Thomas drags her down to the basement of an unfamiliar house. The place is enormous and filled with scary-looking men with tattoos and scars on their bodies. His grip on her hand is firm. A bruise will definitely form by tomorrow. She bites her lower lip to keep from wincing. They stop in front of two holding cells. Why does he have a holding cell in the house? Melina looks at the two men in each cell and realizes that her suffering is nothing compared to theirs. Her hands fly to cover her mouth as one raises his head. His face is badly beaten, and she can bet people who know him will no longer recognize him. Looking at Thomas, she wonders why they are standing in front of these two battered men.
“Pick,” he says.
“Huh,” she asks, confused.
“Pick one,” Thomas growls at her.
She wishes to ask why but knows he won’t tell her. Melina looks at the two men in front of her, who are already at heaven’s gate. They’ve both been badly beaten. She wonders if he’s asking her to pick the one she feels deserves treatment but she doubts it.
She jumps at the sound of him roaring in her ears. “Fucking pick one, Melina!”
“Okay,” she whispers and looks at both of them again. She still doesn’t know how to pick since she doesn’t understand why she’s choosing. Knowing Thomas doesn’t care about that, she closes her eyes and lets God pick for her.
“Good choice; he was never going to see daylight anyway” her eyes immediately shot open.
Did I just pick which one of these men will die?
Shaking her head, she tries to convince herself that she did not just do that. She didn’t know. She rushes into the cell to stop Thomas as he grabs the man she chose.
“Please don’t kill him. I had no idea.” Melina places her hand above Thomas’ but swiftly removes it as his glare literally burns her skin.
“Do you want me to hit you?” he asks, his eyes void of emotion.
“No,” she says, shaking her head.
“Then you get to watch him receive the beating you deserve for what you did.”
“Thomas, please don’t do this. Can’t you find another way to punish me? I can’t stand by and watch someone else suffer because of me.”
“Shut the fuck up,” he yells at her. “Just fucking shut up” his chest falls and rises rapidly. Melina could sense the rage coursing through him right now.
Instead of using her lips, she pleads with her eyes. She can’t let this man suffer any more because of her. That is just horrible. What if he dies as he receives more beating from Thomas? His blood would be on her hands forever.
Thomas drags the man out into an open area and slams him into a bloody chair in the center of the room. Melina doesn’t have to guess whose blood designed the chair. Thomas takes off his suit jacket and throws it at her. It almost falls but thank God she catches it. She moves closer but comes to a halt as Thomas turns and glares at her. Her bottom lips quiver as fresh tears fill her eyes. Thomas unbuttons his first two buttons, uncuffs and folds his sleeves.
Melina couldn’t just stand by and watch this man die, but what else could she do? She tries again to move closer but stops and cringes as Thomas punches the man. Melina quickly shuts her eyes, and tears stream down as the man’s pained groan fills the room.
“Please stop; you’re hurting him,” she says as she opens her eyes, clutching Thomas’ suit jacket and hearing bone cracking.
The man is suffering because of Melina, and she can’t do anything to stop it. Her knees give out on her. Thomas takes another breather from punching the man and pulls out a cigarette from his pocket. He lights it and dumps the ash down on the man. He smokes the whole stick, and Melina watches, too horrified to move an inch as Thomas performs his signature burn, but this time it wasn’t in the eyes. It was in the man’s balls.
The man thrashes in the chair as a burnt hole forms around the area on his pants. Melina cries more, imagining how much it must have hurt. Thomas takes his lighter and puts it at the man’s fingertips. Melina screams along with the man as Thomas burns all of his fingers.
Retrieving a knife from his shoes, Thomas cuts open the skin on his knuckles all the way to his arms. Melina freezes before spilling her guts on the ground. Unable to look at them any longer, she turns away from them. She can’t stand it any longer. She pulls her knees up to her body and tries to take her mind away off of it. She rocks from side to side, telling herself that this is just a bad dream and that Thomas is killing someone because he’s angry with her.
The earth-shattering screams stop after what seems like an eternity. Melina is terrified of turning around. She notices something approaching her and touches it. Her pale hands turn crimson, and she stares at them without blinking. She doesn’t gag or cringe as the blood runs down her arm and stains her clothes. Someone above turns her around as he grabs her bloody hand and lifts her off the ground.
When she sees the blood on Thomas’ body, she lets out a deafening scream. Her gaze moves behind Thomas, but he quickly blocks her view. Melina locks eyes with him, and if she doesn’t think she’s going insane, she’ll believe she just saw remorse flash in his eyes right now.
Her hands move to touch the blood on his neck. “You have blood all over you,” she says, rubbing his chest and arms. “I am the cause of this blood on you.”
“All right, Let’s go” Thomas moves, but Melina remains motionless.
Looking at her hands, she whispers to herself, “I am sorry.” Thomas puts his hands under her knees and lifts her off the ground. Melina comes close to seeing the man, but Thomas quickly turns her away.
Melina still tries but fails to catch a glimpse of the man. She wanted to see if he was still breathing. She knows it’s stupid to check given the amount of blood on Thomas’ body, but knowing he still has a chance at life would have made her feel a little less guilty.
Thomas walks them upstairs and uses another flight of stairs to a room in the house. He walks them straight to the bathroom. Melina got some of the blood on his body on her. Thomas takes off her top, pants, underwear, and bra. Once he’s done, he does the same to himself. Melina doesn’t even try to cover her naked body. Her mind is still in the basement, hearing that man screams.
Thomas leads them to the showers. Melina sees the blood on their body stains the floor. Silent tears stream down her as she imagines how long it must have taken Thomas to get this much blood on his body. She rubs her palm abrasively against her arm to remove the man’s blood.
“Melina!” Thomas yells, grabbing her arm to stop her. She looks at her beautiful fair skin, which is now red and blistered. “Fuck!” Melina doesn’t even flinch as Thomas punches the wall next to her head.
He runs his bruised knuckles under the water as he moves his hand away from the wall. Melina takes his hand in hers and stares at it. She wondered when he hurt his knuckles because she hadn’t noticed it before. Thomas takes his hand from hers and picks up the shower gel. He washes her body before washing his. They walk out of the bathroom together. He towel-dries her body and dresses her in a shirt that she’s sure belongs to him as it smells exactly like him. Thomas puts on a clean boxer and moves to lie next to her on the bed.
Melina stares at the ceiling without blinking as silent tears escape her eyes. Her view of the ceiling is suddenly blocked as Thomas gets on top of her. She locks eyes with him, and more tears stream down her face.
“Melina,” Thomas says, pushing her hand away from her face. Melina doesn’t react to him touching her.
“Fuck!” Thomas falls to the side of the bed. “What the hell have I done?”