Cruel and Unusual - serialised novel EXCLUSIVE to Steemit Part 66

Here are the links to catch-up, read again or start from the beginning

Episode List From 1 – 52
Then: 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65

Images below from Google, Getty Images, and Pixabay

Please read the start of the story using the link above. I promise, it’s well-worth the time to check it all out. At least then, this excerpt will make more sense)

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Jack did not give a moment’s thought to the welfare of his father, nor of Keme’s family – blood or adopted – he concentrated on his own desire to become Wolf.

He did not, therefore, hear or sense Hazel’s approach and the first he knew of her arrival was that the fortified and bolted door was smashed from its hinges, sending splinters of wood and pieces of metalwork flying through the air in his direction.

A massive splinter of wood gouged its way into the flesh in the back of Jack’s thigh and he screamed in pain as he turned to first grasp at his wounded thigh and as a secondary consideration, to watch Hazel stride through the wreckage she had made of his door.

She raised her hand to strike him dead where he stood but as he cowered in front of the flayed corpse of Keme, she sensed something about him and she paused.

Jack noticed her pause and wondered why.

He thought that perhaps even she had realised that he was a more powerful being than she had yet encountered but when she began to laugh, a harsh and humourless sound, he changed his mind and began to stand up – until the pain from the sliver of wood cut through from his thigh to his brain and he again clutched at it.

Hazel saw the sliver of wood protruding from his leg and grasped it, and whilst he was still only beginning to protest, she pulled it out of the flesh.

Then she did a surprising thing, she smelled the sliver, scented the blood that it was soaked with, and she smiled.

Jack thought that the smile was far worse than the expression she had been wearing when she burst through the door - that was terrifying enough - but the smile, the malevolence held in it such promises of searing agony and torture that Jack was intelligent enough to quake in his boots at what the smile meant for him.

Hazel began to look around at her surroundings. She saw the cages and the tethered animals, the laboratory equipment, ingredients in jars, and the desk with books strewn across it, one notebook being the only object that was placed deliberate and neat. Then she saw the large glass jar with the head immersed in liquid and her eyes paused in their roving. She frowned for a moment and then her gaze moved on.

Jack wondered for a fleeting moment if he could possibly escape whilst she was occupied with scanning his work but he froze as she shook her head and gave a silent warning for him not to try. He was shaking with fear as well as shock from his still-bleeding wound as she continued her visual tour.

When at last, her eyes came back to the operating table which held the corpse of Keme in Wolf form, one tear escaped and dripped onto her cheek to drop once more to her coat where it was lost in the fibres of the fabric. If she noticed, she did not give any indication.

She looked at Keme – or what was left of her pupil and shook her head. She moved Jack with a hand to his shoulder and saw what he was obscuring – Keme’s pelt.

She scooped it up and smelled the pelt and two more tears dripped onto the silky fur.

“You have no idea how much trouble you are in. You have no idea of how much pain you have caused, not only to me, and you have no idea of how much I want to kill you right now, but I shall not, for I know that there is someone who will make some kind of amends for your actions. There is someone for whom vengeance is not just one act against another being, it is a series of acts against the other, designed to bring forth screams of such perfect pitch that the one screaming was not aware he was capable of such a sound."

She paused as if to allow her words to sink in for a moment.

"I am going to give you over to Anton, the one who was charged with this one’s safety.”

Hazel indicated to Keme’s body lying before her.

“He will be delightfully vengeful, unforgivingly vicious, and perfectly, ultimately skilful in your torture. I suppose that I would have felt a little sorry for you before you killed my protégé, but now, I shall delight in watching as Anton tortures you day after day.”

“You were about to kill me, why did you stay your hand?”

“Ah, you noticed, did you? I was indeed about to slay you, I would have if you were still Throwback but now, something has changed. You are not Throwback, or at least not wholly so. What did you do? Did Keme manage to bite you?”

“No, I opened my hand and wiped his saliva in the wound.”

“Oh, the infection takes so little time to take hold, does it? Anton will be interested.”

“Infection? Please explain.”

“I think not. You deserve nothing but a swift end to your miserable existence from me but that is no longer necessary. You shall be rewarded for your experiments, you will be helping with more experiments than you could ever have imagined.”

Hazel had the larger of the two cages sent to the same warehouse that had recently held Jack’s father and so, in the same building, but in far less comfortable conditions, Jack was imprisoned.

He was bundled into the cage with more force than was necessary and he stumbled and reached out to grab the bars to stop his fall. His hiss of pain was satisfying to all watching, but especially to Hazel.

She made a silent promise that she would not inflict unnecessary harm upon his person whilst they awaited Anton’s return but that did not mean she would act to prevent harm befalling her ‘guest’ in the meantime.