Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64366 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64366 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
And I thought, what kind of monster does that make me?
“You remember,” he whispered.
“I remember.” My nose was nearly touching his, and I had a buzz— from adrenaline and the heady scent of fear coming off of him.
He glanced down, and I thought I saw his lips quiver. His hands clasped and unclasped in his lap. “I had hoped you’d never find out. Whatever my part in it— I know it was awful. We’d been drinking, and things got… out of hand. I didn’t understand the danger. And then for you, sitting there holding your brother, thinking he was going to wake up… I tried to make it up to you. Haven’t I given you a good life? Everything you ever wanted. You’re the only family I have. My son. Heir to everything I own.”
I shook my head, trying to sling away the confusion he was causing. He was the devil. But he was right about giving me a good life. But money couldn’t buy back my brother or wash away the guilt I would feel until the day I died.
“You tricked me. You lied, all those years. Paid people to make sure I didn’t remember.”
“It would have destroyed you, Michael. We had to make you forget. It was the only way you could ever have a normal life. Please, I thought I was doing the right thing.” His eyes were wet with tears, his face contorted. I’d never seen remorse on his face before, but this was it. “Hardness begets hardness, Michael. To be soft is to be weak. My father raised me to be strong, and I’ve given you the same gift. Strength is what makes gods of men. Don’t let a warm body and the promise of love be your downfall. Someday when you’re older and this infatuation has passed, you’ll realize there is no such thing as love… only respect. And to command respect you can’t show any sign of weakness. Just look at yourself. My brother never could have given you the kind of upbringing necessary to shape you into a great man, but I could, and I did. Think about your training and your career. I’ve been shaping you from the beginning, molding you into something extraordinary. Hardness begets hardness. You are a god, Michael. We… are gods.”
“But I killed my own brother. How the hell is that powerful, or extraordinary, or godlike?”
“It’s the very definition. Just look in the history books, and even in the Bible. Our struggle has been played out time and time again: brother against brother. It’s evolution. It’s survival of the fittest, and you and I are the winners.”
I just stared down at him, trying to get a handle on what he was telling me. My mind kept hanging up on one phrase: you and I. Because if Santori and I were the winners in the age-old, evolutionary struggle of brother against brother…
“Did you kill my father?” I’d asked the question before the thought had even fully taken shape in my mind.
He didn’t give me a straight answer. “There’s something I need to show you,” he said. “Something your father left you. I’ve been waiting until the time was right, and I suppose that would be now.”
“What is it?” Suspicion and excitement warred within me. Why had he not shown me before? What reason could he possibly have for waiting?
“May I stand?”
I stepped back, allowing him to get up from the coffee table and walk into the bedroom. The light was off, but he didn’t turn it on. I watched him from the living room.
He pulled an item from the bedside table and started toward me, clutching it in both hands. “I should have already given this to you,” he said, pushing it out toward me. By the time I saw the flash of light and realized what it was that he held in his hands, there were two wired probes sticking out of my chest and I was being pumped with 50,000 volts of electricity.
My muscles locked up, and my body went down. Excruciating pain invaded every fiber of my being, leaving no molecule untouched. But the worst part was not the pain. It was the ability to think coupled with the inability to control my body. I was completely at my uncle’s mercy as I watched him lean over me and stick a syringe in my arm. My skin gave like hot butter, offering no resistance as the needle slipped in, the plunger depressed, and the contents emptied into my veins.
I don’t know when the effects of the taser wore off and the drug kicked in, but it didn’t matter. I was toast. My body lay in a gelatinous puddle on the floor, all of my hardcore training useless. The Machine was gone, and in its place, a viscous liquid thing with the unfortunate ability to reason. I knew what was happening to me. I watched in horror as my uncle got down on all fours in front of me and shook his head.