The whip grazed my back and I could feel the blood already ready to plop out of my body. Another one came and then a lot more more came. I screamed in agony, while also trying to suck in breath.

Sweat and blood were dripping down to my neck while the warm liquid from my back dripped down from my back on to the ground. I am numb now. Mentally, emotionally, psychologically, and physically numb. The pain in my back subsided, so the coming slashes didn't hurt as much, but the puddle of blood under me proved how bad my back is.

" King, that's enough," Ghost announced.

" It's not enough till I say it's enough," his voice rang cold in my ears before he threw more slashes on my back.

" KING, I SAID THAT'S ENOUGH!" Ghost roared, but King didn't hear any of it until there was a loud bang coming from where Zeus was standing.

" That's enough," he stated and King dropped the slash, making it land with a thud. Telling me how heavy the weapon was.

Zeus unlocked the chains while Ghost removed the blindfold, making me fall on the ground with a loud thud. I silently cried. They should just kill me because I'm tired of living.

" Alberto, get the doctor!" Ghost roared.

" CHE CAZZO? " King roared, but Ghost ignored him.

" Zeus, tell your fucked up fratello to leave," Ghost coldly said.

" ALBERTO GET THE MEDIC NOW!" Ghost roared and out ran a man, pushing open a very heavy door as it grazed on the ground, embedding a stinging headache back into my head. I groaned. My body was shaking. I was sweating and bloody. I started feeling weird and hazy. Seeing black dots in my eyesight.

" She's fading out!" Ghost roared, rushing over to me.

" Do you want to tell us something, Ghost?" King seethed angrily and Ghost waved him off and that's the last thing I saw, as it was lights out.