Thanks to my beta, pruehall, over on LiveJournal. NUMB3RS still isn't mine.
Ten Days: Part Ten
A week, they told him. He had been here a week.
It seemed longer. Much, much longer. It seemed like he had been here for years.
They had finally stopped asking questions about Charlie. They had gotten back to asking him why the FBI was investigating them. He wasn't going to tell them.
He could tell that they were getting angrier and angrier with each and every question that he didn't answer. Every witty comeback just increased their fury. They weren't going to keep him alive much longer. His usefulness was getting very close to being up- they wanted answers and he wasn't going to be giving them any. They were beginning to realize that they wouldn't be able to break him. At least, not before they killed him. They weren't skilled enough in the art of torture to be able to find the delicate balance between bending the human spirit far enough to break it without breaking the body first. And the phrase 'dead men tell no tales' wasn't just a pirate catch phrase- it was truth.
He was running out of clever retorts. Out of snarky responses to their questions. So when they asked, most times he simply didn't answer at all. His silence seemed to irritate them more than his insults and slights on everything from their mother to their shoes.
Well, at least they disliked the silence as much as he did. He'd rather have David tell him how much he despised him and they would rather have him tell them that they enjoyed screwing their own mother.
So they burnt him with the lighter. He now had a line of burns running up his torso and a very mangled inner lip.
They asked again. This time he spits in their face. They shock him with the taser. They press it right up against the tender patched of charred skin.
He can't help it this time. There's nothing left in his mouth to bite.
He screams. He curses himself. He swore that he wouldn't give them the pleasure of hearing his pain, of making him cry out. He hates himself for showing such weakness.
They've clearly enjoyed his open display of agony. It seems to lift their spirits and they laugh happily as they leave him alone in the room once again.
This time sympathetic David is back. He can almost feel David's skin against his as the hallucination wraps a comforting hand around the back of his neck and rests his forehead against Colby's. David tells him that everything is going to be okay. Tells him that they will find him. That they're coming.
He can't stop it. He cries. He sobs as hallucination David comforts him, whispering soothing words in his ear. Promising him that the real David will come and save him soon.
He hopes that his crazy mind is telling the truth, because he doesn't know how much longer ha can last.
Sooner or later they'll kill him. Either they'll take the torture too far and accidentally kill him, or they'll get fed up with trying to get answers from him that he'll never give up and just kill him.
He hopes it's quick.