I woke in the middle of the night to see shadowy shapes at the bars. They entered my cell as my eyes adjusted enough to see Tachit standing there, guards behind him.
"I just had to look at you again." His voice is steady. But the sense of threat lingers in the air.
"What?" I'm half asleep and confused as hell.
"To see why Crais wants you so badly. See why you're so special that you can keep escaping him. You don't look so special."
I shake my head. "You came to tell me this in the middle of the night?" Defiance might stop me crying again. I cried for hours. I won't cry to them. I won't.
He walks slowly towards me. "Truth is I'm glad you didn't confess to murder. Peacekeeper codes say I'd have to hand you over. This way I get to screw Crais over."
One of the guards hits me with his baton. It sends some kind of shock through me and I feel myself jolt. It stings like hell and my shoulder feels like it's going to explode. I drop to my knees hard, instinctively holding my shoulder. Then the others are on me in a flurry of punches and kicks and batons. I feel strangely detached. I hear my shirt ripping.
"Don't hit his face. I don't want that tralk to use this against us," Tachit says in the distance.
I feel sick. I don't fight back. Maybe I deserve this. Maybe its God's way of punishing me.
They finally stop hitting me. They leave me lying bruised and beaten in my own blood. And as I start to pass out I see Tachit's face wavering in my vision and he says, "I'm glad I decided to screw Crais out of this..." I lose a few words, "…set up…I'll look forward to your execution."
Everything goes black.