CHAPTER EIGHT - CONFESSIONS
Chrissie listened to Kelly's haggard breathing as she leant against the wall. Only a few minutes after Fred had left, Kelly had said she was going to sleep, to conserve her strength for later. Personally, Chrissie had doubts that Kelly was telling her the entire story.
They never had gotten the full story about 'streaming' from Duin-Shiel or Kelly and who knew what it involved or what imprints it left on the body. What repercussions were there? She'd seen the scars on Kelly's arms, just as Fred and Duin-Shiel had, but what had actually happened, she didn't know.
She had doubts that Kelly had really recovered from her injuries. After a good three days being unconscious and suffering a deep stab wound, who knew what kind of internal bleeding she might have.
Chrissie almost jumped out of her skin when she realised what was happening to her. She was worrying about Kelly. That was the first time for that really. Kelly had always seemed so self-assured and confidant, untouchable really and now when she'd suffered this wound, she seemed more.human.
The haggard breathing pattern changed and Chrissie heard a muffled scuff of what she presumed was Kelly sitting up.
"Kelly?" She whispered.
"Yeah." Kelly croaked out, definitely feeling worse for wear now.
"What's streaming?"
The words seemed to hang in the air and for a moment Chrissie wished she could take them back.
Kelly grunted. "We.are trapped in a prison cell and you.want to talk about torture. That is so predictable of you." Kelly took deep breaths between phrases, trying to lessen the pain in her side.
Kelly hesitated. She hadn't spoke to anyone about her experiences in that cellar, but she supposed they would find out eventually.
"Many people are initiated, more than could possibly be handled in the training system. To wheedle out the weaker candidates they.they stream everyone. They said that many brothers are captured by the Elves and they had to be sure you wouldn't break under the most brutal forms of torture. That's why they do it."
Chrissie gasped. To stream ones enemies was one thing, but to stream one's family? That was beyond insane.
"But surely Elves wouldn't actually torture anyone?" Chrissie asked, hoping she didn't sound too naïve.
Kelly laughed slightly. "Not men or dwarves no, but they see us as less than human. I have been told they have no qualms about beating orcs for information, so why not us?"
Kelly paused, wondering how much to say. "It's like a long collection of micro thin wires that they wind around your wrists, so thin that they penetrate your skin under hardly any pressure. Most bands consist of about forty on each arm. Hence the scars you saw on my arms. I was one of the lucky ones.
They hang you by them for hours on end, asking you questions about everything they can think of, and if you make even the slightest reply, they beat you.
The only water they give you is laced with red leaf, a hallucination drug designed to make you get so high, you just answer anything they ask. You see things that aren't there, terrible things, your memory twisting inside your mind. Sometimes you see your family and friends inside that chamber with you, suffering the same or worse punishments. Sometimes you see.never mind.
They lace your wounds with burning charcoal, then ice and back again, alternating the process. Sometimes they just bleed you dry and let you try to hydrate yourself on your own blood.
If after that you answer their questions, they just do it again and again. Name a type of torture and they're experts. Pricking, suffocation, hanging, starvation, dismemberment. If you still hold your resolve, then you become a full initiate."
Kelly coughed again and noticed worriedly how far the sun seemed to be across the sky.
"I've never told anyone that before. Not many brothers talk about their testing as it's called. We find it too painful. The reason we're so good at torturing others, is because we base it on our own experience. The first thing I did when I was able, was to hit one of my tormenters across the face."
Chrissie listened in shock, half surprised that someone could survive such a process and half shocked that these people could do something like that to people they think of as family.
"Kelly, you do know these people are evil now, don't you?"
Kelly smiled and bent down to look at Chrissie's worried face through the hole.
"Yes. I have no intention of ever going back to them. I know now they were just using me."
Chrissie smiled, but there was one more question that she been burning to ask since they'd been reunited.
"How are we going to save Frodo?"
Kelly smiled at the predictability of Chrissie's question.
"There's only one person in the sect that knows about the Fellowship. Kill him and we don't have to worry. We're meeting him, Canetha, at Cair Andras in three days time."
Chrissie frowned. "What about that Ordon person you talked about? And the Old Man?"
Kelly swallowed. "They're not a concern anymore." She wasn't proud of what she'd done to them and didn't like to think of it much. She hadn't wanted to mention it, because she knew Chrissie would make a fuss.
Chrissie gulped. "Did you kill them? Why? I know they were evil, but couldn't you have just.How did you do it?"
Kelly hesitated, not knowing if she wanted to confide anymore in Chrissie. "I knocked them out and burnt down the cottage."
The air was silent for several minutes whilst both parties digested what had been said. Chrissie felt a mixture of sympathy for what had been done to Kelly and horror for what Kelly had done herself.
Kelly was surprised she'd said as much as she had, she'd didn't usually talk about her feelings or weaknesses much, let alone to Chrissie.
Chrissie was just about to ask another question when she heard a low scraping, coming from the direction of the hole in the floor, the one where Fred had escaped.
"Kelly, I think someone's coming." She said quietly as she crept closer to the hole.
She peered down it, trying to strain her eyesight to see anything new. A figure appeared in front of the light. It began meticulously breaking pieces of mortar around the hole and taking the bricks out. Soon, the hole was big enough to fit two people through and as the person signalled to Chrissie, she dropped through into the sewers. Catching hold of Fred's hand, she waited for them to bring Kelly out.
***
Kelly drifted in and out of darkness. She could hear scraping all around her, but it didn't seem important. She could feel the blood seeping through the crude bandage she'd made and her poor attempt at stitching, but that didn't seem important either.
She just laid back against the cell wall and waited for whatever was going to happen to get on with it. She tried to cough up what felt like a sticky lump of blood, but didn't have the energy to spasm her muscles. Her breathing slowed as the sticky substance began to cut off her air supply and the world began to spin around her.
She felt someone check her neck for a pulse and whisper a word to another. She felt a tight bandage go around her middle and the strain on her back ease. Her eyes fluttered open for a moment to see a man with fiery hair looking back at her. Lee had come for her after all.
***
Lee lifted her body over his shoulder then pushed her slowly through the hole he'd made between the cells. Squeezing through himself, he lowered her down to the waiting brothers below and followed them down the sewer pathways.
Faramir would be coming soon and would no doubt find their little escape routes and launch a campaign after them. But they could never leave one of their own behind and so they would risk it.
The healer in their sect took a sour look at her as he laid her down back inside their own grounds.
"What's her chances?" He asked gruffly.
The healer sighed. "A normal person would be dead already, but she has some strength of will yet. If she survives the night, she may yet live a while longer."
Lee glanced at the anxious faces of the two young girls huddled in the corner of the room. He doubted they really were initiates, they practically jumped out of their skin every time a brother passed within ten metres of them. Perhaps they were an information source of some kind.
Lee left the healer to her work and climbed the stairs back to the surface. He needed a drink and he needed to see what the local grapevine was already saying about the jail breakout.
***
Chrissie and Fred sat near Kelly as the healer worked. Chrissie had told Fred much of what Kelly had told her over the afternoon and as shocked as Fred had been, she had not been surprised. Only a few weeks before their transportation, she had begun writing torture fanfics. She had researched some torture methods on the Internet and although she hadn't ever heard of this 'streaming' before, it sounded typical of some of the more psychotic cults spread across the globe.
The healer glanced over to them after about half an hour.
"You two her friends?" She asked, suspicion edging in her voice.
Chrissie and Fred nodded.
"She'll survive. She'll have a hell of a headache in the morning and have to be careful for a few weeks whilst the wound heals, but otherwise she'll be fine."
The healer exited the room, wiping her hands on her clothes as she went.
As soon as they thought she was out of ear shot, Chrissie and Fred both said what they'd been thinking.
"She suspects that we're nothing to do with the sect, doesn't she?" Fred said first.
Chrissie nodded. "We should leave really, but Kelly said we had to go with them to meet 'Canetha' or someone."
Fred looked over to Kelly, but seemed to be having a great time in wherever she was. She was smiling lightly.
"Well at least she's happy." Chrissie said sarcastically. "Doesn't look like we're going anywhere."
Chrissie slumped down to the floor and tried to move into a comfortable position so she might try to get some sleep as well.
Fred looked down at Chrissie's stubborn face and put all thoughts of argument from her mind. Sitting down slowly next to her, she managed to nestle down into a crack in the wall. However, restful sleep never came for her that night.
*** Chrissie: I would be very scared if Fred displayed any more signs of turning into me.
Tbiris: He was lucky, nothing more.
Lil Kawaii Doom: Doomness to you too! Thanks.
Freddie loves Frodo: Of course you have to suffer Fred, it's an angst Fanfic for pity's sake. I am not saying anything about the d-word.
Hobbit-Eye: Updates are coming.
Hannah: Kelly, cheat? She'd never even dream of it. ;)
Chrissie: I seriously think you can shout that loudly, I mean you haven't heard you have you? You need me? Oh that's a first.
Hobbit-Eyes: Okay, rejoice Kelly's not dead.yet. Although she's not out of the woods yet.
Freddie loves Frodo: Okay I die and two moments later you're already blaming me for everything. Nothing changes does it?
Arinya: Well Kelly knows the rules, that the winner hasn't won until the Master of Arms sort of declares it, she just got a bit annoyed. There she was finally able to kill her tormenter and she got stopped. So I suppose she probably was a bit distracted. P.s, I love dramatics!
Hobbit-Eyes: I just hate Faramir. Maybe it's just that image of David Wenham with his squinty little eyes, I have no idea. But he will redeem himself, don't worry.
Tbiris: I'm afraid to say Duin-Shiel won't be the rescuer in this particular instance and not for the next few either. Although he will be providing a dramatic cliff hanger and some point so keep your eyes peeled!
Chrissie: What do you mean you didn't realise? Are you like blind or something? Of course he loves you, he's a soppy elf. Sorry, but you ain't gonna be seeing Duin-Shiel for quite a long time yet.
Freddie loves Frodo: So you finally noticed? I don't know what you're getting so upset about, I mean it's not even your dagger. You only touched it for about a minute, I mean who knows what Faramir's doing with it now?
Hannah: Justice will be served, mark my words.
Hannah: I know tests are so tiresome. Well he may be redeemed yet.
Freddie loves Frodo: I just had to put something in about Chrissie's little animals somewhere, there's such amusing anecdotes!
Hobbit-Eyes: I thought you might like that.
Chrissie: I would never publicly suggest you are crazy, since I'm not suicidal.
Tbiris: Well she's not out of the woods yet and with her crazy lifestyle, who knows how long it will be till she's near death again?
Chrissie listened to Kelly's haggard breathing as she leant against the wall. Only a few minutes after Fred had left, Kelly had said she was going to sleep, to conserve her strength for later. Personally, Chrissie had doubts that Kelly was telling her the entire story.
They never had gotten the full story about 'streaming' from Duin-Shiel or Kelly and who knew what it involved or what imprints it left on the body. What repercussions were there? She'd seen the scars on Kelly's arms, just as Fred and Duin-Shiel had, but what had actually happened, she didn't know.
She had doubts that Kelly had really recovered from her injuries. After a good three days being unconscious and suffering a deep stab wound, who knew what kind of internal bleeding she might have.
Chrissie almost jumped out of her skin when she realised what was happening to her. She was worrying about Kelly. That was the first time for that really. Kelly had always seemed so self-assured and confidant, untouchable really and now when she'd suffered this wound, she seemed more.human.
The haggard breathing pattern changed and Chrissie heard a muffled scuff of what she presumed was Kelly sitting up.
"Kelly?" She whispered.
"Yeah." Kelly croaked out, definitely feeling worse for wear now.
"What's streaming?"
The words seemed to hang in the air and for a moment Chrissie wished she could take them back.
Kelly grunted. "We.are trapped in a prison cell and you.want to talk about torture. That is so predictable of you." Kelly took deep breaths between phrases, trying to lessen the pain in her side.
Kelly hesitated. She hadn't spoke to anyone about her experiences in that cellar, but she supposed they would find out eventually.
"Many people are initiated, more than could possibly be handled in the training system. To wheedle out the weaker candidates they.they stream everyone. They said that many brothers are captured by the Elves and they had to be sure you wouldn't break under the most brutal forms of torture. That's why they do it."
Chrissie gasped. To stream ones enemies was one thing, but to stream one's family? That was beyond insane.
"But surely Elves wouldn't actually torture anyone?" Chrissie asked, hoping she didn't sound too naïve.
Kelly laughed slightly. "Not men or dwarves no, but they see us as less than human. I have been told they have no qualms about beating orcs for information, so why not us?"
Kelly paused, wondering how much to say. "It's like a long collection of micro thin wires that they wind around your wrists, so thin that they penetrate your skin under hardly any pressure. Most bands consist of about forty on each arm. Hence the scars you saw on my arms. I was one of the lucky ones.
They hang you by them for hours on end, asking you questions about everything they can think of, and if you make even the slightest reply, they beat you.
The only water they give you is laced with red leaf, a hallucination drug designed to make you get so high, you just answer anything they ask. You see things that aren't there, terrible things, your memory twisting inside your mind. Sometimes you see your family and friends inside that chamber with you, suffering the same or worse punishments. Sometimes you see.never mind.
They lace your wounds with burning charcoal, then ice and back again, alternating the process. Sometimes they just bleed you dry and let you try to hydrate yourself on your own blood.
If after that you answer their questions, they just do it again and again. Name a type of torture and they're experts. Pricking, suffocation, hanging, starvation, dismemberment. If you still hold your resolve, then you become a full initiate."
Kelly coughed again and noticed worriedly how far the sun seemed to be across the sky.
"I've never told anyone that before. Not many brothers talk about their testing as it's called. We find it too painful. The reason we're so good at torturing others, is because we base it on our own experience. The first thing I did when I was able, was to hit one of my tormenters across the face."
Chrissie listened in shock, half surprised that someone could survive such a process and half shocked that these people could do something like that to people they think of as family.
"Kelly, you do know these people are evil now, don't you?"
Kelly smiled and bent down to look at Chrissie's worried face through the hole.
"Yes. I have no intention of ever going back to them. I know now they were just using me."
Chrissie smiled, but there was one more question that she been burning to ask since they'd been reunited.
"How are we going to save Frodo?"
Kelly smiled at the predictability of Chrissie's question.
"There's only one person in the sect that knows about the Fellowship. Kill him and we don't have to worry. We're meeting him, Canetha, at Cair Andras in three days time."
Chrissie frowned. "What about that Ordon person you talked about? And the Old Man?"
Kelly swallowed. "They're not a concern anymore." She wasn't proud of what she'd done to them and didn't like to think of it much. She hadn't wanted to mention it, because she knew Chrissie would make a fuss.
Chrissie gulped. "Did you kill them? Why? I know they were evil, but couldn't you have just.How did you do it?"
Kelly hesitated, not knowing if she wanted to confide anymore in Chrissie. "I knocked them out and burnt down the cottage."
The air was silent for several minutes whilst both parties digested what had been said. Chrissie felt a mixture of sympathy for what had been done to Kelly and horror for what Kelly had done herself.
Kelly was surprised she'd said as much as she had, she'd didn't usually talk about her feelings or weaknesses much, let alone to Chrissie.
Chrissie was just about to ask another question when she heard a low scraping, coming from the direction of the hole in the floor, the one where Fred had escaped.
"Kelly, I think someone's coming." She said quietly as she crept closer to the hole.
She peered down it, trying to strain her eyesight to see anything new. A figure appeared in front of the light. It began meticulously breaking pieces of mortar around the hole and taking the bricks out. Soon, the hole was big enough to fit two people through and as the person signalled to Chrissie, she dropped through into the sewers. Catching hold of Fred's hand, she waited for them to bring Kelly out.
***
Kelly drifted in and out of darkness. She could hear scraping all around her, but it didn't seem important. She could feel the blood seeping through the crude bandage she'd made and her poor attempt at stitching, but that didn't seem important either.
She just laid back against the cell wall and waited for whatever was going to happen to get on with it. She tried to cough up what felt like a sticky lump of blood, but didn't have the energy to spasm her muscles. Her breathing slowed as the sticky substance began to cut off her air supply and the world began to spin around her.
She felt someone check her neck for a pulse and whisper a word to another. She felt a tight bandage go around her middle and the strain on her back ease. Her eyes fluttered open for a moment to see a man with fiery hair looking back at her. Lee had come for her after all.
***
Lee lifted her body over his shoulder then pushed her slowly through the hole he'd made between the cells. Squeezing through himself, he lowered her down to the waiting brothers below and followed them down the sewer pathways.
Faramir would be coming soon and would no doubt find their little escape routes and launch a campaign after them. But they could never leave one of their own behind and so they would risk it.
The healer in their sect took a sour look at her as he laid her down back inside their own grounds.
"What's her chances?" He asked gruffly.
The healer sighed. "A normal person would be dead already, but she has some strength of will yet. If she survives the night, she may yet live a while longer."
Lee glanced at the anxious faces of the two young girls huddled in the corner of the room. He doubted they really were initiates, they practically jumped out of their skin every time a brother passed within ten metres of them. Perhaps they were an information source of some kind.
Lee left the healer to her work and climbed the stairs back to the surface. He needed a drink and he needed to see what the local grapevine was already saying about the jail breakout.
***
Chrissie and Fred sat near Kelly as the healer worked. Chrissie had told Fred much of what Kelly had told her over the afternoon and as shocked as Fred had been, she had not been surprised. Only a few weeks before their transportation, she had begun writing torture fanfics. She had researched some torture methods on the Internet and although she hadn't ever heard of this 'streaming' before, it sounded typical of some of the more psychotic cults spread across the globe.
The healer glanced over to them after about half an hour.
"You two her friends?" She asked, suspicion edging in her voice.
Chrissie and Fred nodded.
"She'll survive. She'll have a hell of a headache in the morning and have to be careful for a few weeks whilst the wound heals, but otherwise she'll be fine."
The healer exited the room, wiping her hands on her clothes as she went.
As soon as they thought she was out of ear shot, Chrissie and Fred both said what they'd been thinking.
"She suspects that we're nothing to do with the sect, doesn't she?" Fred said first.
Chrissie nodded. "We should leave really, but Kelly said we had to go with them to meet 'Canetha' or someone."
Fred looked over to Kelly, but seemed to be having a great time in wherever she was. She was smiling lightly.
"Well at least she's happy." Chrissie said sarcastically. "Doesn't look like we're going anywhere."
Chrissie slumped down to the floor and tried to move into a comfortable position so she might try to get some sleep as well.
Fred looked down at Chrissie's stubborn face and put all thoughts of argument from her mind. Sitting down slowly next to her, she managed to nestle down into a crack in the wall. However, restful sleep never came for her that night.
*** Chrissie: I would be very scared if Fred displayed any more signs of turning into me.
Tbiris: He was lucky, nothing more.
Lil Kawaii Doom: Doomness to you too! Thanks.
Freddie loves Frodo: Of course you have to suffer Fred, it's an angst Fanfic for pity's sake. I am not saying anything about the d-word.
Hobbit-Eye: Updates are coming.
Hannah: Kelly, cheat? She'd never even dream of it. ;)
Chrissie: I seriously think you can shout that loudly, I mean you haven't heard you have you? You need me? Oh that's a first.
Hobbit-Eyes: Okay, rejoice Kelly's not dead.yet. Although she's not out of the woods yet.
Freddie loves Frodo: Okay I die and two moments later you're already blaming me for everything. Nothing changes does it?
Arinya: Well Kelly knows the rules, that the winner hasn't won until the Master of Arms sort of declares it, she just got a bit annoyed. There she was finally able to kill her tormenter and she got stopped. So I suppose she probably was a bit distracted. P.s, I love dramatics!
Hobbit-Eyes: I just hate Faramir. Maybe it's just that image of David Wenham with his squinty little eyes, I have no idea. But he will redeem himself, don't worry.
Tbiris: I'm afraid to say Duin-Shiel won't be the rescuer in this particular instance and not for the next few either. Although he will be providing a dramatic cliff hanger and some point so keep your eyes peeled!
Chrissie: What do you mean you didn't realise? Are you like blind or something? Of course he loves you, he's a soppy elf. Sorry, but you ain't gonna be seeing Duin-Shiel for quite a long time yet.
Freddie loves Frodo: So you finally noticed? I don't know what you're getting so upset about, I mean it's not even your dagger. You only touched it for about a minute, I mean who knows what Faramir's doing with it now?
Hannah: Justice will be served, mark my words.
Hannah: I know tests are so tiresome. Well he may be redeemed yet.
Freddie loves Frodo: I just had to put something in about Chrissie's little animals somewhere, there's such amusing anecdotes!
Hobbit-Eyes: I thought you might like that.
Chrissie: I would never publicly suggest you are crazy, since I'm not suicidal.
Tbiris: Well she's not out of the woods yet and with her crazy lifestyle, who knows how long it will be till she's near death again?