Chapter 151

(trigger warnings: mentions of domestic abuse and violence)

Grace was being beaten on a regular basis. She was a shell of herself. Life had become a hellish prison, a dungeon she was trapped in. She wanted to leave, but she was terrified of the man who used to be her husband. She stopped going out as much, making excuses for both of them. When the affair started, she was grateful. His attention was being placed on his new girlfriend rather than on her.
He never tried to hide it. In fact, he flaunted the affair in her face. At first, she said there would be no point in them staying together. He shoved her to the floor because of her suggestion. Grace lived a life of terror and pain. She thought the affair, and his eventually promotion in his father’s company would ease things but they didn’t.
Once she made the mistake of asking him what he and his father did. He brandished a gun and held it to her chest. To her immense relief, it wasn’t loaded. But she found that out only after he fired it. Bone aching terror was all she knew. Whatever life she had was almost gone. The only thing that was left was the memory of Will. Being with him was the last time she felt happy and safe. She clung onto the memories, and they were the only things keeping her afloat. Life was a nightmare and she just wanted to sleep.
He knew he should have been treating her better. He knew that, but he just couldn’t seem to care. They were in love once. Or perhaps they just thought they were. The truth was that he was an escape to her. An escape from a life she thought she didn’t want. It was obvious that she wanted out. But his one issue was who she wanted to run to. He’d let her go if he knew that she wasn’t going back to him, back to Will. He refused to lose to him. So, as long as he knew she would run to Will, he would never let her leave.
***
“I know about your girlfriend,” Grace said over dinner. Her hands trembled as she cut her food.
“I wasn’t trying to hide it,” he said.
“I know that too. I just… um… I wondered where that left me. Now that you have someone else you want to be with,” she answered, her eyes stayed down on her food.
“You want to leave?” he asked. His silverware clattered on his plate. Grace flinched. “Do you want to leave?” he shouted when she didn’t answer.
“N-no,” she stammered. “I just wanted to know if that’s what you wanted.” Her voice was small. “Are you in love?”
“Hmm,” he chuckled. The sound was dark. “You’d like that wouldn’t you?”
“I… I want you to be h-happy. If she makes you happy, then you should be with her.”
He thought about that. Happy. What even was that anymore? He’d sought happiness from so many sources. But true joy eluded him. The closest thing he had ever achieved was the temporary thrill he received from “work.”
“You want me to be happy?” he asked, his fist tightening over his steak knife. For a moment, he had a vision of holding that knife to her throat. That old spark in him roared to life. “Maybe I should kill you,” he said in a playful tone, playing with the knife. Grace gasped, and her body began to quake.
“P-please…” she begged. The look in his eyes terrified her. They flashed with vim and vigor. A look she hadn’t seen in a long time. “Please don’t.”
“Oh, calm down,” he dismissed. “I wouldn’t do that. I’d get caught. You are right though,” he sighed. “This isn’t working.”
He got up and walked towards her, knife in hand. Grace froze as arctic terror gripped her. He grabbed her hair, pulling her head and put the knife against her exposed neck. She yelped but didn’t dare move.
“Damn, this is hot,” he whispered.
“Please, don’t,” Grace cried.
“I’m going to do you a favor. My girlfriend and I are going to go on vacation. You need to be gone before I get back. Without a trace. If I find you, or you tell anyone about this, I will find you and this,” he pressed the blade into her skin. “Will go a lot further. You understand me?”
“Y-yes.”
“Go back to Will if that’s what you want. You have my blessing.”
She didn’t speak. She didn’t breathe. He released her and walked out of the dining room. Grace collapsed onto the table into a puddle of tears. She wasn’t sure what she should feel, so she settled on urgency. As soon as he was out of sight, she became a tornado as she moved through the house. Whatever she could get hands on she grabbed. There was no telling how serious he was. He could be waiting for her right outside. But she was determined. She was determined to escape.
***
There was a hidden agenda in letting her go. She would become his ultimate weapon against Will. He’d seen a tabloid about Will’s wedding. He had unleashed Grace to destroy him. She was so starved for love and affection; he knew she’d do anything to get it. The truth was that she was already unhinged. For her to abandon a perfect life like she had showed it. Will was devoted to her, practically worshipped her. And she still wanted more. Grace was a narcissist. And he was going to use that to his advantage.
Things were quiet for a while. He continued to move up in the ranks with his father. And he came out of the trenches but stayed in the shadows. He found that threat and intimidation worked best. Politicians, dignitaries, police officers, even monarchs were eating out the palm of his hand. The world was his, and yet no one knew it. He only appeared if necessary, and that was never a good sign. Anyone who saw him, was promptly dealt with. He was a ghost. He was the Ghost.
After Grace left, he had divorce proceedings begun. He needed her to be cut off completely. The marriage was dissolved, and he had a few of connections erase any proof that it had ever happened. It would only exist in people’s memories, and he knew how to handle if people got too chatty.
Free from Grace, he and his girlfriend were open with their relationship. And that was the beginning of the end.
***
“How could you do this to me?” he yelled. He was a disaster of tears and chaos. Tear stains and anguish warped his handsome face into a mask of despair and wrath. In his arms, he held the lifeless body of his girlfriend. His hands and clothes were stained with her blood. “Why would you take her from me?”
His father stood over him, the barrel of his gun still smoking. There was no emotion in his eyes.
“I told you not to get involved with her. Her father is my rival, and he has been encroaching on our territory. This,” he indicated the dead woman. “is a message.”
“I loved her!” he screamed back, cradling her corpse in his arms.
“You loved the other one too.”
“This was different,” he cried. “She was pregnant! You killed my woman and my baby! We were going to tell you tomorrow night at dinner!”
“Then I did you a favor. Children are a weakness, and you aren’t strong enough yet.”
“Not strong enough?” he saw red. The vestiges of whatever humanity he had left dissipated. All that was left behind was anger and a thirst for vengeance. All the warmth left his soul. There was nothing left now. Nothing except an abyss with no end. He leveled his own gun at his father. “No one is stronger than me.”
“Son, be careful.” His father’s eyes went wide. He dropped his gun and threw up his hands. He walked backwards slowly, like an animal being cornered by a predator. “You’re overly emotional right now. You’re not thinking clearly.”
“On the contrary,” he sneered, walking forward. “I’ve never been clearer. You’re right. You did do me a favor. All you’ve ever done is hold me back. And now you’ve set me free.”
“Don’t do this. You’re my son.”
“I’m not your son.” He pulled the trigger, reveling in the way his father crumpled to the ground. “I am Ghost.”
***
After he killed his father, there was nothing left in him. He was more of a phantom that a human. A myth, a legend of the underworld. The mere idea of him struck terror into the hearts of even the most hardened criminals. No one would ever wrong him again.