AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’m going to cure this man.
The dial on the ECT machine is set to the precise voltage. The chemical compound is delivered in the exact manner. Anesthesia is not administered. Every single aspect is parallel to Blakely’s procedure.
I strap the electrodes to the subject’s temples in the bilateral ETC position and meet his eyes—eyes wide and glassy with fear, and a touch vacant with acceptance. Shallow affect doesn’t allow for a wide range of emotions, yet even a psychopath can fear their own demise.
I toggle the switch, and his body stiffens, muscles contracting with the induced seizure. A dark pool spreads along the white cotton sheet covering his lower half as he wets himself. His eyes roll into the back of his head, showing only the bloodshot white, as he bucks against the gurney.
At the predetermined time mark, I kill the switch. His body sags in relief. After unhooking him from the machine, I set the timer on my phone for five hours. That’s how long it took Blakely to come back to me. Even then, I carried her to the river and submerged her in cold water to fully revive her.
Haunting memories of that night return with a vengeance, the procedure forcing me to recall every achingly beautiful and painful moment. The feel of her fiery lips crashing against mine amid the frigid waterfall as it rained down on us. The tears that streaked her cheeks when her emotions soared to shattering heights.
The razor-sharp knife of despair plunged into my chest at her rejection.
The denial of her feelings that, although gutted me emotionally, also wounded my ego.
Looking back now, it’s so fucking clear. I should have called her out on her lies. I should have never let her go. I should have wrapped my arms around her and kissed her madly until her guarded walls came crashing down.
My fist slams into the metal table, and I only register the brief pain before blood seeps through the bandage.
I allowed her to manipulate my emotions, so I deserve my misery for being so weak.
If I had the clarity of hindsight, I would’ve told her the brutal truth:Love makes us crazy, baby. Welcome to the land of the feeling.
What Blakely doesn’t understand is that her capacity to feel was always there, it was just untapped. And we did more than tap it—we opened Pandora’s box. Maybe that did terrify me a little, made me question…everything.
I admit, I didn’t take into account the impact such a phenomenal change would have. I couldn’t have accounted for it; no one has ever succeeded where I have. There is no empirical data or test cases to compare. No warning labels.
She’s different now, but still so much the same. What was always there is now heightened, the desire to inflict pain magnified. The dare to make others suffer amplified.
Blood calls to her.
It knows her name.
Killing is in her veins now.
As soon as I read the news article, I knew it was Blakely who sank a blade into Ericson. Not once, but thirteen times. The authorities labeled it overkill.
I won’t be like you, Alex. I’m not a killer.
No, Blakely may have never become a killer. Her malady as a psychopath was never that of a murderer.
She’s a justice dealer.
And who deserved a round of justice more than a putrid rapist like Ericson Daverns?
As her emotions and neural pathways are still equilibrating, her responses and reflexes are going to be erratic. She will be volatile one moment, lethargic the next. In time, she will let go of her guilt over taking a man’s life. She will come to realize she had no other choice.
It was either him or her.
Although Ericson would’ve made a prime subject to further the experiment, his purpose was best served by allowing Blakely to explore her emotional range. A scientific sacrificial lamb.
Fortunately for me, there are other Ericsons in this world, a few of them located right here in this city. On that particular research, my beautiful monster has already done the vetting work for me.
A page torn right from her little black book.
Such as Subject 9 on my gurney. His name was third down on her “Douche checklist.” Her own personal rating system, how she tallied her targets from the least deserving to the most deserving of a client’s revenge. It’s a vetted list of the worst kind of humans, and subsequently, the ones at the top happen to be psychopaths.
Her notes on the subject of psychopathy are particularly interesting. As she had a special insight into this disposition, she knew one revenge scheme wasn’t suitable for all.
