Here's the second chapter of Rei's story, I hope it's not too disturbing or unrealistic as this is my first time writing anything in this genre. Thanks for reading!
TW: There will be explicit imagery in this chapter of torture.
"Oi Madam, we're back," shouts a man, effectively waking Rei up from his nap.
Light streams through the material of the sack, confusing Rei momentarily in his disoriented state. Where am I? He's used to waking up in his bed with warm blankets and his favorite toys, not in an itchy and cramped bag on a hard surface. As Rei struggles to free himself he feels the ground shift beneath his body. An earthquake?
The ground stops shaking as the epicenter of the quake halts. Rei finally finds the hole in the top of the bag, tumbling out onto a marble floor, scraping his hand in the process. Looking up he finds the strangest women he's seen in the entire seven years of his life.
Her red hair is coiffed in shiny curls while glitter sprouts from the bangles on her wrists, to the dangling chandeliers in her earlobes and the pearls around her neck. The rolls of her neck continue fluctuating in ripples as she breathes sporadically from her trip down the grand staircase centered in the elaborate hall. She stares at Rei, or at least that's how it seemed, as Rei couldn't see through the dark lenses of her glasses. Leaning closer she deeply breathes in Rei's scent, gasping in surprise. Rei can see glints of silver brackets among her porcelain teeth as she opens her mouth.
"You smell so sweet my darling," she exclaims breathily, crouching in front of him. "What's your name?"
Rei struggles to find his voice before he can answer her. "R-Rei."
"Oh Rei-chan, I should think you'll make a grand addition to my collection. You cut yourself, did you?" She caresses his hand in her pudgy fingers, dabbing the tips of her digits into his cut and causing him to groan in pain. Sniffing her fingers as one would a fine wine, she inserts them into her mouth removing all traces of red. She nearly purrs in appreciation. "My little Rei, indeed." Leaning back, she finally addresses the tiger and clown masked men. "What else did you bring?"
"Well we found this guy, mid-thirties, might be a bit cold now but I suspect he'll taste alright regardless. His wife was quite the catch though," he shrugs, jostling the women hanging around his shoulder. Big Madam approaches the man, pulling up the women's face by her hair.
"Oh yes, I do believe she'll fetch us a decent price. Put her with the others."
"What do we do with this?" Tiger man asks, gesturing to his duffel.
"Take it up to my chambers, I have to get Rei here nice and settled before I can bear the thought of food. A good mother takes care of her pets before herself," she grabs Rei's arm to lead him away but he resists.
"What are you gonna do to mama?"
Smack.
Rei can't remember how the ceiling appeared so close, nor can he remember how the sharp sting of pain appeared on his cheek. Gingerly reaching up to touch his face he can feel the imprint of a hand, causing him to wince. When the hand matching the welt appears in his field of view, he avoids it, choosing to stand on his own.
"For now on Rei I'll be your new mama. That women," she points a plump finger in the direction of Rei's maternal figure, now being carried away from view, "is no longer your mother. Now be a good boy and follow me to your room." She once again proffers a hand for him to take.
"No!" shouts Rei, slapping the hand away. He runs in the direction his mother was taken. He'll free her and they'll go away together. Far away from that women.
"Oh no, seems like this one needs to be broken in," exclaims Big Madam, her voice echoing through the empty chamber. "Send this one to the playroom. I don't usually treat with my pets so soon but it seems that I'll have to make an exception for this little dear." As she speaks a man in a fine suit appears to stop Rei in his tracks. Rei looks around Madam's henchman to see his mother quickly disappearing around the corner. Trying to dodge the man, he once again finds the world inverted as he is hung upside down over the man's back. Kicking and punching the man has no effect as they move down the opposite hallway from where Rei's mother was taken.
Growing tired Rei stops his struggling. Instead he observes where they are, noting the turns and twists of the convoluted passageway. Eventually he gives up, the lefts and rights getting mixed up as they continue traveling further into the depths of the house.
Reaching a door with a large brass handle, the man carrying Rei reaches for the key strung around his neck. Bending over to insert the key in the hole he turns it, causing a soft click to emit from the lock as the door is swung open.
Getting a good glimpse of the room, Rei can feel his eyes widen. There are no toys in this playroom, or at least not in the typical sense of the word. The colorful walls are accentuated with displays cases, but instead of being filled with delicate ceramics or collectable spoons, they glint with the reflected light of blades with brightly decorated handles. Hooks decorate the walls in shades ranging from tarnished copper to deadly obsidian. Nylon ropes with their obtrusive polka dots are wrapped in coils, hanging on the walls or slithering along the floor in lengthy cables. Cubby holes filled with a variety of instruments are pushed along the outskirts of the room. The air reeks of cooper and disinfectant.
Rei has more time to observe as all his clothes are removed, excluding he underwear and he is forced to sit in a chair with his hands bound in handcuffs and his feet tied to the front legs of the chair. The chair itself has rust colored stains that interfere with the walnut finish, causing Rei to gulp in apprehension. The man who brought him to the monstrosity of a room leaves with a soft click of the door and a clang as the tumblers in the lock are set once more. With hands cuffed behind his back he has no hope of escape. It's hopeless, he's been caught. He'll never save his mother now.
He waits in silence with nothing but the ticking of a clock to keep him company. Searching for source of the noise he finds a garish cat, its tail moving back and forth with every movement of the second hand. The eyes replicate the action, looking from left to right as if expecting something exciting to happen. To and fro, it moves in a predictable pattern, memorizing the young boy.
Rei startles when the door is unlocked, admitting the women known as Big Madam. Her metal encrusted grin greets him, causing him to shrink back in his chair. "Oh no Rei-chan, that won't do, you should greet your mama with a smile."
Rei watches her, lips frozen in place. He refused to smile for this women who claimed to be his new mother. His real mother is somewhere else in this place. He realized long ago that this was no longer a game and that this women was potentially as crazy as she looked.
"Well then I'll get you smiling by the time were done here, how about that?" She shuffles about the room inspecting the various devices she keeps scattered along the circumference. Grabbing a row of hooks, she places them on wheeled cart adding some rope before rolling it over to where Rei sits perched on his chair. "Now Rei, today you've earned bad boy points which means you need to be punished. Good boys should be nice to their mothers and you've been naughty. It brings tears to my eyes to believe you would try to escape."
She proceeds to tie Rei more thoroughly down to the chair by wrapping the nylon cord around his torso. Big Madam picks up a hook, the end split into serrated curves. It looks like a fishhook, Rei thinks, a really big fishhook for a really big fish. "Do you want to play a game Rei? I call this one fish in a barrel, do you want to know why?" Before she can finish explaining she spears the flesh between Rei's shoulder and neck. Rei screams as the metallic hook is pushed all the way through, nestling in the tender skin. Rei stares at the hook in shock, surprised to see his own blood coating both ends.
"You'll be the fish and I'm the fisherman. I've captured you and," she implants another into his opposite shoulder, "now I get to do what I want. You're so cute tied down my little fish." She punctuates the word fish with another hook, this time through the top of Rei's thigh.
"Doesn't that just make you want to laugh," questions Madam as she grins at her newest pet. Rei struggles against the ropes that hold him down as tears stream down his face and ragged noises escape his throat. He screams in pain and frustration as Madam takes larger hooks, forcing them through the back of his calves.
"Now, to end this game all you have to do is smile and apologize to your poor mama. I was heartbroken that you would try to call that other women your mother." Rei trembles as she introduces a smaller hook in between the web of his big toe.
"I'm sorry mama," he shouts through the pain, a grimace appearing on his tear stained face.
"Oh my dear, I don't think that was sincere. Look at your mother when you talk to her," she replies, sending ripples of agony through his foot as she introduces new piercings between his other toes.
Rei, finally finding the courage to looks up into the covered eyes of his torturer whispers, "I'm sorry mama," with a small upturn of his lips.
"That's better my pet. Now that's see, how do we remove these, hmm," she tilts her head as she pretends to think of a solution. "Ah I know," she snaps her fingers, "back the way from which they came!"
Oh no, she can't. I'll die. I'll die, I'll die, I'll die. The ticking of the clock enunciates every exclamation Rei makes. Tick, tock. Tick, tock. But mama told me to live live live. To live Rei. But she's not my mama. Who's my mother? I don't know, know, know, know. Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
Squelch. Rei shrieks, throat hoarse from his prolonged screaming. His vision blurs as his flesh is torn apart by the barbs. A large hole is left from the hook in his shoulder. Blood spills from the ragged edges and down his bare chest.
Two. Mama, mama save me.
Three. Someone, please.
Four. I can't.
Five. I'll die.
Six. No more, please.
A few more and it's over. Rei is left nearly unconscious as the last hook is unceremoniously pulled out. Blood pools around the entrances and exits of the areas that had previously had hooks embedded in them, increasing their flow with every small movement as Rei gasped in shallow breaths. He barely has energy left to groan as the man in the suit comes back for him. Undoing the knots of the rope and the lock of the cuffs he hoists the boy over his shoulder, leaving him to limply dangle as they move further into the mansion and traverse deeper into the dark depths of the basement.
Rei feverously shivers as the holes in his body are introduced to the dank air of the underground cellar. Stopping before an empty cell, the man undoes the lock and leaves Rei on a bare cot pressed against the wall with a thin blanket on top. Huddling against the corner of the cell where the bed nestles against it, he pulls the blanket over his shoulder. Too exhausted to explore his cell he falls into a fitful sleep where his dreams are filled with beetle eyes that watch and mock him as he tries to follow his mother down a frigid passageway. His mother disappears further and further away as he struggles to move. Looking down he can see that hooks have embedded themselves in his legs with ropes anchoring him in place. He can't move. Live echoes through his head as he gasps into awareness.
A man with bloody gauze in one hand jumps as Rei jerks away from him. They stare at each other in cautious curiosity.
"What are you doing?" asks Rei, wincing as his throat crackles.
"Just cleaning you up a bit. Looks like you took quite the damage here young man," he responds, adding some offensive antiseptic to a strip of gauze that tingles as he applies it to the wound in Rei's left shoulder.
"What's your name?"
"You may call me Dr. Kanou. I'm here to take care of you."