Chapter 6: Torture
A million thoughts and emotions flooded Chloe's mind as she watched the terror below her. Disbelief, horror, fear. None of which were positive.
The large room was divided into two halves, a wide pathway separating them. On one side, hundreds upon thousands of prison cells, each lit up with the many colours of Inkling tentacles. The prisoners looked hungry and terrified.
One Octarian, who looked like an Octoling, approached a cell with an orange Inkling with the classic long hairstyle laying on the floor, dressed in nothing but black underwear. Her eyes were closed, her skin was deathly pale and the colour had nearly completely drained from her tentacles. Her hands tied behind her back with painful rope, which was littered with spikes and coated in fushia ink. Her groans were muted by the ink-soaked towel gagging her. Pale tears left her tightly shut eyes. Chloe could only imagine how much pain this poor Inkling was in. Enemy ink is incredibly painful against bare skin. What did she do to deserve this?
The Octoling unlocked the barred gate. The sound alone was enough for the Inkling to snap her eyes open and quiver with fear. The Octarian grabbed the Inkling by the tentacles, pulling her to her feet and out of the cell. She then proceeded to yank the terrified Inkling onto the other side of the room…
The Inked Maidon. TheSquillotine. The Rack. Agent 4 counted 8 torture devices all together in this one space. Each one designed specifically to put Inklings through agonising pain, before executing them in front of an audience. Such audience consisted of a crowd of assorted Octarians seated in bleaches. Each time a person was killed, the crowd erupted with cheers.
However, the inkling was not taken to any of these devices. Instead, she was lead to a large stage at the far end of the room, where she was attached to a tall metal pole with the same spiky, ink-coated rope. Her hands were tied above her head and her feet were attached the the base of the pole, violently shaking with pain and unable to speak. Suddenly, a door opened to the right of the stage, and a blinding light flooded the room.
The agents gasped.
"Agent 3?!"
The familiar agent stepped out of the light. He was wearing a pair of hypnoshades, but they were fastened to his head with elastic. His dark blue tentacles were untied and rested freely on his shoulders. He slowly approached the Inkling, his heavy metal boots clanking with every step. He came to a stop behind the Inkling. The room fell silent. Agents 4 and A couldn't take their eyes from the scene, while Agent 5 examined the event from a new point of view.
Agent 3 slowly walked around the pole to stand in front of her. His face was blank. He lifted his shades slightly, locked eyes with her, and the air became heavy. The Inkling's froze, petrified.
Agent 3 reached behind him and drew a sword with a blade made of solid ink. The sword dripped with fuchsia ink as he raised his blade. The Inkling tried to clench her teeth and tightly shut her eyes.
With one quick swipe, the girl squealed with agonising pain.
Ink sprayed across the room, coating the walls, ceiling, floor and Octarians with ink. Agent 3 seemed unscathed. The crowd roared with applause. The Inkling fell limp, a massive slash across her eyes. Two Octolings untied her and dragged her limp body across the stage, leaving a trail of orange and fuchsia ink, and took her towards the doorway to the right.
Agent A and Agent 4 were horrified. They had silently watched the whole scene from their exposed panel at the far corner of the room.
"What the fuck?!" Agent A whispered. "I have no words! Agent 5, you used to do this shit?!"
"Not willingly, at least,", Agent 5 whispered, without batting an eye. "I remember this place, but I still know so little about it. I don't understand why these Inklings are here, what they did and how they got here."
Agent 4 studied the aftermath. The trail of ink left behind by the Inkling had little flakes of glitter in it. She scanned Agent 3, who was sheathing his sword. He has stayed emotionless the entire time, but the look on the Inklings face before the execution said otherwise. It was flooded with genuine fear.
The audience began leaving the room, as it appeared that they were packing up for the day. It was 10pm, after all. As the Octarians left, Agent 4 spotted the Inkling being dragged through the doorway. She noticed something, before she was completely taken through the doorway.
Her tentacles had began to sharpen, curl and change colour.
"Did you see that? We need to check that out, let's go!" she whisper-shouted as she pulled out a grappling hook.
"See what? What happened? Don't just abandon our mission!" Agent 5 hissed, confused. But before his questions could be answered then realised a spot of fushia ink had been sizzling on his cheek for the last minute. The pain only just began to kick in. It took all of his might to hold back from screaming as everyone left.
Once the room was cleared, and Agent 3 had began to leave through the doorway, Agent 4 grabbed hold of the other agents and threw a Grapplink above the doorway.
"I'm not certain, but I swear I saw that Inkling's tentacles start to warp and change colour. We need to check it out."
Agent 4 released the trigger and the grappling hook carried them all towards the door. As they swung, Agent 5 gave a hefty sigh of relief as the burning ink was scrubbed off his face by the wind.
He may have been too loud, because as soon as he made a sound, Agent 3 drew his sword and leaped through the air, his blade pointed towards them.