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Castiel
A loud, furious growl reverberates across the hallway. The glass panels on all four sides vibrate and clatter with force as the sound travels from one end of the floor to the opposite. It is the desperation I read in his howls that tugs at my old heart. He has much to lose this time around, and his victimizer knows this.
His relationship with the girl may just be his downfall.
My gaze collides with that of Tiger’s as I glance up. Disappointment and fear is easy to read in his brown eyes. He feels as if he has not only failed the girl, but us as well. To him, this day marks the beginning of the end. Perhaps he is correct in his deduction. I want to reassure him as I always have in the past, but no visions of the future have come to me in two days. I do not have the courage to tell him the girl will be safe from Gerard. That would be a lie. No one trapped here is safe, especially not her.
While bearing witness to the girl being wheeled into the compound on a gurney, I came to realize I may have signed Tiger’s death sentence by sending him on this mission. Worse yet, he may never forgive me if something does happen to her.
Watching a group of men dragging, pushing, shoving a bleeding and bruised Tiger inside, I understand our plan failed and now another innocent victim has been brought to suffer at the hands of this red-headed butcher.
Tiger has always possessed a defiant demeanor, but the fit he is throwing now is unlike him. Enraged, he slams his right shoulder into a man and snaps at another with his fangs. I have watched this child, born of my seed, grow into the man he is today, yet I have never seen him this impatient or vexed before. He fights with a ferocity I have never seen in him. It takes ten men to force him inside his room, and only after he has been beaten to where lesser men would have been in a comatose state by now.
“Once the grandmother was in my hands, I knew getting to the granddaughter would be easy.” Gerard observes the brawl a few paces from where I hang, worn out, languid, and in much need of a drink. He holds himself stiffly, as if expecting Tiger to break loose and come after him. The incessant tapping of his right foot reveals his nervousness.
Tiger struggles under the weight of the men, but even in his weakened state, he manages to throw them off him several times. Frustrated, the men resort to using their tools to contain him.
In every hit, every whip, every kick I witness, my hate for Gerard grows and escalates to the point of infuriating blindness. I think of nothing more than ending his life, and taking revenge once and for all. I pray he makes a mistake soon, for that moment will be his last.
“It hurts, does it not? To see your child suffer and not be able to go to his aid? How incapable you must feel as a father.”
His words ring with truth. I can only watch as these fiends continue to mistreat and harass Tiger until he nears his breaking point. Psychologically, he is already burdened because of what he has been forced to live through. After this day, he may never be the same again.
“If you hurt that girl, Tiger will never do as you ask,” I warn.
Gerard finally finds it convenient to rest his gaze upon me. It is there I note the doubt, the indecision, the uncertainty of what the future holds. Tiger is not the same person he was when he left, and Gerard is aware of this. Regrettably, he also knows that the girl is partly responsible for Tiger’s change.
Gerard presents me with his back as he strolls casually to the intercom next to the exit and presses a round, silver button. “Tiger, if you want to keep the girl unhurt and alive, I suggest you begin to cooperate. Otherwise, I will be forced to transition her to the lower level for some testing.”
Tiger’s struggles cease immediately. The guards fall back, allowing him to drop to his knees in the middle of the room. Those predatory eyes, however, watch Gerard through the glass with a mixture of hate and loathing. His broad shoulders rise and fall with exertion. His options have dwindled. If he refuses to do as Gerard asks, the girl will pay for his insubordination. Disobedience will no longer be punishable with direct, physical correction. From this day forth, the girl will suffer the consequences of his actions.
“I see we understand each other,” Gerard communicates through the intercom one last time before releasing the silver button. He stands facing the exit as he adds, “Whether I have proof or not, it is quite evident that you encouraged Tiger to leave and seek assistance. One way or another, I’m going to find out who he went to see, and why.”
He is set in his ways, unruly. A tyrant by nature, a monster by choice. And his end, it would seem, has been delayed by fate or destiny.
“Do as you wish. You have limited my powers. Should I be as I once was, our positions would be reversed.”
Gerard revolves so quickly, his shoes squeak over the shiny surface of the floor he stands on. “I have been a victim of your kind before and I will never again be one. Your kind destroyed my life, killing off each member of my family until I, alone, survived. Your kind has damaged enough, as it is. The past hundred and fifty years, I have used you and your kind to get back what was taken from me. But my work isn’t done. I will find a way to become invincible, and when I do, I will destroy each and every vampire and werewolf out there—starting with you.”
Finally, his true motive surfaces. Because he was orphaned, he believes that by taking us all out, he will have a little of what was taken from him. He is sadly mistaken. No amount of revenge will give him what he truly wants. Sooner or later, every oppressor falls.
“You seem to forget I, too, was orphaned because of a vampire. I hold no grudge against others like me.”
His face is a mask of resentment. “Do not compare yourself to me. You did not have to lay there and watch your entire family be slaughtered by a pale devil. You are quick to judge me, but you are just like them. You kill to survive. You kill to stay alive. You are no different from me.”
Arguing that I have never killed for sport or to feed is moot: he has his mind set on what he believes and nothing I say will make a difference to him.
“I have only kept you alive because I needed you, but you are more trouble than you are worth. I grow tired of your games, albino beast. I have Tiger and the girl now. What need do I have of you? Think on that.” He marches out of the room as noisily as he stormed in, leaving me to wonder what plans he has for the girl.
Thus I rest my lids over my eyes and pray a clear vision will come, one bearing news of freedom and salvation for Gerard’s victims.