Chapter 34: Torture

Mal felt a mixture of relief and fear after seeing Freddie disappear. Freddie had been saved, that was the important part, it would remain to be seen how she would fair.

Uma, Harry and the rest of their gang then turned to her with hungry eyes.

"Well, looks like someone is a bit outside of their comfort zone." Uma teased.

"As agreed, wasn't it?" Mal coolly replied. "So, what now? It's getting kinda boring here."

"Oh, trust us. This will be the fun part for you." Harry answered in a dark tone. "We have someone to deliver you to, but we are going to have a little fun first."

Mal was surprised when she heard this. They had to deliver her to someone? Who? Who did not only want her dead, but had the sufficient authority to command Uma? Mal knew that there were few things Uma wanted more than to see her suffer, so for someone to tell her to deliver her someplace else was quite an achievement.

Mal tried to think of other isle inhabitants with a certain grudge towards her, that also had a certain level of authority. Harriet came to mind, even though she and Mal had never clashed that badly. Solomon, the horned king's son, was a person who definitely had enough of a reason to hate her, but he did not have the necessary authority or ties with Uma to demand such a thing. Then there was CJ, who was definitely one of Mal's least favorite people. But CJ had been friends with Freddie and Mal doubted that she would put her friend at risk like that.

"Where will you be taking me then?" Mal asked, feigning interest. At this point she simply tried to keep the conversation going. With some luck, Archer and his friends would be able to break her out sooner rather than later.

"Let's keep that a surprise, we'll focus on the present for now. Harry, Gil, why don't you make sure she's prepared." Uma said with a sinister smile.

Harry and Gil quickly approached her and even though they had a deal, Mal wasn't about to give up without a fight. She was still cuffed to the railing however and thus had nowhere to run. When both of them were in range, she violently kicked at them, managing to hit Harry in the chest. Gil caught her other leg however and quickly advanced, so Mal used her free hand to deliver a stinging slap to his face. He would not release her leg however and when she raised her hand again, it was swiftly grabbed by Harry. The rest of her struggles were in vain as both Harry and Gil were far too strong for her to handle. She still resisted with all her might, which caused Harry to eventually hit her in the stomach, hard. Mal bent over double in pain, as she felt Harry uncuff her from the railing.

Mal kept on resisting as she felt Harry's arms around her, pinning her arms to her sides, and Gil grabbing a hold of her legs. Mal kicked and squirmed to the best of her ability, but while she might have been able to keep up with them in a duel, they did easily surpass her physically.

In her desperation, she even tried to conjure up her magic, even though she knew that it was impossible to do so inside the barrier.

She then felt someone grab her wrists and turn them behind her back. A second later she felt the cold metal around her wrists again and she could no longer separate her arms. She then focused more on trying to free her legs but was unable to stop Uma from tying them together with rope. Mal's breath stocked, she was now basically helpless.

"Put her over there." Mal heard Uma command. Harry and Gil then carried her away from the Lost Revenge and put her up straight against a wall of a more open area. Mal had no way of trying to escape or cause her captors any physical harm, so tried her best to remain standing on her own. She felt extremely exposed as she watched all the isle inhabitants stare at her hungrily.

"Come on then, have your fun." Mal said panting. "Who knows how long it will last."

Uma laughed as she approached Mal. "Make your little jokes while you still can, princess."

"You know you won't win this." Mal spat. "Evil never prevails."

Uma slapped her hard across the face, which made her head whip to the side. "Maybe we won't, but you definitely won't be there to see us lose." Uma grinned.

Mal spat out a small amount of blood on the ground. "You've gone soft. I would have expected more, even from you."

Uma hit her again, this time with a full fist on her cheek which made Mal's head whip to the side again. Even Mal could not help but groan in pain after this and felt herself sag down the wall a bit.

"Looks like we're getting close to a breaking point already." Uma teased. She then grabbed Mal harshly by her long, purple hair, making Mal yell out in pain in the process. "You're gonna wish that you would have left Freddie here. You're gonna wish that you had never dared to cross me. You will beg for mercy before this is all over. I will give you an out though. So, what's my name? What's my name? Say it, and you might be spared a bit of pain."

Mal started laughing in spite of herself. "Really!? After all this time!?" She asked with a painful grin as she stared at Uma again. "Screw you, really. Screw you shrimpy!"

Uma immediately punched Mal flush on the cheek again, and she couldn't help but yell out in pain and be caught out of balance again. She could now begin to feel the burning sensation spread throughout her entire face and knew for sure that whatever would happen, she would have some nasty swelling to deal with.

Uma raised her head again by grabbing even more of her hair. "What's my name?" she then asked again.

"Shrimpy." Mal said with some satisfaction as she saw another grimace appear on Uma's face.

Uma then socked her hard in the stomach, making Mal double over in pain, only to be caught be a hard uppercut from Uma. This made Mal completely lose balance and she roughly tumbled to the ground on her side. For a second, she could not completely make sense of her surroundings as she coughed loudly and spat out a larger amount of blood.

Two pairs of hands dragged her on her feet again and repositioned her against the wall. Uma once again walked up to her, this time grabbing her chin to force Mal to look her in the eye.

"What's my name? Say it, and you can end your suffering. Well, temporarily that is." She smirked.

Mal panted loudly, her face was hurting badly, and her stomach was quite burs as well. She'd had worse beatings in her life though, and the last thing she wanted to do was give Uma any sense of satisfaction.

"Just shut up, will you shrimpy." She weakly replied.

She did not even see the following punch to the side of her head coming, but she sure as hell felt the pain. Again, she slid down the side of the wall, only to be kept up by two people.

"Do with her as you please, just make sure she stays alive." Uma scornfully told everyone who was nearby. A cheer erupted from the crows as Uma disappeared from Mal's view.

Harry then got in front of her, his Cheshire grin filling up pretty much Mal's entire field of view. "You are gonna regret ever daring to cross us." He told her. "Now get ready for a world of hurt coming your way."

He then directed himself to the large group of waiting people. "Alright, listen up. Everyone gets one punch, and one punch only. We do kinda have a deadline to make. Now make a line, let's keep it civilized here."

His announcement was met by a chorus of cheers and through her tear-filled eyes, Mal could see eager people lining up to hurt her. She tried to steady both her breathing and her thoughts, but fear once again won over any other thoughts. As determined as she had been to rescue Freddie, she had definitely been unable to have mentally prepared herself for a beating like the one she was about to receive.

Harry and Gil kept her steady as the first person approached, a man more than twice her age. He raised a large fist and punched her hard in the stomach. Mal had tried her best to brace herself, but it did little to relieve the pain.

The man then obediently made way for the next person, a woman not much older than Mal. The woman cackled with laughter as she raised Mal's head up by her chin before feeling a swift punch to the exact same place that Uma had previously hit her.

And so, it went on. For Mal it felt as if she was pushed against that wall for hours.

She gave up trying to hold in her tears after around the tenth punch. At this point Harry temporarily halted the line of people to talk to her.

"Ooh, is the pain getting too much for our little princess?" He asked with a grin as he pulled up her head by her hair.

Mal was panting, trying her best to regulate her breathing in between sobs. "B-bring it, asshole."

She then felt a sudden, stinging sensation on her right upper arm, and knew that Harry had torn into her jacket with his hook.

"Ya won't be needing that for much longer anyway." He then whispered in her ear, before making another large tear across her stomach.

Mal shuddered as she felt his hand start to roam across her stomach. "Stop!" She hissed.

"But I'm only just getting started." He whispered, before reaching around her waist.

Mal screamed in disgust and desperately threw her head forward. From a cracking feeling in her forehead and a loud roar of pain from Harry, she knew her headbutt had made contact. When she looked up, she saw Harry painfully grasp his nose, where blood was pouring out of. Mal couldn't help but laugh when she saw the damage she had been able to inflict.

"Bitch!" Harry yelled before backhanding her with his hook, leaving yet another gash on her already battered face and making her fall against Gil again. "No more holding back!" Harry then told his audience. "Let's give our little princess something to really cry about!"

And so, the punches, kicks and hits kept on coming. After twenty, she relied fully on Harry and Gil to keep her up, with her legs no longer responding.

After thirty, she was no longer able to distinguish one person from the other, with her vision blurred due to two almost punched shut eyes.

Harry made sure that the people switched between punching either her head or stomach. It got to the point where all Mal could taste was blood, and whenever she breathed out some would drip out of her mouth. Every breath she took hurt, if she had to guess, she would think that her entire torso was now bruised. It was a miracle that no teeth had yet been punched out her mouth, or that her eyes had not yet been punched shut.

As time went on, and Mal's existence really just derailed more into pain and suffering, even her thoughts became more desperate.

"Where are Archer and his troop? Why haven't they come for me yet? Surely, they see that I'm in a ridiculous amount of pain, right? Has something happened to them?" It felt strange to Mal, worrying about other people's wellbeing while she herself was literally being used as a punching bag. She knew however that there was no way the righteous sons had been caught, her tormentors would have told her. It would just be an extra stab of pain in this miserable world she lived in right now, to know that her rescue plan had failed. "They would come, they must come."

When the punches eventually seized to come, Mal felt little relief as she felt as though she could hardly feel any more pain anyhow.

She did feel it though when Harry and Gil roughly threw her to the ground, where she pathetically squirmed around trying to somehow relieve the pain from anywhere in her body.

She yet again felt her head being raised up by her hair, and yet again she stared right into the wide grin of Harry Hook. "Had enough yet? Would you like us to move on to our next event?"

As much as she wanted to reply with a snarky comment, even Mal had been driven to her breaking point. As much as she hated herself, Mal wanted nothing more than for this pain to stop, to just feel some relief.

"Ugh." She groaned as she tried to direct herself to Harry. "Please."

A high-pitched victory cry erupted from Harry as he once again turned to his audience. "The little princess said please! She wants us to stop hurting her, should we show the poor thing some mercy?" he asked. A loud chorus of boos was his answer and he once again addressed Mal. "I'm terribly sorry, but I'm afraid we will need to see some more blood." He said before backhanding her again, letting her face make rough contact with the concrete below her.

Mal grunted again in pain as she felt her face get drenched by a mixture of blood, sweat and tears. She felt her chest heave against her rough underground. Only now did she realize that it had started raining as large drops landed on the side of her face, actually feeling somewhat cooling.

Harry, not wanting to give Mal any form of respite, kicked her harshly in her back, making her scream out in pain yet again. This was followed by another kick, and another. Gil joined in the action and the two almost literally kicked her into the ground.

This was the point where Mal essentially stopped feeling the pain all together, her whole body basically have gone numb. Her vision was now blurred with black specks and she felt herself slipping in and out of consciousness.

It was at that moment that Harry finally spoke up. "Alright, I think this is enough. We need her alive after all and it would just be a nice bonus if she would be conscious as well. You two, drag her up!"

Mal once again felt two pairs of hands pull her off the ground and set her up straight.

Harry moved closer and cupped her face with his hand while running his hook through her hair. "Get ready to regret every decision you ever made in your pathetic life." He hissed.

Mal wanted to talk back but was simply unable to. The beating she had taken had left her completely exhausted and her head simply fell back onto her chest when Harry released it.

"Everyone, return to your homes! The show is over!" He commanded the people. "And we have a special certain someone to meet." He told Mal with a smug grin. He then dragged his hook across Mal's left arm, leaving yet another deep cut and making Mal wail in pain.

If Harry's taunts would continue like this, she would bleed out before they would reach whoever they had to take her to.

They then started moving. A pirate on either side supported Mal as her feet simply dragged along the cobbled streets of the isle. Harry walked in front of her, often looking back in delight at her bruised face. And, though Mal could not see him, she knew Gil was behind her as she heard him whistle a tune that sounded suspiciously like 'What's my name?'.

Their small group walked undisturbed for a while, with both Mal's vision and thoughts fading from sharp to blurry. For some reason, she felt a wild panic begin to set in. Wherever they were taking her, it was definitely bad news, Freddie had tried to warn her before. As much as Mal wanted to struggle though, her battered and bruised limbs didn't allow her to. Through the pain, she was still able to feel her left sleeve get soaked with blood.

"Please." Mal thought to herself. "Please let this not be the end. I never got to say goodbye. Not to Ben, not to Evie, not to Carlos and Jay. I don't want to die. I want to see them again. I want to laugh with them again. I want to hug them, kiss them. I want a life. I want to marry Ben, and I want to love him for the rest of my life. I want to love them all. Please. Please don't take this all away from me."

Overwhelmed by emotions, Mal started sobbing uncontrollably, to the immense confusion and discomfort of the two pirates carrying her.

Harry approached her once again. "Ooh, Malsie. Don't cry, you'll ruin your make-up." He grinned.

Mal was about to put all her remaining energy into an insult, when a lot of things suddenly happened simultaneously.

An arrow flew through the air and hit the pirate left from her in his right shoulder. The pirate screamed in pain and let go of Mal. Almost at the same time, another arrow hit the pirate at her right in the exact same spot.

Both had released Mal, who helplessly tumbled to the ground. Harry and Gil yelled in surprise and outrage as their wounded comrades fell down. Both of them pulled their swords and looked around, trying to find the source of the arrows.

Mal watched through half-lidded eyes as more arrows were fired, but Harry and Gil managed to either parry or dodge them. All of a sudden, something flashed across Mal's line of vision and a second later she heard Gil scream in pain and reach for the knife that had been thrown into the back of his leg.

A roar of anger was then heard, followed by a panicked cry from Harry and the sound of dueling. Metal clashed with metal and heavy grunts were heard above Mal's head.

Mal vaguely realized that she had to get out, but her injuries and bonds refrained her from getting far. As the apparent battle went on above her head, she suddenly felt a pair of hands grab her around her knees and behind her back, lift her up, and run away with her.

"Don't worry! It's okay! You're okay! We're getting you out!" A voice said.

Mal tried to focus. She knew that voice.

"Ben!?" She weakly exclaimed.