Love Struck Delusion
Chapter 293 - Tying up the last end.
Raptor's POV, Twenty minutes later, Saint Houston Hospital.
Hecan went ahead and had part of the Saint Houston hospital cleared out and waiting for my arrival. Drake was on his way over and Char was making sure all the entrances and exits to this floor were locked and we were alone. I've never been in the basement of a hospital like this and I can safely tell you that it's about as unsettling as I expected. What mattered was that the basement was sound proofed thanks to all the generators being down here that supplied the hospital's emergency power. Sound proof. That's the key to this.
I had a room all ready to go for this to happen and Char had found his way back to me once he was done his search. Coming up to my side to see what I was doing, he told me.
"We're secure. No one is going to bother us."
"Good." I mumbled as I had a surgical kit rolled out in front of me on a small white table.
Char kept his focus on my hands as I laid out each and every tool I planned to use. Some big and some small. Some sharp and some blunt. Some that were clean and others that still had the blood of their last victim on it. Once I was all ready, I reached down and took out Shadow's M1911. Placing it down and leaving it be, I let out a long sigh and looked back as I felt Char take it upon himself to pat my back.
I just nodded and made my way over to where I had this happening. Two small metal chairs in the very middle of the room. When I sat down in one of them I heard a door open in the distance. Char widened his eyes and went to have a look in the hallway. Once he got a good idea of who it that was coming, he relaxed and said to me.
"They're here."
Nodding my head, I started to just breathe. Long and deep breaths up until the moment came that Pierce and Juper entered the room; carrying Drake under both arms. Quick and easy, they got him down in the chair in front of me and got him strapped in. My eyes couldn't help but stare at Drake as he was out cold and unaware of what was going to happen. Once my friends were done their job, did I urge them both.
"You guys can leave. Thank you again Pierce. It's been an honor working with you."
Giving me this straight face and a nod he replied.
"Vice versa Raptor. Good luck. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other around sooner or later."
My focus then shifted back to Drake. Juper who remained took this as his chance to say.
"What he said, Commander. Good luck with the whole rebuilding thing. Hopefully we'll get the chance to work together again someday. Or at the very least…...we can grab a beer."
Surprisingly that got me to chuckle. Juper proceeded to pat my shoulder and with that he left the room behind Pierce. I waited till Char got back from locking us in again. Once he was present I calmly asked him.
"Can you go get that bucket over there and fill it up with water?"
"Yeah." He replied as he went over to the very backend of the room where there was a sink and a waiting blue bucket. Once he finished filling it up, I urged him to bring it over and place it between Drake and I. From there I bent forward and put both my hands into the water. Giving them a gentle swirl around the bucket, I slowly pulled them back out and leaned in to slap Drake across the face. The water and the force I used generated a very loud smack and almost instantly the man himself woke up.
"What the hell…..? Where am I?"
He could barely open his eyes, but after a few moments he looked up to question.
"Raptor?"
Char kept himself back as my anger spiked. Using all I had I hooked Drake right in the mouth. His reaction was simple to it. He was confused and utterly caught off guard. I proceeded to then level his chin with my own and once I was staring him back in the eyes; I ordered him with anger in my voice.
"Shut up!"
With some blood leaving his mouth, Drake asked in desperation.
"What are you doing? I thought this was over between us."
"My family would have never been harmed if you didn't give Gorgon the opportunity. I can forgive you for just doing your job, but you still got my wife and kids killed. And that I can't overlook. I can't just let you live after all the pain you've brought me. You're a good man. I can see that much, but this is personal between us."
"But Hecan….?" Cutting him off, I bluntly informed him.
"Hecan's already telling your family you died serving your country. They'll never know this happened. All they'll know is you died a hero's death and more should aspire to be like you in their lives. Or it might be that you died in a tragic accident. To be honest, I don't know yet. That's up to Hecan."
With his eyes going to Char and then back to me, he replied.
"You won't get away with this."
"You don't seem to understand Drake. I already have."
My statement cut him down in two as I calmly took another breath in and proceeded to stand up. The second my direction went to the table where all the tools were resting was when Drake screamed out.
"You sick motherfucker! I knew I couldn't trust you! This was never supposed to work!"
Char came to my side as I chose my first tool. Leaning over into me to whisper.
"Do you want my help?"
I cocked an eye to the kid. I was surprised he was even asking. In time I smiled and replied.
"Maybe…..but we're in no rush. And…..and I want to make this last. For now? Just let me have this."
My friend understood what I was saying and very gently I patted his arm and waited till he had backed up to continue my conversation with Drake. When I turned around with a small scalpel; that's when I saw his eyes widen in fear for what was to come.
Char's POV, Six hours later.
Up till now I never really understood what it meant to feel pain. Real pain. I never understood just how far down a person had to be to hate someone this much. And it was clear to me that Raptor had no intention of killing Drake. No intention of letting him escape this kind of suffering too soon. We've gone through three shots of venom and two adrenaline injections to keep him alive. At least…..I was unsure if I could call him even that.
My mind became so numb to what it was seeing that I think I was starting to become uncaring of this kind of torture. It was so hard in the beginning to watch. I struggled to even breathe at times. Raptor on the other hand was taking his care to inflict as much pain as possible with the tools he had left.
Drake? By now that man lost his voice. So much screaming. So many tears. He begged and he begged for it to all stop. He begged for god to save him. He begged for me to stop it from going on. But I couldn't and I don't think I would even if I could.
I've seen so many bad things done to this man. Raptor's shown me more ways to hurt someone then I ever thought existed. He's pulled teeth. Torn out his claws. He's cut off fingers and burned the extremities shut with a lighter and steel hammer. He's hammered nails through each single toe. He's cut off an ear and even the tip to Drake's tongue. Not to mention the few dozen hooks and jabs he's pelted him with in between exchanges. I'm sure he's broken a few ribs and judging from what was left; Drake's jaw was barely hanging on. He couldn't even close his mouth and from a few feet away you could smell the acid Raptor used to slowly burn his way through skin, muscles, and tendons.
There was so much blood to go with it. So much of it on them and on me. Raptor was covered from head to toe and now just leaned over the table; which too was drenched in it. I remained where his chair was and watched as he reached for his gun which had been sitting this whole time on the table. Drake couldn't even look up. He had no energy. The venom was barely keeping him awake at this point. He barely had a pulse.
With Raptor slowly coming back over to me with the gun, he shut his eyes and contemplated ending this. I wasn't going to say a fucking word. I knew my place. I knew what side I wanted to stay on. So I just waited. After a few moments he looked over at me to order in a near hush tone.
"Go get the container. Please."
Getting up from my seat, I made a slow trip out into the hallway where Juper had left us with our key to making sure the evidence stayed buried. No one would know what happened here. No one but us few.
I had to use a hand truck to move one of them, but by the time I got it into the room Raptor was seated in the chair and staring at his broken adversary.
Pulling up with a large blue barrel that was the size of an oil drum, Raptor quietly stated to me through all the silence.
"Thank you."
Drake raised his head up when he heard the hand truck stop next to him. WIth Raptor's silence speaking volumes, I kept my eyes on Drake. After another moment or two Raptor said to me calmly.
"We're done. I'm done."
I couldn't speak. I couldn't find any words to say back. It wasn't fear or anything like that. I was just mentally spent for today. Probably scared to some degree, but that would be a problem for another time. Right now I just nodded my head and glanced over to the barrel. A large white label was wrapped around it that read "sulfuric acid." I got the lid popped because I knew the time had come. Raptor took one last look at his weapon before looking back at the man and asking.
"Do you want to die?"
As I got the lid down on the floor, I managed to look back on Drake as he actually nodded his head to Raptor's question. The hedgehog sitting next to me took that answer in for a few moments before replying sadly.
"Good."
Proceeding to raise the gun up till it was pointed at his head, Raptor curled the trigger and stared right into his eyes. I was biting my tongue as I watched. I even panicked and shook when he pulled the trigger. Because what came out of the gun was simply nothing. The slide flew back informing myself, but more importantly Drake; that there were never any bullets loaded in the clip. I felt my heart racing as Raptor began to chuckle to himself seeing Drake's face grow even more pale. Yet he was still confused as Raptor tucked the gun gently under his vest to state.
"You don't get the pleasure of a bullet. Char? Get him out of that chair."
There was a hammer on the floor and I watched as Raptor leaned down to pick it up and offer it in my direction. I took it from him and quickly got the nails out of Drake's feet. Each one came with a small groan and muffled scream. Muffled from all the blood coating his throat. Once I had finished, I undid the rope holding his body to the base of the chair. By that point Raptor said to me.
"Leave his hands bound."
I listened and obeyed. My effort was on getting Drake up to his feet which barely worked. When I had him standing in front of Raptor, I held on for dear life as he struck Drake with one more and one very powerful strike to the head. Enough to nearly knock him out, but I think that was the point.
With the man completely defenseless and seeing nothing but stars, Raptor roughly got a grasp onto his left shoulder. I held the right; and together we turned and dragged him right up to the barrel.
By that point he began to fight back by trying to shake us off. There was no point. He wasn't going anywhere and Raptor again punched him in the nose. Except this time Drake's head bounced downward hitting the acid itself.
"AGHHHHHH!" His screams of agony forced me to shut my eyes as I caught the very front of his muzzle melting away. All I could do was keep my grip as Raptor pushed his head the rest of the way in. Once he was completely submerged I began to see Drake's legs kicking. His body shaking and some bubbles coming out from the top of the acid's surface. It only took a few seconds for it to all stop.
Raptor and I had our eyes locked as we knew Drake had died. He didn't have to tell me what to do next. I just helped him lift the rest of the body up until it was all in the barrel. The smell was indescribable. I had to cover my nose until Raptor had ordered.
"Close it up and go get the other one that's out in the hallway. We'll dump all the tools in there and leave."
Nodding my head one more time, I did as I was told. When I got back Raptor was just standing there and staring at the barrel Drake was in. His body unmoving as I began to get to work on cleaning up the mess.
Three hours later, Iraq Capital.
We were back. Our bird just touched down and Raptor had opened the door leading outside. The moment we stepped out into the moonlight we were greeted by a few of our men. All of which had wide eyes and zipped mouths as they saw all the blood on our uniforms. Raptor didn't say anything either as we made our way to the main building.
When I got inside I did as I was instructed and followed Raptor back up to his room. I then had to wait as he collected a pair of keys from his nightstand and came back my way by the door. Looking me directly in the eyes he said.
"Thank you again for coming with me. It meant a lot."
"No problem." I replied as he nodded his head to state back.
"You ever need help. I want you to know you can come to me for it. I'm going to take care of you Char. You have my word on that."
"Thank you sir." I replied as he let out a small sigh to then say.
"I'm going home. You should too. Remember though…..I'm trusting you. Don't talk to anyone about today or what you learned from it. Understood?"
"Yes sir." I replied as he proceeded to pat my side and began a slow walk past me and back out into the hallway. Once I was alone, I pinned my back to the wall and did my best to relax. My body began to shake, but after a few seconds it stopped and I was able to refocus on the rest of my night. I had no idea what to do though other than sleep. So with that as my only plan, I left Raptor's room and began my trip home.
Raptor's POV, Ten minutes later.
Unlocking the door to my house, I walked in to find no one waiting for me. The whole first floor was dark so I just made my way upstairs to find Zeta asleep in my bed. Molly was at her side as well resting. Letting out a small sigh I proceeded to the bathroom across the hall. Once inside, I leaned over the sink and stared at myself in the mirror.
"Raptor?"
Zeta's voice called out to me from across the hall and almost instantly when I heard her I felt as if I was back in that coma again. I was in this exact position yet again and having her call my name caught me off guard as I heard her get out of bed.
Taking the few seconds I had, I turned on the water for the sink and gently began to splash my face. By the time she got to where I was; she became a witness to all the blood spilling into the sink that had stuck onto me from Drake. She kept silent as I reached over to grab a towel and dry off. As I did, she asked me calmly.
"How'd you make out?"
Lowering the towel, I looked over into her gold eyes to reply.
"Do you really need to ask?"
The wolf gave me no reaction. She was just looking me over as I refocused on the mirror.
"I'm done. Everything worked out in the end Zeta. I just…..I just want to get a quick shower and go to bed."
"Okay." She replied as I nodded my head, but kept my attention away from her. I took a few moments to just stand there. All I could think about was what I did to that man. All the things I did just to hear him in pain. Now that it was done I couldn't tell if it was all worth it. All I knew was that it was over. It was over.
In time, I felt Zeta put her hand on my back. I kept quiet and my gaze away from her as she muttered in concern.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not right now. I'm sorry. I just…..I need time to think Zeta."
"Don't be sorry. I get it. I'm gonna go lay back down. Enjoy your shower. Come to bed when you're ready. We can talk tomorrow. I love you."
Her words made me feel worse. It was love I felt like I didn't deserve. Yet I still had to convince her I wasn't overly upset, so I replied.
"I love you too. I'll try not to wake you if you fall back asleep before I get there."
Rubbing my back, she chuckled and urged me back.
"You better not. I've been known to attack those who disturb my slumber. Heheheh."
I gave her a small but faint laugh back. Once she saw my smile she let go of my side and left the bathroom; shutting the door behind her.
"Ahhhhh." Letting out a long sigh of relief, I looked back up into the mirror to stare at my face.
All I saw was pain.
mT Shadow.