"The Attorney General called."
"Huh, to let him go, right?"
"Yeah. She said she hopes we didn't touch him." Laugh echoed through the concrete room as the junior officer said it.
"Well, he's still alive, isn't he?" The senior officer asked as looked to the middle of the room.
"Barely." Another man joined in wearing a plastic apron splattered with blood.
"He looks good to me." A fourth one stepped closer, same bloodied apron and even a face mask… and the thing they were looking and talking about was a man.
Hanging from the ceiling, his hands and legs chained together, just like meat in a butcher's shop ready to be cut to pieces.
His whole body was covered in blood, bruises, and cuts. His face was unrecognizable from the beating, and electric cables hung from his nipples, showing they truly went all out on him. It looked like a scene straight out of a horror movie, and the smell of blood, piss, and the bleach they used to torture him even more… made everything worse.
It burned your eyes, made it hard to breathe. The second you inhaled that mix, you wanted to puke… at least, if you were human.
For them, this was a job and nothing personal.
"Well he's still alive so get him down." As the senior officer said it the two other officer in aprons looked disappointed, like it wasn't enough for them…. maybe after it it was personal for them, though it wasn't really over
They still had to patch him up, make him look presentable, like nothing had happened, and the only thing on César's side was that he felt nothing, since he was unconscious.
He didn't feel the alcohol poured into his wounds. Didn't feel the cheap glue they used instead of stitches. Didn't feel the high-pressure salt water when they washed his body down.
He felt nothing, but on the other side they have enjoyed every moment of it.
"What did the Attorney General say this time?" The senior officer asked as he left the "interrogation" room with his junior, who, as he heard the question, stopped.
"She said, 'Consequences. Consequences.'" He recited the words of the Attorney General in a way that worry was clear in his voice, worry that an agent like him couldn't afford to have.
"That's it?" The senior officer laughed. "Other times she starts screaming and shouting, and now that's all?" He shook his head and started walking away, but the junior officer's voice stopped him.
"That's what's worrying me. Her voice was low… but not in an angry way. She sounded… scared, I think."
"In her place, I'd be worried too. Shit, I am worried." The senior officer turned back. "She's in the middle of it, almost all the cartels and mafias are trying to make peace under her watch and then this–"
He was interrupted by the sound that echoed through the hallway and when he looked back it was them. The two officers accidentally dropped the barely alive César on the floor as they tried to close the door behind them.
"That motherfucker fucked up everything." The officer continued as he pointed at César. "It is just unbelievable how crazy you need to be to do something so atrocious." He said as he watched him on the ground barely breathing.
"Well, they said he doesn't fear death, it is—"
"Bullshit, Paulo, every single human being fears it." The senior officer interrupted Paulo and continued. "... but there are some that accept it. And this motherfucker is one of them. That is the worst kind, the one that accepts it because they don't give a fuck about action, nor what follows it."
Silence followed as both of them just looked at César as he lay there, maybe thinking about how easy it would be just to end it all, just shoot him and have peace… but peace never comes that easily, peace never comes out of violence… and moreover… violence is what they need because of how he fucked up everything.
They need violence to end it all and make peace out of it.
"So what should we do with him, Niel?" One of the men asked the senior officer as they pulled him up.
"Well we kidnapped him from his house, so take him back there." Neil said as he still thought about it… just shoot him and peace comes upon them.
"I think it is a tarp." Paulo suddenly spoke.. "Like we already kidnapped him the fifth time and there are no guards nor nothing at his house… it's like he wants to be tortured doesn't it?"
"Maybe he just wants to pretend that he's innocent, doesn't want the agency's eyes on him, so he behaves and goes with the process." Niel answered but it was clearly something special.
Special in the meaning that up until now it was César, the only one who got this treatment, that was tortured five times without dying or even doing any retaliation. He did nothing, just got well and lived his life until the next… 'treatment.'
It was just unbelievable to even think about it. They tried everything. They pulled his nails, they electrocuted him, they tried waterboarding, they broke his fingers, pulled out his teeth, they used chemicals, but not a single word left his mouth.
"Insane… but he was in the G4 after all, they were trained to this type of endurance." Paulo said as he too looked at César's body just unconsciously being held up by two others. "Well then, I take him back like nothing ever happened, like every time." He giggled a bit as he shook his head about the absurdity of it, though what was absurd was that this was their fifth time torturing him… and getting not even a single bit of information or whatever they wanted.
That was the scariest part about it, that they all felt it even though they tried to push it down. All of them felt it as they tortured him, as they watched him, that he didn't speak a word. He felt every single cut, punch, electroshock, and so on, but he didn't say a word, didn't scream loud, didn't beg… he just… accepted it.
With that, though, his next appointment was already booked, and they only took him home to let him heal a bit.
He was out the whole trip to his house, so out that they thought he had actually died… though they didn't really give a fuck about it, and when they arrived, they simply pulled him out of the car, opened his house front door, and tossed him in like ever other time, though they were kind enough to lock the door and after that nothing.
Just silence, not even a word, nothing… as he was experiencing something that comes with torture, the darkness and the silence within it. You don't dream, you don't see memories or flashbacks, but as your body and mind react to the pain, it pushes you into a state where you transcend what it feels like to be alone, what it feels like to be desperate.
Alone with your own darkness that is terrifying, though he wasn't alone for long as a voice broke the silence and came as a light.
[System: Special Card Use: Heal]
"...f-fuck." A simple and very descriptive word was the first that came out of his mouth as his eyes opened, staring at the familiar ceiling that he stared at many times.
With the help of the System and, well, the Special Card, he was as fresh as new in a second… yeah, a Special Card that he hadn't had during his first torture session… that time, he did it all on his own, survived on his own.
"It was the worst so far…" César whispered as he slowly stood up, just watching down on his hand and remembering well the beginning of the torture session… when they fucking shocked him many times. It was the worst feeling… well, not really… the needles were worse than everything.
Needles that go under the fingernails that haven't even grown properly back, doing it while you're still conscious… it might not look like a big thing from the outside, but experiencing it is a whole different story. Though for them, it was just foreplay, just a warm up, but if they start with that, you already know you're fucked, because it means they haven't even really begun yet.
[Challenge Completed: Survive five torture sessions.]
[Reward: One Special Card, "Time Manipulation," duration 10 seconds.]
"Haa… I traded four hours of torture for ten seconds… what a good deal." He giggled as he thought about the absurdity that he actually did it.
Five torture sessions, lasting hours, and the requirement of the challenge was to stay up for an hour from the beginning of the torture, which was kind of easy as they used substances to keep him awake, but not every time… which meant he pushed himself beyond his capabilities, even shocking the agents themselves.
Everybody gives up after minutes… yet he didn't say a word for a whole hour, and after that, he passed out, his mind just immediately shut off as the time hit the hour mark, from the pain, the suffering, the desperate pleading within him.
And for all of that pain, mentally and physically, he got ten seconds to freeze time… ten seconds. Though he didn't really want that, there was another thing.
"Why are you waiting? Ask it." César said as he looked straight ahead waiting for the System window to pop-up.
[Would you like to gamble with your life for another Special Card?]
"I do." No hesitation in his voice as he said it.
[System: Gamble accepted: Russian Roulette, a revolver with one bullet. Spin the cylinder at least three times, then gamble with your life.]
Out of nowhere, suddenly a shiny silver revolver appeared in his hand, and for a second he didn't do anything, just looked at it in silence for minutes.
Then he spun the cylinder five times and pushed the barrel to his head. "If I die again with this bullshit… I give up." He whispered with a final smile and pulled the trigger.
[System Notice: You have died.]
[System Notice: You have been respawned.]
[System Notice: New Beginning, Welcome to Sandria!]