A Thousand Years
Chapter 13: Interrogation
As my senses slowly began to return, I was aware of an intense throbbing in my head... I could dimly hear voices, but they were somewhat muted. But.. what had happened...? I could remember leaving the bell tower... And the human with the hammer... Oh. Right.
I forced my eyes open slowly, blinking several times to clear my blurred vision. I couldn't feel my arms - my wrists were shackled up above my head and I was hanging off the ground, my ankles shackled together as well. All the blood had drained from my arms, which explained the numbness... Someone had also taken the liberty to remove my battle armor, and I hung there dressed simply in my pants.
Oh, Raziel... I thought to myself in exaspiration. How do you get yourself into these messes?
While I struggled to regain my senses still numbed by the blow to my head, I examined my surroundings. I was in the middle of a room, all the walls around me nothing but stone. There was an altar on one side of the room identical to the altar in the Avernus Cathedral's great hall. And standing around it were a small group of priests and warriors, quietly conversing with each other.
I could sense that it was daylight outside from the unease that gripped me. I could only hope that they would not decide to publicly execute me by dragging me out into the sun... After testing the strength of the chains and finding myself too weary to use my Dark Gift, I knew I was at their mercy.
My movements had alerted the humans, and they came to surround me with differing degrees of amusement or hate in their expressions. I remained emotionless, not about to show them any sort of emotion they could use against me. I would not be the first to speak, either - let them speak when they willed.
As the silence stretched on and I examined the faces of the men surrounding me, I wondered absently if Bane was all right... If Kain and the others had taken him with them when they went back to the clan at sunrise. I had no doubt they were worried about me. I wondered briefly if Kain would return during the daylight hours in secrecy to search for me.
My ponderings were interrupted by one of the priests, who decided to finally speak up. "So, vampire... Are you comfortable? I do hope so - I'm afraid you're going to be here for quite some time."
"Oh yes," I smiled, shifting my body to set my motions swinging me slightly back and forth. "You certainly know how to make a vampire feel right at home."
Two of the warriors cracked their knuckles, but the priest remained calm, unmoved by my sarcasm. "Good. Then, let's start with the interrogation, shall we?"
"By all means," I replied jovially, "But I cannot assure you I will give you the answers you seek."
"That's quite all right," the priest smirked. "We have ways of making you talk."
How unoriginal, I thought to myself dryly.
"How many vampires are there now?" was the priest's first question.
I pretended to ponder this for a while. "You know, that's a very good question. Two? Nine? Sixteen? Twenty-four? I do not know. What comes after twenty-four?" A fist slammed into my gut, knocking the wind out of me and setting my body swinging on the chains. Stunned and breathless, I resisted the urge to cough, to give them any sort of satisfaction that I could prevent.
(Raziel?) I heard Kain's voice in my head and inwardly sighed with relief. So our empathy was still active.
(Yes, I'm awake... Where are you?) I proceeded to ignore any further questions the priest would send at me, concentrating on Kain's voice.
(I am in the Avernus Cathedral, searching in the rubble caused by the collapsing of the bell. Where are you, and what happened?)
Armored fists slammed into my body once again, sending me swinging as they used me as a punching bag for my silence. I flinched, but never made a sound. (I do not know where I am... It is a stone chamber with an altar identical to the one in the great hall... I was knocked out and captured. They are trying to interrogate me now.)
(How much do they know?) Kain growled lowly.
(Nothing. I haven't said anything about us.) I replied grimly, rather disgusted that Kain would think me so weak as to crumble and spill everything.
(Good, make sure you don't. I'll try to find my way there.) Kain then cut off our mental link, and I was left alone once again.
The priest was staring at me with disgust, but then smirked slowly. "I don't think our dear friend is going to be convinced to speak at this rate. It looks as if we'll have to be more... persuasive."
I felt my body tense as the guards each brought out a cat o' nine tails, a vicious nine-tailed whip with barbs on the ends. Oh no... I tightly closed my eyes as the first blow of the whip crackled across my back. The burning pain of the leather combined with the stabbing, ripping feeling of the small barbs was excruciating. The second guard started at my chest, and they took turns, alternating back and forth. I tried so hard to be silent, but soon I just couldn't hold it in any longer and began to whimper.. small, pathetic noises that disgusted me to no end... soon followed by short, wracking screams.
Even as I screamed, they continued on. I could feel the hot wetness of my blood spilling from my body. The guard at my back lowered his aim towards my rump, and at the first feeling of the barbs sinking through the pants into the sensitive flesh, I shrieked in agony, my body weakly trying to curl in on itself, to shield itself from the abuse.
Have you ever accidentally run your backside against a sharp corner or edge and felt that almost nauseating pain associated with it, amplified with every movement? The backside is rediculously sensitive, though I haven't the slightest idea why.
It took me several moments to realize that the whipping had stopped. Breathing heavily, I slowly cracked open my stormy blue eyes, swallowing weakly and staring at the priest in front of me. The priest smirked with sadistic pleasure at my pain. "Let's try again, vampire. How many vampires now exist in the world?"
Hurting too much for any further wisecracking, I simply remained silent, glaring defiantly at the priest. The priest, in return, grinned more widely and stepped back, motioning to the guards again. But they'd switched their weapons for something else. At first, I was confused at the buckets they carried... But I felt my eyes bulge out of my head as I heard the sloshing of water inside, beginning to gasp desperately for air, my heart pounding rapidly in my chest as fear caught me in its icy grip.
They set down the buckets of water and took out a rag, smirking as they brought the sopping, dripping piece of cloth up to my body. I began thrashing, desperate to get away from the burning touch of water, when the first cloth was wrung out and water splashed down onto my right shoulder. I screeched and howled with agony as the burning acid trickled down my back and chest, my skin bubbling and burning away wherever it touched. The second rag was wrung out across my back, and I cried out at the biting, burning, acidic pain as the water trickled into the whip wounds and began eating away at muscle.
The next assault was on top of my head. I howled and shook my self like a dog, trying to get the water off as it ate away at my scalp, face, ears, and neck, and the torture continued. I felt myself descending into madness, my mind losing contact with my body.
Everything began to feel so blissfully numb... I could no longer hear what the priest had to say... I couldn't even hear my own screams.
Dimly, I became aware of a familiar presence in the room... The priests and warriors had all left my side... and as my awareness returned, I could hear the clashing of swords and the screams of the humans. I could see nothing through the dim haze that lay over my eyes... The commotion was all behind me, regardless. Soon, the screams ceased, and I heard the quiet sound of Kain's boots approaching me from behind, walking around to look up at me.
...I've never seen Kain looked shocked or horrified before... I must have really looked a mess for him to whisper my name with such quiet incredulity. He broke the chains around my wrists and ankles, taking me down into his arms... I hadn't the strength to stand on my own. He took his cloak off and wrapped it around me securly. It was made of a special material that would completely block out any sort of light. He double-checked to make sure none of my parts were in view, and I felt myself being carried out of Avernus.
My mind could still barely register what was going on. I could feel the heat of the sun on the cloak that covered me, and it filled me with helpless terror. I could not stop shaking, a helpless babe in Kain's protective embrace.
As he brought me back to the clan, I heard the voices of my brothers all around me. Zephon and Dumah were frantic to know if I was all right. Rahab and Turel were eager to know what happened, while Melchiah was indifferent.
"He's been tortured," Kain replied shortly, "and is in need of rest. He will not be joining us in battle tonight."
Turel snorted. "What could they have done to him that a little bit of blood won't cure?"
I felt the cloak being removed from my head, flinching as I felt a piece of my scalp being pulled off, whimpering slightly. I forced open my eyes to blearily gaze upon my brothers. Turel let out a startled curse, his dark eyes wide. Rahab and Dumah both clamped their hands over their mouths, and Rahab had to look away. Zephon whispered something inaudible, blanching white as a ghost. Even Melchiah took a step back in horror.
...Now I was really growing curious as to how badly I looked.
Kain moved on past them without another word, and they parted silently to let him through, staring at each other with horror. He brought me to my room and laid me down on my bed, gently removing the cloak. Where the blood had soaked into the cloak and dried, it pulled off patches of skin from my body as it was removed. Looking past Kain to the full-length mirror on the opposite side of the room, I finally saw my condition...
My mind could not make sense of it at first. The thing lying in the bed could not possibly be vampire. There were long, red, shredded wounds all over my chest, stomach, and sides... I knew they were on my back as well. All down my body, mingling with the wounds, were burned patches of skin with pus-filled blisters and tatters of hanging, dead skin. I looked to be little more than a mass of blistered, bloody, raw flesh. And my face...
I could not recognize my face.
My eyes seemed to stand out as the only normal part left... Hollow, smoky blue orbs filled with a nameless horror. My hair was missing clumps where the skin had peeled away and simply fallen off, bloody flesh beneath. There were even sections of white where my skull was exposed. My face had raw flesh burns all where the water had trickled... It had eaten away my nose, and I hadn't realized until that moment that there were holes in my cheeks, showing my sharp fangs, teeth, and tongue within.
If I'd had any blood left in my stomach that hadn't gone to heal what it could of my body, I would have thrown it up at that point. Kain noticed where I was staring and quickly moved into my line of vision as I began to gag. He waited until I calmed down before slicing open his wrist and offering it to me.
Despite the lingering queasy feeling in my stomach, my body knew what it had to do to survive. My mouth clamped over his wrist and I sunk my fangs into his skin, ravenously feeding from him, feeling the exquisite pleasure as his power rushed into my veins. The holes in my cheeks were the first to heal as some of the blood oozed out and began to heal it on the spot. After that, it went to work on the rest of my body.
...I'd never fed from Kain for so long, and he made no move to draw back as I took more and more of his blood. There was a strange look in his eyes as he gazed down upon me... A look I couldn't identify as of yet.
Finally, on the brink of unconsciousness, he gently drew his wrist back and licked over the wound. I'd never seen him look so pale... His skin was as white as fresh-fallen snow, perfectly matching his hair. It made his eyes stand out so much more. He lightly ran his claws through my hair - I'd healed enough so that the skin of my scalp had healed over and would not peel away - and stood, slowly turning to walk from the room and close the door behind him.
Numb and exhausted, sleep quickly enveloped me in its warm embrace.
A/N - Poor Raziel... Why is it that authors always wish to make their favorite characters go through so much suffering? ;; Especially me... I always ask myself why I make my characters suffer so much. Especially since my favorite characters have a habit of DYING ON ME! Seriously, I should make out a list of all of my favorite characters in books, movies, and games that die. I can only think of ONE that doesn't... Vincent Valentine of FFVII. But that's because he's a minor character. Bet you anything, though, with my luck... When Final Fantasy: Dirge of Cerberus comes out in America, I'll bet you ANYTHING Vincent is going to die in the end. He will die BECAUSE OF MY CURSE! I thought falling in love with Raziel would be safe because he's a wraith and he's already kinda dead so he can't die!
You can imagine my reaction at the end of Defiance. "GODDAMNIT!"
;; I like to rant. Can you tell?
So many reviews...! (All teary-eyed with happiness) THANK YOU! I will take a moment to address some of them.
YaoiDiva - Yeah, your fanfic inspired me to do an outtake of my own. XD Unfortunately I don't have much in the way of outtake material. Hey, maybe I'll make a chapter full of bloopers instead! A Raziel/Dumah pairing just might take place, but at the end of writing this chapter, it looks like a Kain/Raziel pairing might still be possible too. I really do like Kain/Raziel pairings. Thanks for the suggestion!
Schuldig Schwarz - Thanks, I'm glad I didn't make it TOO boring. I've really been tempted at that pairing too because I have a bit of sadism in me too. (Looking back on this particular chapter) ...Okay, maybe more than "a bit". O.o; ...Maybe someday I'll just make a couple of short fics detailing Raziel having relationships with some of the others. I don't think I could do a Melchahim one... Same with Rahab. Zephon I could see being just in the relationship for the sex, so a relationship wouldn't work well there... So Dumah and Turel are the best candidates other than Kain. I think Janos could definitely be a pairing too for a post-execution fic. WAAH! Too many choices! X3
DuoPhreaks - Thanks for your suggestion and I'm glad you like it!
Emerada - Thanks for your suggestion too!
Northstar1982 - (Cracks up laughing while Raziel blushes) TMI is right, but I'm cool with it. My longest was 23 days. It would have been longer if I hadn't gone to the doctor to get those little BC pills, and they magically stopped it the next day. So I quit the pills because I'm too lazy to keep up with them. XD
Smoke - Ahahahaaa. X3
Tom T. Thomson - (Grins) Thank you!
Also! (Bounces up and down, happy happy happy!) I just got my Soul Reaver and Defiance comics in the mail today from eBay! EEEEEEEE!
The Soul Reaver comic... sucks total ass... because of how they draw Raziel. IF THE CHARACTERS IN THE COMIC DESCRIBE RAZIEL HAVING A BEAUTIFUL FACE, DONCHA THINK HE SHOULD BE DRAWN WITH A BEAUTIFUL FACE! And really... WTF was with all of the bottom-up, open mouthed nostril shots? Poor Raziel... They did you NO justice WHATSOEVER.
Kain wasn't much better.. They drew him with red veins and red eyes. e.e;; But the Defiance comic is pretty damn cool. Kain still looks a little funky here and there, but all in all, pretty damn sexy for a crusty old vamp.
So far, we've got three entries for Turel's Dark Gift! We have "Soul Steal", "Mind Storm", and "Shadow Mind", both excellent choices. So, my dear readers, if you can't help me with other names, you're quite welcome to vote!
Wow... Talk about a long author's note.
Aaanyway... PLEASE KEEP REVIEWING! It makes me all warm and happy inside!