Give the Devil his Due

Chapter 23

I had to force my eyes open, I could feel the sleep still threatening to pull me back into unconsciousness but there was a small voice in my head warning of something dangerous. Something I had no knowledge of yet. Nonetheless, I decided to listen to the fear and pain that seemed to be swirling through my head like a whirlpool.

At first, I saw nothing. Only darkness surrounded me, cold, chilling, lonely darkness. I couldn't even see my own body let alone anything else. Then the lights flicked on and I had to snap my eyes closed again to block out the now seemingly blinding light. Pain flared through my head as if a trail of gunpowder had been ignited. But when I attempted to lift my hands to my head, I found that they were restrained. Slowly I opened my eyes again, little by little until I was able to see clearly.

It was then that I saw everything.

I was sitting on the floor just in front of the front row of seats, my wrists bound to the metal fixtures under the chairs by plastic zip ties. On the ground, next to the spot where my left wrist was fastened, was a rather large pool of blood. Panic swelled in my chest as I thought of bleeding out without even a chance of fighting my way out of this.

But after a moment, I realized the blood was also on my shoulder and down the length of my arm, staining my white dress in a deep crimson. A memory suddenly flashed through my mind, of something extremely heavy hitting my head before I fell backwards and whacked my head on something else. A groan escaped my lips as another wave of pain washed through me, damn. What the hell happened?

"Awake and moving are we?" A voice asked from behind me as they entered the room. I pushed away my fear, replacing it with a white hot anger that coursed through my veins like a wildfire. In a fit of rage, I began pulling on my arms to free myself but it was no use, they were bound too tightly and the zip ties were far too strong for me to break.

"Let me go right now, you son of a bitch!" I demanded, still fighting for my freedom. But it was no use, the zip ties were just too tight.

"Oh come now, let's be civil. After all..." The person speaking appeared in my line of vision and I felt my heart stop, "...I am your professor."

No, this couldn't be right. I felt my countenance twist with confusion as I stared up into the face of a man I had once considered amiable and courteous, "Professor Duncan...I don't understand..."

He crossed his arms, casually leaning against his desk, "Of course you don't understand, how could you? To be entirely honest, in my wildest dreams I never thought I'd get the children of both Armando and Timothy in one place. Lucas was always on my list to exterminate but you, the daughter of the Secret Service member who screwed up my life, you were safe. Until now."

"Wait, no. You're a college professor, you were nice to me. And Lucas. You can't be...you can't be him..." I rambled, shaking my head.

"Oh but I am him, Kimberly." He stood up and held his arms out wide, a wicked smile growing on his face, "It's nice to meet your acquaintance, my name is Clint."

My heart pounded louder and louder in my chest as I tried to wrap my head around this, but I couldn't. This wasn't possible. He was a damned teacher for goodness sakes, he couldn't be the man who was trying to kill Lucas and get back at our parents. It just wasn't possible. My wide eyes looked back to his but there was no compassion in those eyes, no sympathy.

Only hatred.

"You fucking bastard!" I blurted out, clenching my fists. He laughed loudly at my feeble attempts at freeing my arms but I didn't care. He was a monster, he had ruined everything, "Let me go right now or I swear I'll-"