Chapter 53: A World of Lies and Illusions (Simon)

‘Alright, knife ears. Let’s get talking.’
A blinding light hits my eyes as one of Skav’s Dogs removes the sack from my head. My nose twitches, my throat widens, as if to make me gag at the putrid smell that floods my nose. I have to be in a fish processing building, well… it smells like it. Whatever this building used to be, it has the unmistakable smell of foul and rotten meat left out to bake in the hot sun.
My knees crack, and a pained grunt escapes my lips as the Dogs force me to the ground. I try to lift myself to adjust my position, but the Dog from behind grips my shoulder and pushes me down.
Skav smiles as he swings a sledgehammer around like a toy. ‘Me good friend Max explained that you need to change that report around. Make this place more… accurate. If you get my drift.’
‘You might as well kill me. I won’t change it.’ I growl at the brute.
There is no way in hell they will force me to change the report on what I’ve seen. They can’t even kill me, nor can they even hurt me. All of this is just a waste of time on their end. Intimidation will get them nowhere!
Skav waves his finger at me before slamming the head of his hammer onto the ground with a loud bang.
‘I have a feeling you will say that.’ He casually says to me, ‘but I want to make this clear, and I am going to be really kind to offer this. Please, do what we suggest.’
‘So lie to Alex and everyone else? You must be fucking stupid to think I’ll do that.’ I laugh at him as I point at his sledgehammer. ‘But I want to make this clear, I am going to stick to what I saw and tell everyone about it. Please, do what I suggest and fuck off!’
‘We all live in a world of lies and illusions, Simon. Unfortunately, since words can’t convince you, I suppose direct action will do.’
Skav clicks his fingers, signalling two Dogs escorting a naked Cinari into the room and forcing him down on his knees in front of me. Shaking in fear, he raises his hands slightly above his head, and tears rush from his eyes at the sight of the Dogs. But he was too scared to say anything. From his groin, he has a terrible red rash. Parts of the skin are still bleeding from hours of intense scratching.
With a cheerful whistle, Skav lifts his hammer while he does a little dance. Slowly making his way to the naked Cinari before he smashes the hammer over his head. I let out a sharp scream as blood splats all over my face. My eyes are wide open as I watch in disbelief at how his head explodes with a single good swing.
‘What the fuck!’ I shout at Skav, my hands frantically trying to smear the blood off my face.
Skav looks at the naked corpse and shrugs. He doesn’t care. He just sees a sick young man as a damaged product. Disposable and replaceable. Sexual diseases are hard to cure, often being the end of a prostitute's career if they get any. But death! It is a terrible fate. Skav, that monster, just killed that man like it was no big deal.
‘I like to think this is the last time I will get my favourite hammer dirty.’ He gestures to some Dogs to come over and drag the dead body away. Leaving a trail of crimson as they ditch it outside. ‘You know, during the war. I used that hammer to kill some Cinari soldiers. It is good against your… horses? Yeah, that is the word. Horses. A good swing, and I can hear those massive creatures’ ribs crack upon impact. It was glorious!’
I glare at him, my face burning red as he tells me something so irrelevant. What is his point? To waste my fucking time?
‘So, I will ask again.’ Skav continues with a grin. ‘Can you please change your report to accurately represent the district?’
I shake my head at him. I refuse to comply.
‘Simon,’ Skav sighs as he kneels in front of me. ‘Let me tell you something. When I was a young man, I was forced to fight for the entertainment of your kind. I remember during my first fight, I refused to kill the kid I fought. As punishment, they would grab the other boys. Some of whom were my dearest of friends. And beat them to death until I comply with their order. You want to know why, Simon?’
I frown, unsure what his sick and twisted story has to do with anything. ‘Why?’
‘Because I was just a tool. It was their… your people’s way of getting us to do what they want, even if we detest it. That the consequences will lead to more harm than if I just do what I was told.’ Skav smiles as he taps his hammer on the ground. ‘And to be honest, it is also a good way to get people like you to comply.’
A Dog drags a young girl by the rope around her hands and onto the pool of blood where the first person died. She sobs, her mouth quivering like she knows what is about to happen.
Nothing is wrong with her; she doesn’t seem to have any diseases that I know of. She is completely healthy. Something isn’t right; she shouldn’t be here.
Skav walks over and swaps his hammer for a simple stick. ‘But since you refuse. I think she needs to serve as an example.’
Before I can protest, Skav cracks the stick into the girl’s chest. The poor thing screams and coughs for air as her face plants into the bloodied floor. But before she can get a gasp of air, Skav cracks the stick over her back to force the remaining air out of her lungs.
‘Enough!’ I scream, my eyes water while Skav ruthlessly beats the girl over and over again. Only stopping when the stick snaps in half with a loud bang.
Yet he didn’t stop, he didn’t even consider that his weapon broke on him. He just kicks her, and kicks her. Her stomach turns black, her cheeks swell with blood, and the ridge of her back is now a distorted mountain of broken bones. And he just keeps kicking and kicking. No matter how much I shout, no matter how much I protest. He keeps going.
Skav stops for a moment, smiling as he examines the pain he inflicted on the poor girl. She should be dead, but for some reason or another, she wheezes. Her throat is full of blood, trying to gasp for air, for anything! That sound! That horrible, horrible sound! Her wheezing sounds like bubbling water popping over a hot oven. By the Gods, please kill her. End her suffering!
With pride, Skav gestures for some Dogs to drag her broken body away. She lets out a wet gargle while her feet scrape across the ground. The flesh on her heels peels off to reveal red meat underneath.
‘The cold will finish her off. No need for broken meat anymore.’ He jokes, the fucking animal jokes!
‘Why?!’ I demand, my cheeks drenched with tears.
‘Why?’ Skav raises a brow, like he doesn’t understand my question. ‘She’s an example. What do you mean by “why?”’
‘She was healthy! She didn’t need to die!’ I stutter, trying to come up with a reason to hear why he did such a horrific act. The question itself is irrelevant, but by the Gods, it is something to get me to understand his madness.
Skav’s face lights up, like he sees the perfect opportunity. ‘She is just a common whore. I don’t need her when there is always someone like her in the slums. Desperate, terrified, and willing to sell their dignity for a loaf of bread. She was even one of my best sluts. She made a rich man a lot richer.’
I want to say something, shout at the monster for what he has done. Yet all that my lips can say is silence. I can only whimper. My heart pounds as tears pour from my eyes. I want this to end! By the Gods, let this all end!
‘So, I will ask this again, Simon. Can you please change the report? Skav asks again with a false, aristocratic smile. The kind of smile that tells me that my life will be miserable if I don’t do what he says.
No! I can’t falter! If this is what is going on, I need to stop this. I just have to. People will die, but a few dying will mean I can save hundreds. I can end it all right here. I just need to be brave! Gods, give me the strength to be brave for a bit longer.
I shake my head, ‘no.’ I mumble. It is a pathetic response, but it is one I am proud of. I still have the strength to continue, and I will not be bullied into submission.
He lets out a disappointed sigh, shaking his head while he walks around the room. ‘You know, the hardest battle I fought in was in the city of Tundo. Of all the cities on this forsaken island, that place was the most difficult out of all of them. You Cinari were so eager to burn down every building ever since we broke down those walls. Some of you even made tunnels under the city and fought our diggers. Brave, clever even.’
Skav rambles, looking away like he is trying to catch a thought. ‘Life was never easy as a slave. My mother never wanted me. Did you know that? Anyway, she went sideways when she got pregnant again when I was a little kid. She wasn’t lucky to get that plague that kills the other pregnant women, no, she wasn’t lucky at all. Instead, she went to the tallest point of the mine… and jumped.’ Skav awkwardly laughs. ‘She landed right in front of me, her blood splattered all over my face. I cried for months, but every time I did, I would be whipped until I stopped. My back still carries the scars, the memory of how those whips broke my skin to reveal the red meat underneath.’
‘Why are you telling me this?’
‘Because that is what made me. It is what made all of us. You see, I came to understand that our species are very similar. We are both bastards wearing different skin, willing to do such evils on one another out of petty and insignificant things like revenge or because we think the other is property.’
‘If you know this is wrong, why continue?’
‘It all boils down to power.’ He smiles, clicking his fingers like I am getting close to what he sees or understands about this world. ‘Our kinds want to come out on top, to subjugate and win at all costs. It just so happens that we show our victory by violating the enemy’s autonomy. I don’t agree with Max; hell, I agree with Alex that we are no better than your kind if we continue this path of bloodshed. But on the same token, I like it. I like making money, I love the opportunities that wealth gives me, even if it means I have to step on a few people.’
‘All of this is because you want to make money?’
‘Well, yeah. Let’s be honest with ourselves. We find enslaving each other easy over our own people because we look different. But I believe that even if one species rules this world. We will always find a way to put a chain around the other’s neck. Because all of this comes down to power and the will to subjugate the other. I don’t hate the Cinari because they enslaved me. After all, I would do the same. What I hate is that they will do everything to take my business away. And I can’t let them or you do that.’
Skav stands up and clicks his fingers twice. Two Cinari are dragged into the room, a man and a woman. Both kneeling in front of me with an expression of fear.
‘The world is cruel and unusual, Simon. It goes round, and round. No matter what we do. But the world as we know it thrives on suffering and competition, and I will do everything to win no matter the cost.’
With an apathetic shrug, Skav takes a crossbow from one of his guards and shoots it at the man’s neck. Nailing him to the ground. He kicks his legs around, choking, while the woman next to him screams at the sudden execution.
Grinning, he approaches me, racking the crossbow to reload another bolt before he places the weapon in front of me. No! Oh Gods no! My hands avoid the weapon, moving away from it as I know what he intends me to do.
‘No need to be shy. This will be a quick death.’ He says before he forcefully grabs my hands from behind and pins them against the crossbow. Raising the weapon so the bolt is aiming at the woman’s chest.
The woman sobs as she stares at me with a pleading expression.
‘No, don’t let me do this!’ I beg while I try to fight his grip on me. But it does nothing.
‘You refused to change your report, you refused to say yes. This is the consequence of your actions. The more you refuse, the more whores I will need to drag into here to butcher until you get the point. All of them dying by your hand. I don’t even care if every Cinari in the red-light district dies, I can always get more.’
‘Please!’
‘Shhh, just pull the trigger.’ Skav smiles as he guides my hands over the large trigger mechanism. ‘Come on, kill her.’
‘I can’t!’
‘Yes, you can, Simon. Let me give you a hand!’
I close my eyes and cough as he knees my back. My hands tighten at the sudden shock. As I open them, she is already dead. The bolt sticks out of her chest. Her lifeless corpse lies on the floor in front of me. It is slow, it is odd how blood seeps out of the body like that.
I killed her! I killed her! By the Gods, what have I done? I killed her! I fucking killed her!
‘Simon, you look shocked.’ Skav laughs while he takes the crossbow from my hands. He heads over to her body, chuckles to himself, and kicks her corpse. ‘Yep, the bitch is dead.’
‘I…’ I stutter, trying to say something. This needs to stop. I want this nightmare to fucking end.
‘Now, I will ask politely once again. Can you please change the report to reflect the state of the red-light district?’ Skav grins, like he takes pleasure from my misery.
But I can’t, I can’t keep going. I killed her! And I know I will be forced to kill more people. Fuck! Fucking hell! I can’t keep fucking doing this!
‘I… I will.’ I croak, my voice barely above a whisper.
‘What was that?’
‘I will,’ I sheepishly reply, sobbing as I stare at the ground. Looking away in shame at what I just said to him.
Skav claps his hands. ‘That is good, Simon. I am glad you came to understand.’ He walks over and kneels down in front of me. ‘I will give you a version of what the district is like, and I want you to say it word-for-word in the next meeting. And please, don’t try anything and suddenly say what you thought the district is like. Because I will know, and I will make you regret it.’
I yelp, shaking violently as he puts his hand down my pants to feel me. His touch makes me cry uncontrollably, my vision blurry while my hearing dulls. The only thing I can hear clearly is his voice, like he strips me of my dignity and autonomy.
‘Interesting, I never expected to see a wo…’ Skav corrects himself, ‘man like you.’ He pulls his hand out and smears it on my teary and puffy face. ‘But I am sure someone will take a fancy to you. However, despite your… exoticness. I want to keep to my word, and I will not recruit you if you do what is expected of you and tell the truth that is provided. Can we agree to that? Do you understand what I am saying?’
I give him a quick nod, petrified to say anything.
‘Good, in that case,’ he points somewhere, but I can’t tell where. ‘The exit is that way. Follow the street and you will be at the palace, and don’t keep Alex waiting. He expects to hear back from you soon. I wish you safe travels, Simon.’
He and his Dogs leave me, take the dead bodies with them to leave me alone. I crash onto my side, wailing as I bury my hands into my face. Shivering as the fear paralyses me in place.
I shouldn’t have been here. By the Gods, I should’ve listened! I shouldn’t have been here. I shouldn’t have been here. I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t…