Bloodbreeders: The Revenge (14 page)

I remembered that there was a clean cell behind the curtain across the room. I walked over and pulled it back just enough to make sure there wasn’t going to be anything of a surprise, and then pushed the curtain back. The barred door was locked. I instructed the others help me look for the key. We looked in every place that could be searched, and came up empty. I knew that Annabel kept a set of keys that went to the lower levels. The question was where were they?

“Do you think it was possible that she might have had them in her pocket when she went all charcoal like that?” Brandon asked squatting down by her remains.

“You willing to dig around in that?” Bo asked raising one brow.

“I hope someone is, because I think he may be right,” I added squatting down next to Brandon.

“Want me to do it?” Brandon smiled.

“Let’s get something and poke it around.”

“That’s a much better idea than using my hands,” he laughed reaching for a piece of wood that was lying by a chair leg.

I picked up another one and the two of us started spreading out Annabel’s remains. I heard metal scraping the floor before Brandon announced that he had them. The keys were covered in the blackened residue, and the ribbon was as crisp as the clothes she once wore. A substance that had every characteristic of being burned, but never being in a fire, was a matter that my mind couldn’t wrap itself around. Brandon had the same confused look on his face as I must have had on mine, because he said, “Did you notice any smoke?”

“I was just thinking the same thing,” I shook my head. “It’s like she burned from the inside out, but how could that be when there wasn’t any flames or smoke? It’s something that could drive you crazy just thinking about it.”

Brandon went to open the cell door, and I returned to check on Sydney. Ashley was now kneeling by him, stroking the hair away from his face, while whispering softly that everything was going to be fine, that she was going to take care of him. I smoothed her hair back, “We need to get him up on that cot, babe.” She smiled at me and put her hand under his neck and we lifted him off the floor. I told the boys that Ashley could sit with Sydney behind the closed curtain, knowing good and well that she wasn’t going to argue. Sadly, we didn’t have the time to wait for him to wake. I leaned down, pulling the cover up close to Sydney’s shoulders and touched his forehead, saying a little prayer hoping that he was going to be alright, then went out to talk to the boys.

“If they know how I got out, then Garvin and Tanda are somewhere down here,” I said, as soon as we were back in the gruesome hall.

“What do you want us to do?” Derek asked.

“We need to look in each cell. You’re going to see things so horrible…I don’t even know what to say to prepare you for it,” I sorrowfully admitted, hanging my head, not able to look at them.

“Renee, I think we get the idea just by the smell alone,” Bo said putting his arm over my
shoulder.

“Yeah, I gag every time I take a deep breath,” Derek added.

“And I’ve been wanting to throw up ever since we started down those stairs,” Brandon bashfully acknowledged.

“Then let’s go find them. I want y’all to stay right with me.”

“Why don’t we split up?” Derek asked, walking backwards in front of me.

“Because, Derek. Are you going to know Garvin or Tanda when you see them?”

“I can always ask their name,” he smiled.

“And if they’ve been tortured to the point that they can’t speak?” Brandon inquired.

“Oh, guess I should have thought about that.”

“At least if you see someone in one of these cells, you can just call us over. When I was trapped down here, I never saw very many coming down. I don’t think anyone, other than that crazy bitch smeared on the floor in there, would come down here without being ordered to. I remember hearing Enrique complaining several times about having to be down here, but he will show up sooner or later. So keep your eyes and ears open.”

The boys started bending down at the first few cells we passed, and each one held their noses, swallowing past the rising liquid that was threatening to push its way out. I saw Brandon fly backwards mere seconds after he looked in the third cell. He began heaving, up against the wall on the opposite side. I was terrified to see what had upset him so much, but I found myself bending down before I even realized what I was doing. “Sweet Jesus.” Is what I heard, but it wasn’t until Bo asked ‘what’, that I knew it was me that had said it. I shook my head while I stared at the poor being that was lying on its back, blinking tear filled eyes at me.

The torment was ten times worse than anything that I had seen or heard of. There was no way of telling if it was male or female. Both arms and legs had been removed at the ball and socket joint, and it looked like they had burned the wounds to stop the bleeding. The flesh on the creature was as blackened as Annabel’s dead body. Decay caked so thick that it looked like a layer of cloth covering its flesh. Still, one could tell it was nude by the way the private area had been mangled between what use to be the legs. Yet, it lived. What once was a being like us, was
now reduced to this mentally and physically tormented shell of its former self.

“Bo, I’m going to ask you to do something,” I started to say when he stopped me.

“Go check the other cages, because these aren’t cells of any kind. They’re cages made by animals.”

“Let go,” Derek hissed.

We all spun in Derek’s direction, finding him leaning down by one of the cells, only this one had an arm through it grabbing Derek by the throat. He panicked after seeing what made Brandon ill, that he never thought to draw his weapon. Bo took off, pulling his sword from his back as he ran and was about to swing down when I heard someone call out my name. “Bo, stop.” I had yelled just in time. Bo’s blade was inches from the man’s arm.

“Renee, is it you?”

“Oh yes, Garvin,” I cried not caring who heard, and ran sliding down on my knees in front of his entrapment.

“I knew you would come back,” he whispered reaching for me.

“Open it…open it now,” I begged grasping at his soiled arms.

Bo and Brandon worked on the rusted lock. I held Garvin’s hands to my face, rubbing as much of his arm as I could until I heard the clank of the latch, only then did I release my grip. I stood back long enough for the boys to open the heavy, barred door, and then I darted in. We hesitated for a moment, then embraced each other and wept. He was wearing one of the slave gowns, which was nothing more than a bag with holes for your head and arms. He had been in the filth for what looked like as long as I had been gone. I noticed something I hadn’t before when he put his other hand on the side of my face. Two of his fingers were missing. They had taken the ring and little finger from his right hand.

“You are an angel,” he said as he touched me.

“Oh Garvin,” I replied, as I closed my eyes and turned my face into his palm. “I’m so sorry.”

“You have no reason to be sorry. You have kept your word.”

“Where’s Tanda?”

“I think they’ve placed her in the hole,” he responded, his head slowly dropping.

“Come on, let’s get you out of here, then we’ll go find her,” I said taking him under the arm.

I had to back out of the small, putrid cage, bent over, and gently pulling Garvin as I did so. He winced in pain as his legs started straightening. It was at that time that we all realized that he must have been sitting in the same position for a great amount of time. His legs looked deformed and made me think that they had been broken. When he started moving his feet and wiggling his toes, I let out a breath that I didn’t even know that I was holding.

“How long have you been in there?” Derek blurted out.

“I cannot recall my friend, but I am certainly glad to be free from its walls,” Garvin replied, grabbing Bo by the forearm.

Garvin put his feet underneath himself and pulled with our help and tried to stand too quickly. He yelled in pain, falling right back down. I was about to ask him if he wanted to rest, when he strained to get back up. Tears fell as I watched his determination to stand on his own. I looked up to see Bo’s brow wrinkled, as he stared at the strength of the man in his arms. Garvin was no more on his feet for the second time, when we heard the bang coming from somewhere behind us.

“We have to hurry,” I said.

“What the fuck’s going on!” Enrique yelled as he stormed toward us.

I pushed Garvin into Bo’s arms and pulled my gun. Derek jumped in my way, running at the huge man with his blade in his hand, only to be knocked into the hanging corpses, landing in a crumpled heap at what would have been their feet had they still had them. I took aim and fired my weapon several times, hitting Enrique right between the legs. The gun worked. He grabbed himself, dropping to his knees screaming at first, wordless screeches, then, “I’m going to kill you, you fucking bitch.” It was a name that I had heard from him many times.

“Still haven’t learned my name, I see,” I replied walking up to him.

“I should have killed you the night that I fucked you, bitch,” he replied through clenched teeth.

Enrique started getting to his feet when Bo came running around me with his sword above his head. Enrique threw his hand up to block the blow, but Bo’s blade took his arm off at the shoulder. The man’s screams were almost deafening, but it wasn’t loud enough to stop everyone from hearing Bo’s yell, “You do not treat women that way.” A smile crept across my face as I watched him grope for the place where his arm, use to be. Blood was gushing from his body, and yet he still shot his eyes to me and continued to threaten my life.

“You’ll die down here you whore…you and your little friends,” he yelled, snapping his teeth and getting to his knees.

“Hey, big mouth,” Derek said thumping him on the back of the head. “That’s my mom you’re calling a whore.” Then he slammed a bar that he had found on the floor, into the back of his head.

Enrique’s body flew forward, causing him to land flat on his face. The back of his head was split open, with the front now bleeding just as bad. When he rolled over his nose was busted so badly, that you could see the bone on the bridge. The impact caused a great amount of damage, but he was still conscious. I began laughing at the site of this big mean animal, squirming around like one of the many victims that he had tortured.

“Fuck you,” he gurgled through the vast amount of blood.

“You just don’t know when to shut up,” Brandon said walking up, holding his hand out to, Bo.

Bo looked at me and I simply nodded. Brandon took the sword from Bo, and started circling the big man, who was now beginning to beg. I think we all stepped in a little closer to show that we meant to see his death, no matter what came out of his mouth. “I was only doing what I was ordered to do,” he groveled.

“Were you under orders when you raped, Renee?” Brandon asked, right before he brought the sword down across Enrique’s knee, severing it, pant leg and all.

That was all the pain that the big man could take. He screamed once, then fell unconscious. Brandon raised the sword to take off his head when I told him to stop. All the boys looked at me like I had lost my mind, until I explained to them what I was planning on doing
with him. I had Bo grab the torch and hand it to me. This was a task that I wasn’t going to ask anyone else to do, and one that I had every intention of using as a major pay back not only for myself, but for all the others that he had caused such great harm to.

“What are you going to do with the torch?” Derek asked following me.

“I’m going to stop the bleeding before he bleeds to death.”

“Why? He’s a no good son-of-a-bitch. Why would you want him to live?” he asked grabbing me by the arm.

“Just like I said, Derek. I want him to pay for what he’s done.”

“I’m so confused.”

“You’ll understand soon enough,” Garvin called out, coming up the hall holding onto the wall.

I started putting the burning torch to the open wound on Enrique’s shoulder. The sound and stench was more than I could handle and I dropped the torch before I could get to his leg. My stomach contents came up and out uncontrollably. Once I had gained my composure I turned to see Garvin finishing what I had begun. I walked back over, wiping my mouth off. I reached down and ripped a piece of cloth off of Garvin’s filthy garment, then shoved it as hard as I could up Enrique’s busted nose.

“Drag him to the lower levels. We leave him where we find Tanda,” I added, as I wiped his blood off of my hand on the only clean spot left on his shirt.

“Now I get it,” Derek laughed, “Let this piece of shit rot to death.”

“You got it,” I replied, taking Garvin around the waist.

I told Brandon and Derek to go back and get Ashley, because I didn’t want anyone to sneak in and take her while we were down in the lower levels. I told them to explain to her that Sydney would be safe with the curtain closed and the door locked, and that we would be back as soon as we found Tanda. I also told them that they were to take her against her will, if she refused to leave him. I had to think of my little ones, and Sydney was more than we could carry if we were attacked. Garvin, Bo, and I, waited with Enrique’s unconscious body at the end of the long hall for them to come back.

A few minutes later we heard Ashley arguing as she was being held between the boys. Once she closed her mouth long enough to take in a deep breath she began gagging. I met them halfway, and by the time that I got there, she was already throwing up. I bent down and started rubbing her back and instantly could tell she was angry at me.

“He’s all alone,” she gasped.

“I know, Ashley,” I replied standing back up. “But if they get their hands on you…”

“What about him? Do you honestly think, that crazy woman would let him live now?” she asked then started screaming.

“Ashley…Ashley get a hold of yourself,” I yelled, taking her and shaking her.

“I…I,” she mumbled pointing at the corpses hanging on the wall.

I looked and saw the very same dried forms that hung there when I was in the cage across from them. I remembered the one being semi-alive, and how I couldn’t stop thinking about the other man who had no feet. I couldn’t blame Ashley for being shocked at the sight, because it had shocked my very being. I wrapped my arms around her, remembering her age and how I had reacted when I saw the carnage for the first time. I turned her away from it and started down the hall toward the horrific sight that we had caused. I quickly began explaining what she was about to walk up on, then went directly into telling her who the beast was, and that it was all of us who had done the damage to him.

“He’s the one, isn’t he?” she cried, holding on to me in a death grip.

“Yes, he is,” I whispered.

“Then he deserved it, and now I’m not so worried about, Sydney. I was afraid that woman’s man would find him.”

Chapter Fourteen

I introduced everyone to Garvin, and even through the gore on his face you could still see the beauty in his smile. The introduction was short lived as I turned and walked behind everyone, heading toward the large iron door that lead to the depths of hell itself. Our little Tanda was down there somewhere and nothing was going to keep me from opening the one door that I was hoping to never lay eyes on again for as long as I lived. The stench was flooding from under its heavy weight, causing every memory that I had to invade my mind once again, making me want to end what little life that Enrique had left. All of the torture that these bastards put me through was nothing compared to the night that he ripped my virginity from me. And now standing here, I thought of what he must have done before he locked that sweet, tiny child down there. I turned back around and fumed my way back to Enrique and stomped down on his head several times before Bo picked me up around my waist.

“Why don’t you just kill him and get it over with?”

“I’m okay now. I just needed to get that out,” I replied, trying to wiggle out of his grip.

“Are you sure?”

“Bo, put me down,” I demanded slapping at his hands.

“Promise you won’t hit me?” he laughed.

“Bo!”

He laughed even harder as he loosened his grip around my waist. I told them to grab that piece of shit at their feet, and follow me and Garvin. It took Bo and Brandon to get the iron door open. As soon as the large metal thing swung open, everyone either grabbed their faces or literally began throwing up. Garvin was the only one not holding his nose, he was looking at me. I had my mouth and nose covered with my hand, and looking back through watering eyes.

“It smells like a slaughter house, mixed with a whole load of outhouses,” Derek observed.

“Long death and decay my young friend,” Garvin explained in a soft tone.

“And we’re going down there?” he questioned.

“If you were locked down there, wouldn’t you want us to come find you?” Brandon asked patting Derek on the back.

“Well, if you put it like that, yeah,” he nodded looking up at Garvin. “I didn’t mean anything by that.”

“If I did not have to venture into the depths, believe me, I would not. Please, do not
apologize for making such an honest comment.”

I took the first torch off the wall by the door and Garvin took the next. I began the decent and everyone fell in behind me, with Bo shutting the door and coming down last. I could hear the little ones gagging every so often as we made our way down the long stone stairwell that was covered in a thick layer of slime and moss. The walls were wet to the touch and visually nothing could be seen past the glare of our torches. Every step was taken with caution, due to the many pieces of debris that was waiting for unknowing passers.

Ashley held tight to Brandon’s belt with one hand, and her nose and mouth with the other. The rest of us had become as accustomed to the smell, as anyone could possibly get. Ashley’s foot suddenly slipped on the slick stone step, she fell into Brandon, who fell into Derek, who in turn fell into me and Garvin. Bo was the only one standing when we came to a stop, five steps down on the cold wet floor of the lowest level of the estate—the hole.

“Someone’s foot’s in my butt,” Derek shouted, and then burst out laughing.

“I think it’s mine,” I replied with my own laughter. “Is everyone alright?”

“I didn’t mean to do it, my foot slipped on the step,” Ashley said, untangling herself from Brandon.

“Garvin?” I called out, seeing his torch on the floor several feet across the room.

“I’m here, under our young friend,” he replied raising his hand in the air.

“Derek, get off of him,” I said.

“I will as soon as you get off of me.”

Bo stepped down and started helping us out of our predicament. Once we all managed to get to our feet, and had the torches back in our hands, we started looking in the small tomb-like cages for Tanda. Three had been opened and still no sign of her. That’s when panic started to set in. I began calling out her name in a much louder, more terrified tone. I was beginning to think that she wasn’t down here at all. That, those unscrupulous bastards had taken her life and only made Garvin think, that she had been punished by being placed in the hole.

“Someone’s in this one, I can hear them moaning,” Bo said, trying to unlock the slide latch on the top of the solid iron door.

“Oh, Dear God, please be her,” I prayed out loud, as Bo and Garvin lowered it to the floor.

“She is not in here,” Garvin announced backing away.

“What is it?” Bo asked, putting his torch deeper into the dome like cage. “Please tell me that I’m not looking at something that was once human.”

“They have started to decay while life remains in their body. I have seen it before. Starvation has not yet had time to kill them, but the length of time that they have laid in the remains of those who died in there before them, has softened their flesh to the point, that their own has fallen off,” Garvin grossly explained.

“Open all of them. We have to find her, and we have to find her now,” I said and broke down crying.

“We will, Renee, “Ashley replied, taking my hand.

“We have to,”              I replied, listening to the deafening sound of Bo’s bullet finishing off the already lifeless corpse.

“Won’t someone hear that,” Ashley jumped.

“Nothing can be heard this deep down,” Garvin replied staring deeper into the room.

There was only one cage left to open and it was the very one that Enrique had forced me into. The very cage that I had stayed in for six weeks the first time that, I was placed down in the putrid hell. “I can hear something.” Derek called out as the latch slid free.

Once the door was down and the light found its way into to the small area, I knew the tiny form was Tanda. She was curled up on her side with her back turned to us. I walked in on my knees with my head bent down. I did my best to keep my hands free of the two inch thick, gore that covered the floor, until I reached her.

“Tanda, honey, can you hear me? It’s me, Renee.” Then I gently laid my hand on her delicate rib cage, and began to weep with relief as I felt it rise.

She moved her head mere inches, then went still. I reached under her neck with one hand, then turned her on her back and picked her up, holding her close to my chest. I rocked her back and forth for a few minutes, then began making my way back out. Garvin was the first to take me under the arm when my head was free of the entrance.

“Tanda…Tanda wake up,” Garvin said, taking her from my arms. “Come my cherished one, just open your eyes for me.”

“Shouldn’t we get her back upstairs?” Ashley asked, watching everything in horror.

“He knows what he’s doing,” I replied, never taking my eyes off of Garvin and Tanda.

“You have returned to us. Now you must open your eyes, so you can see the friends that Renee brought to save us,” Garvin softly pleaded, as tears rolled in small crimson rivers down his cheeks.

He was wiping the thick slime away from her face with the end of his garment, when Brandon took off his shirt and handed it to him. He cleaned her off the best that he could, and kept speaking the whole time about the things that they had planned on doing, once they were freed from this place. Tanda’s head turned into his chest, and then she muttered the words. “I’m sorry.” I dropped down on my knees in front of her and Garvin.

“Hey sweetie, can you hear me?” I prayed she would answer and wasn’t so weak that we had already lost her.

She turned with what little strength she had and opened those beautiful blue eyes and looked at me. “You came?”

“Yes, baby, I came. I will always come for you,” I cried, kissing her forehead.

While we had been working with Tanda, Bo had gone back up and dragged Enrique down to where we were. I was so concerned about Tanda that, I hadn’t even noticed. “What do you want to do with this thing?” Bo asked, kicking the now waking, Enrique.