Chapter 5

The first four days had been the worst – like his captors had needed to vent their anger or dispose of "excess energy".

After that they had still beaten, tasered and drugged Steve every day. His body had hurt more than ever in his life, but the worst thing for him had still been the drugs. He had been helpless when they had injected him, when the effects had set in and when they had worn off.

At some point the sibblings had stopped the beating and the tasering or better they had taken a break for two days or three, but they had started again – less beating more tasering though. Probably because despite Michael's promise to his sister to not do it again, he had Steve hit in the head – twice – one to his jaw and one to his left ear.

The taser was at a higher level now than in the beginning, but it was always used by Sarah. She always used it along his spine and three times in total to his right kidney.

Steve was spent and he didn't know how long he would be able to last anymore. He didn't even know how long he has been here already. Passing out after a few beatings, after almost every tasering and after every single injection – or better after every comedown of the drugs – had robbed him of every sense of time.

He had tried to not show his pain and emotions, but the pain was too intense, the hallucinations felt too real and the drugs had made him so nauseous that it was impossible for him to eat and drink.

He had screamed and cried through the pain, he had begged to stop giving him the drugs – only to earn laughing and taunting – and he had vomited all over himself more than once. They were now giving him fluids through his IV line and food through a nasal tube they had inserted at some point.

They had usually given him the drugs when he was sitting in the chair, but one day he had "refused" to pass out. But despite his weakened state they hadn't dared to transfer him, so he had gotten the injection while being cuffed to the table. The trip he had been on had been so bad that he had tried to escape at all costs. Seeing sounds and hearing colors was just too terrifying. All he had achieved though was a broken right wrist. The sound of the breaking bone had been even louder than the noises of his "attackers".

He was alone now, drifting in and out of consciousness after Sarah had tried out "a fine new toy she had bought for him" – a whip.

He had ten long lacerations on his back and eight on his front.

His wrists and ankles were raw from the shackles they were placed in when he was hanging on the wall and they had cuts from the tight table cuffs. His shoulders felt like they had been dislocated a few times – although they weren't – and he was barely able to move them.

His right wrist was swollen and hot. He felt cold and hot at the same time, tremors were running up and down his whole body, he was shivering, sometimes even shaking, his skin was burning and itching and sometimes it felt like something was crawling underneath it. His heartbeat was alternating between racing and becoming dangerously low and sometimes he wasn't able to determine what was real and what was hallucination.

The sibling had said they were going to treat him for 29 days. He doubted he had been here that long already, but he also knew that he hadn't much more time before he was nothing but a vegetable. He also knew that Danny and the team would find him, but at the moment he wondered if they would do that in time. Compared with all this Wo Fat had been a piece of cake.