"What are you talking about? Penny's dead?"
The unrelenting smirk on Slater's swollen face slowly vanished as he gazed up at Mark. For some reason, it felt like his ear was blocked, and he was starting to hear things.
"Huh?" was all Slater could manage to say.
What did Mark just say?
Penny was dead?
Slater opened and closed his bloody mouth, his eyes searching Mark's face. In one sense, Mark seemed just as confused as Slater.
"What do you mean my sister's dead?" Slater mumbled, his expression blank. "She can't be dead. The execution date hasn't—it's still too early for that."
Were they trying to break him in a different way because the beating hadn't worked?
Slater wanted to believe that was the case. But the genuine puzzlement on Mark's face stopped him from fully convincing himself.