Page 135 of Equilibrium
“Papa,” I called out to him. “I’ll do it. I’ll go with you.” I tried making my voice steady, when the mere thought of going with him put every single nerve ending on alert. “Just let them be. They didn’t do anything wrong.”
“No, Ophelia!” Storm yelled; panic written all over his face. “You can’t do that.”
“Ah, love. Such a sickening feeling.” He didn’t look at me as he spoke again. “But you see, Ekaterina, now it’s too late. I already decided that I want to see him dead. After all, that is how we treat traitors.”
No, no, fuck no.
He nodded at one of the men holding Storm and when the knife shone from the afternoon light coming through the windows, I had a feeling that I wouldn’t like what was about to come.
Papa pulled the shirt away from Storm’s body, slicing through the fabric, cutting it in half on his chest. The skull tattoo was revealed as the material opened, and he pulled both sides, dropping them to Storm’s wrists.
“My, my, my.” He started examining the gauze on his shoulder. I hadn’t known that he was hurt. “What do we have here?” He ripped the gauze off as Storm’s scream echoed around the room, sending chills over my spine.
He took a knife from the guard, placing the tip right above the wound that was still bleeding. The wound seemed shallow, only on the surface, but that just gave more ammunition to the sadist in front of us to start.
“Let’s see if you still like pain, boy.” He pushed the tip of the knife into Storm’s shoulder and a blood-chilling scream tore from him, followed by mine.
“No! Stop it, please!”
“But I am only getting started, Ekaterina.” The sick bastard laughed. “I will enjoy this so much. Maybe after this, you will remember where you belong,Doch. Maybe you will finally remember your place. Maybe I will even be forgiving.”
“I swear to God, Papa—”
“What?” He turned to me, amusement shining through his eyes. “You’re going to kill me? Look around you. There are guards everywhere. You can’t even free yourself, let alone kill me.”
My blood boiled, my eyes narrowing at him, but he didn’t give a shit about any of it. He turned around, crouching in front of Storm.
“Ah,mal’chik.” He patted his cheek leaving a bloody trail behind. “This is really unfortunate, but I have to kill you.”
“Noooo!” I wailed as Storm’s eyes connected with mine.
“It’s fine, baby—” My father dug the knife deeper into his shoulder and the sickening sound of skin breaking reverberated around us. Storm started falling forward. My heart broke, seeing this strong, fierce man brought to his knees.
I wasn’t going to give up. I wasn’t going to give up on the one person that understood me. Fuck everything. If he wasn’t here with me, my life wouldn’t make sense anymore. He might not want me anymore, but he wasn’t going to die on me.
Storm’s chest was filled with blood now, his tattoos almost hidden by the red hue spreading from the wound. The monster pulled the knife out, wiping it on Storm’s pants.
I tried pulling my arms out, tried moving out of the grip of the guards that held me hostage, but it was futile. We were not going to make it. God, I was going to lose him.
My father craned his neck, looking at me, and I hoped that he could feel every ounce of hatred I felt for him in that moment. He gripped the knife and started tracing patterns on Storm’s chest.
I could hear the cries of women and children held here with us, but my sole focus was on two of them.
“If you kill him,” I gritted out, “I will never forgive you.”
“I wasn’t asking for your forgiveness.” He moved the knife away and in the next moment, buried it into Storm’s stomach, turning it around, digging deeper.
“Noooo!” A scream tore from me.
Storm started falling forward, but my father held his head as he pulled the knife out and stabbed him in his chest.
The buzzing in my ears, the pain, the rage, it was all mixed together. My eyesight blurred and the first tears fell out, coating my cheeks.
“No, no, no,” I kept chanting, but my father didn’t stop.
Another stab into Storm’s stomach, and then another, and another, and I stopped counting after the fifth one.
After the first grunt, Storm quieted down, blood seeping from his mouth.
