Free Kenton by Kathi Barton Page B

he’d just seen, how
    hideous he looked now, and what kind of pain he was going to have to go through to
    look good again. Because as surely as he was lying there, he knew that he’d be his old
    self again soon.
    When he was alone, he wished that he’d asked for the mirror again. He didn’t really
    want to see himself, but he was sure that in some way he’d missed something. Or the
    doctor had. There was no way that the face of the creature looking back at him was
    really his. Looking down at his arm, the one still fully bandaged, he wanted to sob for
    the injustice of it all. When the nurse came in and asked him if he wanted anything for
    pain, he could only nod at her. He wasn’t even going to waste his time trying to put her
    in her place again.

    He must have dozed off at some point. The room was no longer brightly lit with the
    sunlight, and there wasn’t much in the way of sounds coming from the hallway. Bart
    really wanted to believe that it had all been a nightmare, but he knew, somewhere deep
    in his heart, that it was all true. He was a monster.
    “Hello, Bart.” The voice didn’t sound familiar, and turning to look at the man there
    was nearly impossible with the way his flesh pulled at him. “Christ, but you should
    have died back then. You look like shit. Have you had the opportunity to see what you
    look like? You are truly the monster I always thought you were.”
    The light flared on, burning his eye, and he looked at the man in front of him. He
    knew who it was but couldn’t for the life of him know why his grandda, especially after
    all these years, would come to see him. He’d not had a thing to do with the man since
    his mom died, for good reason too. When he stepped closer to his bed, Bart could see
    that he wasn’t alone. There were two other men with him. One of them was Mark, his
    friend, and he looked like he’d been beaten to shit.
    “He’s been most helpful, your friend. Imagine my surprise when he came to me
    with all the answers that I had previously not been able to figure out. Well, come to me
    isn’t really what happened. We were keeping an eye on your house and, lo and behold,
    he shows up to rob you. He just happened to mention, too, how you were the one that
    killed my little girl.” Bart looked at Mark, then back at his grandda. “You know, I’ve
    been blaming your father for this all along, and here it is, resting on your doorstep.”
    Bart watched in horror as a gun was put to Mark’s head and he was shot. The
    sound, a small puff, was all that he heard as Mark dropped to the floor. Bart started
    grunting and moaning as he reached for the nurse call button.
    “Won’t do you any good. They’re all on my payroll as well, as of an hour ago.” Bart
    looked at the monitors that had previously brought them running when he’d been in
    pain. “That won’t work either. I’ve taken the liberty of fixing those for you as well.
    Steward here is very calm, don’t you think? His heart rate never moved up a button
    when he killed that man. Amazing control, don’t you think?”
    Steward, the man with the gun, pulled his shirt open and showed him how all the
    tabs had been put on his body. Bart looked down at his own and saw splatters of his
    friend’s blood all over him. He looked back at his grandda when he sat on the edge of
    the bed.
    “I had hoped when I blew your place up that you’d be killed. But I think I like this
    idea so much better. The poor man loses all of his good looks, goes a little insane, and
    kills his buddy in a fit of rage over a woman. I especially like the part where you’re
    going to kill yourself over the fact that you just don’t think you’re pretty enough.” Bart
    shook his head. There was no way he was going to do this. “And don’t think I can’t
    make you do this, Bart. I’m a man who gets what he wants. And having you dead is
    what I so dearly want. But I would like to ask you where my ring is. I’m assuming that
    you spent all