THE TORMENTOR
The Tormentor - Episode 61&62
( Blêed•For•Me, Ixora )
Book 1 in the Mindf+ck Trilogy
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Copyright © 2025
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[Secretary Silas Place]
The poor secretary is tied to the door of his bedroom, and he's wearing just his boxers as he was already in bed before the devils came for him.
Konstantin is sitting on his bed, fiddling with a hammer.
Capri is standing in the middle of the room, both hands in pockets.
Ashton is the one standing in front of Silas, pushing his chin up with cold fingers and eyes.
"Wh...what do you guys want from me? I don't..I don't remember doing anything to warrant your... visitation" Silas shivered.
"So you think this is a visitation?" Konstantin asked from the bed.
"F+ck, I wish I can hurt you" Ashton muttered, and Silas swallowed.
"Someone is using your fake face somewhere, so you have to stay put and listen good" Capri spoke, coming closer. His turtleneck shirt is higher tonight.
"I'll... I'll do anything... just don't hurt me" Silas gulped, his wrists straining against the ropes he was tied to the door with.
"You're aware of Mrs. Ortega's plots four years ago, ri?" Ashton asked.
"No! I know nothing! I became her secretary January this year!" Silas shook his head.
"And that's why you'll calm down and do as you're told" Konstantin said, leaning into his ear.
He whispered into it for three minutes straight, and Silas' eyes wouldn't stop widening as the words sounded in his ear.
When Konstantin was done whispering, he stepped back.
"Say no, and I'll kill you right here. Involve the cops, and your family in Seattle will suffer it" he said.
"I...I didn't say no... I'll do it" Silas replied fearfully.
"Good" Ashton said, and Capri released Silas from the door.
The poor man fell on the ground weakly, and the guys walked out of the house.
Getting into their car outside the house, Konstantin released a loud huff.
"Ug! I'll miss the tiny torments, but at the same time... she'd be gone. I won't have to see the bî+ch again" he said.
"Why do I feel like we haven't even started anything" Capri replied.
"What do you mean?" Ashton asked, but Capri sealed his lips as he drove off.
--
[Satan's Heirs Hideaway]
Warren came back at past 11 after the real Silas switched places with him at the hospital where they took Mrs. Ortega's body to, for autopsy.
Arriving back at the hideaway, it was silent cos none of the guys are present, not even Anfisa.
Warren went to the bathroom and peeled off Silas' face mask from his face, then he rinsed his face with water.
He didn't bother wiping before coming out of the bathroom, and when he remembered how Ixora's eyes met with his own, he smirked victoriously.
She has no right to make him suffer that much with her fake testimony and then start stirring him again.
What happened in the cinema made him hate himself to the core, and he just realized he should have done this earlier.
He shouldn't have waited this long, but all's good.
She has been captured anyways, now he only has to push the scrabble letters very accurately.
There's no two-way about it. She's getting jailed.
Her parents might be Stonia and Rafael, but he has pulled enough strings to make sure that her parents connection and money won't be able to save her.
Also... Stonia was once involved in bribery—she's an hated ex vice-president, so ninety nine percent of the citizens will surely be against them.
He lay down in bed, but instead of seeing the ceiling, he saw nothing but darkness.
Pitch black.
Shit! It has started again.
His late night blindness.
He stood from the bed and pointed his right hand forward, blindly tracing his way to the scan room where Falsus is sitting on the table.
The bird understood what's going on.
Using it's beak, it brought Warren's eyedrop to him, perching on his shoulder.
Warren raised his palm, and the dove dropped the eyedrop on it.
He opened it and dropped the liquid into his eyes, then he stretched his hand forward again, walking back to his bedroom.
Not like the eyedrop will bring back his sight immediately, but it'll reduce his blindness period.
He lay back in bed, and Falsus sat beside him.
Within twenty minutes, his sight should be back.
--
[Ford Salon]
Mr. Ford was starting to get worried that his kids aren't back by this time of the night, so he stood in front of his shop despite the pouring rain, staring at the alleyway.
He checked the time on his phone, then he sighed out.
"They should at least call to tell me where they are, are they planning to give me high blood pressure?" he muttered, dialling Romeo's line again.
Immediately he took the phone to his ear, the blaring sound an ambulance was what he heard next.
He lowered his phone from his ear and shifted his posture, facing the alleyway again and expecting the small ambulance to drive past the shop, but the ambulance stopped right in front of the shop.
His heart was starting to break even before the ambulance door opened.
That thing should better not contain any of his kids.
Romeo came out of it, and then Bethel, but they're both crying, and that's even more fearful.
"What's going on?" He went closer.
Clover came down from the ambulance too since he followed them from the dork.
Romeo and Bethel couldn't reply, they could only cry, so it was Clover who opened the ambulance trunk.
He stepped back, and Mr. Ford went closer, legs trembling till he arrived at the back of the ambulance.
The first thing he saw was Matron's head, placed beside her headless body.
His soul vacated his body immediately, and he had to blink twice before looking again, then he staggered and fell into the muddy water on the ground.
The mud water splashed as a result, and some of it landed on Matron's body in the ambulance.
The man couldn't even scream, it's like his voice was stolen away.
"Lula... it's not...you... right? This isn't my wife...she's... she's..."
He spranged up suddenly, jumping into the ambulance.
"Lula!!!!!!"
Clover looked at Bethel and Romeo.
Bethel is sitting by the door of the shop, but Romeo is standing, back on the wall and an hand in his hair.
And the most amusing thing? He's smiling crazily, his bottom lip inside his mouth.
"So funny" he muttered. "Really funny"
Clover just knew a monster has been unlocked, tonight.
--
[Next Morning, Stonia's Mansion]
Serena's happiness has been over the brim since last night, and it lasted till this morning.
She came downstairs with a wide grin, going to the kitchen where she met the maids who're already preparing breakfast.
"A cup of milk" she smiled, and the maids exchanged shocked glances.
Serena never smiles, she's allergic to it.
They handed her a warm cup of milk though, and she left the kitchen for the living room.
The face is complete, so now she only has to wait for the right time, and Kelsey?
She better be fine whatever she is.
She touched her scarred face and smiled again.
"Don't worry, I'll be replacing you soon" she told her face.
She's not a fan of TV, so she just took her seat and drank her milk, but there's the TV remote on the couch she sat on, so her butt pressed ON, and the TV came on.
"This dang thing" she muttered, taking the remote to turn off the TV, but the news she saw made her sprang up from the couch.
"What!!!!!!!!" She screamed.
"What's that?" Stonia asked, coming downstairs in her nightwear.
It's her day off today, and she's planning to go on a shopping spree with Ixora.
"Aunt Stonia" Serena turned to face her.
"I checked Ixxy's room but she's not there, where's she? She doesn't have class till 2" Stonia replied, descending the last stair.
"She's..." Serena pointed at the TV.
Stonia's eyes went to the screen, and she quickly rushed closer, pushing Serena out of the way.
The more she watched the news of Ixora's arrest, the more she died inwardly.
"What!!!" Her eyes blew.
"Aunt what are we gonna do? Ixora...."
Serena was still talking when Stonia ran upstairs, taking her phone from her vanity table and turning it on.
She has twelve missed calls from the commissioner of police late last night, then five missed calls from Rafael late last night too.
Her phone was silenced cos she meant to rest deeply for today's shopping spree, but now?
She ran out of the bedroom, her long nightwear jacket flowing after her.
Before she even got to the car, she has made close to five calls.
Her attorney, the barrister, the commissioner, even the high cops.
She drove out of the compound with her shoulder holding her phone to her ear, and Serena came out of the house, smiling with her arms crossed.
"See? Even gawd is in support. If that's not the case, then why did this happen just when the face got completed?" She hunched her shoulders, laughing out.
She dialled her doctor immediately, walking farther from the main door.
"Did you see the news? The heavens are on your side, Serena" Dr. Fat's voice came.
"I know, right? Now this must not pass us by." Serena replied.
"But she has to be tried in court first, we can't do anything if she's still in the police net. She has to go to court and be sent to jail, and from there, we strike" the doctor said.
"Don't tell me you have a plan already" Serena rolled eyes.
"What do you think? Of course I do, you pay me well, so I'll do all I can to help. You want her memories gone? You want her to stay under a mask once your surgery is done? You want to make her your maid in her parents house? I gat you" the doctor said, and Serena smiled.
"Gawd, I wish Kelsey was here, we'd have partied tonight. Don't worry, if everything gets done, you have a lotta money to take from me" she said.
"I trust you, just feed me in on everything from now on" the doctor replied.
"Of course.." Serena hung up, sighing.
"Ixora... you're one unlucky bî+ch, aren't you?"
--
[Nadine's Place]
With a loud yawn, Nadine stood from the couch she fell asleep on, and she pushed her harrumphed hair away from her face.
She had fallen asleep on the couch together with Anfisa last night after they played several snooker rounds and got drunk.
The bottle of their wine is still on the ground, and Anfisa is still asleep on the other couch.
Nadine didn't want to disturb, so she picked her phone and dialled Ixora's line to ask how the cinema date was, but her line is off.
"That's odd" she muttered, but then her phone buzzed with several notifications at once, and she strained her eyes.
"My WiFi is on?" She rubbed her eyes to expell the lingering sleep, but the sleep flew off willingly when she saw what the notifications are all about.
California news is burning with different articles and news. A lot happened last night.
• A maid known as Matron Lula Ford is a criminal child trafficker who sells homeless kids to foreign countries.
• She was killed brutally last night at Penny dork by an anonymous someone known as Young Lord.
• Her burial is today.
• Ixora Rhodes murdered Grace Ortega in her mansion last night.
• Ixora Rhodes got arrested and is currently in the police net, definitely preparing for jail.
Nadine spranged up at this point, and the phone fell from her.
She didn't even bother to wake Anfisa or wear her slippers before running out of the house.
The slamming of the door woke Anfisa up, and she stood from the couch, sighting Nadine's phone on the ground.
She picked it up, and as she read the news, her shock was limitless.
What has her devils' done?
What the hell!
--
[A Graveyard]
The site is not far from the alley, it's where they bury any of the alley occupants who dies.
The alley people are kind, so they always attended the burial of any dead neighbor, but it's not the same with Matron's.
Everyone watched the news on TV and knew the kind of person she was, so it's only Romeo, Bethel, Clover and Mr. Ford at the burial.
The rain is still pouring, it hasn't stopped since last night, but they just have to bury her since her head is not on the body anymore.
It was Clover and Romeo who did the digging and burying, and currently, they're shovelling wet sand into the grave, covering it up.
Bethel is beside Mr. Ford, both still crying in their black clothes. They're sitting on the bare ground, not minding the mud.
An additional person joined the burial, and no one even tried to look at her.
It's Tina.
She was still with Monty at the hospital when she head the news, and she had to rush over.
When she saw Romeo shovelling sand into his mother's grave in tears, she began crying too.
She kept her distance though, and soon, Monty joined her.
Monty didn't cry, she'd never cry for a child trafficker, she just stood beside Tina with her umbrella over her head and her second hand in her baggy jean pocket.
She won't get drenched for a child trafficker.
She was smirking as she watched the cursed burial.
"It's like different tragedies decided to go down last night, can't believe Ixora got arrested too...for killing Mrs. Ortega? Bullshit" she muttered to herself, but Romeo heard.
His ears are sharp, actually.
"What did you just say?" He faced Monty with sorrowful reddish eyes.
--
[Police Station]
In the history of that division, this mayhem has never happened before.
The station is filled, so much, even the outside.
Rafael has been here since last night. He picked his call immediately the cops called him about his daughter's arrest, and he's drenched from running around in the rain.
Ixora is not present in the outer station, she got locked up in the cell already, and no one is allowed to see her.
The commissioner of police is present, mighty on his seat as he evaluated his documents.
"I'm telling you...my daughter is incapable of murdering anyone! Xora is my baby I know her more than anyone! Why would she kill Grace! What's her motivation!" Rafael shouted in front of the office.
"Her fingerprints are on the knife, Mr. Rhodes. She was found at the crime scene, and there's a witness! What else is needed!" The commissioner slammed his palm on the table.
"Doesn't prove anything!! She was framed!! Why aren't y'all seeing this from the right angle? My daughter was framed!!" Rafael argued.
"Gather your attorneys, Mr. Rhodes. You're a good person, but this case is a case of the state. The court decides" the commissioner said.
"What! My Xora is stepping court?" Rafael's eyes widened.
"She killed someone, Mr. Rhodes. She killed someone! Mrs. Grace Ortega isn't just anyone" The commissioner said.
"My daughter killed no one!!! Y'all should better put an end to this drama or all hell will break lose!!!" Stonia shouted, bursting in and looking mad in her nightwear.
Her slippers are gone from her feet, so she's barefoot.
"Get my daughter out, now!!!" She slammed the commissioner's table.
"Violence won't sort this, madam Stonia. It's a court case" the commissioner coolly said.
"Put an end to this drama! What do you mean court case? Why would my baby kill that woman!! What's her motivation!!! And I heard there's a witness? What if the witness is a fraud? I have a lotta enemies!!!" Stonia yelled.
"Fraud? Mind you, the city people are eager to see where this is going cos that same daughter of yours gave a fake testimony against someone four years ago" the commissioner said.
"What! So is this retaliation or what?" A hot sweat fell from Stonia's face.
"We meet in court, madam Stonia Martinez" the commissioner said.
"No one is going to court!! Get my daughter out!!! Get her out!!!! Yaa!!!!" Stonia pushed the commissioner's desk away and was about to pounce on him when Rafael held her back strongly.
"Let go of me jerk!!! Let go of me where the hell is my daughter!!! Where is my daughter Rafael!!!! Where!!!!"
She was throwing her legs as she got dragged out of the disorganized station.
Nadine who has been by the door wiped her tears with shaky hands, then she walked out of the station.
--
[Satan's Heirs Hideaway]
Anfisa slammed the door as she entered, and luckily, she met all the guys in the living room.
Konstantin is smoking, Ashton is drinking coffee and at the same time he's on his laptop, taking the next info about Evelyn,
Capri is just sitting, and Warren...
Warren is staring at the wall snake paintings like it's the first time he'd be seeing them.
"What the hell...did you guys do last night? What hell did y'all break loose?" She questioned.
But before anyone could answer, Nadine barged in, crying like a kid.
"Nadine" Anfisa said surprisingly.
"I know she went to the cinema with you last night! If anyone is behind this then it's you!!!" She pointed at Warren who's not even looking at her.
There was total silence.
"Is this your revenge? Then you should have done it earlier!! You should have done it without reawakening her feelings for you you heartless bastard!!! And to the rest of you bastards, may your nights be filled with dreads! I hate y'all!!!" She yelled.
"I expected this morning to be peaceful" Ashton muttered.
Capri maintained his silence, and Warren kept staring at the wall paintings.
"Get out" Konstantin told her, standing up.
Nadine snatched Anfisa's phone from her and threw it at him.
Konstantin got hit on the cheek, and it gave him a cut before the phone fell and broke.
"Kangaroo, I hope you never get a happy ending!!! You son of a c+nt!!! Son of a gûn!! Motherf+ckin shithead!!! Damn you mad man roaming!!! To hell with you Konstantin Barinov!!!!!!" She cussed endlessly, and Konstantin's brows arched.
"Nadine...calm down" Anfisa pulled her, and Nadine shook her head.
"No...I can't. I can't live without Xoxo, please help me...they traumatized her too much and—
And that was interrupted when Romeo came in, drenched in the rain just like Nadine.
His feet is muddy as a result of the gravesite sand, and he still has the smile on his face.
"The barber's son?" Anfisa said.
"I'm only here to give you a piece of my mind, Warren Creed" he said.
"You took away my mother, you burnt my properties, you stole away the girl I love, you killed my mother, and now you framed the girl I love" he continued, nodding.
"I'll give you a death worse than death. You'll experience it sequence by sequence, like a seasonal film." He muttered, his jaws clenching before he said the last word...
"Meet me in the future, blind bat" he muttered.
That statement made Warren finally look away from the paintings, directing his eyes to him.
"Those eyes, I'll blind them completely" Romeo muttered, his muddy feet staining the ground.
Warren smiled, the sight creepy.
"I've been waiting all my life for this," he moved close. "Be my guest"
--
[A Month Later, Courthouse]
After several postponements, adjournment and readjustments from the court and the state, they finally agreed to hold the final case today after everything has been put in order cos Stonia was running mad already.
As expected, the court is filled.
Several students from ILC including Romeo and Bethel, Tina and Monty.
Bronx is absent though
Serena came with Stonia, and she looks lean just like Stonia.
She had to starve herself just so she could look miserable, but deep inside of her, she's the happiest person ever.
Rafael is wiping tears from his eyes occasionally, and Nadine is crying like a baby at the back.
Lydia came to watch too, following Elder Creed's orders.
Silas the secretary came too...to stand as witness according to the orders he received from the boys.
Then... Satan's Heirs are present too, and Anfisa.
The court silenced as Ixora came in with two cops. She's still wearing the clothes she was arrested in, and her hair lost it's shine already, even her face looks haggard cos her eyeballs are sunken like she hasn't been eating.
She's barefoot, and as she was led in, Stonia spranged up with Rafael, and they both almost jumped to meet her, but they were pinned back by the cops, and Stonia started crying again.
"Look at my daughter...look what they turned her to... it's... it's her birthday today..."
"Aunt Stonia" Serena pulled her back slightly, and Stonia refused to sit.
Ixora was made to sit beside her defending attorney, and she refused to look up at all.
"All rise" the bailiff ordered as the judge came in.
Everyone stood till the judge took his seat.
"Be seated" the bailiff ordered again, and everyone sat back, then the session began as the case was read out to everyone's hearing.
"One month ago, on a rainy night, miss Ixora Rhodes entered the mansion of Grace Ortega and killed her, using a 8 inches knife and a poison that's capable of muting and destroying the heart. Grace Ortega died in her house where Miss Ixora was found with bloody hands and her fingerprints on the knife..."
The knife and the fingerprint sample was projected for everyone to see..
"Defendant's attorney, do you accept the prosecutor's charges?" The judge proceeded, and Ixora's lawyer stood, but before he could reply, Ixora held him...
The attorney looked down, and murmurs broke in the courtroom.
"Ixora?" The attorney said, but she's not even replying, she's staring into a blank space as a memory returned sharply, hurting her head.
She quickly held the head.
"Ixxy!" Stonia spranged up, but she was held back again.
"No no... something is wrong with her can't you see?" Rafael stood too.
"Order!" The judge ordered.
At the back, Warren's eyes are on her, but there emotionless.
Romeo is panicking too, and he had to start pinching himself to calm down.
Nadine just kept crying.
"Ixora?" The defending attorney called again, and a tear slipped out of her eyes as she got it back.
—Four Yrs Ago, Ortega's Mansion—
Seeing that Evelyn took her cup of juice, Ixora also took hers, and they drank at the same time.
Immediately the juice hit Ixora's system, she didn't remain the same, and the next thing was the cup falling from her, and she blacked out.
When she woke up some minutes later, she was already sitting on a chair in a dark room in that same house.
In front of her, there's a pendulum swinging left and right, and a bright light is shinning on the pendulum only, but the reflection of the light hit the faces of three more people in the room...
Evelyn, Mrs. Ortega, and Matron.
She recognizes them, but the juice must have numbed her cos her senses feels dead.
Matron sat in front of her.
"Focus on the pendulum" she said, and as if under control, Ixora's eyes moved to the swinging pendulum, following it left and right.
Her eyes followed the swing for one fuckin hour till the only thing she could see is the pendulum.
A hypnotist's pendulum, the sound entering her ears.
Tick.
Tack.
"Listen to me...Warren Creed killed Mr. Ortega. You and Evelyn saw him" Matron said.
"Warren Creed killed Mr. Ortega, I and Evelyn saw him" Ixora replied, her drowsy eyes still following the pendulum swings.
Tick.
Tack.
"You'll testify in court, and you'll forget about this particular scene" Matron said.
"I'll testify in court, and I'll forget about this scene" Ixora replied without blinking.
Tick
Tack.
"Good girl" Matron replied, standing straight.
She stopped swinging the pendulum, and Ixora slept off.
"That's it" she faced mother and daughter.
"That's all? She's already hypnotized?" Mrs. Ortega blinked.
"Of course, do you think the liquor you mixed with her juice is for nothing? She's trapped" Matron replied.
Evelyn smiled, looking at sleeping Ixora.
"Warren likes her? Pfft, Let's see what happens after she testifies" she said.
—Present Time—
Blood rushed out of Ixora's nose, and more tears left her eyes after the striking remembrance.
"Ixora!!!" The parents screamed, and Ixora looked up for the first time.
Her eyes met with Warren's at the back of the court, and she stood.
This needs to get over...once and for all. An eye for an eye, tit for tat.
"I killed Mrs. Ortega" she admitted, and all eyes widened.
"No!!" Romeo stood.
"Xoxo!!" Nadine stood too.
"Ixora!!! Ixora don't do this to me!" Stonia's eyes widened insanely.
"Ixora!!!!"
"What are you saying Ixora!!! What are you saying!!" Rafael cried out.
"I killed Mrs. Grace Ortega, pronounce the verdict." Ixora faced the judge, and everyone froze.
At her admittance, the judge went straight to business.
"Case number 2025BeH174, I'll pronounce my verdict." He cleared his throat.
"The defendant, Ixora Rhodes, injected Grace Ortega with a throat-numbing poison, capable of ruining the heart. Furthermore, she stabbed and completely killed Grace Ortega with a knife. The statement of Silas Deane—Grace's secretary, who was present at the time of the murder, is consistent. Also, the defendant's fingerprints were found on the murder weapon. Considering these factors, it is indisputable that the defendant committed the crime. Taking all of these into consideration, the court has decided as follows..." The judge read, adjusting his spectacles.
Everyone held their breaths, and Ixora closed her eyes.
"The defendant, Ixora Rhodes, is sentenced to twenty years in jail"
Stonia immediately fainted.
"Aunt Stonia! Aunt Stonia!!!" Serena screamed.
Rafael staggered as another round of his tears started.
First time in history, his money is useless. He's a useless father.
Nadine fell devastatingly on her seat, and Romeo's mouth wouldn't close.
Bethel had to cover her mouth and muffle her tears.
"Why am I crying? I don't like her" Tina muttered, wiping her tears.
Monty stayed neutral.
Konstantin smiled, but the rest of the guys stayed blank especially Warren.
Anfisa swallowed.
Warren stood and walked broodingly out of the courthouse, and the cops handcuffed Ixora again, ready to start the jail journey.
As she was taken amidst the tears and scream, something leaked out from the middle of her thighs.
Blood.
TBC.
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