Beta read by: SinikkavonWolperting
Day four for FFXVWeek
Prompt: Just Shoot Already
This one is more along the lines of psychological, and it contains Episode Prompto spoilers.
"We've been over this, all you have to do is simply pull the trigger," the man nearly purred, his hand wrapping around Prompto's trembling grasp on his pistol. "Do that, and you're free to go. It's not a bad trade-off, hmm?" his hand trailed up to cup the side of the blond's pale face, fingers tracing along his cheek almost lovingly. "Tell me, whose life do you value more?"
Prompto swallowed thickly, the action catching in his throat as he choked slightly against it. "I'm not doing it," he uttered stubbornly, trying to lower his gun, but Ardyn's other hand supported the bottom of it.
"We've been through this," he murmured against the other's ear, receiving a small shudder, and he couldn't help but chuckle lowly at it. "Come now, don't you want to be with your sweet prince again?" he played that same card for what seemed like the hundredth time. "This woman was living on the streets, she has no one, none that miss her. So, what's the bid deal; if anything, I'd say you'd be doing the poor soul a favor," he allowed his hands to slip away as he strolled over effortlessly to stand next to the brunette, and weaved his fingers through her hair before yanking back harshly. That action earned him a startled yelp, "Don't you worry, I'm sure you won't have to stay here much longer." He cut his eyes over to the gunner knowingly.
Slowly, the blond shook his head, refusing the man his compliance; he couldn't do that, he wouldn't. "No," he bit out, instantly turning the barrel to face towards the mauve-haired man.
"Oh dear, we've been over this," he released his hold to shrug dramatically and turned his back on the both of them, "Those bullets of yours are mere child's play. How many times to you plan on testing them out? I'm growing tired of dealing with the new holes in my clothing," he lifted the edge of his coat to show off the tattered appearance of the material.
"Shut up," Prompto growled under his breath, hands tightening around his weapon. He knew shooting him wouldn't do anything, but he'd be damned if it wasn't satisfying at the very least. And, this time wasn't any different. The shot fired off, and this time the blond didn't even flinch with it.
Ardyn merely stumbled, but nothing beyond that, his eyes scanned down to the fresh blemish adorning his coat and then back up to meet those unwavering blue orbs. "My my, and here I thought you were a bit more smart than that; I guess I gave you far more credit than you deserve." He strolled over, the way he stepped giving him the appearance of hovering as his outstretched hand placed itself over the now steady gun and forced him to lower it. "I've given you such a simple task, a menial command, and you are still struggling to comprehend it," his other hand trailed up, fingers slinking through the golden strands. "I assure you, you're only hurting yourself," his hand grasped his hair and yanked harshly to the side, forcing the blond to lean and bend with it.
Prompto gasped through the sharp pain, but he never took his gaze away, making sure to hold that eye contact as he tried to hide his fear. But, he knew his anticipation could still be seen clearly, he had a way of seeing right through him. And, without warning, he felt an abrupt stab of pain in his side. It took him a moment to realize that he had just been kicked, and with the bruising he was sure he already had in that area, he couldn't stifle the muffled yelp from it. "Let's give this another try, shall we?" Ardyn shoved his head away as he released his hold. "Now, shoot her."
"Please," she sobbed, cowering farther into the corner if that were even possible.
"I'm not doing it," Prompto stubbornly repeated, "I refuse." He dropped his gun now and kicked it a few feet away, out of his reach. "I can'-" he was rudely cut off by another blow to the abdomen. Another gasp sounded out as he fell to his hands and knees, and he didn't get the chance to catch his breath before he felt the weight of a boot lightly touch down on his back. Though, as light is it were, it still managed to keep him down.
"It's not a request," the man reminded, adding more pressure down. "It's a demand, shoot her, and all this can be over; you can be reunited with your precious Noctis. It's not that hard, after all, killing isn't a new concept for you," he laughed darkly, his foot now forcing the younger to lie flat. His breaths came out in quickened and forced pants. "I have an eternity to play this little game, you not so much. So, I suggest you quit trying to pretend you have morals and get it over with."
Gritting his teeth, the gunner breathed in sharply, "No." Another burst of agony against his ribs and its partnered cry as he was reunited with Ardyn's foot.
He kicked a few more times, and after about the fourth one, he removed his foot from the blond's back in order to crouch in front of him and pull his head to look up at him. "If you keep this up, there won't be much left for His Highness to retrieve," he spoke in a facade of concern. "Now, that would be quite tragic, just imagine his reaction upon finding you in...well let's just say not exactly in one piece."
"I'm not like you," he seethed, voice hoarse from forcing it to remain low, "I'm not a murderer."
"Hmmm?" he leaned his face in closer until it was but a few inches away. "I think I must have hit you too hard, you're delusional," he brushed strands out of Prompto's face, doing so with more care than was appropriate for a man of his caliber, "You seem to have forgotten, but you are indeed a murderer. Or are you still in denial of the fact that you already killed your only family in cold blood?"
Despite how he felt about the situation, there was no denying the pang that clutched at his chest. "He wasn't family," he spat venomously, "He was nothing but a sick bastard."
"That may be so, but you still wouldn't be here, alive and kicking, if it weren't for him," he gave him that same shit eating grin that always made a shudder run through him. "You are made of his exact makeup, so it wouldn't be surprising if you were to inherit some of his...qualities."
"Shut up," he repeated, "I'm nothing like him." He shook his head in an attempt to get the other's hand away from him, "Understand? I'm different," his voice came out uncertain, a mere whisper.
Ardyn gave him a smile like you would a child, "We'll see about that." He straightened up, and Prompto watched as his feet slowly drifted away and the sounds of a small clatter reached his ears. Next thing he was aware of was something being dropped in front of his face. All it took was a glance to realize it was his pistol, lying there and almost touching his nose. "Now, get up and let's give this another go, shall we?"
He must have taken longer than he should have, not a few seconds went by until he felt himself being hefted up by the back of his collar and dropped onto his feet. His gun was then practically shoved into his unwilling hands. The blond glanced over to the woman, who was trembling uncontrollably by now. He slowly shook his head and still refused to point his weapon at her. He could feel Ardyn standing behind him, felt his breath against his ear as he leaned in, "Just shoot her already, no one even has to know."
But he would know, it didn't matter if others did as well or not, This would eat away at him for the rest of his life. Killing MT's and his 'creator' was one thing, but this was an innocent life this man was playing with now; she didn't deserve anything of this. The worst thing she had probably done was steal food for the sake of survival. "Just a flick of the finger," he egged on, placing both hands on his shoulders to hold him firmly in place.
With a lack of a better option, his shaking hand slowly turned the gun towards himself, and Ardyn never once made a move to stop him. Instead, he just stepped back and walked around as if to get a better view. "My my, gone from homicidal to suicidal. And here I was fooled into believing you had a bit more spunk than that."
"Shooting you doesn't work," Prompto closed his eyes, his legs barely holding him up as tremors ran through them, "And I'm not killing her. There's only one other way," he shrugged, and smiled bitterly, the corner of his mouth twitching ever so slightly.
He never got the chance to pull the trigger though, his arm was jerked downward, causing a sharp pain to jolt down it with the roughness of the action, "Let's not get too rash now. As much as I'd love a front row seat, I happen to need you alive. So, let's just think this through." He kept a tight and near crushing grip on his wrist, "Besides, if you were to off yourself, what would your beloved prince do then? He'd be devastated, surely. There would be years of him blaming himself; and rightfully so. You'd probably still be by his side right now if he hadn't shoved you off."
That appeared to hit exactly where he had intended, and a surge of satisfaction coursed through him as the weapon was gradually lowered with an expression of realization on his face. "That's a good boy, we don't want to make any rash mistakes, do we?" He wrapped both hands around the metal and manually turned it to face towards the other, "I know that deep down, you value your own life over that of a common beggar; it's the nature of mortals, and there is nothing to be ashamed about. If you had to choose between yourself and another, I assure it'd be yourself. And no amount of threatening to take your own life instead will change that."
Prompto glanced between Ardyn and the woman, both stared at him, into his eyes, but each were filled with contrasting emotions. One pleading and the other persuasive and maniacal. Ardyn's hands continued to guide his aim, and even went as far as to slide his finger on the trigger. "You sick son of a bitch," Prompto uttered, finding moving to be rather difficult all of a sudden; his body took on a rigidity that was almost unbearable.
"Sorry, but you're rather clumsy, and I can't have you dropping things again," Ardyn removed his hold seeing as it was no longer needed, and instead walked back around to stand to the side. "And, all you have to do is shoot now, I've taken care of the rest for you." Prompto tried to lower his arms, but they wouldn't budge, nothing would. He felt panic already rushing through him, and his breath caught in his throat.
"Wh-what are you doing?" he asked, his lips barely moving and his words hardly audible.
"I told you, I'm taking care of the rest. I'll give you control back once you've done as I have so kindly asked of you," he folded his arms over his chest and shifted his weight over to one foot. "I promise you, I can keep this up a lot longer than you can."
He wasn't sure how long they remained this way, but his muscles were beginning to cramp, having stayed in such a forced position for so long his body was beginning to protest against it. Just keeping his eyes open was a struggle now, his throat was unbelievable dry and burned fiercely. But, he still kept his finger as far off the trigger as possible, despite its need to twitch or move; it was the only part of his body he could still move at will, so it was his only focus.
"Tick tock," Ardyn teased from his spot. Prompto wasn't sure how he did it, but he hadn't moved an inch this entire time. He mostly just stood there and watched, probably enjoying every second of it. Every time his eyes had flicked over to him, he always had that same gleam in his eyes and that same smirk on his face.
The blond bit his lip through a crippling calf cramp as it worked its way through the entirety of the muscle. His whole body was slowly being invaded with minor spasms and twitches. And, there was still nothing he could do about it.
"I think it's time to raise the stakes a bit," Ardyn offered, flicking out his blade and stepping closer. "We could make this into a fun little game," he said close to excitedly as the knife was placed against his left cheek. As he pressed into flesh, he sang out, "With each minute that passes, I make a little tally. Shall we see how many minutes you can keep this will of your up then?" He dragged the blade across and chuckled as red blossomed to the surface before rolling down his cheek and down his neck. "One," he flicked the knife, taking a few droplets with it.
This had gone on for at least thirty minutes, and he now had thirty marks to prove it. His skin crawled as the edge again touched down, this time gracing the webbing between his thumb and forefinger. "Thirty-one," Ardyn announced rather proudly as more drops of crimson splattered to the floor. "I wonder which will happen first, you finally realizing that killing her is in your best interest, or if you die from blood loss. It's such a tough bet to make."
"Bastard," Prompto fumed, his voice tight with pain and exhaustion.
"Is that any way to address your captor? Let's not forget who has the upper hand here," he brushed the tip of the blade under the blond's right eye in order to make his point crystal clear. "I'm being generous as of now, but even I have a hard time when it comes to suppressing my urges. So, it'd be in your best interest not to tempt me." He quickly slashed again, missing his eye, but not by much, "Thirty-two."
This was the first one that elicited a small whimper as it cut rather deeply into his bottom eyelid. It stung far worse than any of the others had and his vision on that side blurred dangerously, both from fresh moisture and screaming agony. His finger unintentionally glanced over the trigger as it instinctively curled. "Doesn't look like it will be much longer now," he cut his eyes over to the woman who had hardly moved herself, "I do hope you've come to terms by now. You don't have a lot of time left," he grinned at the new sobs that sounded out with that information.
"Oh, and the longer you take, the longer to delay the inevitable. You're only stretching out her suffering, you know. For almost two days, she's sat there, wondering to her self when it will happen. She must be going mad by now, and it's all thanks to your incessant need to prove to yourself that you're not a monster," he shrugged to himself. "Thirty-three," he chirped, bringing the knife down over his bottom lip.
His finger again played with the trigger, this time moving it a very small amount and his heart dropped at the sensation of it. 'Shit,' he thought to himself, refusing to let his diminishing confidence be known.
"I'd say it will only be another half an hour before you give in," he wagered, flipping the knife in his hand. "But who knows, maybe it could very well be sooner than that," he held the blade steadily in front of him and scanned over the edge of it, now stained with blood. "And, thirty-four," he uttered quietly, stabbing the point into the tender flesh above his collar bone and raked it down and over the bone.
A strangled and tense cry eased out this time, his ears picking up on the slight scrape the laceration produced and his finger shook dangerously. "Just shoot already," Ardyn spoke as if it were that simple, "I know you have it in you. You've been slaughtering your own brethren this entire time without so much as an ounce of remorse. You can't possibly still be trying to convince yourself that it was justified. They were people just like you, well, if you can call yourself that."
No, he probably couldn't consider himself like everyone else, but, "I'm still more human than you," he huffed out.
"Whatever you have to tell yourself," the man sweetly replied, "But we both know the truth." He walked to step behind Prompto, "You were born of nothing but a cluster of cells, just as all the others were. And, the only thing that makes you stand out from the rest is the fact that you, out of all of them, were flawed. You just so happened to be taken, luckily swiped from your fate. But, in the end, you were one of the bad eggs in the bunch and were to be discarded. Tossed out like a defected product, unfit for the shelves. And, as such, easily replaced by a perfect model."
"I don't care," he swiftly blurted out, trying to ignore the man's words, "None of that matters."
Ardyn skimmed the knife up the blond's spine, "To you, maybe not, but what about others?" Another slash across the base of his neck, "Thirty-five. Your dear friends still don't know the truth after all, they might just see you for what you truly are."
Prompto wanted to shake his head, but he couldn't. It wasn't due to the lack of control he now had, but rather his inability to fully disagree with the man's words. What he said rang true, and it wasn't pleasant. Then again, the truth rarely was. He blinked, clearing his fluctuating vision, his eyes stinging with the acknowledgement of it. Clearing his throat, he tried to glance over to Ardyn, but could only see far enough to make out the mauve of his hair. "I-I'm ok with that," he stuttered.
"Are you?" he was quick to reply. "For some reason, I find that quite difficult to believe," he leaned far enough to be within view.
He didn't respond, didn't want to give him the satisfaction of a reply. Closing his eyes, he tried to concentrate on being as still as possible, only tremors and jolts ran through him. The moment he was able to close out the rest of the world, a fire-like pain exploded in his right shoulder; a more pronounced cry escaped him and his eyes snapped back open to glance over. His breaths shuddered as he stared at the handle that stuck out of his shoulder, the blade completely out of sight.
"No checking out now, I need to at your full attention here," Ardyn turned his head to the side. "And, if you don't make your decision soon, I'm afraid you won't be conscious for much longer. I'm sure you know that wouldn't be ideal for either of us."
He was right, he could already feel light-headedness and nausea setting in. Focusing was becoming more burdensome with each fresh cut, and his body begged him for rest. A second gasp when the knife was roughly removed, blood chased after it. It was then immediately sliced across the crook of his arm, his entire limb jerking with it. His gun rattled in his hands, a constant clatter in his grasp. "Pull it," he demanded, disregarding his previous game 'rules' and emphasized both words with another cut down his arm. This was repeated, each one getting closer and closer to his hand.
His hand twitched and contracted with every slit, and he knew it was only a matter of time before it would go off. If anything, Ardyn was right in that regard. It felt like it would be any second now, and he tried with everything he could to at least move his aim a little to the left, even the smallest amount could spare her life. Holding his breath, he gave it everything he had left just a moment before a shot rang out.