The Purging

Who's your daddy?

CHAPTER 8

Jean comes to in a muddled haze. Wounds have healed but his mind is still reeling from shock. Synapses swimming in endorphins and adrenaline have yet to adjust.

The chaos within the city can be heard off in the distance, but in the immediate area all is calm and green. A slight breeze and the shade of the canopy overhead provide a welcome break from the searing heat. While his body cools, the boiling rage that consumed him slowly subsides.

Ahmu's stench is still there, so pronounced that it stings his eyes. He does all he can to ignore it. Regaining control of himself, he attempts to get back to his feet. Any slight movement is met with an intense onrush of pain. Every inch of his frame has been wrapped up in a spool of barbed wire. Tiny beads of blood trickle out of a hundred different shallow slits in his skin.

Splayed out flat on his back with his arms out at his sides, he is fastened down on a makeshift cross fashioned out of traffic signs. A blurry head comes into his field of vision, “Good morning. Did you miss me my boy?” Ahmu's fetid breath assaults Jean's senses. Tinges of sulphur and half digested rotten flesh dominate the gastric bouquet. Jean fights the urge to vomit, but is consumed by a fit of dry heaves. The ensuing contortions dig the wire deeper into his mutilated torso. His tortured grunts illicit a wave of appreciation from the nearby mongrels.

“Brothers and sisters let me once again present to you all, my prodigal son. Once, he was a great and powerful wolf among our beautiful family. Now nothing more than a lap dog to the preening bitch from the north!” Howling and curses erupt from the twitching onlookers. Many throw chunks of mud and meat at Jean. “He was a real leader, once. A true, shining example of what it means to be an alpha.”

Those days are long gone now. Bashina took him in and taught him to be decent again. Gave him back the human side he lost under Ahmu’s control. The mongrel father leans down so he can look at Jean eye to eye, “Look at him now. Weak, spineless, and beaten. Nothing more than another meal for the family. So far has he fallen that he would pledge his allegiance to a cat! On that note, how is mommy... hmmm? Close by, yes? I can smell the tramp’s cheap perfume all about you.”

“She is gone from this place! By now she is out of the country. You'll never have her!” Provoking the monster is not a wise decision, but Jean simply can’t help himself. With mongrels, torture is inevitable. He may as well get the ball rolling now.

Ahmu slaps him across the face and says with perfect aplomb, “No matter where she goes or how fast she runs I will always find her. Nothing in this world will keep me from my ‘little shiny eyes’. Today was not about her. Today is about the family. Today is about you and me. It’s been too long and you need to return to your rightful place. I have a special legion chosen just for you. You'll love them, they're quite efficient.” Ahmu has coveted the return of his favourite alpha since the instant they parted ways. There will be a reckoning for keeping his boy away from him. ‘Shiny eyes’ would pay a dear price a thousand times over for interfering in family business.

“I will never again serve your desires. I have grown past the evil you forced into me. Kill me now. There is nothing you can do to sway me back to your side.” The mongrel father chuckles and slaps him again.

“I have broken your will once before, Jean. I can just as easily do so again. I've been planning this for quite some time. The great feasting I've been looking forward to for so long has arrived. You will be a part of it, whether you like it or not.” There were plans. Some were simple, others elaborate, but one of them would work. Ahmu would show his boy all the fun he’d been missing in his absence. Writhing helplessly under the wires, Jean remains indignant.

“When we first met, I was weak, a frightened puppy wandering the Serengeti. There is nothing left you can do to shock me.” Raucous laughter rises out of Ahmu's children. A small group move forward to lift the cross up into a standing position and root it to the ground. They step back quickly and take turns licking up the blood that has pooled in the dirt where he was laid out. Now held upright, he manages to get a good look at his captor.