Damian Cross: Almighty Apocalypse System

Chapter 4

Julian nodded slowly and looked at Richard with the kind of expression that said they were both thinking the same thing. "He is absolutely going to be a problem."

Richard's face hardened and he walked back toward the center of the room where Damien was still on the floor with the guards holding him down. "We cannot let him leave."

Margaret folded her arms across her chest and her voice came out sharp and final. "Not after what just happened, not when we are this close."

"Close to what?" Damien said, his voice muffled against the floor. "You already collected everything, you tookthe formula, I gave you three years of my life, what else do you want from me?"

"We want you silent," Julian said, and he said it like he was discussing the weather. "Right now you are the only person in the world who knows the truth about that drug, and if word gets out that you were the one who created it, every top family in this city is going to want you, they are going to hunt you down, they are going to offer you money and protection and everything else just to get you to work for them instead."

"And we cannot allow that to happen," Richard added. "Not when our two families are about to control a trillion dollar market together."

Damien's stomach dropped and the cold realization of what they were saying started creeping into his chest like ice water. "You are not just kicking me out and die outside."

"No," Clara said quietly. "We are not."

"You are going to kill me," Damien whispered, and saying it out loud made it real, made it something he could not ignore anymore.

Richard did not deny it, he just looked at the guards and said, "Make sure he does not leave this room alive."

Damien's entire body went cold and his mind started racing, searching for anything he could say or do to change what was happening, but there was nothing, no words left, no bargaining, no escape.

"If I had known," Damien said, his voice shaking now. "If I had known you were going to do this I would have just left, I would have walked out into the cold and taken my chances, at least I could have survived two hours, maybe I could have found someone, maybe someone would have helped me."

"But you did not know," Clara said. "And now it is too late."

The guards moved fast.

One of them grabbed Damien by the hair and yanked his head back, another one drove his fist into Damien's stomach so hard that all the air left his lungs and he gasped and choked and tried to curl forward but they would not let him.

Then the beating started.

Fists landed on his ribs, his back, his face, one guard picked up a wooden bat that had been leaning against the wall near the fireplace and he swung it hard into Damien's side and the crack of it echoed through the room.

Damien screamed.

Pain exploded through his body in waves and he tried to cover his head with his arms but the guards pulled them away and held him down and the bat came down again, this time on his shoulder, and then again on his lower back.

"Stop," Damien gasped, but no one stopped.

Richard stood off to the side watching with his arms crossed, Margaret turned away and looked out the window like she could not be bothered to watch, Julian checked his phone.

And Clara.

Clara stood there for a moment just staring at Damien with her arms still crossed, and then she walked over to the guard holding the bat.

"Give it to me," she said.

The guard looked at her for a second and then handed it over.

Clara wrapped both hands around the bat and walked slowly toward Damien, her heels clicking against the floor with every step.

Damien looked up at her through the blood running down his face and for a moment he thought maybe she was going to stop this, maybe she was going to tell them to let him go, maybe somewhere deep inside her there was still something left of the woman he thought he married.

But then she raised the bat.

"For every second I wasted pretending to love you," Clara said, her voice cold and flat. "For every time I had to let you touch me, for every time I had to smile at you and act like I cared, for all of it, you deserve this."

She swung the bat down hard onto Damien's left leg.

The sound of his bone breaking was loud and sharp and final.

Damien screamed so loud his throat felt like it was tearing apart, the pain was white hot and blinding and he could not think, could not breathe, could not do anything except feel it burning through his entire body.

Clara did not stop.

She raised the bat again and brought it down on his right leg, another crack, another scream, and Damien's vision blurred and his body went into shock and he could not stop shaking.

"You smell bad," Clara said, her voice steady. "You always smelled bad, like chemicals and sweat, and I hated it, I hated everything about you, but I had to pretend because we needed that formula, and now that we have it, I do not have to pretend anymore."

She raised the bat one more time and brought it down on his right arm, the bone snapped clean and Damien's scream turned into something raw and broken, something that did not even sound human anymore.