Standard disclaimers apply... yadda, yadda, yadda
Forbearance
Part III
By: Penybright
Darkness again. This darkness was welcome though. Thoughts flitted about aimlessly, without focus or reason here. It was as close to peace as he would ever get. All to soon, though, the nightmares would come to haunt him...
Van jerked awake with a strangled scream, shaking and breathing heavily. After catching his breath, he attempted to shift his position and groaned. The door to his cell suddenly swung open, and a guard stalked in carrying a bucket. Van's breath left him and he struggled to gasp in air as the freezing water hit him. The shock caused him to twitch, and he let out a sharp cry as a stabbing pain knifed through his left arm.
The guard laughed cruelly at the prisoner's predicament. Van failed to notice the guard's distasteful expression as he battled with his pain, struggled against it getting the better of him. The water that ran off of him and rushed in rivulets across the floor was red. Van closed his eyes, not wishing to see anymore. It was always like this after a session with the questioners... He heard the door clang shut, and slowly opened his eyes. Darkness greeted his vision, but this was a different darkness, far more stark and harsh.
The pain was unbearable.
Van wanted to thrash in agony on the floor, but forced himself to remain still. He knew that moving would only increase his pain. He had learned that the first few days of his captivity. It was a lesson he would not easily forget.
As Van stared blankly into the darkness, he went over a list of his injuries. Bruises, welts, and cuts covered his body, his left arm was broken, and his ribs bruised. Van's throat was swollen and raw from screaming, and today he had received only a minor "treatment". Tomorrow would bring far worse, he knew.
During his "questioning" Van had come to the realization that they would never let him die. They found to much satisfaction in tormenting him. He was the first to last so long against their ministrations. Any other man would have broken weeks ago...
Van couldn't remember how long he had been resisting them. It seemed like an eternity, an eternity of anguish. Why was he here? Van held a secret that his captors wished to unravel. They had assured him that he would eventually give them what they wanted. That statement had only solidified Van's stubborn resolve. He had vowed that he would never give them what they wished, no mater what torture they put him through.
Van was surprised when the door to his cell swung open again, and two guards shuffled in. Van's resolve was about to be tested again, and he was about to discover if he could truly keep the vow he had sworn...