Chapter 4

I pushed myself up from the floor. Every muscle screamed, and black spots danced in my vision, but I got to my feet.

Then I did something that made no sense to anyone but me.

I let out a raw, animalistic roar and charged directly into the heart of the dog pack.

"What is he doing?" Duard yelled, his voice laced with confusion. "He's lost his mind!"

Jesse's face was a canvas of pure panic. The detached observer was gone, replaced by a woman watching her husband commit suicide.

"Kai, no! Stop! They'll kill you!" she shrieked. It was a genuine warning, a real plea. But she still didn't understand. She thought they were just supposed to scare me, to rough me up. She had no idea what Duard had truly orchestrated.

I ignored her. I ran straight at the brindle leader, the one that had first tasted my blood.

"They already are, Jesse," I grunted back, my voice barely a whisper.

The pack swarmed me. I was no longer fighting back. I was a piece of meat they had finally claimed. I went down under a wave of bodies, and my world became a storm of pain. I could no longer see the catwalk, only the snarling faces and gnashing teeth of the dogs. I could hear Jesse's frantic screams, ordering, begging Duard to do something.

"Do something! Get them off him!"

The livestream audience was finally seeing the truth. This wasn't a "lesson." This was a slaughter. The comments began to shift.

'This is too much.'

'Wait, look at his injuries. Those aren't just scratches.'

'Is that guy with the phone smiling? This feels wrong.'

Jesse, seeing the tide of public opinion turn against them, grabbed Duard's arm. "You said they wouldn't kill him! You said they were just trained to intimidate! What did you do?"

Duard hesitated, his smug composure finally cracking under her fury. He looked scared.

"Answer me!" she screamed, shaking him.

"I... I didn't feed them," he stammered out. "I kept them hungry. For a week."

The color drained from Jesse's face. The full, monstrous reality of the situation hit her like a physical blow. She had been a willing participant, but she had been a fool, manipulated by a sadist who was far more cruel than she had ever imagined.

"You... you what?" she whispered, horrified.

Duard tried to backtrack, to play the victim again. "I didn't mean for it to go this far, Jesse, I swear! I just wanted to teach him a lesson for you!"

It was a pathetic, transparent lie. But astonishingly, Jesse seemed to cling to it. She looked at him, her eyes filled with a desperate need to believe him, to absolve herself of the absolute horror she had unleashed.

"Okay," she breathed, nodding slowly. "Okay, Duard. I... I forgive you."

Down on the floor, I heard their exchange through a haze of pain. It didn't even hurt anymore. I was numb. My wife had just learned that her pet monster had intentionally set up my murder, and she forgave him.

My strength was gone. The rebar had rolled out of my reach long ago. I was fading.

And then I heard it.

Faintly at first, then growing louder. The unmistakable wail of police sirens.

The dogs were still on me, tearing and pulling, but a smile stretched my bloody lips. A grim, cruel smile.

They were right on time.