Gene shut his eyes, and tears streamed down his face.
“That was the last thing that let any of you call yourselves men,” Leah said. “Now you’re less than dead. You’re alive, but what’s left of you is nothing.”
Then she turned and looked at all four of them one last time. Amazingly, all of them were still conscious, staring at her in stunned, hunted silence.
“I could kill you right here,” she said. “But that would be mercy. I’m not giving you mercy.”
“You’re going to live. You’re going to wake up every day and remember exactly what you lost and why. And every time somebody looks at you with pity or disgust, you’ll know you earned it.”
When she finished speaking, Leah gathered her things, wiped the knife clean, and packed everything back into the gym bag. She peeled off the bloody gloves and tossed them into the cooling stove. There were still enough hot coals inside to char the rubber and the blood-soaked scraps beyond recognition.
She gave the four mutilated men one last cold look.
Then she pulled the garage door wide open, letting in a blast of freezing night air, and disappeared into the dark.
Early the next morning, one of the neighboring garage owners found them by accident when he came by to pick up some tools. He saw the open door, heard the low moaning inside, and looked in.
The sight nearly stopped him cold. Once he got hold of himself, he ran to call an ambulance and the police…
