His eyes temporarily flickered open before he forced them shut as the harsh light flooded his cornea. By the time he opened, I was right in front of him, so close our noses were almost touching. He tried to step back that was when he noticed the predicament he was in. While his legs lay limply beneath him, he remained upright, held by chains anchored on the ceiling of the basement. It took him a few more seconds before the pain he was in registered. He tried to get to his feet, but they were a few inches off the ground. He tried to wiggle, testing the chains that were holding him up, an endeavor that he quickly stopped as pain visibly flooded his systems as blood flow was restored to his upper limbs.
He fell limp again, but his eyes were sharp and alert, taking in the room he was in, but my basement offered no clues other than his impending doom. Sunshine finally made his reappearance, and the look on Mathew's face was almost comical as he took his impersonator in. Sunshine was wearing sneakers with platforms that raised her from six feet to two inches taller, Mathew's exact height. A few hours of Mercy and her applying makeup had turned her into a spitting image of Mathew, if you did not look too close. Our targets were grainy CCTV footage, which would not be able to tell the differences.
"What the hell is this?" Mathew finally spoke up, his voice betraying the growing fear he was experiencing
"Isn't it obvious?" Mercy answered him as she walked into the basement. "Sunshine here is going to go around town cosplaying you, in your car, of course. She needs to be seen at several stops far away from our house, so no one comes looking for you here. I, for one, think she looks better than you, on account of her being human and all. You, my friend, are never leaving here."
Mathew lunged forward, causing Mercy, who had walked right up to him, to scurry back behind Sunshine in fear. I smiled fondly at the mischievous woman, proud of how expressive she had become and how comfortable she had gotten when it came to voicing her fears. The older version of her would have bit her tongue off before audibly expressing discomfort. Sunshine took her as she exited the basement after signing my approval of her cosplay.
Once again, we were left in silence, but his face spoke louder than any words could even as his eyes flitted from one end of the room to another, betraying the hope he still harbored. I held my tongue, waiting to see if he would break his silence first, anticipating his questions. A few minutes ticked by, so I opened my laptop intending to catch up with my writing, satisfied with waiting until he broke the silence, content if he chose not to. The longer he held on, the more hope would fade, leaving nothing but despair, and when he finally cried for death, I would prolong his suffering for a little longer before giving him his wish. The only wish I would tolerate granting him.
"Why are you doing this?" he finally spoke up before I was through with a single sentence. I closed my laptop and turned to him with a smile that didn't quite reach my eyes, plastered on my face.
"Take a wild guess, why on earth would I have you tied up in my basement?" I returned in a falsely cheery voice
"Basement?" he asked as he once again looked around him. I could almost see the wheels of his brain turning.
"Yes, my basement. Brian and his three friends have also spent some quality time here before they appeared wherever it was they were found. They have nothing bad to say about it. If you don't trust me, ask them. You would, of course, have to wait for Brian to wake up from his coma, and then you would have to catch the rest on a good day. Their minds are not all there."
"You are insane. How can you do that to your brother?"
"What are you talking about? I did do a lot of things to him, but you don't even know the half of it. All you saw was what the cliff and trees did. If he pulls through, I will make sure that my face is the last thing he sees before permanently blinding him. He can never work on account of being a criminal in an active investigation with numerous victims. When he finally wakes up to face a dark and unforgiving world, then you can ask that question. Too bad, you won't last that long, though."
"My parents will hunt you down to the ends of the world if anything happens to me. If you let me go now, we can put all this behind us."
"Baby, I wouldn't have started this if I weren't prepared to finish it. Your concerns are valid and noted. I need to take care of your parents before I deal with you. Good thing we found your family folder. I honestly thought at most we would find some incriminating folders, but boy, aren't you the perfectionist. Nobody needs those kinds of folders for their families. Most people don't even put that kind of effort into their enemies."
"They are actively serving in high offices, you can't get to them," he said, voice cracking at the end.
"Exactly, the information you have isn't great for any kind of job, let alone a government office. It's only fitting, given that their influence is how they primarily helped you get out of jail. I don't place all the blame on you; they should have raised you to be a better man. Because they failed, I have to teach you how to be human. However, you know what they say about old dogs, so it's better if I just put you down so no one else gets infected by your madness. You understand that, right?"
"Look, I am sorry about Claire. I didn't know she would die. It also caused me a lot of pain, and I had to go to prison for a while. Why would I ever want that?"
He finished his sentence, but I had stopped listening after his vile mouth mentioned her name. One minute I was calmly seated, antagonizing him, the next I was plunging a knife into his stomach with everything I had. I stepped back, realizing too late what I had done. His eyes widened in pain as he let out a silent scream before falling unconscious. Blood slowly started to seep out of the wound, but not enough to cause his death. I walked out of the basement, not trusting my control, leaving the knife in his abdomen, not wanting to risk quickening his death before I had my fun.