Sorrow | 18+

6 The cousin council

Song to listen to: Emmy Rossum & Gerard Butler - The Phantom of the Opera

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Zero

The huge bruise around the man's left eye was turning dark purple showing that Connie had hit him hard yesterday, even though I had instructed him to not be rough. It made me sigh, thinking if it was a bad decision to let him officially join our business on his 18th birthday as promised a few years ago. He liked the chase, to catch people and bring them in our small basement with yellow light that was blinking as Remi never got around fixing it and Celeste liked the eerie atmosphere it gave to the place. Dark stone floor and cement walls without windows only darkened the place more. I could smell the blood, which was probably dried in the sewer, as they all left proper cleaning for Cris, who had not signed up for it. Family is the worst they say, but really cousins are just a different breed of evil.

The man seemed nervous when I was just staring at him in silence, waiting for me to say something. His legs and hands were tied to a metallic chair that had some rust in it. He was wearing a light blue t-shirt and black trousers that gave me flashbacks to a certain brunette in Joel's office wearing only her bra and tiny black skirt. "Fuck", I groaned to myself and pinched my nose. She was popping on my head, when I didn't need that.

"Huh?" The guy broke the silence watching me with a puzzled face. I had been staring at him for at least five minutes and he had answered it with his amusing glare, trying to keep his confidence in. However, the smell was bothering me, so I turned to the sink and took the hose to spray some cold water on him. He jumped on the chair.

"What the fuck, man!" he yelled at me, his face turning into a ugly frown.

"Do you want the easy way and answer my questions or be stupid and choose the hard way?" I asked. I knew what his answer was going to be and didn't know why I even bothered to come down here.

"Yeah right, show me your worst, man", he answered with a snarky attitude. I opened the metal door and yelled to the stairs: "Cel, your turn, hurry the fuck up!"

It took a second before a dramatic opera music started to play and Celeste arrived in the room in her pink sports bra and shorts, her short, white hair gelled down along her head. She was carrying a black gym back and a speaker. She didn't look very threatening, more like she was going to the gym to have a run.

"Hello!" she waved at the guy with a small smile.

"This is all you got?" The man laughed and Cel raised her eyebrows at me.

"He seems boring", she complained out loud and put her bag down to get her knives and whatever else she used out of there.

"Well, he chose the hard way so he is all yours."

"How long do I have?"

"An hour, Celly, I don't have the whole night to wait", I answered and turned to leave as I was not in the mood.

"Let's have some fun then", I heard Cel say and managed to see how she smirked at the guy before I closed the door. In my opinion, torturing a person wasn't the most fruitful way to get true information out of someone, but Celly disagreed. Either she was a complete lunatic or wanted to punish everyone tied to the Auclair family. Or possibly both.

I got out of the shed, crossed the side yard and entered our downstairs lounge, where Connie and Remi were playing some boxing game on the brown leather sofa. Connie was clearly beating him easily and put apple slices to his mouth with a fruit knife. Cris was sitting on an armchair behind them and was looking at something on his phone with a whiskey on the other hand.