Hurts so good

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE|| AMARIS/CASSIUS

"If you tell me where he is, I will let you live" I coo, bending down to touch my victim's face. He never told me his name and I never asked. The knowledge that he worked for Dr. Williams was enough to earn him this little intervention. If I had to guess, I'd imagine his name was something like Russell or Logan. I'm good at guessing names.

"Really?" He asks with hopeful eyes. Poor guy. I shouldn't lie to him.

I remove my hands from his face and sigh. "No. Not really."

His face drops.

"Oh boo hoo. You punched me in the face so I can't exactly let you live now can I?" I ask, gesturing to my bloody nose. "But....... If you tell me where he is, I will make your death swift."

I give him a genuine smile and nod as if to say 'this is a good deal and you should take it'. He glares at me and refuses to open that big mouth of his so I gently glide the knife from my leg strap and wave it in his face.

"Don't make me use this Russell." I sing.

Russell face scrunches. "My name isn't Russell bitch. It's peter." Very bold of him to call me a bitch when he was just begging for his life a moment ago.

"Close enough." I roll my eyes and plunge the knife into his bicep, dragging it down to open up his arm. Blood gushes out and Russell screams like a bitch.

"Fuck! Fine, I'll tell you!"

"Oh but you missed your chance Russell. Remember what I said when we started?" I ask bending down to look him in the eyes.

I smile at him and he nods quickly.

I lick my lips and run the knife across his chest. "What did I say russell?"

"Y-you said that we would take turns. T-that there would be a time to hurt and there would b-be a time to answer questions."

"Exactly." I pat his head for being such a good boy and stand up straight. "Unfortunately. It's my turn now and during my time I get to hurt. If you have something to tell me, you'll just have to wait until I'm done."

I stab him again and he screams at the top of his lungs.

"Do you want me to put on some music? Someone might hear him." Jerome asks from behind me and I turn in shock.

"Now why would I ever want to do that? His screams are so pretty." I say, giving him a big smile.

"You seriously look like something out of a horror movie." he says and I tilt my head in confusion. He tips his head towards the mirror and I look over. My untamed curls frame my face and my cute yellow and white summer dress is now stained red with blood. I stand taller than I usually do in my white heels and I'm holding up a bloody knife with a chilling smile on my face.

"I think I look pretty." I say before turning back to Russell. "Do you think I look pretty?"

"Y-yes. Very pretty." Russell says and I can't help the smile that spreads across my face. I shyly tuck my hair behind my ear and smooth my dress down.

"Really?" I ask, avoiding his gaze.

"Of course!" he says in a voice way too high before clearing his throat and trying again. "I think you look beautiful." he recovers in a lower voice and my eyes snap back to him.

"You're just saying that. You don't mean it." I ask, frowning the tiniest bit.

He could be lying. Maybe he doesn't really think I'm pretty. People are liars, It's what they do. Right?

"Right. It's what they do. He's saying that because he wants you to let him go. You can't trust anyone but me, Amaris. Find out where the bad doctor that hurt us is and kill him." The voice in my head says.

"I do mean it!! I'm saying that because it's true. You're absolutely gorgeous. M-maybe I-if you let me go we can go get a drink or something and talk about how beautiful you are. You could be a model."

Told you so. When will you learn?

"I'm sorry." I mumble. My head buzzes and my vision goes dark.

*****

"Can I ask you a question?" Sam asks from the seat across from me and I nod. I wouldn't go as far as calling him a friend but I can see why Amaris likes him. He's only partially annoying.

"Why do you call her 'bug'?"

Aiden, who's sitting beside Sam, smiles at Milo who's sitting next to me on the private plane and gestures for him to listen. Milo looks at me as if wondering what my next words will be. I look back to Aiden and he subtly nods his head in approval.

I take a drink of the dark liquid in my cup and swallow before speaking, letting it take me deep into my memories. "When we were kids we used to practically live at Amaris's house. Once, we went over to spend the weekend and before we could get through the door, I heard a scream coming from her room. Not the kind you'd expect from a little girl. The way she was screaming, it was like her soul was being pulled from her body."

Sam looks at me with worry in his eyes and leans forward.

"I think that was the first time I truly felt fear." I say, staring out the plane window. I shake my head and continue. "I dropped my bags and ran to her. She jumped into my arms crying hysterically and I tried my best to soothe her. These two ran in after me and immediately got into protective mode ready to beat up whoever made our girl cry." I say, pointing a finger between Milo and Aiden.

Milo nods his head in agreement. "It's true. I think I even picked up a pillow."

Aiden and I laugh but Sam isn't amused. "What happened to her?"

"There was a bug in her room." I say smiling and Sam furrows his brows.

"Amaris is afraid of bugs?"

"She used to be." I stop smiling and proceed with the story. "She used to be terrified of bugs. When we got her to calm down. She told us what happened and we searched heaven and earth for the bug that haunted her so much. The weird thing though, Amaris didn't want us to kill it. I mean this was a creature that she was so scared of and she wouldn't let us hurt it. What's that about?" I ask, more to myself than anyone else.

I Scoff and take another drink. "She asked us to release it where it would be safe but where it couldn't get back inside the house so we did. I started calling her 'bug' as a joke but as I got older I realized she's my bug. She's the one thing I fear and the only thing I could never hurt. At least not intentionally." I say looking down at the empty glass in my hands. Hurting her was the last thing I wanted to do. Will she ever forgive me?

"You fear her?" Sam asks and I chuckle.

"Of Course. Amaris is my soul personified. She's the sole entity that holds the power to destroy me beyond repair." I say, giving him a smile that struggles to reach my eyes.

"Yes. And I call her 'love' because there was this one wattpad book that..." Milo starts and is promptly cut off by our laughter. Idiot.

Aiden kicks Milo while laughing and they start fighting like children while Sam records them, threatening to tell Amaris of their bad behavior. I turn my head back to look out of the plane when something clicks. The whole situation was weird at the time because Amaris never cried like that before but now I realize that this happened right after her trip. She probably felt so scared because they forced her to give up the reaper. Will she be that scared again if we do the same thing to her? I don't want to hurt her again. There has to be another way.