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Post by Squid (Carys) on Aug 18, 2012 16:54:18 GMT -4
Harley closed his eyes against the sight of the hand in front of him, but he wasn't sure that it helped anything. The image of the hand and the rest of the body still burned in his mind, and with it he heard everything the man had told him, repeating in his mind as the sound of the men and Oryn overlaid it all. He didn't want to believe what they'd said about Kale, but his knees were still screaming at him. He didn't even need to move for them to remind him of the pain, and of his failed escape. And behind those thoughts were Kale, telling him to do it.
When the men finally left, and he heard Oryn call out his name, he opened his eyes again slowly. He managed to turn his head enough to look at Oryn, and then he just looked away again, murmuring only faintly, "Strong..."
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Post by Cuppy/Wonders on Aug 19, 2012 7:08:15 GMT -4
Kale awoke to pain. He was still strapped to the table, and all of his wounds were burning... including his newly acquired broken wrists. He had never truly thought that he had dreamt the entire thing, but his heart sank when he knew for certain that the entire experience had been real.
At least two of the torturers were leaning over him, and one had a bucket of water in his hands. Kale recoiled at the sight of it, wincing as the straps dug into his broken wrists and the cuts from the cat o' nine tails were pressed against the metal of the table. His breaths were already coming quickly, and he stared at the bucket in utter terror. He didn't think he could stand being put through that again.
The man smiled innocently. "What's wrong, Kale? I thought you would be thirsty..." He was, but he didn't want that anywhere near his face. Even though he saw his terror, the man still tipped the bucket over his head. Kale screamed involuntarily, and proceeded to choke on the water. They watched him struggle with interest. When he eventually stopped gagging he closed his eyes and breathed heavily, trying to fight the tears that were already gathering. He felt pressure on his closed eyelids, and for a horrible moment he thought that they were going to gouge his eyes out. But they moved away quickly, and Kale opened his eyes again, feeling something there that shouldn't have been. Before he could question them they roughly attached two small circular discs to the exposed flesh of his skinned arms and stepped back. They pressed a button on a remote, and Kale flinched even though no electricity greeted him.
Instead, the ceiling suddenly came to life. It flickered, exposing colour and light that quickly became images and people. Kale watched them in shock and wonder - he had never seen anything like it. But his wonder soon turned to horror as he recognised two of the people. Harley and Oryn, both lying in pools of their own blood, and a mangled corpse before them. He screwed his eyes shut at the hideous sight and turned his head away. He had his eyes closed for approximately 4 seconds before a powerful electric shock ripped through his arms. He let out a shocked cry of pain and his eyes flew open, falling back on the images of Harley and Oryn. "What...?" he choked out, staring wide-eyed at the screen.
One of the men above him smiled. "Oh yes, I'd forgotten just how uncivilised your world was. This is a television, Kale, and it shows everything that little Harley and Oryn are going through right now. We haven't quite got the sound correct on it yet, but we will soon, so don't worry. We would like you to know how they're doing while we're not here... I assume you'd be worried for their safety. So, to make sure that you're paying attention, we've programmed those little discs to give you a little shock every time you close your eyes for more than 3 seconds. Isn't that nice of us?"
Kale stared at him in disgust, but it was impossible to look fully away from the screen that was directly above his head. "Make sure you pay attention," the man repeated with a smile, and he turned on his heel and left the room, the other two following. They closed the door behind them and locked it, leaving Kale with pure silence and Harley and Oryn slowly bleeding out in front of his eyes.
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Post by Squid (Carys) on Aug 19, 2012 9:31:58 GMT -4
The men returned to the cell Harley and Oryn were in a long while later. They cast one glance at Harley and then went to Oryn first, kicking him a little before they moved him roughly into a position that left him no real choice but to watch Harley. "Watch carefully now, Oryn," one of the men taunted. "I think you need to understand that the longer you take to give in, the more little Harley over there gets hurt. And that's not going to end just because you've figured out why he's here." He kicked Oryn again, and then walked over to Harley with the others. "Time to wake up Harley," he told the boy, loud enough that he did in fact wake up. He jolted a little, startled by the sudden awakening and the flood of all the pain returning. He whimpered a little as all of the hurt sunk in. The men proceeded to grab him, dragging him upright and propping him up against the wall, while he tried only weakly to resist. He couldn't help but moan in pain as the movement disturbed his knees, and when the stone wall pressed into the wounds on his back. "Have you been thinking about what we told you about Kale, Harley?" one of the men asked. "Because there's something else we've gotta tell you... You see, when we were taking care of Kale for you earlier, he made it pretty clear that he hoped you'd suffer all the same pain he did. He wanted us to make sure you were hurt just like him." Harley's eyes widened at that, and he stared forward at the corpse in front of him, trembling. One of the men hoisted a canister up then, undoing the lid quickly. Harley recognized the smell of gasoline and his eyes widened further as he glanced from the canister to the burned scalp on Kale. He tried desperately to move, but the pain was too great for him to go anywhere. The man just snickered a little and splashed just a bit of the fluid over him. "N-no..." he pleaded, looking up at the man, "please?" "It's not me, Harley. It's Kale who's to blame." With that, he lit a match, letting Harley stare at it in horror for a moment, shaking his head frantically. As Harley tried again to move to the side, the man put his foot on Harley's chest, pressing his back into the wall. Harley cringed and stopped struggling to keep the wounds on his back from hurting worse. The man then dropped the match onto Harley's head. It didn't matter that it got flung off again nearly instantly by his frantic shaking, the gasoline needed only an instant to ignite. Harley's hair went up in flames in mere seconds. The little boy screamed as his hair was burned away and the fire started eating at his skin. The man smirked at him, and then Harley felt himself suddenly doused in ice cold water. The fire was extinguished, but it had already done its damage, leaving much of the skin on his scalp and even a bit on his face burned completely away.
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Post by Cedar on Aug 19, 2012 11:44:42 GMT -4
Leaving Harley to his anguish, the man strode over to Oryn, smirking down at his motionless prisoner. "Doesn't it hurt? Watching Harley's pain like that? Watching him get burned, crippled, mutilated--all because you happen to be stubborn? And Kale, too. The two of you, have you no humanity?"
"What did you do with Kale?" Oryn asked. The man laughed.
"Why, he's right there!" the man told him. His voice dropped so Harley could not hear. "Oh, you mean the real Kale? At the moment he probably wishes he were the corpse in here," he said cryptically. "Shall I just say he's terrified of water?" He paused, scrutinizing Oryn. "And I think that you, having figured some things out, need a punishment. Nobody told you to start figuring things out." Oryn said nothing as the man moved towards him, pulling out a long whip. He stared at it in surprise--hadn't they already used that? But no... there was something different about this whip, something he couldn't quite place...
The man brought the whip cracking down on Oryn's back. He was braced for the familiar pain of a flogging, but what he encountered was nothing like what he knew. Upon contact with his flesh, the whip released a powerful electric charge, burning into Oryn's exposed flesh. He cried out in shock and pain. Grinning madly, his torturer struck him repeatedly.
Oryn screamed each time the whip burned into his flesh, jerking involuntarily as the electricity jolted through him. He didn't know how long it continued, but by the time it finished he was in tears, curled feebly on his side. The man smirked down at him, sending him a few solid kicks. "Not so tough now?" He leaned down, his mouth inches from Oryn's ear. "How does it feel to know that the others hear your every scream? And that you can do nothing to help them as they writhe in agony?" With that, he turned on his heel and strode away, laughing.
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Post by Cuppy/Wonders on Aug 19, 2012 12:34:47 GMT -4
Just as the man had predicted, the silence was ripped apart by Harley's screams as Kale was forced to stare at the screen. He watched as the flames devoured Harley's hair and flesh, hearing the boy's screams so clearly that it was almost as though he was still in the room. He could hear every single sob as Harley cried, and could even hear the sickening hissing as the burnt flesh cooled. Tears of fury were gathering in his eyes, and he wished more than anything that he could break free from his bonds and help him. But he was helpless.
He hoped that it would be the end - that they decided that he had seen enough at such hideous treatment of Harley. But of course they wouldn't. Oryn would be forced to suffer too. Horror pooled in his stomach when he heard the man claim that he was the corpse... but that was soon pushed to the back of his mind when he was forced to watch Oryn be mercilessly flogged.
Every scream that ripped through Oryn made Kale even more afraid; Oryn had been the strongest of the three, the one who hadn't screamed. He was the one who stayed strong... and they were breaking him. How long will I last? He heard their cruel laughter, and saw them leave. He saw Harley and Oryn both curled up on the ground, and heard their quiet sobs. And then he heard their footsteps coming close to the door of the room he had been forced into, and the click of the lock. He turned his head towards the door, and the three men strolled inside.
"Hello!" the one who Kale assumed was their leader said with a wave. "Did you pay attention?" "You little bastards..." he snarled, unable to keep silent. The fury from seeing Harley being burnt was still overwhelming. "What the hell do you want from us?!"
The man frowned slightly and turned to his companions. "I don't think he quite understands exactly what we can do. I'm not sure if the punishments had the desired effect... that will have to change. What do you think boys? Blood and water?" Even at the mention of water Kale cringed. With no more than a nod the two men broke off, and the leader strolled right up to where Kale was restrained. He removed the discs from his arms and the sensors from his eyes, talking all the while.
"Don't worry, we'll be giving these back to you soon enough. But you really do have to learn, Kale. All of these pitiful attempts at resistance... they just lead to people getting hurt. Who knows, I might even punish Harley more severely just because you annoyed me here beforehand. Think of that next time you disobey, won't you? Just because you're not in the room with them doesn't mean that you're not responsible for their pain."
He glanced at Kale's face, trying to gauge his reaction. He shrugged and put the discs in his pocket, smiling cordially to his companions. One was holding a sharp knife, the other a cloth, pincers and a bucket of water. Kale's breaths were already shallow just at the sight of the bucket. "Shall we begin?"
The pincers were placed on Kale's nose, forcing him to breathe out of his mouth, and the cloth was shoved down his throat. He gagged, and as he did one of the men drove the knife into his bicep. His scream was muffled, but it was audible enough for the torturers to smile. The man with the knife cleaned it in the bucket of water, and then moved to his other arm. The process was repeated, and Kale's breaths became so irregular that he thought he was going to faint. He thought that it was over, as they cast the knife aside... and then poured the bloody water down his throat.
The sensation of drowning, the horror and terror was even stronger, and he was forced to drink his own blood to stop himself from choking on it. The water kept coming, and his vision flickered in and out of darkness so much that it was like the suffocating blindfold that he had been forced to bear. Inside he was screaming, reliving the horrible torture as he was forced through another, and he was thrashing against the bonds again despite the pain ripping through his broken wrists and his mangled arms.
Eventually the blood and water ran out, and he was left gasping for air and trying in vain to restore his vision. The leader smiled at him. "I think Kale is definitely afraid of water now," he said. "I will have to let Oryn know about the development." He wanted to tell them to leave Oryn alone, but he couldn't. He couldn't speak, couldn't move. All he could do was lie there, shaking, and try not to cry.
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Post by Squid (Carys) on Aug 19, 2012 14:42:39 GMT -4
It was a long time before the men returned, and all the while Harley was left to wonder if what they'd said about Kale was true. It might have been. After all, he didn't really know Kale at all. After all, it was Kale who had told him to try and run. Harley hadn't wanted too, he'd been too scared, but Kale told him he should. Harley frowned a little at these thoughts, not that he'd ever truly stopped frowning. Like the pain, his anguish wasn't fading anymore. Early on there had been times when he'd felt hopeful, or when he stopped hurting, but now he couldn't force himself to be brave anymore, and the hurting never went away. When the men returned again he didn't even look up. He heard their footsteps approaching him, and then he smelled alcohol, although he couldn't place the smell. Without any warning the alcohol was suddenly poured over him, and he gasped in pain as it stung every wound it touched. The skin on his head screamed at the sensation, and Harley screamed as well. "You can thank Kale for that too you know. Well, him and the man who annoyed me before this..." he said. His comment might have been said to Harley, but it was directed just as much or more to Kale. The man then nodded towards the corpse. "What do you think Harley? What should we do next?" Harley was silent except for his gasping and crying. He'd thought they'd forgotten about the collar, but at his silence he felt a sharp jolt from it and he whimpered a little. "I asked you a question Harley. Now answer." Harley meekly lifted his head to look at the dangling corpse before dropping his head again, still without answering. Another shock tore through him and he whimpered more as the resulting spasm made his wounds ache more. "F-f-feet," he stammered, knowing that they wouldn't stop until they got an answer from him. "Good," the man said as one of the others handed him a knife. He grabbed one of Harley's legs sticking straight out in front of him, and forced it up so that his knee bent and his foot lay flat on the floor. Harley let out a scream at the pain in his knee the motion caused. The man didn't wait for him to stop screaming before he shoved the knife between two of the bones in Harley's foot and pulled viciously back on it. Slicing the length of the boys foot. He then repositioned the knife in the wound and wiggled it from side to side a little, opening the wound more. He waited for Harley's shrieking to fade before he moved to the other leg, again forcing Harley's knee to bend, and again slicing open his foot and opening the wound more. He stayed next to Harley until the boy was quiet again, just gasping for breath as the tears flowed. "Who's fault is this Harley? Who's the one making you hurt so much?" Harley didn't wait for the shock to come from the collar before he answered. "Kale... Kale's fault," he mumbled weakly. The man's mouth curled into a sick smirk, but Harley wasn't looking at him anymore to see it. "Good," the man said. "I'm glad you understand that." Then he straightened, and turned his attention to Oryn.
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Post by Cedar on Aug 19, 2012 16:42:11 GMT -4
Oryn lay motionless as the man stalked over to him, giving no reaction other than a slight moan of pain when the man began kicking his mangled body. "You're not as fun now as when I got out the shock whip," the man observed, disappointed. "No matter. We can make it fun again!" He drew out a long knife and knelt down next to Oryn, slowly drawing the knife over the exposed wounds on Oryn's back. Oryn hissed slightly in pain, but didn't cry out.
"What do want from me?" he asked through clenched teeth.
"Cooperation. I suppose you want to know what sort, am I right? Let's just say... if you would agree to do certain things for us, we might leave you alone. What do you say?"
"Burn in hell, bastard." Oryn's voice was hoarse from screaming, and his defiant statement was barely a whisper. The man smiled.
"So stubborn. Just makes my job more fun." The man sighed, then slid the point of his knife down Oryn's back, laughing as Oryn tried not to scream at the pain as the blade tore through his burns and gashes. The man resheathed the knife, then twisted Oryn's arms back as far as he could. Tears of pain coursed down Oryn's face as his broken shoulder were jerked back brutally, and as another man brought a bucket of lemon juice to pour over his wounds he could no longer bite back his screams, writhing in helpless agony. The man released him disdainfully, then strode away laughing.
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Post by Cuppy/Wonders on Aug 20, 2012 9:41:34 GMT -4
The sensors had been placed back on Kale's eyes, and the discs back on his arms. The cloth was still in his mouth, gagging him, and he was forced to watch silently as Harley - little, innocent Harley - was tortured on 'his' orders. He shook his head even though Harley had no chance of seeing him, trying to tell Harley had he didn't want him to be in pain, that he never wanted Harley to suffer because of him. He watched as Oryn writhed in agony, Oryn who knew he was alive and knew that he would never want Harley to suffer. Oryn who was stronger than he was, but was breaking. Kale, like Oryn, was slowly trying to piece together exactly what they wanted with them all, why they tortured them so much without any sort of provocation. Why they had taken them from their homes just to hurt them...
The door swung open again, but this time only one man, the one who Kale had come to think of as their leader, entered. He smiled at Kale and waved at him, moving over to where he was bound. "I told you not to annoy me, Kale," he said almost sadly. "Don't you care about Oryn and little Harley? Don't you know that by talking back to us, by disobeying, you're just leading to more pain for them and for yourself?" Kale couldn't answer, but the man didn't seem to expect a response anyway. He sighed dramatically and leaned closer to him. "Don't misunderstand me, Kale. I don't like you. You don't learn, and you don't take responsibility for the horrible things that you inflicted upon poor Harley. But... I am willing to make a deal with you. I'll stop hurting Harley and yourself if you do something for me. What do you think?"
He's lying. It won't stop. They won't just stop because you do one little thing. But even though his mind was screaming this, the thought of the tortures ceasing even for a little while was tempting. More than tempting - just a brief respite was what he was craving. But, just as he was about to nod, he remembered Oryn. Oryn who had been asked the same question, and had told them to burn in hell. Oryn who was staying strong even though he had to watch the exact same things Kale did, had to sit through just as much pain. If Oryn wasn't wavering, why was he?
He glared back defiantly and shook his head. The smile fell away from the man's face, and Kale felt victorious for the briefest of moments. "So you're stubborn too. You don't care what Oryn and Harley are forced through, so long as you think you're doing the right thing. How very selfish of you." The smile reappeared on the man's face. "Tell me, Kale... how many fingers do you need to fire a gun?"
Kale was confused... until the man moved to the other side of the room and opened a drawer, extracting a hammer and a small knife. He moved back to Kale's side slowly, waving the knife back and forth with a contemplative look in his eyes. "Let's see... No one actually uses their little fingers, do they?"
He slid the blade of the knife underneath the nail on Kale's littlest finger and held it there for a few seconds. "Three...two..." He viciously sliced down, hacking the nail and a good portion of the skin off. As Kale's muffled scream filled the room, he tutted. "Silly me, my hand slipped." He lifted the hammer, drumming his fingers against the grip. "I hope my hand doesn't slip here too..." He brought the hammer down harshly, crushing the finger and shattering every single bone inside. "Good thing my hand didn't slip there, otherwise you may have lost your ring finger too... Don't worry, you don't have to thank me for doing such a good job."
He paused then, touching the bloodied blade of the knife as Kale fought back tears of pain. "I'm sorry for the delay, but I think I should wait until most of the shock has faded, so that you can feel the next bit just as much. Just say if that's not alright." There was motionless silence for a few minutes, the only sound being Kale's rapid breathing.
Then suddenly, without any warning, the man brought the knife back onto his finger, slicing through until it hit the bone. He sawed at the only remaining bone holding his finger to his hand, every slide of the knife sending waves of agony pulsing up Kale's mangled arms, until the finger was completely severed. The man admired his prize and the slightly bent blade of the knife, and proceeded to place the finger into his pocket. "For Oryn," he explained. "He worked out that you're alive, you see, and I need him to know that we're not leaving you alone while he suffers. He'll be so pleased to know that you're suffering too."
He looked down at his knife as though contemplating whether or not to change his weaponry, but eventually he shrugged. He slid the bent blade underneath the nail on the little finger of Kale's other hand and smiled at him. "It is such a pity that you didn't consider my offer... but then again I can't exactly say that I didn't expect this." He hacked off the other nail, and Kale cried out again. The entire process was repeated, and his other finger was tucked into the same pocket.
With one final condescending smile in Kale's direction he turned on his heel and left the room, closing the door behind him.
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Post by Cedar on Aug 20, 2012 13:36:20 GMT -4
The door slammed as the man entered, and footsteps ground to a halt in front of Oryn. Something was dropped in front of him and he opened his eyes to see two small, bloodied fingers before him on the ground. He stared at them in horror, but said nothing. "I thought you might want a little reminder of what Kale is going through at the moment. Just so you know we're not leaving him alone. You might also like to know he sees and hears everything that happens in this room." Oryn stared at the mangled fingers--there was no doubt in his mind that they were, in fact, Kale's. He wasn't certain how to react; he could barely think, let alone process this. Then again, with what they were doing to Harley...
"You don't seem too impressed with Kale's little gift." The man sounded disappointed. "Why don't you thank him?"
"Primarily because I'm not particularly thankful. But there are a few other factors as well."
The man hissed in annoyance and gestured to someone by the door, who promptly brought a large tub full of a liquid that smelled strongly of ammonia, though Oryn couldn't place the scent. He had little time to deliberate, however, before his head was seized roughly and shoved into the tub, submerged in the liquid. Oryn's eyes were squeezed tightly shut, but even then he could feel them burning. He couldn't breathe, but he forced himself not to struggle. That would only deprive him more of oxygen. They kept him down, till he was unable to keep himself from struggling against his torturers. After holding him for a few more moments, they let him up. He took one gasping breath of blessed air before he was shoved down again, into the burning liquid. This procedure was repeated over and over again. When they finally stopped dunking him he lay there gasping, his eyes stinging unbearably, and trying to make up for the severe oxygen deficit.
"Ready to thank Kale yet?" the man scoffed. "Or can you not catch your breath?"
Had Oryn been able to open his eyes without excruciating pain, he would have, but as it was he simply muttered a phrase under his breath. The man leaned closer to him. "I'm sorry?" Oryn repeated the phrase, but no louder. Finally the man gave up, shaking his head.
"I think he's too out of breath to thank Kale properly, but that seemed pretty close. We might have to check again later." The footsteps moved away from him; they were finished with him for now. Despite himself, Oryn was vaguely amused that a gasping, muttered, "damn bastards" in the language of Astarai could pass for "thank you" here.
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Post by Squid (Carys) on Aug 20, 2012 16:50:05 GMT -4
Harley listened as the men came in and focused first on Oryn. He didn't lift his head to look at Oryn. He wasn't even sure he could have if he'd wanted to. His eyes just stared blankly in front of him toward his sliced open feet, not even truly seeing anything anymore. He heard vaguely the men telling Oryn to thank Kale, and he wondered if Kale was to blame for hurting him too.
As the men moved over to him the thoughts left his mind, replaced instead by thoughts of dread and hopelessness. One of the men bent down beside him, and then put one hand under Harley's chin to force him to look up at the man. "We're not done with what Kale wanted for you Harley, so what do you think we should do next?" The man moved and made sure he had a clear view of the corpse hanging in front of him. Harley blinked a little, trying to get his eyes to focus, and then saw the man pull out the remote to the collar. He shook his head weakly before the button that would shock him could be pressed. "Arms," he said quietly. He managed to motion vaguely to his forearm, indicating the skinned portions of Kale's body. The man smirked, quiet for a moment before he nodded and said simply, "Good." He drew a knife from somewhere and then grabbed one of Harley's arms. Harley squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the pain to come as he felt the cold metal of the blade placed against his arm. As it opened up a cut on his arm, he let out a whimper of pain, but when the knife suddenly tore down the length of his forearm he screamed outright. His voice was starting to become hoarse from screaming so much, but he couldn't stop the screams from coming. The man moved to his other side, grabbing his arm again. The process repeated as again the skin was torn from his arm, and again he let out a hoarse cry of pain. His exposed flesh burned painfully, even with nothing but the air to disturb it.
The men waited for Harley to be quiet before they spoke to him again. "You know Harley, I bet Kale would be really happy seeing your little arms skinned, but you see, when I asked you what we should do next, that wasn't really one of the choices." Harley frowned, not understanding what the man was getting at. "Kale had that done before we took him out to take care of him. It was only the stuff after we took him out that he really specified he wanted to happen to you. So I think that we're going to have to do something else too." Harley's eyes widened a little at those words and he opened his mouth to say something. Whether too object or to answer the question he thought the man would ask couldn't be known, as the man cut him off before he could manage to get any words out. "You know, we've given you your choice before this, but I don't know if you really deserve another chance at choosing considering you messed up last time. I think we'll take care of what happens next."
Harley watched the men nervously, utterly helpless now that he couldn't even move his arms without the pain intensifying. The man signaled something to one of the others, and he left the room. The man returned only a few moments later carrying a few things that Harley looked at in fear. He glanced across the room to the corpse, thinking he knew what was going to happen now. He closed his eyes against the pain he knew was coming. One of the men grabbed his arm, not caring at all about the tender, skinned flesh there. Harley bit down on his lip, letting out a soft cry of pain at the pain of the man's hand there. He felt a strap fastened around his forearm, but he still kept his eyes clenched shut. The strap tightened, more and more, biting painfully into his arm until it was tight enough to cut off circulation. He was certain now of what would come next. He could taste blood in his mouth from biting down so hard, but he didn't let up. After a moment that felt like an eternity, and still he didn't feel the pain he was so sure was coming, he opened his eyes a little. That was when the man finally forced his knife deep into Harley's wrist. The boy cried out and squeezed his eyes shut again. The man made quick work of slicing through Harley's arm, separating his carpal bones from his radius and ulna rather than sawing through the bone as had actually been done to the corpse. Harley just sat sobbing while his hand was cut off of his arm. He had no more strength for resisting left. He felt something hot pressed against the end of his arm, burning the end of it. When the end of his arm had been sufficiently cauterized, the source of the heat was pulled away, the strap was removed from his arm, and then the men simply stood and left, taking his hand with them.
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Post by Cuppy/Wonders on Aug 21, 2012 7:54:44 GMT -4
Leave him alone! He hasn't done anything! Just leave him alone...
There were tears in his eyes, knowing that the agony his severed fingers had left behind was nothing compared to the pain that Harley's missing hand would cause. He wondered how long they would torture Harley for on his orders, how long they would keep him in this room unable to defend himself or the others... They were already pretending that he was dead... when would they decide to stop pretending and just kill him?
The door opened again, and Kale found himself cringing just at the thought of what they would do to him. The severed hand was thrown at him and landed directly on his chest, Harley's blood dripping from it. He stared at the hand in horror, nausea rising inside him. The hand was already shrivelling and turning white, and the blood was slowly leaking out of it and onto him. There was no way for him to shake the hand off.
"What's wrong, Kale?" one of them asked with confusion in his voice. "Don't you like Harley's little present? Should we go get his other hand, would that be better?" "No!" Kale shouted. They looked confused for a few seconds, then one of them finally removed the gag. "No? Why not, Kale? You told us to do everything that we did to the body to Harley. Are you going back on your word?" "I didn't!" he protested, but he wasn't sure. He had been in so much pain, he had been so terrified when they were drowning him... had he agreed to that when he thought he was going to die? "But you did," the man said. "You told us to make Harley suffer. That's why we have the television, so that you can see if we're doing it right." Kale tried to remember saying anything like that, but as he thought back he remembered the pain, the terror so clearly that he couldn't think clearly. In that haze, he could have agreed to anything. Guilt hit him hard as he realised that everything that they had been through was his fault. But there was something was wrong with that picture. "But you're...torturing me..."
The man heard the confusion in his voice and smirked ever so slightly. "That's because you said you'd do something for us, but you haven't agreed yet. We need to change your mind somehow." Kale closed his eyes and shook his head. He couldn't reverse what he had already done, but he could try to stop it. Harley would never forgive him for what he'd done... "Don't... don't hurt Harley. Not anymore." "Only if you do something for us. It's not something too big, and not as bad as what you've already done. It's only little really."
Kale stared at him, waiting for the request. "Hurt Oryn."
Kale's eyes widened, and he didn't even think before replying. "Neve-" "You have to choose, Kale. Either we do what you told us to do, or you hurt Oryn. It's not that difficult of a choice. So which is it, Kale? Harley or Oryn?"
Kale squeezed his eyes shut and hoped that Oryn could find some way to forgive him before he uttered his name. The man smiled. "OK, then. We'll take Oryn here, and then you can get to work." He turned on his heel and went to leave just as the agony all down his arms made itself known. "My arms..." Kale pointed out. "Don't worry, I'm sure that we can all find a way around that. Boys, let him up. It won't do if he can't stand and do his job, then Harley might have to suffer after all."
The straps were finally removed, and Kale was forced to his feet. He stole one final glance at the television screen, at Harley and Oryn, before it was suddenly turned off.
I'm so sorry.
The door slammed shut.
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Post by Squid (Carys) on Aug 21, 2012 9:07:52 GMT -4
The men returned as Harley had come to expect they would. Just like the past few times, he didn't move. He was staring at his arm, where once a hand had been. He kept hoping that he would open his eyes and it wouldn't actually be gone, but it was still missing each time. When the men approached him he didn't even look up. He let them grab his legs, only wincing at the pain in his knee that caused. "Guess what, Harley?" one of the men asked. "We're almost done with what Kale wanted for you. Maybe, if you're good, we'll let you go soon. Then you'll be able to go home and see your mom and dad and big brother again." Harley looked up at that, suddenly desperately hoping the man's words were true. Maybe he would get to go home. He had stopped hoping it was possible after he had failed to escape, but now he could help but to desperately want to see his family again. "I'll be good," he whispered. The man smirked a little and then grabbed Harley's leg again, this time putting a clamp of sorts around his knee. He did the same to Harley's other leg, and the young boy winced as they pressed against his already damaged knees. The clamps were tightened slowly, and Harley cried out as they squeezed harder and harder. When he screamed as they crushed the bones there his scream came out nearly silent. The men stopped tightening them eventually, but they left the clamps in place as they stood and focused instead on Oryn.
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Post by Cedar on Aug 21, 2012 12:33:30 GMT -4
This time Oryn was braced for whatever torture they would inflict upon him, and was rather surprised when instead he was dragged roughly to his feet--which was painful enough, with his injuries, to elicit a gasp of pain. There was no way he could have stood on his own, nor did he even attempt to support any of his own weight as he was half-carried, half-dragged out of the room. From what he knew had happened to Kale, this should have concerned him, but he was no longer particularly concerned with what they did to him.
They took him down several halls; he barely paid attention to his surroundings. That is, until they opened the door to a smallish room and carried him inside. His eyes widened at the sight that greeted him--a table, still covered in blood, was in the center of the room; Harley's hand was on the floor. But Oryn barely noticed that--what drew his attention was Kale, standing between two of their captors with a look of horror frozen on his face. As the men strapped him to the table, Oryn suddenly realized with a sickening feeling what was about to happen. He closed his eyes, unable to bear looking at Kale. Just get it done with.
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Post by Cuppy/Wonders on Aug 21, 2012 13:51:38 GMT -4
It was worse having Oryn in the room. So much worse. Even with the television, where he could see every horrible act that Oryn was put through, he couldn't truly see any of it...
"I'm so sorry," Kale whispered. The man in charge looked at Kale sharply. "What's wrong, Kale? I thought you'd agreed to this. You hurt Oryn to reverse everything you ordered to happen to Harley. Or have you forgotten that too?"
Kale didn't appear to have heard him. He continued to stare at Oryn in silent horror, until a gun was placed in his hand. The gun felt familiar, and as he glanced down it was confirmed. This was his gun, taken from his house. Even more horror overcame him as he realised that he had left it with Vash to improve. They had gone into Vash's room. They've hurt Vash...
All thoughts of compliance fell away at the thought of his little brother going through the exact same things as Harley. Maybe even worse. He raised the gun slowly and painfully, pointing it straight at Oryn... before turning as fast as he could and planting a bullet directly in the head of one of the torturers. Blood spurted out of his head, covering Kale, and Kale couldn't stop the demented laugh that burst through his lips and refused to die. The man collapsed to the ground, and the two remaining torturers stared at Kale as he stood there, the gun still in his hand, laughing hysterically and covered in blood.
"You bastard!" one torturer screamed, snatching the hammer from the table and swinging it. He caught Kale in the shoulder, shattering it and turning the laughter into screams. Kale fell to the floor, and the torturer was about to follow him and finish the job when the leader grabbed him.
"No," he said quietly. Kale had stopped screaming but his eyes were dazed, almost as though he had no idea where he was or what had just happened. "Don't you see? He just killed someone in cold blood and broke down. He's broken, or very close." He glanced at Kale, and then back at his companion. He smirked.
"Restrain him, incapacitate him, whichever you prefer. I'm pretty sure we have some prosthetic limbs somewhere..." The man grinned and brought the hammer down again, shattering Kale's legs cruelly. The leader didn't spare him any heed, ignoring the screams as he prised the gun from Kale's fingers. He cocked it and pointed it at Oryn, a placid smile on his face as he stepped over the body of his dead ally.
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Post by Squid (Carys) on Aug 21, 2012 14:25:33 GMT -4
Harley finally glanced up as he heard the men grab Oryn and begin to drag him out of the room. As the man disappeared out the door, fear set into Harley. They had already taken Kale, and now only his mangled body remained. Kale might have hurt him, but that didn't change the terror that he felt knowing that they might be about to kill Oryn. Oryn had never hurt him. He might not have ever said much to him, but Harley certainly didn't like the thought of him dying. He didn't like the thought of being alone here either. But there was only him, and the only sound in the room was his quiet nervous crying. After a few long moments, Harley heard a loud bang echo down the hall and he trembled a little. That had been a gunshot, he was certain. And with Oryn having just been taken out he could reach only one conclusion. He gasped a little, and tried to keep himself from trembling. He was really alone now. Utterly and completely alone in this terrifying place of torture.
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Post by Cedar on Aug 21, 2012 15:34:27 GMT -4
Oryn flinched as the gun went off, staring in surprise as Kale doubled over, laughing hysterically. There was the hammer, Kale screaming, himself screaming Kale's name, and then a gun was pointed at Oryn. He stared up at the weapon curiously. So were they really going to finish him off so quickly, after all this?
"Shoot me, then," he said calmly, staring up at the man holding the gun. "What are you waiting for?" He would rather die than do what they wanted, than hurt Kale or Harley. Yet apparently they were not permitting him to die, for no sooner had he spoken than the gun went off again, and he felt the agony of a bullet ripping through his shoulder. He cried out in pain, then watched helplessly as the man pulled out a knife and stuck it into his shoulder exactly where the bullet had hit, casually twisting the blade back and forth, widening the wound until blood gushed forth freely, staining the table red.
"So Oryn," the man began, still nonchalantly twisting the knife in Oryn's shoulder, "do you see what happens to those who resist us?" Tears were gathering in Oryn's eyes, his face was twisted in a grimace of pain. He could feel himself fading, his consciousness was slipping. The man's face refused to come into focus. The knife was still twisting, but the pain felt almost distant... What happens to Harley now? That was his last thought before everything slipped away.
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Post by Cuppy/Wonders on Aug 21, 2012 16:28:46 GMT -4
Kale hadn't realised that he had passed out, but it became apparent that that was what had occured when he woke up in a different room, strapped to a different table. Two torturers were standing over him, and there was a table to his left. He looked around in a daze, still trying to comprehend what was going on... and that was when he caught sight of the devices on the table. His mind was still fragile, and when the leader lifted a device that looked like a saw he had to stop himself from screaming.
"Ah, Kale, I thought you'd wake up soon," he said with a smile. "We weren't very impressed with your little tantrum in the other room, so we decided to move you into this room instead. To keep you away from Oryn, for his safety." Kale's mind had shut itself off from the memory in order to protect itself, and Kale stared at the torturers in horror. "I...I didn't..." "You did. You shot him, and you stabbed him too. My friend had to break your legs to get you away from him." He remembered his screams, and his pain. He closed his eyes and tried to banish the memory, though the guilt was smothering. "I...hurt Oryn..."
"That's not important, Kale," he said, and he turned his attention back to the torturer. "What's important is that you kept your word. But... I'm very sorry, but it doesn't seem as though you'll ever use your legs again." He paused, watching the horror dawn on Kale's face as his words sank in. "However... we may have found a way around this. As you've already seen, our technology is much more advanced than yours. So, we've prepared a lovely pair of artificial legs for you. There's just one catch." He gestured to Kale's legs, tied down yet bent at strange angles, broken beyond repair. "They're in the way."
Suddenly the saw in his hand was even more intimidating. Kale's breaths were coming quickly, and he quickly realised that he had nothing to lessen the pain. As the blade of the saw rested against his leg, just below the knee, the torturer gave him an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, Kale, we don't have any painkiller with us."
And that was when he brought the blade down. Kale didn't cry out when it ripped through his flesh, trying to think of anything else. But when the blade of the saw reached his shattered bones, and the exposed nerves, he couldn't stop himself from screaming. His vision faded in and out, but even as he slipped into bouts of unconsciousness the pain didn't lessen. He fought against the bonds when he was awake, even though he wasn't consciously aware of what he was doing, and as they bit into his broken wrists the bones were fractured even further. His screams were so loud that he thought he felt the room tremble, but in one of the few moments of lucidity he realised that it was just he that was shaking.
The sawing of his other leg was no better, and when his voice eventually grew so hoarse from his screams that he couldn't utter another sound he still screamed silently. His face was soaked with tears by the time they were through, and he almost thanked them for stopping. Then he heard the duel thump of dead weights hitting the tiled floor. And soon he caught sight of his severed legs, carelessly tossed aside and lying in pools of blood. He felt cold, and his shaking increased. He vomited, but the torturers didn't comment. They were too busy trying to attach the prosthetic legs. He hardly felt the burn of the blowtorch, nor the horrific melted metal as it clung to his mangled skin. He felt the metal solidifying, however, and the feeling of it clinging to him as though it was a second, harder skin. He also felt the pulsating agony as the exposed nerves at the ends of his bones was forced to make contact with the mostly-hollow limb.
Even when they were finished and stepped back, admiring their work, he didn't realise. The pain was just as powerful. He hardly noticed the small prick of a needle in the crook of his elbow, nor the strange warm feeling of blood being transfused into his body. "Now, it may take you a while to get used to them," the leader said with a smile. He could hardly hear a word he was saying - the world was muffled and spinning. "So we'll just leave you in here for a while. Don't worry, we'll check back with you soon enough."
He watched them leave, and realised that they had left his severed legs on the floor, in the centre of the room, right in his line of vision. He realised too late that he was so detached from anything but the pain that he didn't care.
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Post by Cuppy/Wonders on Aug 22, 2012 12:38:52 GMT -4
Kale was forced to spend hours trying to get used to his new legs. They had released him from his bonds relatively quickly after his 'operation', and he was slowly learning how to walk again. His new legs themselves were fine, as they had somehow managed to connect them so that they reacted to the movement of his knees, but his new feet were stiff and awkward and were designed very differently to real feet. He found himself slipping across the floor, hardly able to hold himself up, while one torturer laughed and the other was showering him in fake encouragement. He almost found himself wanting to hear the encouragement, but as soon as he realised he forced himself to look back at the table, at the severed limbs in the middle of the floor. Forced himself to remember that they were the people who were hurting Oryn and Harley, the people who had tortured him so horrifically. But he could hardly recall the tortures themselves, even though the open wounds covering his arms were a blatant reminder. It was almost as though his mind was suppressing them, trying to protect himself, but as the memories of the pain became more distant the memories of their words, the thoughts that he had ordered the torturing of Harley, became more potent. He was certain that he had some part in it, although he couldn't place nor remember what it was.
"Kale," the leader, the one who hadn't been laughing at his attempts, said slowly. "You don't want any more pain to come to Harley, do you?" Kale shook his head slowly. He didn't trust this man, but he trusted himself even less. "Well, how about we help you get back into the room so that you can apologise for what you've done? I'm sure that Harley will understand, and will be very glad that you're alive." Kale didn't think before nodding. He had to see Harley himself, had to face up to what he had done. He doubted that Harley would forgive him, but he had to try...
The leader grinned at him. "OK, then. We'll help you if you need it."
They opened the door, and as Kale began to head towards where Harley was being held - every step slow and heavy - he realised that the room that they had moved him to was a lot closer to the cells than the one he had been locked inside previously. The leader kept in step behind him, grinning all the while. Not long now...
The door swung open, the light switch was flicked on... and he came face-to-face with two mangled bodies. One was hanging from a single manacle, the image of horror and gore... while the other was lying in a pool of blood in front of it. Two identical bodies, the only difference being the size. He fell to knees in front of Harley, closing his eyes as he forced his breathing to slow. The sight was horrible, but not as horrible as watching them be inflicted.
"Harley... I'm so sorry."
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Post by Squid (Carys) on Aug 22, 2012 13:31:45 GMT -4
The hours dragged on while Harley simply lay there, terrified and defeated. He was certain that he was alone now. That Oryn had been killed and that no one would be able to rescue him. There was only Kale's body and the man's hand still lying next to him to keep him company. The longer he stared at the corpse the more certain he was that when the men did come back it would be to bring him Oryn's body and tell him that Oryn had betrayed him and asked for him to be hurt too. When he finally heard the door being opened he closed his eyes, not wanting to see the horrible sight that he was sure awaited him. He could heard the sound of heavy, unnatural sounding footsteps, but he kept his eyes closed. He didn't want to see whatever cruel thing it was the men had for him this time. He didn't want to know. Even when he heard someone directly in front of him he kept his eyes squeezed firmly shut. It wasn't until he heard Kale's voice that his eyes flew open. A plethora of thoughts poured through his mind even in that brief instant before his eyes opened. He recognized that voice. But it couldn't have been Kale's voice. Kale was dead. Dead and hanging in front of him. Now Kale was right in front of him. Alive and speaking. He couldn't have been. His eyes finally opened and he stared at Kale in disbelief that quickly turned to fear as every memory of the corpse's injuries being inflicted on him came flooding through him. He struggled meekly move away from Kale, managing to move only a few inches before the pain the movement sent through his body forced him to stop. He stared, trembling, up at Kale, trying to make sense of what was happening. "You're dead," he stammered between tearful gasps. "You told them to hurt me... You're not dead... You told them to hurt me and you're not dead..." His voice was quickly turning from fear into anger as he went on, "You told them to do everything, and you were alive!" Suddenly Harley screamed in wordless anger, and when he quieted again he was glaring at Kale hatefully. "Die! Just go DIE!" he screamed before falling silent. He lay there, trembling and with tears falling silently, and he didn't look up at Kale again. He stared at nothing, but he would not look at Kale again until he was dead.
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Post by Cuppy/Wonders on Aug 22, 2012 14:12:36 GMT -4
Kale stared at Harley in shock, the boy's furious screams echoing in his ears. He was well aware that nothing he could say would be able to make Harley feel any better, nor reverse all of the horrible things that he had agreed to without even realising it. Some part of him wanted to tell Harley that he wasn't responsible, but the guilt was too powerful.
"How could you be so cruel, Harley? How could you wish Kale dead after all of the nice things he did for you?" Kale glanced at the torturer, unable to say a word. He merely stared, even when he strode past where Kale was kneeling and grabbed Harley's arm, causing the boy to scream. "I think we need to teach you a lesson..."
"No!" Kale screamed, trying in vain to get to his feet. During his struggles the man had twisted Harley's arm behind his back harshly, and the boy was still screaming. "Leave him alone, he hasn't done anything wrong! You said... you said you'd stop... we agreed!" The man glanced from Kale to Harley, smiling. "Oh yes, I'd almost forgotten our little deal. And you did so well, maiming Oryn all by yourself. But I thought you'd disapprove of little Harley wishing you dead..."
An idea appeared in the torturer's mind, and his smile widened as he leaned down towards Harley. "What do you think, Harley?" he whispered. "Should we make the real Kale hurt? Should we make him the real corpse in this room, and get revenge for all of the nasty things that he made us do to you?"
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Post by Squid (Carys) on Aug 22, 2012 15:28:11 GMT -4
Harley's screaming faded to gasping, and as the man clutched his arm and whispered in his ear he bit his lip a little. If he told the men to hurt Kale, he'd be doing just what Kale did to him. The man saw his doubt and whispered more to Harley, "Come now, Harley, it's only fair that Kale be punished for all the awful things he had us do to you? Just think of it like if you're brother did something bad and your mom put him in time out. That's all this is. But a really bad crime deserve's a really bad punishment don't you think? He made us drill through and crush your knees, Harley. He made us cut off your hand. You'll never walk again, or play with your brother out in the fields. And think how hard things will be with only one hand... Surely Kale deserves to be punished?" Harley's doubt quickly faded into a hard glare, and he nodded. The man smiled and released Harley's arm, then pulled the boy upright by his shoulders so that he was sitting. Harley managed only barely to keep himself from slumping over again. Only when he was sure that Harley could stay sitting up did he turn his attention to Kale, grabbing his arm in the same place of skinned forearm he had grabbed Harley. Meanwhile his companions found chains and bound Kale by his hands and feet so that he was lying down, stretched out right in front of Harley. The lead man then pulled out a strange looking contraption that he knelt down to show Harley first, though Kale could likely see and hear everything. He held it in front of the young boy so that he could see the blades on one side of it. "This is a special little invention of ours, Harley. We call it the Spider. And you know, I think it's a perfect punishment for Kale. All I have to do is flip this switch here and watch what happens." He flipped the switch on the side, and the blades started to move as Harley stared at it with wide eyes. The man flipped the switch off again and the movement stopped. "What do you think, Harley, would you like to do the honors?" He started to hand the spider over to Harley, apparently forgetting and then remembering that Harley's hand was gone. "Sorry about that, but you can blame Kale for that, and make sure he gets his proper punishment." Harley's glare hardened a little more at the reminder of his handless arm. The man moved to be more behind Harley, and he took Harley's good arm, more carefully avoiding the skinned area this time. He placed the Spider into Harley's hand, making sure he was holding it right. "Go on now and just set it right on Kale's stomach." It was hard to tell how much it was Harley moving his own arm and how much it was the man guiding his arm forward, but the result was the same. With his hand still on the Spider, Harley put it onto Kale's stomach. And when the man instructed him to turn it on it was his small thumb that pushed the switch into the on position, all on his own. Then he pulled his hand back, watching with wide eyes as the Spider started to move on top of Kale.
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Post by Cuppy/Wonders on Aug 22, 2012 16:27:15 GMT -4
Kale had been taken by surprise when they had turned on him, shocked that the brief kindness they had displayed when helping him to move had reversed so suddenly. As his hands and feet were bound with chains he didn't react - he was still confused. He still didn't react when he caught sight of the device and heard the explanation, and saw the cold look in Harley's eyes as he - not the leader, not the torturer, but Harley himself - placed it on his stomach and flipped the switch.
He had less than a second to stare at the thing, the little mechanical replica of a spider, before it suddenly sprung into life and began almost dancing on his stomach, each of the legs moving downwards and sweeping across his skin as though tracing delicate little patterns. The pain and the horror kicked in immediately.
Each leg of the spider was not just metal, but sharp serrated blades. Every time it moved a blade dug into his skin, burrowing into his skin and cutting apart everything that was in it's way. As a blade cut into an already existing woundthey sliced through more flesh and sunk deeper into his stomach. His breaths came quickly, his heart pounding as he realised that the Spider was slowly disappearing, digging deeper and deeper into his stomach and severing anything and everything it came across.
"Turn it off!" Kale was screaming, fighting against the chains and trying to shake the Spider off him. But with every movement the Spider came into contact with more skin, cutting apart more of him and making the already deep, bleeding wound even bigger. "Turn it off! Get it off me!"
"Apologise to Harley." "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please, just get it off me!" The Spider kept cutting, crafting its horrific trail as it cut its way towards his intestines. He stared at the torturer, taking his eyes off the Spider for the briefest of moments to plead. The torturer returned his gaze coldly. "I don't think you mean it."
But, even though those words made Kale's heart sink, the torturer stepped forward and plucked the blood-soaked, still writhing Spider from the hollow it had made in Kale's stomach, making Kale simultaneously laugh and cry with relief. But then he moved the Spider closer to his face, closer and closer until the twisting blades were directly above his eye. His blood was dripping from it, into his eye and onto his cheek, still warm. He couldn't even breathe, but he tried.
"Please," he mouthed, unable to make the word pass his lips. The torturer smiled. "You can beg all you wish, but we didn't order this. Pay close attention to this, Harley." And with that, he dropped the Spider.
Kale screamed and closed his eyes, shaking his head as fast and violently he could. But he was still too late. He felt the warm, blood-soaked metal slice through his eyelid and rip the corner of his eye diagonally as it was shaken off him. His screams transformed into sobs, and he cried red tears as the blood seeped out of his eye. With every sob that racked him his torn stomach burned with agony, and the red tears ran down his face. He didn't realise when the sobs became something else entirely. When the horrible, agonised cries became a sound of demented, deluded joy. As the horror of the situation suddenly, for some reason that he still didn't fully understand, became hilarious. When he was laughing instead of crying, and didn't know why. Didn't care why. Didn't care about anything.
Not even when the Spider was lifted from the ground and brandished in front of him again did he stop laughing. He simply didn't care. The torturer grinned and turned to his accomplices.
"He's gone," he said triumphantly.
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Post by Squid (Carys) on Aug 23, 2012 5:07:17 GMT -4
Harley watched, trembling and in silence as the Spider cut into Kale's stomach. He didn't want to watch, but he couldn't look away. He stared right at Kale and at the Spider as Kale apologized to him through his screams. He didn't care about the apologies though. He didn't care about Kale anymore, the men had made sure of that. He watched the man drop the Spider onto Kale's face and didn't even bat an eye. When Kale's screams finally turned to laughter, Harley laughed too. His laughing was softer, and pained, but still he laughed. He didn't know why he was laughing, but he couldn't stop. He was still staring at Kale, at the blood everywhere and at the mangled mess that was his abdomen, and still he laughed. Some small part of him told him that it was his fault, that he did this to Kale, but he didn't care. If anything he laughed more, even if his laughter was still quiet. Eventually one of the torturers looked at him and simply smirked a bit to see him broken down too. They'd thought that Harley had already broken, and had already lost hope and caring, but now they saw him lose his mind and truly snap, not because he'd endured too much pain, as Kale had, but because he had caused pain. He had broken Kale, and now he found it hilarious.
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Post by Cuppy/Wonders on Aug 23, 2012 7:37:33 GMT -4
The chains were removed from Kale's wrists and ankles and he was pulled to his feet. The side of his face was covered in blood, his eye still bleeding, and his abdomen was burning, but he was detached from it. He stared at Harley with the one eye he could open, staring straight at the boy who was laughing at him. "I'll kill you," he vowed, grinning at him. "I'll kill you!" He lunged forwards, towards Harley, but the torturers caught him and dragged him back before he could attack him. "C'mon, Kale, don't you want to hurt people who really deserve it?" one of the torturers said as he struggled to get free. His eye was purely on Harley, and the need to tear him apart and make him suffer was overwhelming. If he was slightly stronger than he would have broken out of their hold and attacked, but they succeeded in pulling him away. "Don't worry, Kale, we'll let you get revenge for all of the pain you've been put through. We'll show you the people who are in charge, and you can kill them. Does that sound fair?"
Kale thought he had been in charge, that he had been the one to order Harley's pain and had been the one to hurt Oryn, but clearly he was mistaken. Someone else was in charge, and they had hurt him. And he would hurt them back, just like Harley had done. He nodded, and they smiled as they led him out of the room. He was taken to a room that was a lot bigger than the ones he had been held in previously, and someone he didn't recognise was waiting for him with bandages to their left and something he didn't recognise in their hand. He sat down beside them, regarding them with worry and apprehension. They smiled at him, and popped the lid off the canister in their hand. And then the scent of the alcohol reached him.
His eyes widened and he shot forward, his hands wrapping around their throat as he strangled them. The torturers stared at him in shock as the healer choked, trying in vain to pry his hands away from their neck. Kale shook his head mechanically, squeezing tighter, the agony in his arms merely making him angrier. The memory of drowning, the agony in his arms, the stink of the alcohol... it was all coming back to him. Even when the other torturers grabbed the skinned flesh of his arms and tried to pull him away - after they had realised that he wasn't going to stop by himself - he refused to let go. Crushing their throat and shaking them, all the while with a grin on his face.
Someone snapped the lid back on the canister of rubbing alcohol, but it still didn't stop him. It was only when they stopped struggling completely and went limp did he let them go. "Did he... did he kill him? Just for that?" A silent nod. "He's dead. He didn't just strangle him... he broke his neck." They stared at Kale in shock, while Kale merely stared at the corpse with unseeing eyes. He hadn't even realised that they were dead.
Silently the torturers disposed of the alcohol, and set to work bandaging his arms, abdomen and eye. All the time the torturers avoided looking at Kale, smiling at each other all the while. This would work better than they had hoped.
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Post by Squid (Carys) on Aug 23, 2012 9:46:36 GMT -4
Harley quieted and he stared back at Kale, his expression suddenly perfectly calm. His eyes slid from Kale, to the corpse still hanging in the room, and then down at himself and all his identical injuries. And then he looked back up at Kale, still struggling against the men trying to pull him from the room. "You already have," he answered, grinning right back at Kale as he broke down into laughter again. The men finally got Kale out of the room, and Harley was left alone again. This time he wasn't scared though. He waited for the men to come back, and while he waited his eyes eventually fell on the Spider. The men had set it aside hurriedly when they'd started dragging Kale away. Harley smiled at the sight of the blood-covered device, and with some effort managed to reach over and grab it with his left hand. He wasn't sitting up anymore, but he didn't care. He lay there, waiting for the men to return as he was sure they would, and while he waited he played with the Spider. He didn't mind the flecks of Kale's blood that it flung on him when he turned it on. When just turning it on and watching the bloody blades was no longer interesting enough, he set the spider down and then grabbed the severed hand he'd once thought to be Kale's and pulled it closer to him. He picked up the Spider again and then held it over the hand, laughing as he watched the blades tear it apart. He was still holding the Spider against the hand when the men finally came back. "Hey there Harley. Guess what? We've decided, you did such a good job punishing Kale, we think we have a special job for you that you're going to like." The man stepped closer to him, and saw the Spider still in Harley's hand. He smiled a little and went on with a nod towards the device. "You like that thing, do you? Good. You just do what we tell you and you might get to use that thing more. Right now we're just going to take you to go get fixed up." Harley didn't say anything. He was still just staring at the man, smiling a little. One of the other men came forward then and picked Harley up carefully. Harley didn't struggle, he simply let the man scoop him up, and then once the man was holding him he turn the Spider on and pressed it into the man's back. He laughed as the man suddenly let out a yell, and he pressed the Spider harder into the man as its many blades sliced away. The other man came forward quickly to try and take the Spider from Harley. It all lasted only a few seconds before the man dropped Harley, and then collapsed himself. Harley's eyes watered at the pain of being dropped, but even still he laughed. He felt a shock suddenly from the collar that he'd forgotten was even still there. The shock continued, forcing his muscles to tense until one of the men managed to take the Spider away from him. One of the other men then picked Harley up, and this time he had nothing to hurt them with. He was carried to a different room, this one clean and bright, with various medical apparatuses in sight. Harley was laid down on the table and didn't bother to resist. He had nothing to use, and on his own he knew he stood no chance. He felt a needle pressed into his skin, and shortly after he lost consciousness. While he slept his many injuries were seen to. He was given new legs, a new hand, his arms, back and scalp bandaged.
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Post by Cedar on Aug 23, 2012 16:40:23 GMT -4
Oryn regained consciousness sometime later; he was still strapped to the table, and while he noticed that some of his wounds had been tended to, it was the screen above him, showing Kale and Harley, that claimed his attention. He was forced to watch the bloody spectacle, eyes wide with horror as the realization sunk in that the others had finally broken. At some point they were taken away and the screen was switched off.
"So, are you ready to work with us?" a man near him asked. "The others appear to no longer be resisting. And they're also getting their wounds treated. No more pain... wouldn't that be nice, Oryn? Of course, we had to keep you from dying, but that's not going to stop any of the pain. Wouldn't it be so much easier just to give in?"
Oryn shook his head, grimacing, but did not speak. The man sighed theatrically.
"Very well, then. We may have to bring in someone to enlighten you." The man turned and poked his head out into the hall. "Bring him in!" he called, then looked over to smile benignly down at Oryn. "Really, you are so stubborn. So hard to break. But everyone breaks eventually, Oryn Gyvres."
"Yes, they do," Oryn agreed quietly, a touch of bitterness in his voice.
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Post by Squid (Carys) on Aug 23, 2012 19:47:28 GMT -4
When Harley woke up a while later, he noticed his new prosthetic limbs right away. He spent some time testing his new hand, and was surprised by how quickly he was able to make it respond as he wanted it to. He also soon noticed the straps holding him in place. They weren't tight, not meant to completely immobilize him or to hurt him, only to keep him there. When he heard the door open, he turned his head to glance at the man who had entered, smiling wickedly at the sight of the leader walking towards him. "Do you think Harley, that you're ready to do a little job for us? We've got someone who wants to see you, and we think he deserves a rather special reunion. What do you say, wanna go have some fun with Oryn?" "Spider fun?" he asked, still grinning wickedly "Oh it'll be a similar fun I'm sure, but we wouldn't want you to get bored. We have lots of means of hurting people. You would like to learn other ways of causing pain, right?" Harley nodded, laughing that same quietly mad laugh he'd taken to so quickly. "Good," the man said, and he started undoing the straps.
As soon as enough of the straps were undone Harley lunged forward toward the man. He had no plan in mind of what he was intending to do, he only knew that hurting this man seemed like fun. The man scowled and quickly grabbed Harley around the neck, forcing him back against the table. Harley's own hands clawed at the mans', trying to pry his fingers away from his neck, but the man just held him there, glaring sternly at him. "Now Harley, you've already made me mad earlier by putting the Spider into my friend's back, so I want you to think about if trying to hurt me is really such a smart idea. You see, we were nice to you. We gave you back your hand, and your legs. But if you don't cooperate with us, we'll take them back, and we'll leave you to never walk again. Is that clear?" Harley growled a little, but he did his best to nod despite the man's grip around his neck. The man smiled and then let him go. "Good. Now let's go see how much fun we can have with Oryn." The man helped Harley down of the table then, watching him carefully as he stumbled a bit, adjusting to the prosthetic legs. Harley didn't try anything else though, and once the man thought he was walking well enough he led Harley down the maze of hallways to where Oryn was. He left Harley in the hall, guarded by another man and then went in to talk to Oryn briefly before calling out into the hall to bring Harley in.
The man guarding Harley pushed the boy forward. Harley walked the rest of the way on his own, entering the room and grinning when his eyes fell on Oryn, strapped down to a table in the middle of the room. He walked slowly over to the table. He was only just tall enough to see over the edge if he stood with his feet flat. On his tiptoes he could just get his chin over the top of it. "Hi Oryn," he said quietly, his eyes never leaving Oryn's. "I'm going to make you scream." His voice never wavered, and his tone was perfectly matter of fact as he said it. He laughed afterwards and then turned his head to look at the man in charge. "Spider fun?" "I thought I'd told you already that we were going to teach you new ways to hurt people," the man replied, stepping forward to stand beside Harley after grabbing a tray off of a nearby counter. He set the tray down on a small stand beside Oryn's table as another man brought a small stool for Harley to stand on. Harley stepped up onto the stool and stared at the contents of the tray curiously. Covering it were a great many pins, possibly hundreds of them in varying lengths and thicknesses. The largest of them were the size of nails, while some of the smallest were just average looking sewing pins. Harley grinned at the sight of the countless sharp objects before him, and he quickly reached forward and grabbed one of the larger ones. He stared at it for a second, and then drove it into Oryn's hand nearest him, pushing it as deep as it would go and then still pressing on it with his thumb as he laughed a bit. The man smirked a bit at Oryn's reaction and commented lightly, "What's wrong? You seemed so stressed, we thought that a bit of acupuncture might do you good." Harley continued picking up the pins one at a time and forcing them as deep as they would go into Oryn's flesh. He didn't seem to have a care in the world as he simply laughed and pressed the pins in forcefully. After about ten minutes of this, Harley noticed Oryn's hand where the first pin had been placed was starting to twitch and convulse a little. He stared at Oryn's hand curiously for a moment, and then glanced towards the man. The man smiled at Harley and then at Oryn. "Oh yes, perhaps I should have mentioned... These pins are a bit... special. They've all been covered in a special poison called Strychnine. It won't be enough to kill, but it's going to cause more and more convulsions as it spreads and as more pins are put in." Seeing the confused look on Harley's face, the man explained further in more simple terms, "The pins will make Oryn start to move and jerk out of his control. And the more he moves, the more every pin you press into him is going to hurt him." Harley giggled at that as if he'd just been told a hilarious knock-knock joke. He then went right back to jabbing the pins into Oryn, soon leaving his stool to walk around the table and press the pins into more places. He'd pick up only ever one pin at a time, and then would walk around to wherever he wanted to push it in, and then he would go back to his stool, step up onto it and grab another. The man didn't comment on Harley's slow means of torture, he merely stood and watched, occasionally taunting Oryn as the spasms grew more intense. Harley left no area untouched. He pushed the pins up and down Oryn's whole body, putting several in the bottom of his feet once he learned that that seemed more painful than most places. He even pushed eight pins lengthwise into Oryn's feet, one between each of his toes. And as the toxin on the pins worked, Oryn's feet would convulse, and every pin there would feel that much worse. With every pin he pushed into Oryn he smiled, and when Oryn started to scream from the pain, Harley laughed and would press the pin in more.
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Post by Cuppy/Wonders on Aug 24, 2012 9:17:52 GMT -4
Torturers dropped in on Kale many times over a few hours, giving him medicine that dulled the pain in his arms and changing the bandages. He was healing remarkably quickly, but he put that down to superior healing techniques. After a few hours the leader returned and smiled at Kale. "Now Kale, do you remember the Spider, and the shock whip and the little sensors that hurt you when you closed your eyes?" Kale nodded slowly, hoping that they weren't going to unleash any of these things upon him again. He was already shaking at the thought. "Well, would you like to meet the one who made them all?"
Kale's hands moved towards where his guns would normally be, a smile appearing on his face. "Their fault," he said softly. The torturer nodded, knowing what he meant. "Yes, everything you went through in that room was their fault. They made all of those things so that they could hurt you, and they told us to use them on you. If you want to, you can hurt them."
Kale grinned at that. The thought of hurting any of the ones who had hurt him was all that he cared about. The torturer smiled and offered a knife to Kale, hilt first. Kale took it from him and ran his finger over the blade, drawing blood. "I prefer guns," he said quietly, but still started spinning the knife between his fingers. "Knives are so much more personal," the torturer said. "Don't you think? I think you'll soon find that you like them just as much." Kale admired the blade of the knife again before glancing back up at the torturer. Even in the haze that his mind had become he knew that this man was the one who had caused the most pain, and he decided that he was going to inflict as much pain as possible upon him. He didn't care if he had to wait to do so, but he would do it.
"Come on. He's quite far away, and I'm sure he would love to see you." Kale stood up slowly and kept the knife in his hand, following the torturer out of the room and down the corridors. He wanted to throw the knife, catching him in the back, but he reminded himself to bide his time. He wanted the death to be slow and painful and agonising and bloody... not quick. He could afford to wait for that.
He was led up some stairs that he had never seen before, and down a corridor to one of the quieter, more secluded parts of wherever it was they were being held. However, even as he was led past various rooms and corridors, he didn't once see a window or a way out. He was led to a locked door, and the torturer unlocked it slowly. Kale's hand twitched, and as the door swung open he prepared to throw the knife and end whoever it was that had caused so much pain for him.
But he froze when he saw the organised chaos of the room. The metal strewn across the floor, the tables covered in devices and blueprints, and patches of blood on the tiles that had yet to be cleaned. Bandages wrapped around the hands and arms of the boy in the room, already stained marroon with drying blood. An enormous television screen and two amplifiers beside it took up the entire of the back wall, and Kale noticed the chain around the boy's ankles. Even then he didn't fully comprehend exactly who it was in the room... until the torturer spoke his name.
"Vash, there's someone here to see you." Kale watched him cringe, frozen in place. "I'm sorry," Vash said, absolutely terrified. He spoke fast, his voice filled with desperation. "It's not ready yet. You keep telling me to get prosthetics ready, but I don't know how to make them, and when you told me it was still hard... The Spider took so long, and I didn't mean it to, and I'm sor-" "Vash, look at me when I talk to you." Cringing at the words Vash turned, and met Kale's eye instantly. His own eyes widened, and he unconsciously took a step away from the desk before the chain stopped him. "Kay! You're-" He broke off, taking in the magnitude of all of his injuries. His eyes fell on the prosthetic legs and he stepped back again, shaking his head. "No... they... they told me they'd leave you alone! They promised!" "Vash," Kale said slowly. He was trying to piece it together in his mind. How could Vash be the one to hurt them all so horribly...? But Vash didn't seem to be able to hear him. "The Spider was supposed to be the end! They weren't going to use it... they weren't going to use it on you!"
Kale took a step towards his panicking brother, and stepped closer and closer until he was in front of him. Tears appeared in Vash's eyes and he threw his arms around Kale, hugging him and whispering apologies over and over. Whispered confessions to all of the things that they had suffered through. And, with a small, invisible smile Kale brought up the knife and stabbed his little brother in the back. Vash gasped, and Kale drove the knife deeper into his back, twisting it as he did so. He thought he heard the torturer in the doorway curse, but he wasn't sure.
"Die," Kale whispered, his voice filled with glee as he was ripped away from Vash. "Die, die, die..." Vash fell to the floor, the knife still sticking out of his back, and the torturer immediately shouted for a medic. There wasn't much blood quite yet, the knife acting as a lid on the wound, but everything in the room was tinged red in Kale's eyes. He was laughing again, laughing at the irony of killing the only person he would have died for. Because, of course, it was hilarious.
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Post by Cedar on Sept 1, 2012 16:12:38 GMT -4
As every pin was shoved deeply into him, Oryn screamed, and as his body began twitching uncontrollably, aggravating the pain, he simply resorted to whimpers of pain--too injured and exhausted even to scream. He had lost all hope; there was nothing left. Not that there had ever been anything, really, but now that even Harley and Kale had snapped, Oryn no longer saw the point in trying to resist. He closed his eyes and wished he could die.
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Post by Cuppy/Wonders on Sept 1, 2012 17:35:49 GMT -4
Kale knew that he had done something terrible, something that opposed everything had he had lived for, but he didn't know what it was. It couldn't have been stabbing Vash in the back... he had made all of the things that had been used to hurt him, and he had been told that he had survived the attack a few days ago. His fingers were twitching, however, fisting and unfisting in the sheets of the bed in this stifling room, and he wanted to use his weapons on anyone who crossed him. He didn't care who the person was... he didn't particularly care if it was himself. All he wanted was something to do, something to hurt instead of being kept in this room like a caged animal. He wanted the leader to return, so that he could tell him that he wouldn't kill or maim anyone without his permission and so he'd be allowed a gun, or a knife, or another pretty device that he could use to paint the walls red. He wanted to make someone suffer, and he could be complacent for that.
Almost as though they could read his thoughts, the door flew open and the leader strolled inside, a smile on his lips. Kale sat up immediately, staring at him wide-eyed. "Your brother is alright," he said with a smile. "He's spending some quality time with Harley right now." Kale's mouth twisted into a snarl. "I don't care," he hissed. "I just want to hurt someone. Let me hurt someone. Let me out of here..." The leader raised an eyebrow, regarding him skeptically. "...How much do you remember about your time before us?" The pain had blocked out almost everything substantial - all he remembered was flickering images of faces. He shook his head to show his confusion. "Well, do you remember Lysander Martyn?" He remembered hate, and disgust. Finding a madman soaked in blood in his room. Being afraid, and so very angry. He nodded. "Would you like to hurt him?" Kale grinned. The words sounded like music to his starved ears.
The leader moved out of the doorway, allowing Kale to leave the room for the first time in days. Kale ran out, but was stopped when the leader grabbed the still tender flesh on his arms and pulled him to a halt. "Don't you want some weapons? Some means to deal with him?" Kale nodded slowly, and allowed the leader to pull him towards where the arsenal of weapons were kept.
The room was large, and all four walls were covered with various instruments of torture. He stared at all of the devices, and immediately felt himself drawn towards a pair of knives directly in front of him. He lifted one and tucked it into his pocket, and placed a small letter-opener on top of it... and then found a round disc around the size of a plate, with serrated blades jutting out of the edges. "Hand saws," the leader said with a tinge of admiration in his voice. "Very effective." Kale took one in his hand, finding a handgrip on the reverse side, and pushed a button in the middle of it. The saws suddenly sprang into life, hissing and buzzing as they twirled in a fast, deadly circle. He grinned at it and took its twin down from beside it. The leader gave him a pack, and he tucked the knives and the saws inside. He realised that a coil of rope was at the bottom of the pack, and he looked at the leader curiously. "In case he tries to get away," he explained.
Kale turned back to the wall and took an electronic device that he didn't recognise - a nail gun, as the leader explained, a hammer, a sewing needle and some thread. He doubted he would actually get around to using them, but he could hope.
He turned to the leader, grinning at him and pulling the pack over his shoulder. "Shall we?" the leader asked, and without waiting for a response he led Kale out of the room and down a corridor, until he reached a large, decrepit-looking blue box. He opened the door to it and ushered Kale inside, moving to the centre of the suddenly-larger room and playing with a few devices. Kale closed the door again, not caring about the sudden space, and jumped when he heard a whirring noise and felt the entire thing move. After a few moments it stilled, and Kale opened the door again.
He recognised the sound of a ship, and the air smelt like home. He saw the black sails and dark wood and knew that he was on Lysander's ship. He had crossed worlds. Before he could ask him how this was possible, the man pushed him out and gave him one final smirk. "Come back here once you're done. Don't take too long." The door slammed shut in Kale's face.
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