Chapter 21 - Torture.
Warning. This chapter holds a torture scene, don't read it if you don't want to. You will not be missing out on much of the plot if you don't read it. (Possibly rated M for violence)
Taylor's POV.
I woke up in a small, plain, white room. There is a drain in the middle of it. I am lying on a gurney, strapped down, unable to move, even to wriggle. My head is throbbing and the light is too bright for me to see. It is then I realise, for once, I have no clue where I was. I remember nothing after falling out of the hovercraft. My left wrist felt strangely bare. My bracelet...where is my bracelet?! I look frantically around and see it on a hook on the wall. I sigh in relief. But I still want to know where I am.
Someone comes in. Two people, three people, then the door closes. Two are dressed in white doctor suits, and the other is in a peace keepers uniform. The two in doctor suits stand either side of me. The atmosphere is tense, and with each passing second I become more scared and more to the realisation that I am in a hostile environment.
The peace keeper takes their helmet off. It is a girl. Black hair, pale skin, and an angry expression plastered to her face.
"Oh you've woken up, about time, you've been under for a month, I was wondering when the drugs would wear off" she states.
She walks round and stands next to the doctor on my right.
"You make a mockery of the system." she says coldly.
I look at her scared.
"You reveal your inner most thoughts about the Capitol in your first games, we kill your parents and try to kill you, but your mentor has other ideas and you live instead. You are put in the quarter quell under a different name, and we try to kill you then. No luck. Your brother is tortured and still no luck on breaking you. You then have the nerve to break into the arena and try to save others. You have committed the utmost form betrayal, Taylor Knight, and so tell me, why should we not torture you into madness and then kill you?" she asks with a small grin.
I figure out that I will die in here. I know I will. And considering these may possibly be my last moments I decide to push it to the limit.
"Because if you do, who would you fight against? Who would you have fun in torturing then? Kill me and you have no toy to play with." I say sadistically.
"You make us sound like monsters" she says mildly shocked.
"No, you do that all on your own" I mutter.
"Oh, not very friendly, we'll have to fix that tongue of yours won't we?" she says in a high pitched tone.
"You know why so many districts hate you? Do you see the reason why everyone hates the Capitol apart from the people living in it?" I ask.
"We give the districts hope and- " she says with a hint of anger.
I cut her off.
"HOPE!? Is that what you call it? I call it murder. And cruelty. Genocide, in a sense. You force children, mere CHILDREN, to fight to the death for you amusement. You're reason is that of which no one, not even you, can fully remember. You hold a grudge you don't even know the cause of. And you still think you're doing the right thing. You're sick and twisted. You kill for the sake of killing. That's why everyone hates you. And they always will. No one will ever love you, not even people here in the Capitol, because you can paint yourselves as much as you like, cover up your skin and insecurities, but no one can hide away a repulsive personality. Not even your artists can do that."
"You'll pay for -"
I cut her off again.
"But be prepared. Because you can kill me, but that will not stop from what's coming next. Nothing will. You can kill a wasp but you cannot stop the oncoming swarm. That only fuels their hatred. Remember that as you're wasting your breath and energy torturing me and thinking you're doing the right thing"
She pulls a knife out at speed and cuts quickly and deeply, diagonally, from my left eye to the right of my chin, down my face. I scream loudly and painfully in agony. I writhe against my restraints.
"Anymore wise words?" she teases.
"Feels purposeful, doesn't it?" I choke out, spitting out blood.
This just angers her more, I should really shut up.
She takes her knife cuts deeply down my right arm. I squeal in pain again. My blood is seeping onto the floor and down the drain. I feel so much pain I wonder if I'll pass out. I can only hope 13 send a rescue team in soon. I can only hope.
She looks at the doctor standing next to me and nods. He moves away and flicks something on the wall. Everything turns black. I can feel I'm still conscious but I can see nothing. What's happened? Where have they gone? What's going on? Why have I gone blind?
I feel a quick, sharp punch to my stomach. I groan in pain and try to curl up in a ball but I'm still restrained. I release they've just turned the lights out. They're all still in the room, torturing me. I feel a blow to my head and I start to feel dizzy.
"Just like the arena, you can't see the enemy but you can feel their attacks" she snarls.
She's right. This is just like the arena, I can't see the enemy but I can feel them. And it scares me more than anything.
Over the next, of what feels like, weeks I am punched, kicked and cut. All in darkness. I'm never shown the light again, apart from when the door opens and closes for the gits to leave and enter. They don't come every day, from what I can guess, I think it's 4 times a week but I'm never sure. I drift in and out of consciousness, but they always wait until I'm awake to torture me. I am fed minimal supplies of bread and water, just enough to keep me alive but with no strength to break free. They heal up my wounds only to re-injure them again. It only adds to the pain. I can imagine this is what hell feels like. My body is so battered I could be a fish to sell on the market. I have no clue if I have all of my limbs. I have no clue if I'm dead or alive. I don't know anything now. They don't ask for information, they know I know nothing, they just torture me for making 'a mockery of the system'. I have given up hope of ever getting out alive now. I only hope that one day soon I will be put out of my misery. Because this is misery, painful, horrific, misery.
It's one day when I hear something different. I hear faint shouting and running sounds. People opening doors further down and running back out of them. I begin to panic again. They're killing them, or taking them to a new torture chamber.
My door swings open but I can't see who the person is, my eyes are too bruised to make out who they are. They feel around on the wall and the light flicks on. I have no energy to flinch.
"Taylor...Taylor...can you hear me...Taylor!" I hear Will shout.
'Will! It's Will! He came for me! He's here! Will!' I shout in my head, but I can't talk so he has no idea I recognise him.
He unties me, carries me in a bridal hold and begins to take me out of the room. I moan in pain. He looks relieved I'm alive.
'Wait my bracelet!' I shout in my head.
I moan loudly and try to point to it.
"No, we're leaving" he says firmly.
I moan again and he looks around. He sees it, runs back in and takes it. He then runs out of the room and follows another man, who, if I must say, looks quite handsome. I try to keep awake, not knowing if I fall unconscious if I'll ever wake up again. But it's no use. My body is in too much pain and I pass out.
I wake up next on a hover craft when Will is calling my name. I only have time to groan before I pass out again.
I next become conscious but not awake whilst in hospital. Someone is punching my chest really hard and I'm willing them to stop. It's a few long minutes before they do. I hear muffled shouting, pleading almost. It's not clear enough for me to hear the words they are saying. I recognise it as Will's voice. What's happening to him? Will! Will! I scream in my head but no use, they can't hear my thoughts. I feel my hand roughly taken and more crying. I hear another scream. I feel someone curl up beside me and I recognise it as Michael. My Michael. My poor Michael. He's still alive. He's here. Alive. This lifts my spirits instantly.
I then feel him torn away from me, I hear him scream and taken out of the room I assume. I hear someone else come in. My hand is taken again and something is put on it, but this time it's a soft voice speaking. He doesn't stop for a while, and after he does, he kisses my head and leaves.
Where's he going? Where's he going? Come back Will! Come back! But again, it's no use. He still can't hear my thoughts.
I black out again...