A Rat Trapped in a Cage (6)

(A/N: Warning. This chapter is gruesome!)

Vernam's POV:

I slowly began to regain consciousness, and as I did, my mind started blaring pain through my body. I had a horrible headache, even worse than the one I had after taking my first mark. It was like a blacksmith hammering away at a sword on his anvil, except the sword was my brain, the anvil was my body, and the hammer was the god-forsaken pommel.

The sudden mention of a pommel brought back the memories of what I had just gone through. If I remember correctly, Igmor lured me into a trap and then did some crazy shit with the tree which practically made him invincible, and then he proceeded to beat the crap out of me. Which begs the question: Why am I still alive? And since I was alive that also made me wonder: Where am I?

With these questions swirling around my mess of a head, I opened my eyes... I opened my eyes... my eyes... opened... It was then that I realized, my eyes had been open. In fact, it was the first thing I did when I woke up, but my eyes opened were just as dark as my eyes closed, with no light entering them. The next thing I tried to do was move my naked body around. I attempted to move my arms which had appeared back in place, but with no result. It was the same with my legs, my hips, and even my head and neck. Something was stopping me from moving at all.

It was true that when you were deprived of some senses, your others became heightened as a result. I was able to use feel alone to come to the conclusion that the objects holding me in place were smooth, circular pieces of wood wrapped around almost every joint I had. But other than that there was nothing. The next thing to do would be to use my sense of hearing, maybe give a yell to see if it echoed at all.

I opened my mouth and yelled out loud, "Echoooo!"

I awaited an echo... no, I awaited the scream itself. But nothing. I screamed out again, but still, not a sound. It was then I once again realized that I couldn't hear anything. Now that I thought about it, it was strange that I didn't hear the sound of my limbs struggling in the wooden locks or anything for that matter. This with my inability to move and see brought me to another question: What in the Underworld is going on?

I obviously passed out because of Igmor's final strike, and to be honest I expected death right then. I mean, I've not only been in the business of espionage for my entire life but also assassination. When a person has a political enemy that they need to beat, but can't find anything good to use against them democratically, then they turn to less civil means. But there was no way they would do that themselves, that would stain their impeachable record. So they use people like me. It's a common theme found within all types of society.

I've hurt people. I've killed people. I've tortured people. It was just the profession. And when you walk such a dangerous line, you accept the inevitability that your end won't be a peaceful one. So maybe after having me almost bleed to death, Igmor has left me somewhere to slowly dehydrate to death. It was the only possibility I could really think of. Torture was out of the question because when doing torture you want your victim to be able to see the pain you are inflicting and you want them to hear their own screams of anguish. That way they would be terrified and answer all of your demands. Democracy was also out of the question, has been the moment I discovered this area.

Igmor was the type of person that when I looked at him, I felt an instinctual urge to not get on his bad side. And I guess this was a prime example. Just to get rid of me he laid out an elaborate plan, and now has left me to die while I think about all the mistakes I've ever made.

A fitting end for a killer.

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I'm not sure how long had passed, but I was really feeling the pain of sensory deprivation now. I had already gone through the pain of not moving for a long period of time, but not being able to see and hear along with my still pounding head was starting to make me crazy. I've begun to feel like I can see things around me, even though I can't and I've begun to hear things even though I know I shouldn't be. I felt as though I was spinning, not knowing what was down and up any longer. My body was begging for some kind of interaction with the world.

This deprivation of sense... what a unique method of torture. I never even considered it-!

I suddenly screamed out loud as the ice-cold sensation of steel entering my belly flowed through my body. It felt like it went about halfway through before stopping and slowly turning. With each scrape against my insides, I felt not only my insides churn, but my head as well. It was a numbing kind of pain, one that I've never felt before. The slow turning came to a stop and whatever was cutting through me went up. It kept going up and up, very slowly mind you. And once it was just below my boobs, it went back down. I kept moving down until it was just above my pelvis. Once it made a full cut, I felt it leave my belly, leaving me with a cut belly exposed to the outside elements.

With nothing to see and nothing to hear, it left my brain only able to feel. Only able to feel the frigid blade as it moved up and down my insides, and feel it as it left with precisiveness. As the blade left, I was finally able to breathe again. Through the bouts of sanity I had, I came to the conclusion that nothing important was hit, only flesh and muscle. However, I didn't really care much as I was completely focused on not going insane at the slightest touch of air on my inner organs.

However, just as I was coming to terms with the pain, another sense of stimuli hit me like the Ice Wall. I felt something gripping onto my flab of open skin, a thumb on the inside, and four other fingers on the outside, and the same happened to the other side of the cut. Then they gripped tightly, causing me to gag. I would throw up, but there was nothing to throw up. The tight grip wasn't the worst though, the true pain came from when they began to pull back. The slight cut became a gaping hole in my stomach, and this lasted for a long time. Just me, an ever-tightening grip on my inside, and my opened belly.

Eventually, I could feel the left side of my cut being let go, but the flap was already stretched out, so it became a victim of gravity and hung at my side. My body was beginning to become numb at this point, body and mind, but it seemed like whoever was doing this didn't want to see that happen.

The same blade that cut open my belly began to cut at the outstretched piece of skin. It went from the top of the cut in a half ellipse all the way down to the bottom of the cut. I couldn't hear the flesh hit the ground, but I could feel it as it rolled down my leg. Then my left side was stretched out again, and the same was done to it.

It hurt to breathe. It hurt to even live at this point. Unbearably so. It was the complete opposite of what happened earlier. I was deprived of my senses, but now I couldn't get enough of one. Specifically, pain.

This went on for longer than I could have ever wanted, to the point where my belly being wide open felt normal. My limbs were limp as I had given up on controlling them a while ago. But then suddenly they tensed up again and I felt something griping around my kidney. It was that same leather glove from before. It poked at my kidney before gripping it and then suddenly tightening its grip. My kidney exploded.

A sudden deep visceral pain bloomed from my inner thighs before exploring the rest of my body. It wasn't the same as a cut of flesh, it was much more sickening than that like my very soul had been crushed. I cursed the training I went through to keep my mind conscious even under incredible stress as tears of misery began rolling down my eyes. I was losing grip on reality.

Every second that passed with this pain felt like it would be my last, but it wasn't. Hell, I actually wished it was my last. I couldn't hear myself, but I was probably begging for death at every passing second. Instead of sweet release though, I only got that same leathery touch of death gripped around my liver. And then it exploded, restarting the cycle.

This went on until I didn't have any organs left except for my lungs, Duranian, and heart. I honestly didn't even know how I was alive right now. My mind was empty, not even thinking of dying anymore, just empty. I was unable to utter a word or a scream. My entire body was limp. I couldn't even feel anymore. I was an empty husk.

Suddenly though, I felt a rejuvenating sense take me over. My organs slowly formed back into organs, and my muscles, flesh, and skin reformed as well. I could even feel a small amount of the burden on my mind leave, giving me back my sense of life. I was able to feel again and breathe with intent. I felt relieved. I was still traumatized because of what just happened, but at least I was able to think again.

But then I came to an understanding. I was just where I started. Locked in place with nothing to see and nothing to hear. Unless you counted the faces of the people I killed or the sounds of their blood sloshing as it drained from their necks that showed up after some time spent in this black box. Because once again, they began to appear.

After a while of this torture, I once again felt a stabbing pain, but not in my belly. On my arm was a shallow cut, nothing crazy, but the way it moved scared me. It went in a circle around my arm, and then it went up a little before making another circle. Then it made a line, connecting the two full cuts. Once they were connected, I felt that same leather glove grip on the line, which made me jump and try to escape as fast and hard as I could with no results. It pulled and pulled while I struggled until the entire section of skin was pulled off, leaving me with a bleeding arm.

It was then that I realized what was happening. I was being tortured to the brink of death, then healed, and then tortured again, and then healed. It was going to be a cycle that lasted however long whoever was doing this wanted it to. It was with this realization that my body went limp again. It wasn't from the pain of my skin being torn off, but the loss of hope.

I would never escape this cycle.

Not even death could save me.

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Quis' POV:

I used one more healing Fruit on Vernam before taking off my leather gloves and walking toward the exit of the room where I recently fought her. This was a process that would take time, multiple days at that. It was nearing four in the morning, and I absolutely needed to get to the classroom before I passed out. Even just 2 and a half hours of sleep was better than nothing. I had to teach an entire class of students tomorrow after all.

Vernam was an issue I would take care of during the night, and it would only take a couple more of those nights to finish the first step. I needed her to be completely broken mentally, not even having to strength to kill herself. It would only be at that time that I could brainwash her into working for me. That was another reason I wasn't just doing the same thing I did with Salquam, making sure she didn't connect the torture with any of my physical features. It was something similar to disciplining a pet with something other than the hand you use to pet it.

Right now she might know that it's me doing it, but once she's been destroyed mentally, she will only know that dark room and leather gloves. That was why I made sure to gouge her eyes out and deafen her by destroying her eardrums before doing anything else. To do that I had to learn how to be selective with healing Fruits, which did take some experimenting, but it worked out in the end. That was also the reason I made sure to drain her Genesis Liquid and concuss her. I didn't want her to have the idea of using Genesis Sight, ruining my well-thought-out plans.

This was she would succumb to the pressure of it all and allow me to control her despite her knowing that deep down it was me who did it in the first place. The human psyche was very interesting in that aspect, ignoring the obvious when you know you couldn't handle it. That was the only reason this type of manipulation had any usefulness to it.

Capture. Torture. Break. Help. Brainwash. Control.

With those steps, I would capture Vernam as one of my own. But for now, I must be getting some sleep. I'll need brain power to make up a good excuse for why Vernam isn't present. And then I'll need to deal with the students. After that, I need to come up with more torture methods...

'For now though, I'm just going to focus on sleep.'

I sat down on the stage in the classroom and closed my eyes before peacefully falling asleep.