You Have Another One

Sometimes it is worse to be at the other end of the whip, I am talking about the handle end.

I was awoken by the glint of light from my closed eyelids. I must have fallen asleep. I opened my eyes and found myself in the room. I flexed my shoulders, readjusting my arms, which were hung high above me. My arms were chained to large shackles dangling from the ceiling. My arms stretched up, but I didn’t feel any strain in my upper back and my chest. I looked down at my chest and I saw a bloody mess. My shirt was torn at all the wrong places, with streaks of fresh red blood dripping through them. My flesh was a combination of a worn out scratching post and a beaten punching bag. Bruises and blood oozed out of every corner.

            But funny enough, I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t feel the eerie cracking of my ribs, nor the hot pounding of my blood dripping from a large opening in my abdomen. I shook my head.

            My arms were just as beaten. Swollen and sliced at the biceps up to the forearms. My legs lay dangling an inch from the floor. But from my angle, I could tell that they were broken. My left leg twisted far into my left beyond what the joint can accommodate, and my right leg remained limp, but jelly like as I dangled. Blood was dripping from both legs.

            I still couldn’t feel the pain. Pretty much I could have passed out from all these torture. But instead I had fallen asleep. My body was a beaten pulp, but my mind felt like a refreshed baby. A barrier stood between the physical and the mind, shielding me from the pain.

            In front of me was a worktable filled with all kinds of tools, and hovering above the table was a small dangling light bulb. Presumably the one that woke me up. Behind the table, about ten feet away was a closed metal door. There were no windows in this room, only large stone walls, with chains and the occasional bones scattered on the floor.

            My torturer wasn’t in the room.

            I smiled to myself. Typical. He must’ve given up.

            Then without warning, the metal door swung open, and I could see a silhouette of a thick, round man on the door. He slowly walked in with heavy steps. I kept my eyes on him, forced a smile and said.

            “Your back already?”

            “Shut up you lil prick!”, he said clear heavy breathing.

            “What’s wrong? You can’t finish me?” I said “I mean come on. I had fallen asleep here.”

            “You better shut the freakin up or I’ll cut off your tongue!”, he said as he stood inches from me and waved a sausage like finger in my face. “Tell me what I need to know, and I will let you live.”

            I smiled.

            “I’m living just quite nicely here, thank you”, I said.

            “Why you!”, he shouted and connected the back of his palm against the side of my cheek. The sound of flesh echoed in the small room. I spat blood. I still didn’t feel anything.

            “Tell me how’d you do it?”, he asked again. “Tell me or I swear I’m- I’m”

            His eyes trailing the different tools on the worktable.

            “You’re gonna what?”, I mocked him.

            He grabbed a hacksaw and displayed it threateningly before my face.

            “I’m going to cut off your arm”, he said. “How’d you like that?”

            “Cut it off”, I said “Tell you what. I will let you choose the arm. I’m getting really bored hanging by both of them anyway.”

            My words seem to sink like quicksand in this guy’s mind, because he was shocked on how I reacted. Mutilation was something that should scare anyone, but this must be the first time that he heard my reaction. He swallowed.

            “George, I don’t know what the hell kinda game you’re playing”, he said in a hesitant voice “But if you value your life. You will tell me what I need to know.”

            “That’s the thing Ben”, I smiled and stared intently into his eyes. He must’ve seen something scary that he stepped back and a cold sweat dripped down his forehead. He held his hacksaw tighter, the knuckles in his hand turning white. “It’s too late for that already.”

            “What?”, Ben said looking really confused.

            “I already gave up my life”, I said. I could feel my body getting warmer. Like my body temperature was turned on high. My heart started pumping faster, and I could feel it beating frantically against my chest.

            “What?”, he genuinely looked terrified. The hand holding the hacksaw was shaking.

            “You really want to know what I did?” I said. I smiled as I felt my arms gaining strength, and my legs slowly reattaching. I could feel bones cracking and shifting in my body like a machine rewiring itself. Wounds closing, and bruises vanishing.“It comes with a cost, Ben.”

            I heard pops from my legs, signifying that both legs reattached. Ben watched in horror seeing his victim regenerate right before his eyes.

            “What is happening? How are you doing this?”, Ben said as his whole body trembled. “Stop it!” He yelled and slashed the hacksaw diagonally through my face. Red filled my vision and I could feel an open gash from the right side of my cheek. I remained eye contact with Ben. He watched as the open wound from above my eyes slowly closed then moved down to my cheek, like how a zipper opens and closes. It took three seconds for the wound to heal. I was slowly gaining my strength, the numbness from before faded replaced with rejuvenating energy.

            “You see Ben. Things are not what it seems”, I said as I twisted my neck to realign a cartilage. “You were wondering how I survived your terrorist attack in the mall, and how I’m able to endure your amateur torture. It’s easy” I said the last part with a darker more mature tone that scared the piss off Ben. He dropped the hacksaw and was walking backward to the metal door.

            Then with a gentle tug, I broke the chains from above me, dropping me to the ground. My healed legs caught me softly on the stone floor. Ben was now shaking with fear. Bloodshot astonished eyes were on me. I smiled. The warmth turned to heat as I advanced slowly to him.

            “You see Ben”, I said keeping my eyes on him, reverting back to my old voice “I sold my soul a long time ago.”

            “What?”, he said as he tripped on his way back. His stomach bounced as he hit the ground.

            “I traded it to save my brother. In return I became one of the Reapers”, I said. “But I’m not an ordinary Reaper Ben.” I said as I stepped forward. He was shaking in the ground, tears started to flow from his eyes. “I told him that I would Reap special souls.”

            “What? What do you mean?” he said trembling. His faced twisted with fear and astonishment.

            “I knew that your organisation made the attack in that mall. I knew that if you found me. Your pals will be more than intrigued on how I survived. Not everyone walks into a live bomb and walks out of it unscathed. They would be very happy to capture me and interrogate me”, I said “And I knew that they would send you to do the bidding.”

            “What? What are you talking about?” he said crying.

            “I specialize in taking out twisted souls “, I said with the deep dark tone. He crawled backwards as I spoke like this. “You were my only intention here Ben. The only reason I let you torture me is because I wanted to see how you work on your victims. And I must say…”

            He swallowed.

            “I’m disappointed.” I said my eyes burning red.

            “You stay away from me!”, he cowered. “Stay awa-“

            I grabbed his throat. The heat from my hand burned through the flesh of his neck.

            “Let me show you what real torture is”, I said as I lifted him into the air and immediately slammed his back against the stone floor. The floor cracked open easily and my arm ran him through the hole and threw his entire body downwards into it. I could hear him yelling as he fell down the hole I just made. Warm air radiated from the shadows of the hole.

            “You have another one.”, I whispered to the hole as I watched it slowly close up, like a video of a volcano erupting played in reverse.