Chapter 7

I woke up still in pain, but much less. Surprisingly, I think much of it healed. For a moment I worried I had died in my sleep and revived, but I still had some cracked teeth. I had slept through the guards coming into the room, and they now sat at the table playing cards as usual.

I sat up with my back against the wall.

As the day went by they occasionally made comments about me and the fight while smirking and laughing. I didn't let it bother me. I was more focused on what Simon had said last night. My fighting style was manipulative? Isn't that actually a mean thing to say? I wanted to laugh at how it made me happy to hear last night.

One of the guards outside knocked before opening the door and peaking in. "Sir, Dr. Borscht is here."

My heart sank.

The fat guard set his cards down and seemed surprised. "Again? Alright, let him in."

The guard at the door opened it wider to let the doctor in. The three nurses weren't with him this time.

He walked in and as he looked at me his expression changed to a stoic concern.

"What happened? Why is he in this condition?"

The fat guard answered him happily.

"He got a bit rowdy last night. Even tried to escape. We taught him a lesson."

"... I see."

He went from looking at me to each of the other prisoners and the guards. Inspecting them all like he was thinking about something.

The fat guard started looking nervous when the doctor didn't speak for a while and just stood there looking things over.

"Is- is everything ok? It's not new. Plenty of people tend to go mad from the torture eventually. I assume your methods just made it happen sooner."

"Yes... well, nothing to be done about it now. Please have him brought to the room."

"Uh, sure. Get em ready boys!"

The two guards outside the room came in as the doctor walked out.

Daniel suddenly yelled, "You can't! He just went yesterday! At this rate-"

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH, PRISONER! Anyone else speaks up, I'll break your jaw! I don't care what happens to any of you, so just try testing me!"

4 guards entered my cell, while 2 stayed near the door. I wanted to fight back, but I was too scared. I couldn't think so I charged into them. They just caught me easily and placed shackles on my arms and legs.

"No more chances with you, little hero. Hahaha"

…

Tied back down to that cold table with the doctor and his 3 nurses looking at me again, I couldn't stop shaking in fear.

Dr. Borscht waited for the guards to leave before pulling the cover off the cart in the corner. He spoke to the nurses while he looked over the tools.

"We have a small problem. Our artifact has been damaged. When he returns in perfect health, they will know something is strange."

"Could you return him in a similar condition after the procedure?" One of the nurses suggested.

"I may need to go with that. There aren't many explanations or excuses for it otherwise. Finding a healer would be unreasonable after calling him a low value prisoner. This also makes it pointless to try and find any effects that had prolonged from his previous visit... No matter though. Plenty of time. Well, check any differences between this session and the next. This will be a much better session for such things anyway."

"How would you like to start, doctor?"

"It will be extremely important going forward to find the limits of his ability. We need to know how many times he can harvest artifacts, if there's a daily limit, certain weaknesses, etc. There is no quota today, so let's take our time. We will be testing deaths by different methods."

"Yes doctor."

…

I opened my eyes, but everything was dark. I was sitting up, leaning with my back against the wall. Sounds of something dripping, people shouting, banging of metal on the stone floors. My first thought was that I was back in my cell, but I could feel metal shackles binding my legs and arms. Did they take my eyes before I woke up? No, I can feel them, and I'm not in any pain."

The doctor's voice startled me from across the room.

"Do not report that! Remove it from your notes!"

The nurse sounded like she had been crying.

"But... Sir..."

"We're not even supposed to be down here today! Do you want them to blame us for this!? I'll be fine because I'm valuable, but what about you? They'll put you to death for the part you played here."

"I was just doing what you told me."

"THEN KEEP DOING AS I TELL YOU!”

The nurse sobbed.

"...I'm sorry. I'm simply looking out for you. Look, you're my only nurse now. I need to know I can rely on you. Promise me you won't tell anyone and give me your notes... Good girl."

I heard the sound of papers being torn apart.

He continued, "This isn't our fault. We couldn't have known. But we know better now. We can't stop-"

"Doctor! He's... awake."

"... William. How are you feeling? What do you remember?"

What the hell was going on? He sounded scared.

"I remember you killing me… over and over and over. I begged you to stop, but you never do."

"Please, understand that these experiments are very important. You are a vital asset to the kingdom. I apologize if it's been rough for you so far, but I swear that from now on I'll consider your comfort. What was the last thing you remember?"

"I... not being able to breath, I think? I- I want to go back to my cell... And I don't want to come back here."

"Alright. Let's just wait for the guards to get here, and you can go back. We can take a little break from our meetings. You've given me a lot to... think about."

The sounds of footsteps and shouting grew louder until they were right outside the door. The doctor let them in.

"You're late! Look what you let happen!" He yelled at them.

An unfamiliar voice, "My gods! ... what? ... How?"

"Enough wasting time! Get him back to a cell immediately! If you had more guards positioned outside my door this wouldn't have happened. I told all of you this was incredibly important research, and you cut corners! Two of my nurses dead! The king will hear of this!"

I still had no idea what was going on, but I was lifted by my arms and walked out while the doctor continued to yell at people. The floor was wet under my bare feet.

I was thrown inside, but left shackled and blindfolded. Moments later, the door to the room slammed shut.

Anna called to me, not bothering to whisper.

"Joh- William, are you ok?! What happened?"

"I... I don't know. I just woke up and everyone was yelling."

"You're covered in blood. What did they do to you?" Daniel asked.

I tried to remember. I was on the table. The deaths were a less painful to start with. Throat cutting again, then wrists, then stabbing through the heart. Painful, but quick. Then they started to hurt more. Suffocation, choking, different kinds of cutting, ... what was after that? So, so many different deaths. I didn't want to believe they were real. Thinking about them made my head hurt.

"They killed me in lots of ways, but I don't think I woke for a while after a point. Maybe they got scared and thought they killed me for good."

There was a silence. I knew they didn't believe me. They probably thought I was insane, but were trying to be considerate about it.

Anna spoke, "... That sounds really difficult. I'm sorry."

"He probably passed out a bunch of times through different methods of torture." Henry said.

The blindfold was lifted off my face suddenly due to Betty’s tail.

"Thanks, Betty."

She waved with her tail. I took a look down at myself and they were right. I was covered in blood, but I felt fine.

Simon snapped me out of my inspection.

"We heard screaming and someone called for guards. They left us alone here, and it sounded like a fight broke out."

That sounded promising.

"Really? Maybe someone broke out? Or there's a riot?"

Daniel stood up and grabbed the bars at the front of his cell.

"Finally! I knew it!"

Henry laughed before speaking.

"Well, if that was the case, either they killed all the guards, or they're all dead, and it failed, cause I don't hear nothing anymore."

We all waited and listened. It was odd for there to be lights on and no guards in the room. Silence. Hours passed until the sound of footsteps could be heard approaching. Heavy metal on stone. The fat guard.

He threw the door open.

"Get away from the bars!"

He yelled at Daniel, who in turn moved back so fast he fell over. He turned and glared at me, but didn't say anything before sitting down.

For the rest of the day he was the only guard watching us until just before lights out, a group of guards I didn't recognize joined him and introduced themselves as the new guards in this area. There were four of them. They asked him what happened, and we all waited for his response. The fat guard took a long drink of whine and told them.

"We were attacked. A group from the outside broke in and tried to get to the prisoners to break them free. We took care of it, but they got a bunch of guards."

"Damn. I could hear the fighting and screams from my section. Wish I could've seen some of the action."

"Same, I rushed over when I heard them call for more guards, but by the time I got there everything was over. Did the intruders die somewhere else cause I-"

"Shut up! You'll be briefed on it tonight. Just turn the lights off."

He stood up and left with a bit of a drunken wobble. After he was gone, the other guards talked.

"Geez, what an ass."

"Maybe he was close to one of the guards?"

"Nah. I everyone I know that knows him, says he's a drunk, lazy, jerk. Probably just hurt his ego."

"I heard the same about him. Let's just put up with it and try to get a transfer somewhere else fast. Hopefully they get some more hands down here soon."

They snuffed the lights out and left.