Chapter Eleven: Cruelty

Hours later, Joseph was alone with his thoughts in the infirmary, in pain, but confident that after that mad display, Liliana was his for sure. She wasn't answering any of his calls, but after a breakup like that, she was probably still recovering.

It was dark in the room, barely any light streaming in from the window, but he was lying in bed and would probably be there at least another day after that fiasco.

He had, of course, planned to be caught by the idiot boyfriend of the girl he'd been trying to take as his own for years.

All in all, he thought, it was a lot better than he'd expected. He'd had emergency services already ready to be called in case he'd gotten shot. The whole process had taken a little longer than he'd hoped, but screwing Liliana in Daniel's room every day for over a week had finally paid off.

Now, with the video evidence he'd gathered, his initial V.U.I. usage, he'd be able to get Daniel expelled without even breaking a sweat, and probably get a commendation for turning in such a violent person on top of it.

Yes, everything had worked according to plan, and as soon as Liliana talked to him again, he'd be the one to console her and finish the process of making her his.

Breaking him from his thoughts, he heard footsteps from the hallway and pulled a gun from under his pillow.

He was so smart, he'd really thought of everything, including this idiot Daniel trying to come back after the fact to get some more hits in.

He'd really wanted the satisfaction of ruining his life, but ending it would be just as fun.

The lights in the hall were motion sensor exclusively after dark and blinked on at predictable intervals.

It'd be easy enough to figure out where his head would be, even with the silhouette in the doorway.

When the hall lights reached his room though they turned off and nobody showed up.

Confused, he stood up, fighting past the pain and brandishing the gun like he'd seen in the movies, and said, "Who's there!"

He felt something move past him, pushing him to the side as it moved past him in the darkness. Looking around, he absently hit the switch for the light, only to scream in pain immediately.

Where the light switch should be was only the jagged remains of the old switch, now covered in his blood.

Swearing, he fiddled with it until he could get the shards into the "on" position, only to find that the lights didn't work the way they should.

They cast a deep crimson light on the entire room, casting a sinister light on his surroundings.

Looking around, panic growing in his chest, he forced self control as another invisible presence pushed him to the side and he shot randomly into the room.

As he shot, he felt a burning pain along his chest and looked down to see that he'd been cut, thin, but bleeding profusely.

Screaming, he ran out of the room and shouted for help.

The footsteps began again as he ran, but for some reason the motion sensor lights didn't pick up his frantic running, lighting slowly behind him as his assailant followed him.

Panicking more, he started shooting back at the assailant, stopping for a moment as he watched a bright glint block each bullet, sending them into the walls.

He ran faster now, not looking where he was going until he hit an intersection, where he could go right or left, slamming into the wall, hard.

He started to run left, but the wall somehow slid shut, slamming loudly and closing off his path.

Beyond thought, beyond logic, he turned and tried to run down the right pathway, but found it already shut, leaving him at a dead end.

He looked down the hallway and saw the lights getting closer and closer, now noticing a pair of glowing red eyes moving through the darkness and encroaching light.

He got onto his knees and began begging, "Please, I don't know what you want, but please, I'll do ANYTHING!"

The lights stopped getting closer and in a moment of desperation, he pulled his gun and shot again.

This time, the bullet went straight through where the eyes had been. They were gone now, and the lights began to go out, leaving him in darkness.

He heard the walls slide open, the hallways open again for him to leave and he started sobbing, relief and fear commingling freely in his chest.

Deciding to take this chance at freedom, he stood and started to walk, clearing his eyes with his sleeve and felt a pressure on his left shoulder.

His eyes widened as he felt a second pressure on his shoulder and he turned his head to see that a massive hand of metal had reached straight out of the metal wall and was pulling him toward it.

He started screaming, panic overtaking every thought and a second hand came out of the first and clamped down over his mouth, hard.

The hands slowly pulled him to the wall, his screams muffled and barely able to breathe through his nose with the panic and fear.

As he reached the wall, he felt another hand grab the top of his head and hold it still as the hands pulled him into the wall.

As fear and lack of air finally overtook him, he began to black out and soon the darkness took him.

He awoke to find himself strapped to a chair, chains holding his arms and legs in place and table of primitive and sharp tools nearby.

"Do you know why this is happening to you, Joseph?" A voice he didn't recognize asked from the darkness beyond his view.

"Please let me go, please, I'm begging you, I'll do anything," He screamed, ignoring the question.

The voice asked another question, "Have you ever heard of a student by the name of Evelyn Dwyer?"

Joseph shook his head, realizing that his only way out was to play by the rules.

"She made...poor choices. Just like you. Joseph. Poor choices that ended up costing her everything she held dear."

"What are you going to do to me?" Joseph asked, terrified.

From the shadows, Ronin appeared. A woman with green hair that bobbed around her, covering her glasses following just behind him, tapping away rapidly at a datapad.

Looking down at him coldly, Ronin said, "I'm going to be honest, when I caught you with Liliana, I wanted nothing more than to kill you right then and there. I wanted to visit upon you the pain that you'd been so kind to share with me."

Joseph looked at the tools and at Ronin again and started to try and break free of his chains.

Ronin laughed mirthlessly and said, "That won't do you any good...now where was I?" He touched his cheek and the green haired girl tapped his shoulder and said, "What are you going to do?"

Looking at Joseph blankly for a few moments, Ronin exclaimed in pleasant surprise and said, "Ah yes, Evelyn Dwyer! A brilliant researcher, when she wasn't chasing fairy tales and awards. She specialized in a variety of biological studies, truly impressive. I took from her what she held dear and I'm going to do the exact same thing to you.

See...I know guys like you, what they're after, and how they get it. Liliana told me that you and she shared time together some time ago. Initially I thought that maybe you really just wanted sex from her, not unexpected, she's a very attractive girl."

The green haired girl snorted and rolled her eyes and Ronin continued, ignoring her, "But I heard you tell her you loved her today, and it was so very very sincere. That said, your punishment will be somewhat more...direct than Evelyn's was.

See, in her research, Evelyn had found a way to change what various neural receptors do, via a slight application of a device she'd developed. What this specific device does is it converts pleasure receptors to pain receptors, it can even control the intensity of sensation that they convey.

What I've decided is that with all things considered, I would convert your...well, your special friend's pleasure receptors to pain receptors, just slightly enough that it would be a low level sting whenever you should be having a good bit of fun."

Joseph's eyes widened and he shot straight up out of his chair in the infirmary. The lights were on, bright as though it were still day time, which he knew was impossible. Gasping for air, he scratched at his throat and was shocked to find that he was free of his shackles.

Looking at his body, it looked like he hadn't gone through ANY of what he was remembering.

Looking at his hands he started shaking, crying softly as he held himself.

Watching him cry from the door, Ronin whispered, "What the hell did you show him?"

Silas smirked darkly and said, "I'll show you the estimated hallucination later on today. It's a shame how difficult this device is to work properly, this would be amazing for interrogations."

Rolling his eyes as he turned to walk away, he asked, "How long do you think he'll be seeing things?"

Following him, Silas said, "I set it to make it so he'd be having all kinds of hallucinations and phantom pains for at least a year, but this is still in the testing phases. That could be the last one he gets or he could get them for the rest of his life. It's all complex, after all, reprogramming part of the brain with Aether energy."

Shrugging, Ronin said, "Oh well. I'm sure he'll get used to them, one way or another."

Ronin's V.U.I. rang as they walked away and he saw that it was Liliana, so he chose to ignore it and Silas said, "She still trying to patch things up with you?"

Nodding, Ronin said, "Yup. You'd think she'd get the point after a week of me ignoring her. Has she come by to see him?"

Silas nodded and said, "Almost everyday since his 'fall' after the fiasco in your room."

From the room, they heard a scream that devolved into panicked gasping and Ronin said, "Let's get back to work, we've got to get the group together."