Blinded By the Spite
Days passed at an agonizingly slow pace. Every day, Gideon and Pavonis would have crueler and more sadistic weapons to torture their prisoners with, laughing at their screams of pain, kicking them and goading them into fighting back, only to violently cut them down every time they tried. At one point, Pavonis used his magic to crudely heal Bill's legs (it was obvious he lacked the skill that Bill himself had) and encouraged the dream demon to try and run. Bill hadn't been foolish enough to try, but his legs were left in their crippled state.
Gideon and Pavonis would also drain their captives of magical energy every night, which left them exhausted and usually about to pass out by the time the two decided that was enough and left. It was an invasive feeling, as if claws were ripping their insides out, and they hated it almost as much as the torture.
Dipper ended up coming down with a horrible case of the flu, constantly coughing and sneezing, which made his nights as hellish as his days. The only relief was when they were abandoned at night, cold but at least able to recover and huddle against each other for warmth. They weren't sure why they haven't been separated. They figured it was because their captors didn't want them getting too sick; sharing body heat kept them relatively warm. Though sometimes they were left with a moldy, ratty old blanket if the forecast called for rain that night, again to prevent sickness.
They were allowed some water every day, but food was scarce. They were lucky if they were left some stale bread at night. So on top of being cold and in pain, they were also constantly hungry, and the two were quickly losing hope of rescue.
Dipper and Bill had both tried to scare their captors at first, reminding them of how popular they were, surely people would come looking for them, but... their location was remote. It was deep in the woods, surrounded by trees, easily looked over. The canopy also shielded it from anyone who may be flying above in a helicopter or plane. But Gideon took great pleasure in telling them about the efforts of the townspeople to find them, how Mabel was now back and assisting the search parties, and if he really wanted to infuriate Dipper, implying that he wouldn't mind capturing her too if she got too close to figuring out where they were.
Dipper hated Gideon, but that didn't compare to how much he loathed Pavonis. The psychic was insane, malicious and unforgiving with his tools, inflicting pain far beyond anything Gideon could do. In fact, Gideon usually only took part for an hour or two before seeming to get uneasy and backing off, only for Pavonis to happily continue for the rest of the day. Gideon's techniques were blunt and crude, to be expected of someone who had spent so much time in prison, but Pavonis treated torture like a work of art. His hands were delicate, skilled as he carved into skin, and his eyes lit up with glee as he used fire to burn flesh or channeled his own electricity through a body. It was Pavonis who, about a week in, decided that he wanted to nail one of them to the floor crucifixion style. Just because he wanted to see how the victim would handle it.
Dipper was chosen despite Bill's pleading to be used instead, and Gideon was given the task of holding the young man down as Pavonis got to work.
It was an agonizing process. Dipper struggled and jerked his limbs away as much as he could, but when his arm was held flat against the ground with his palm up, he just couldn't free it. His other hand lifted helplessly, almost beseeching Pavonis not to bring down the hammer, but of course, the demon didn't listen.
Dipper screamed as the three-inch metal nail was driven straight through his palm and into the floor, and when Gideon let go of his arm, he could not lift his hand. He gasped and tugged on it, before clamping his mouth shut, exhaling shakily as tears rolled down his face.
"Fun fact," Pavonis laughed, twirling the hammer around, "Crucifixions weren't actually done using the hands and feet, but rather the wrists and ankles. Because the bones of the hands and feet are too delicate to support the weight of the rest of the body if hung from a pole. But it'll work just fine for this."As Dipper whimpered under his breath, Pavonis used the nail-removing side of the hammer to rip open the skin over his ribs. "Oh shut up, I'll remove the nails when I'm done and you can tell everyone you're the fucking son of God. You're arrogant enough to pull it off."
Bill was currently chained to the wall; cuffs had been temporarily made to bind his arms back, keeping him upright and unable to even reach for his partner to offer any consolation. He was too upset to even yell at the two as he usually would. He could only watch as the next nail was driven into Dipper's other hand, tears rolling down his cheeks, dreading whatever they had in store for him next.
It only took a couple minutes to finish, and then Pavonis and Gideon were standing and backing away, laughing as Dipper tried and failed not to sob. He wasn't even bothering to try and free himself anymore, just laying in the stretched out position, eyes tightly closed and trying to stay awake; as tempting as passing out was, he knew that it would only lead to more pain. Last time he let himself lose consciousness, he had been woken up by a meat cleaver removing his left pinkie. Yet he knew it would happen again, it was involuntary, a reaction to shock, and that just made him even more terrified.
"This was fun, wouldn't you agree?" Pavonis said, nudging Gideon.
The boy chuckled. "Yeah, it is pretty good. Kinda blasphemous though."
"Ah, I don't give a fuck." Pavonis stepped down on one of Dipper's hands, grinding his shoe into it and making him gasp. "Man, your metacarpals are wrecked. Good luck writing like you used to... Gleeful, do you wanna get these off him or have fun with Cipher?"
Gideon shrugged. "Ah, whatever you want, I think I'm good for today."
"Already? Come on, you never want to torment them for long."
Gideon held his hands apart. "I just get bored pretty quickly. To be honest I'd rather be in a house with heating, or at least a fireplace. Ya know, I should be trying to go to school again, really."
"What? School?!" Pavonis seemed both amused and incredulous.
"I missed out on a lot of education, I kinda wanna catch up. This is fun and all, but..." Gideon frowned as he looked over Dipper, and then Bill. "I'm getting tired of coming out here every day."
Pavonis snorted. "Well, as long as you don't feel sorry for them or anything."
Gideon's expression became uncomfortable. "I... no. No, I don't."
"Good." Pavonis knelt down next to Dipper, using the hammer to begin wrenching the nails free, none too gently. "While I'm removing these nails, why don't you remove Cipher's nails?"
Gideon looked confused. "Uh... Bill's nails?"
"Ya know." Pavonis tossed him a pair of tweezers. "The natural ones."
Bill watched Gideon carefully as the boy caught them. Was it just him, or did Gleeful seem apprehensive? He certainly didn't seem enthusiastic. But he walked forward anyway, grasping one of Bill's wrists.
"You gonna cry, demon?" he asked, sounding bored as he closed the tweezers over one of Bill's fingernails.
Bill rolled his eyes. "Hell no."
"Of course you won't. You're used to all this already." Gideon smoothly yanked the nail out. Bill didn't even flinch.
"I've been tortured before," Bill sighed, rolling his shoulders. He watched Dipper with a frown, wincing as his lover was freed from the floor and tried to push himself up only to cry out and collapse. "You two are impressive but actually not the worst I've had."
"Wow, who else have you pissed off?" Another jerk, and another fingernail was separated from the skin.
Bill bit his lip as that one tore skin out with it, and blood ran down his hand. "Other demons. Monsters. Um... a particularly vengeful exorcist. Trust me, I've had it bad."
"I must say, I'm impressed that you can carry on a conversation right now."
Bill smiled humorlessly. "Thank you."
Gideon lost interest in his task halfway through, sighing and lowering the tweezers. He shook his head. "I just don't want to do this."
"Are you feeling remorse, perhaps?"
Gideon's expression hardened. "I don't feel bad for either of you, okay? I just don't like doing this! In prison they taught us to solve things with methods other than violence! I did so well in those classes and now look at me! I'm hurtin' and torturing like I ain't learned nothing!"
Everyone was staring at him as he finished speaking, and his face flushed as he turned away from Bill.
"Pavo, I'm leaving for today," he said firmly.
Pavonis lifted a brow at him, then shrugged and stood up. "Fine, but before you go... can you help me with something? I'm gonna need some extra hands."
Gideon looked at the door, then gave an exasperated sigh. "I guess."
"Hold Pines down so he can't interfere. But I want him to be close enough to watch."
Gideon complied, holding Dipper's arms down. The older boy didn't have the energy to resist. Meanwhile, Pavonis snapped his fingers and the wrist cuffs on Bill vanished. Bill wasn't prepared to have his weight suddenly put onto his legs, and he collapsed onto his hands and knees.
With a mental command, Pavonis had the chain of his collar move as well, going down to connect to the floor like it usually was at night, but greatly shortened.
The psychic hummed as he sat on Bill's chest, knees pinning his arms to the floor. He met the other's angry eyes as he extracted a knife from his pocket. It was the long, straight one that he seemed to favor. Its blade was stained red after repeated use.
"It's time for the grand finale, Cipher," Pavonis said, fingertips dancing over his knife. "What I've been wanting to do for days now."
Getting an idea of what Pavonis was planning, Dipper rasped out, "No, please! Anything but that!"
"You are really adamant about him keeping his eyes," Pavonis laughed. "Relax child, I'll leave one of them. Unless you make a big deal about this, in which case, I'll go ahead and pull out the other."
"You've hurt us enough, you don't need to partially blind Bill, please just let us go!" Dipper had additional things to say, but was interrupted by a coughing fit.
Pavonis laughed. "As touching as this begging is, he's not getting out of it." He roughly seized Bill's cheeks and kept his head still.
Dipper squirmed under Gideon's strong hands, crying and pleading as he watched Pavonis move the point of the knife to Bill's right eye socket, pressing it just below his eye. Bill laid perfectly still, staring straight ahead, teeth clenched and mouth drawn into a tight line. His expression didn't change when the blade dug into his lower eyelid.
"Not gonna react, huh?" Pavonis teased. "Well let's see how long you keep that stoic expression when I'm scooping your eye out. I'm not going to make this fast."
"Watch closely, boy," Gideon said to Dipper, holding his head turned toward Bill. "He deserves this."
Dipper wanted to close his eyes, but he just couldn't. It was like looking at a train crash. He could only stare as Pavonis slipped the knife past the eyelid and into the flesh under the eye.
Bill's breath hitched, fingers clenching, but he set his jaw and refused to make a sound, continuing to stare directly ahead. He had a high pain tolerance. He could take this.
Pavonis seemed disappointed, but not discouraged. He dug the knife in until the point scraped bone, and carefully worked it around the circumference of the eye. When he snapped through the first ocular muscle, Bill gasped softly, but quickly bit down on the noise.
Dipper's stomach lurched at the sound of muscle ripping, feeling nauseous at the sight of blood pouring out of Bill's eye socket. He's seen worse, but seeing this happen to his lover made it almost unbearable.
"We're about one-fifth of the way there," Pavonis said, dragging the blade around to cut through the next muscle. Bill's eyelid twitched, more blood and tears streaming out, but he was quiet. Shock was making the area numb, as his consciousness faded out from the trauma of what was happening. He was already weak from the blood loss he has suffered today as well.
Dipper closed his eyes, unable to watch any longer. Luckily, Gideon didn't seem to notice, eyes trained on Bill.
Pavonis paused to check on how Bill was doing, clicked his tongue, and said, "You know, you're making this very unsatisfying."
"Good," Bill growled.
Pavonis sighed and got back to work. "Well, I don't like to leave a job unfinished." He had to wiggle the knife a bit to keep it going in the right direction, which did draw a quiet groan from Bill, but not enough to really amuse the psychic. He finished severing the muscles and dug the eye completely out, and the iris turned dark brown as it lost contact with Bill's mind. Optical nerve was cut, and then Pavonis grasped the organ between his fingers, showing it to Bill.
The dream demon stared at it with his remaining eye, seemingly in awe, then promptly rested his head back and blacked out.
"Damn, I forgot how traumatic that is to humans... Gideon, stop the blood." Pavonis examined the eye as he waited.
Gideon got up with an indistinguishable mutter, digging a wad of fabric out of his pocket and coming over to apply pressure to the socket. The blood soon soaked through, so he resorted to taking out his lighter and cauterizing the area. It was messy, but effective.
Dipper opened his eyes again, glancing over. Seeing Bill lying so still, eye closed and blood covering his face, he cried out, fearing the worst.
"Oh, shut up, he's alive," Pavonis snapped. "We're not letting either of you die, I told you that already. Death would be too easy for you. We're going to let you suffer a while longer." He got off of Bill, kicking his side in an attempt to wake him up, to no effect. Shrugging, the psychic shifted his attention to Dipper. "Want me to make you match your partner?"
"I'd rather not," Dipper replied, trying not to look afraid.
"Heh. I'll let you keep your eyes. But there are other parts you don't need." Pavonis dropped onto his knees next to him, grabbing one of his hands and swiftly chopping off his other pinkie. The bone and flesh was separated before he could even react, and he had a split second of horror before the pain hit, and he screamed. Pavonis closed his eyes in relish. "Mm, you're so vocal... it makes up for Cipher's silence."
"Okay, Pavonis, I think I've had enough for today," Gideon said, sounding sick.
Pavonis scoffed. "Oh, please. You wanted me to do this. You wanted me to torture them in the ways they've tortured others. They've removed eyes and cut off limbs. He's lucky I didn't take the entire hand. Maybe I will later. So he can never hold a knife again."
Dipper swallowed, staring at the bleeding spot where his pinkie used to be. He could see white where the knuckle bone was exposed.
"I'm done." Gideon began gathering up his stuff, shoving things haphazardly into his bag. "Maybe I'll come back tomorrow. But I've seen enough of this. I'm not like them. I can't just torture people like this every day."
"You're not just torturing 'people', you're punishing two particular people who deserve it! You said it yourself, they need to pay recompense. That's what we're doing!"
Gideon straightened up, bag slung across his back. "They've paid enough." He gave Dipper a lingering look, then turned and left. A few moments later came the sound of a motorcycle revving up.
Pavonis rolled his eyes and looked at Dipper. "Well shit, it might be your lucky day. Fatty might decide to end the deal tomorrow. I'd have to let you go. Pray to whatever God you believe in that he does, otherwise you're in for a good time. Remember the acetylene torch? I'm gonna have some fun with that." He was still holding Bill's eye, and he gave it a final examination before tossing it up. Magic consumed it and it disappeared.
Then he leaned over Dipper, grasping his face and holding his other hand over him. He flexed his fingers and whispered a spell, and Dipper groaned as magic was siphoned out of him, converted into energy that Pavonis absorbed for himself. This continued until Dipper was about to pass out, and then the other stopped, letting go of him and going over to do the same to Bill. His eyes took on a purple glow as he stole the demonic energy, and if Bill had been awake, he would probably be writhing with the pain of the process. In a way, it was lucky that he was unconscious right now.
Once Pavonis had his fill, he got up, the glow disappearing, and turned to go. Humming, he strolled over to the blanket that was used at night, picking it up and looking it over with distaste. Then he threw it at Dipper's face, walking out without a backward glance.
Once alone, Dipper struggled into a sitting position, wincing at the blood dripping from the day's wounds. He held up his hands, staring at the holes in them, eyes itching as he felt like crying. How was he going to fix this? He could see all the way through, could tilt them and look at the layers of skin and muscle and then bone. He was thankful that Pavonis had used thin iron nails, nothing like the thick wooden ones that would have been used for actual crucifixions, but the damage was still extraordinary. And then there were the ones in his feet...
He peeled old bandages off himself, trying not to look at the mottled and torn skin under them, wrapping the bandages instead around the nail marks. Gross, probably not even effective, but it made him feel better not having to look at the holes. Then he painfully crawled over to Bill, looking him over and finally letting himself sob. He draped over him, resting his face against his, begging him to wake up. He could feel the rise and fall of Bill's chest, but it was slow, and he feared that it would just stop. All he could do was hold him and wait.
