I waited for the pain to pass. It overwhelmed me, pressing me further into the wall that was already merging with my back, causing rivulets of blood to run down it and providing a gory pattern. It had been kind; It let me keep my underwear but stripped me of all other clothes. Perhaps It wanted to lengthen the torture; make me truly suffer.
I apologise. I've never been great with words. At the moment, though, they seemed to spit out of me as if a thousand people were contained in my larynx.
"You are not bringing me down!"
It chuckled, pacing back and forth in front of me. "No. You've already done a superb job of doing that all by yourself." It stopped, Its round red eyes locking onto mine. "I am just helping you along to your final destination."
I struggled against the restraints, but it was no use. I was several feet up off the ground so even if I did break free, the fall to the floor would surely break my legs. There was no means of escape in the cave I was chained up in as well – all possible exits were sealed. A heavy sense of foreboding seeped into my mind and I closed my eyes, trying to think of them. One was waiting at home for me, perhaps not fully understanding why I had to leave. The other? Well, I wasn't entirely sure where the other was. Last time I'd seen him, I was being dragged away from him.
Foreboding was torn from my mind when It stepped close enough to be called "intimate" to me, pushing a long, thin, sharp needle into my torso. I slammed my jaws together, suppressing a scream and the urge to throw my head back. It sighed – well, as close as It can get to sighing – with a high concentration of displeasure. My suppressed scream turned into laughter through gritted teeth. Every clench of muscle sent stabs of pain from the needle, but I didn't care.
I was winning.
"What's wrong? You're failing to make me scream?"
It growled. "Oh, you'll scream. Maybe not now, but sooner or later, I will crack you."
"And then what?" I unlocked my jaw. "Kill me? Dispose of me? Move on? But there's no fun in that, is there? There's never any fun in killing for you. It's the dying moments...the final, fleeting knowledge that nothing can be done...that are the moments to be savoured. The moments where pricks like you get hard for years just by remembering them."
It jerked on the needle, causing me to grunt as more pain shot through me. Pain. I'd had just about enough of it in the last year.
"So we do understand each other, Jakuelynn Mar," It said, contemplatively. "You and I are not all that dissimilar. We both kill to get what we want and whom we want. We've made enemies because of what we do. Well, well, well...we've finally reached a level of common ground."
"The difference between you and I," I replied, letting the Dark Eco throb through my veins "is that I have never put a gun to the temples of those I love and punched bullets in their brains."
"Oh, but you have." It wore a smirk on It's two-thirds-human face. "Maybe not shot them, like your father did, but you let them die, didn't you? Remember?" It yanked on the needle some more, causing my body to involuntarily jerk. "Or have you chosen to forget?"
I closed my eyes, letting my head hang. I had never forgotten that day; choice never came into it. The day where everything changed for me.
I would have replied to It's rhetoric, but like I said, I'm no good with words.
