The Flesh Cartel #3: Choices

matter his pride.
Sure enough, Mathias thrashed, screamed, screamed again, eyes wide and wild, rolling and wailing like a spooked horse. Nikolai stood by and watched, waiting for Mathias to exhaust himself enough to still. He took no pleasure in the man’s agony, but nor did it upset him.
What did upset him was the fact that he had another project to attend to, one he didn’t want but was saddled with anyway. He’d have liked to send for a cup of tea and sit through Mathias’s suffering, but he had places to be. A few minutes more. Just to see how his new dog took to the drug. And then he’d go. He promised himself he’d go.
Two minutes passed. Three. Five. Mathias was still thrashing, panting, moaning, jaw and eyes and fists clenched, tears leaking down his cheeks. Nikolai had to hand it to him—the man had stamina.
That might get irritating, and fast.
Eight minutes. Twelve. He really did have somewhere else to be; he should’ve finished his speech before he’d injected the man.
At sixteen minutes and twenty-eight seconds, Mathias went silent and still. Nikolai sat on the edge of the bed and rolled him from his side onto his back. He moaned like a dying animal. His sweat soaked Nikolai’s palm.
“Look at me, Mathias.”
Mathias’s head rolled on the pillow, and he blinked open glassy eyes.
“It’s quite something, isn’t it?” No answer, of course. He’d probably already lost his voice. “A proprietary blend of neurotransmitters responsible for carrying pain signals to the brain, some remarkable—but harmless—chemical irritants derived from a variety of pepper plants, and a timerelease stimulant to keep you awake to enjoy it all. The pain will build over the next half hour or so as the serum is absorbed from the muscle into the bloodstream, although I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that the fire you feel in your hip now will fade. In about four hours, the serum will start to break down. In five or so, you’ll stop wishing I’d simply killed you. I’ll come to see you again in six, and we’ll have a little chat. Hopefully it will go better than our first one did.”
He patted Mathias quite deliberately on the hip, right over the injection site, and watched him lurch and whimper.
“In the meanwhile, I do believe I’ll introduce myself to your brother. Or whatever’s left of him after the last few days, I suppose. I’m feeling very optimistic about his future here.”

    Roger had parked the RV in the garage and left it there, empty except for its one hidden occupant. The boy wasn’t to be touched or talked to by anyone but Nikolai, a little like a baby bird fallen from its nest. Now that Mathias was settled, it was time for Nikolai to make that crucial first connection. He stopped in the kitchen to collect two bottles of water, and then he headed alone for the garage.
The RV was disgusting inside. Oh, it was tidy enough, but it smelled like cum and fear. Absolutely vile. He’d have Roger clean it top to bottom once he was done here, and he hoped he could be done very, very soon.
He went to the false wall of cupboards, feeling along the edges and crannies until he found the switch to open the door to the secret room. Inhale. Exude confidence and kindness. To any other man it would be unsettling, switching from torturer to savior in a breath. Exhale.
He opened the door.
A bar of light fell on the floor of the room, widening and widening as the door opened, until a foot, and then an ankle and calf, came into view. A knee. A hip. Arms wrapped around a lean, naked torso. A face. Soft jaw and lush, chapped lips molded around a ball gag. Eyes scrunched shut against the light. Peeking open hesitantly as they adjusted.
Nikolai crouched, not yet revealing the water. “Hello, sweetheart,” he murmured, extending a hand as he would to a beaten dog. “Come here, love. I won’t hurt you.”
No recognition yet. No understanding. The boy was half feral, three-quarters dead of dehydration, probably not yet fully aware of the fact that Nikolai wasn’t a hallucination.
“Shhh, it’s all right. I’m real. I’m here to help you.” He put the water down just outside the door, took the key to the gag’s lock from his pocket, crawled into the tight space and reached around behind Douglas’s head to remove the foul thing. Douglas cringed from him, whimpered, the sound little more than a sandpaper rasp in his dry throat.
“Shhh,” Nikolai said again. He unlocked and unbuckled the gag by feel,