warning: explicit content ahead

My armor is made of steel
You can't get in, I'm a warrior
And you can never hurt me again

Chapter 24 ~ Warrior

Owen Bailey

Fatigue. Thirst. Extreme fatigue and thirst were the only emotions my mind could place in that moment–that very moment where my eyelids were struggling to flick open, irritably burning at what seemed like such a simple action. I was almost sure my eyes were playing tricks on me because I couldn't see a damn thing other than an eerie darkness that brought chills down my spine. I strained to see through the thick gloom, strained to figure out how I had ended up in this predicament, and strained to move because every limb and every muscle felt numb.

Then, by some miracle, the darkness was coincidentally lifted to ease my curiosity. There, standing in the doorway of a room with stainless steel walls, was the man I had spent a huge part of my life trying to avoid, trying to not accidentally cross paths with, trying to run away from. He hadn't aged a day; he wore the same uneasy smile, had the same unsettling clear blue eyes that always seemed to stare into your soul, kept the same perfectly-groomed sandy blonde hair, wore the same crisp suit that gave you the impression he was an actual businessman, and held the same presence that made me shrivel to the core.

And it was in that moment I knew I was done for.

"Owen," he spoke in a deep, velvety voice that made me flinch. "Long time no see."

Instead of entertaining him with a response, I chose to assess my current position in hopes of finding a way to get out of here. I was kneeling on the cold floor with my wrists tied behind my back by what I assumed to be a rope of some kind. My first instinct was to pull my wrists apart, thinking it would loosen the rope, but it didn't. My next thought was to shoot to my feet and charge at him with full speed to gain access to the only exit of the room, but I had no idea where the exit would take me. Even if I managed to bypass Lucifer, there was little chance that I could fight his henchmen who were sure to await me.

A low, humorless chuckle sounded from Lucifer as he glided over to another part of the room which contained a steel table that held several objects I couldn't decipher.

"Would you care for a drink?" he asked as he held a wine glass up for me to see. "Red, or white?"

"If you're going to kill me, then just do it already," I spat.

He stared at me for some time. "Oh, I will. Trust me, you will die a slow and painful death, but where's the fun in rushing things? We have so much to catch up on. How's life been treating you? Who are you voting for−" He paused, "−you know what, you seem like a total Trump supporter."

And maybe this was the part that would hurt the most. I wanted to die. I wanted to get the inevitable over with, but it wasn't in Lucifer's nature to give anyone what they wanted. He would toy with your mind until you were practically begging to die, and even then, he wouldn't put you out of your misery.

His glass was full with wine when he spoke again. "I'm curious, Owen. How were your few years of freedom? Did you get married? Have kids?" I merely stared at him, attempting to burn holes into him with my intense stare, but he wasn't the least bit fazed. "Did you go to college? I know that's always been your dream. College isn't all what it's worked up to be, you know. I didn't go to college and look at how successful I am."

My gaze dropped to the floor again. If I were to die, I needed to die fighting since the chances of getting out of this situation alive was next to zero. "You're wasting your time with this," I told him truthfully. "I know you too well. Your games won't work on me. Just kill me."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh, but I'm afraid that you don't know me at all. You may think you have everyone figured out, Owen, but I can assure you that isn't the case."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever."

A wave of silence washed over us for what felt like an eternity before Lucifer suddenly broke it by saying, "I'm sure you thought you knew Matthew, too, didn't you? You thought he was the same innocent boy who was forced into prostitution, thought you could trust him, but what do you know? He's been feeding me intel this entire time."

I didn't respond because I didn't know how. It was bad enough that someone I thought I could trust had betrayed me; I didn't need Lucifer rubbing it in my face.

"Well," Lucifer breathed out in a heavy sigh, "since you don't want to talk to me, I guess I'll have to hear your voice by other means." A smirk made its way onto his lips as he turned away from me and settled his attention on the steel table. He set his drink down and began to focus his attention on the other objects on the table. He rummaged through them, occasionally clanking them against each other, until he retrieved the one he was searching for. He held the questioned object up to the light, allowing me to see the way the blade gleamed under it. It was a dagger, and he was more than likely going to hurt me with it.

"Remember her?" he questioned, his voice so heavy with arrogance, it was almost unbelievable.

Everyone who worked for Lucifer were well aware of the long list of ways he chose to torture people because more than likely, every single one of his henchmen were tortured into submission—I was no different. After finding out about what this job entailed, I wanted out immediately, but Lucifer wasn't having any of that. He was the one who decided the terms of his henchmen's service. He was the one who decided everything.

And in this moment, he had decided he was going to hurt me.

Lucifer took slow steps towards me, a sadistic grin creeping onto his face in the process. He drew the dagger against his calloused palms, teasingly, and in a somewhat sexual manner. He continued to advance towards me until he was too close for comfort, and then he knelt to the cold floor to become eye level with me. He looked even more menacing up close, those colorless blue eyes of his burning deep into my soul like they knew all my secrets, and maybe they did. Lucifer knew everything–to the point where he might have actually been the devil.

I squeezed my eyes shut when I felt the chilling blade of the dagger touch my face. "I've missed you, Owen," he spoke softly as he continued to trail the blade against my skin, "you were one of my favorites."

My mind drifted to thoughts of Trey. Surely, I wasn't able to keep my promise about showing up for dinner, so he must have known something was wrong. Then again, I was such an asshole to him that he probably thought my absence was intentional. Never would I have thought that my jerk tendencies would have come back to bite me in the ass like this.

I found myself wishing to go back in time when I was with Trey at the carnival. It was during a simpler time when, momentarily, I forgot about Lucifer. I forgot about my life. I forgot about my obligations and reservations. For once, I was actually having fun.

"Why'd you have to go and run away?" Lucifer questioned once I didn't respond. "You're putting me in a box here, Owen. I like you, a lot, but you cost me a lot by doing what I did. I have to punish you somehow." He pressed the blade against my cheek, gentle enough to not cause any pain, but forceful enough to draw blood.

His brows furrowed in confusion for a mere moment before realization flickered over his face. "You know what? I have the perfect idea." He shot to his feet with a sense of urgency I had never seen in him before (he had always liked to take his time with everything he did) and moved swiftly out of the room, leaving me to be alone with my thoughts.

I knew I was done for, and I knew there was virtually nothing I could do to save my life, but I couldn't die like this. I couldn't let Lucifer continue to torment people and take control of their lives, but after fighting and fidgeting with my constraints for so long and having no avail, it was clear to me that I wouldn't be able to free myself this way.

The only plausible method of escape was to wait for him to screw up somehow, and that was near impossible.

As soon as I heard voices nearing the steel door, I pressed myself against the wall and tried to regain my composure for Lucifer's return. Sure enough, the door opened just mere seconds later and Lucifer waltzed into the room; this time, however, Matthew strolled into the room behind him, wearing an expressionless face. He looked directly at me, but his brown eyes were void of any emotion.

We must've stared at each other for longer than necessary because Lucifer felt the need to comment. "Ah," he breathed out, "well, this must be awkward."

My gaze dropped from Matthew's face to his attire–an oversized white t-shirt. He was barefoot, and his dark hair was a disheveled mess which only meant that Lucifer had him doing several jobs today. I would've felt sorry for him if he hadn't betrayed me.

Lucifer cleared his throat, capturing our attention. "As much as I would love to see you two play an intense game of who-can-blink-first, I'd like to get to the main event." He gripped Matthew's arm and tugged him closer. "As we all know, Matthew became my loyal little prostitute after you did the honors of breaking him in for me–I never got to thank you for that by the way–but poor little Matthew was broken inside, figuratively and literally, after what you did to him."

"Now here's an idea..." he continued as he grasped Matthew's shoulder firmly with one hand and retrieved a gun from the inside of his jacket pocket with the other, "...how about you return the favor for our little friend here?"

Matthew tore his gaze away from mine to look to the man beside him. "W-what?"

"Now, I know you're not hard of hearing."

He shook his head and looked back to me. "No, sir, I c-can't-"

"Sure, you can," he reassured him as he raised the gun to his temple, his sardonic grin straightening into a grim line, "and you will."

Matthew began to tremble. He was several feet away from me, but I could still sense his fear. A sliver of me hoped he would choose to die over having to lay a hand on me–it was the least he could do for all of my troubles, but no, Matthew's eyes slowly met mine once more.

"Do not," I spat bitterly as I burned holes into him with my stare, "touch me."

The gun remained at the side of his head. "If you don't do it, I will kill you and I will kill him. Either way, Owen will die. You don't have to die, too. Be smart, Matthew."

The boy gulped and slowly nodded. I saw him intake a large breath of air before he started to make his way to me, taking slow and careful steps. As he drew near, I lifted my head to look at him in disbelief. There was a myriad of emotions flashing across his face which was the most I had ever gotten from him so far, but I had no sympathy.

He wasn't going to touch me. I would never let him.

Matthew slowly knelt to the floor and reached out to touch me, but I scooted away from him before he could. His brows drew together in a line, and he let out a frustrated sigh. "Owen, I don't want to do this, but I have to."

I challenged him with my stare. "Touch me and I will kill you."

He flinched. "Owen."

"Touch me..." I whispered, but gradually grew louder to say, "and I will kill you!"

"Whoa, look at the mouth on that one!" Lucifer hollered. Matthew looked back at him as if he was asking for another option, but the blond-haired man's grip remined steady on his pistol. "Clock's ticking, kid, hurry up."

And with those words, the boy flicked his attention back to me. Conflict was written all over his face, and he tried his best to keep it at bay, but failed miserably. Sighing, his eyes fell to my jeans. Anticipating the moment where his hands would follow his gaze to undo my pants, I lashed my foot at his face, causing him to recoil and fall back onto the floor, cupping his hands over his face.

It hurt me to hurt him, but I had already been violated by someone I despised; I wasn't sure if I could take being violated by someone I had once trusted and loved.

He rolled on the floor for quite some time, shrieking and wailing in pain, but it did nothing to change Lucifer's mind. Eventually realizing this, Matthew lifted himself up to look at me once more with a dark bruise threatening to form just under his left eye, but even so, he managed to narrow his gaze. "You deserve this!" he screeched, voice cracking.

With a burning fire in his brown eyes, he lunged at me in an effort to subdue me. He managed to tackle me to the floor, but I was successful in shrugging him off my back and scurrying as far away from him as possible by pressing my back against the furthest wall. He continued to come after me and with each attempt, I retaliated. This proceeded until Lucifer had enough of our exchange and decided to put matters into his own hands by firing his gun.

It happened so fast that I was unable to process what had just happened. All I knew was that Matthew stopped advancing on me because he was sprawled on the floor, screaming in agony. I saw red, but I wasn't even sure where it was coming from. "What did you do!" I yelled.

Lucifer tucked his gun back into his jacket pocket and shrugged. "He was getting annoying." Before I was given the chance to respond, the door swung open and two of his minions walked in. "Take care of him," he addressed them in which they nodded and made a move to drag Matthew out of the room all while he screamed.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Lucifer cleared his throat and interlocked his hands right above his waist. "You got lucky this time, but make no mistake, you will die a slow and painful death."

His smile resurfaced as he approached me with the dagger from before. With swift movements and taking me completely by surprise, he jabbed the sharp blade into my shoulder just under my collarbone. A high-pitched, almost inaudible, shriek fell from my mouth as a piercing sting shot through the immediate nerves surrounding the impaled area. I tried to keep my composure, but my poker face wore out when I saw the blood oozing from my wound.

Just to spite me and cause more discomfort,Lucifer flicked the end of the dagger. "This is going to be so much fun." Hereleased a deep chuckle that sent chills down my spine while he rose to hisfull height and slowly backed out of the room, leaving me in cold, bitter silence. 

**

a/n: Hey, everyone! How are you guys? I didn't wait that long to give you guys another chapter and I hope that I'll be able to be more frequent with my updates so that I can finish this book and start the next. 

Uh, oh, Owen's in trouble! My question for you guys is ... how do you think this is going to play out? Will the others be able to save him in time? Will they be able to take down Lucifer? 

I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. If you did, please vote and leave a comment! 

Until next time, 

Lara <3