Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 133182 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133182 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
There’s a wet, slapping sound, and it’s everything I can do not to glance over in curiosity.
James laughs louder with glee. “You see what we just did to your boy? Well, don’t look away, cause the show isn’t over yet!”
Jacob weeps softly. “I’m sorry, Trent. I’m sorry…”
“Oh fuck, is that what I think it is?” Johnathan asks.
“Yup,” James answers. “Been wanting to try this rib spreader out for a while now. This is the first time Simon has let me play with his toys.”
Gabriel grumbles something about James being an ass-kisser.
Lucifer asks, “What do you plan to do, James?”
James snickers and says ominously, “You’ll see. Keep him still.”
“Please… please just kill me,” Trent begs, his words wet and slurring together. “Just fucking kill me already.”
“Hush. I’m trying to work,” James says, and I dare a peek at him.
Bent over, James presses a scalpel to Trent’s bare skin just beneath his shoulder. Then he cuts diagonally toward Trent’s sternum. Once he reaches the center of Trent’s chest, he lifts the scalpel away and moves to the other shoulder.
He’s doing the Y incision…
Is he going to perform a live autopsy?
Holy fuck. No wonder he didn’t want me to watch.
As if he can feel my eyes on him, James glances up at me. His face is sharp and focused. And like his sudden calm, I find it more terrifying than the uncontrollable rage.
There’s too much control, too much intelligence in his eyes.
And I can finally see the resemblance between him and his brother, Lucifer.
It’s so obvious… they look so much alike, even though James is dark to Lucifer’s light, I feel like an idiot for not guessing it before.
Holding my stare though, that calm he’s holding onto begins to splinter again. Emotion leaking out.
There’s no rage, though. Or even anger.
No, there’s worry in his eyes…
I almost want to say it’s worry for me… but I get the feeling it’s something else. There’s something else he’s worried about.
“Sophia, remember your promise,” James says, holding the scalpel above Trent, hesitating.
I nod my head at him to show him I remember.
Yet he continues to hesitate.
“Look away,” he says, a touch of pleading in his voice.
I’d ask him why… if I fucking could. But just thinking about the pain that one word will cause has my throat locking up.
Why should I look away if I want to see Trent suffer too?
I’m not a fucking baby…
“Look away,” James repeats, his voice firmer, like a fucking order again.
“Jacob has grown awfully quiet,” Lucifer says, breaking the tension. “I’d suggest you give him some of that go-go juice, James, but I don’t think his weak heart could take it.”
Everyone looks at Jacob to see him slumped against the wall as if the knives are the only things holding him up. Crying so quietly it’s become background noise.
James growls and cuts into Trent, slicing from his shoulder to his sternum. Then he drags the scalpel down in a straight line that ends at his navel. When he sets the scalpel to the side and reaches down to spread the skin, I finally look away, reaching my limit.
Trent doesn’t scream, he wails. A god-awful wail that makes me want to cover my ears.
Then it suddenly stops.
Without the wail, the room falls into quiet again.
Eerie quiet.
A loud crack shatters the silence a minute or two later.
The unmistakable sound of bones snapping…
“That is surprisingly satisfying,” Gabriel groans, like he’s in ecstasy.
“Fuck yeah, it is,” James agrees gleefully.
“I think he passed out,” Johnathan remarks.
“That’s fine,” James says. “He can fucking die now that I’ve got what I want.”
“Are you… oh shit. Don’t you want gloves or something if you’re gonna do that?” Johnathan asks in disbelief.
My curiosity once again getting the better of me, I look to see what’s happening.
“Fuck no,” James says, both of his hands inside Trent’s open chest.
I’ve seen some gruesome things in my life, willingly and unwillingly. I’ve seen things on the internet I’ve wished I could unsee.
But seeing James rooting around inside Trent’s chest makes my head feel so light I’m dangerously close to fainting.
The blood… there’s blood, yes. All the red is no surprise. But the ribs… and the lungs… and the heart… all together.
Fuck.
The lungs are still inflating and deflating.
And the heart is still beating.
Pumping even as James quickly and viciously severs the valves and arteries.
Wrapping his fingers around Trent’s heart and squeezing, James rips it out of Trent’s chest with a crazed, triumphant look on his face and holds it up in the air.
“Damn… how long is that thing gonna beat for?” Johnathan asks.
“Oh… they usually pump for about three to five minutes,” Lucifer answers.
Johnathan cocks a bushy brow at Lucifer. “Ripped a few hearts out, huh?”
Lucifer shrugs and smiles.
Grinning a wide, maniacal grin, James gets to his feet. “You see this, Jacob?”
Slowly walking over to Jacob, James holds Trent’s heart out for him to see. “You tried to take my heart… so I fucking took yours!”