Mackenzie

“Get off me.” My mom continues to scream and kick as Stef drags her closer to the cliff’s edge.

His fingers are tangled in her hair, yanking so hard blood begins to trickle down her forehead.

“Your boyfriend thinks I’m an idiot.” He chuckles darkly, pointing the rifle at me.

“Stop. Please,” my mom sobs. She claws at Stef’s face, his arm, and the hand that holds her, but he doesn’t even flinch.

The butt of the rifle comes down hard across her face, splitting her cheek wide open. Her eyes roll, but she doesn’t lose consciousness.

He drags her to me, dropping his gun just long enough to rip the tape from my mouth.

“You’re going to make a little choice, darling.” Spittle flies from his mouth onto my cheek, his rancid breath making me gag. “Since your boyfriend wants to play games, I think we’re going to have to comply.”

“Fuck you.” With all the force I can muster, I slam my forehead into his face.

Momentarily stunned, he lets go of my mom and she crumples to the ground in a heap of blood and tears.

The impact is enough to bust his nose. He wipes the blood away with the back of his hand, then laughs. He grips my arms and pushes me up against the car, one hand groping at me brutally.

“Oh, we’re going to have a lot of fun when this is all over.”

My hands are still tied behind my back, and his weight crushes my arms until they feel like they’re going to snap. The tape has loosened slightly, but not enough for me to get free.

“He brought the money. You said you’d let me go.”

“You think I’m that stupid to think he got that kind of money in two hours?”

I look at him, confused. “That’s all the time you gave him.”

“Yes.” He chuckles, his black eyes shining.

I shake my head, new fear stirring inside of me. “If you didn’t think he could get the money, why did you ask?”

“I wanted to see how much he was willing to lose to save you.” He brushes my hair behind my ear, then leans towards me and whispers, “Now, we’re going to see what you’re willing to sacrifice.”

When he pulls back, his gaze meeting mine, I know I’m looking into the pit of hell. There’s pure evil there. Nothing but hate. And I know he has no plans of letting any of us live through this.

Every move he makes is slow, deliberate, as if he’s been planning this whole scenario for years, and is reveling in every moment of it.

My mom is still on the ground, sniveling. When he grabs her hair, jerking her up and pulling her toward the edge, I know what he plans to do.

“No!” I scream. As much as I hate her right now, she’s still my mom.

“Who gets to live, Mackenzie?” He tilts his head, grinning, then points the rifle down at the car where Theo is waiting. “Her or him?”

No, no, no.

I want to scream. Warn Theo. But I can barely make out his form. He’ll never hear me. And even if he did, I know he won’t leave. Not without me.

“You can’t do this.”

“But I can.”

My mom screams when he twists her hair, taking another step closer to the edge. Stones skitter over the cliff.

“Thirty seconds, darling. Or they both die.”

“Why?” I swallow hard, tears running down my cheeks. “I’ll get you the money.”

His face tightens into a grotesque form, and he sneers. “This isn’t about money. Do you have any fucking clue what I lost because of you?”

“You’re right. It was because of me. No one else. Let them go and I’ll do whatever you want.”

“What I want is for you to suffer, like I suffered.” He pushes my mom closer to the edge and she screams. “You took my son from me.”

His son?

I shake my head. “I don’t know–”

“Michael was the one who gave you the drugs that night. It was him who paid for your fuck-up. Do you know what they do to someone who loses that kind of money?”

Oh God. That’s what this has been about?

“Stefano. Please. Let me go. I love you.” My mom’s words are slurred, her eyes wide, wild with fear.

He blinks and looks down at her. For a brief moment, his expression changes, and there’s a gentleness I’ve never seen before.

“I’m sorry it had to be this way.” He kisses her hard, then pulls back, his eyes dark once again. “But time’s up.”

My scream mixes with hers in sickening harmony as Stefano releases her, and she tumbles over the edge.

Disbelief is etched on her face when she grasps at the air. Then she’s gone.

My legs are about to give out on me, until I realize what Stef is about to do next. He raises his rifle, pointing down to the blur that is Theo.

Ignoring the pain that bites into my flesh as it tears, I rip one hand free of the tape that binds them. I don’t think, I just rush at him, reaching for the gun.

The shot fires, but I don’t have time to see if he’s hit his mark.

Stefano stumbles backward, taking me with him. We land hard, rolling, his weight crushing me, imbedding rock and sticks into my skin.

I fight, clawing at his eyes with my nails, biting, scratching. But he’s twice my size, and when his fingers tighten around my throat, I know it’s over.

“I could kill you right now. Break your neck. Feel your bones crush between my fingers.”

“Do it,” I say through clenched teeth. “Get it over with.”

I’m not afraid of dying. Not in this moment. As long as Theo and Logan are safe. That’s all that matters.

“No.” His fingers tighten, then release. “A quick death is too good for you. I’m going to do to you what they did to my boy, then I’m going to fuck you until you’re begging me to kill you.”

I grasp for anything, a stick, a rock, something I can use as a weapon. But the minute I feel the cool edge of the blade against my skin, I freeze.

His eyes glint, reflecting the steel that slowly cuts down my neck.

“Do you know, when they found him, he had over a hundred puncture wounds on his body?”

Slowly, with the precision of a surgeon, he sinks the blade deep, just below my collarbone. I open my mouth to scream, choking on a sob, when he pulls the blade out, sharp and quick.

“The key is knowing where not to cut. Keeping the wounds superficial. So the victim feels every slice, every jab, like it’s the first.”

This time, the blade cuts just below my right breast, and he’s right, the shooting pain is just as bad as the first cut.

I can’t breathe. Can’t catch my breath. All I can do is wait for the next cut.