"I have something for you." His father said with a smile.
Theon just ended the cleaning and did not have time to remove the blood from the skin, this dried and stuck in it. He rubbed his arms while Ramsay Bolton was approaching to the bed, blood was fitted in the hair so he tugged and caused a minimal pain, very insignificant beside the pain that the other could give. He gave up when he noticed that blood will not do, his hands stopped moving and the blood embedded itself much more, maybe someday will vanish and would sleep peacefully again.
"This is a school yearbook. You see, here are the ... oh, look at it for yourself."
Ramsay handed him the book, Theon took it quickly without making him wait for his reaction. There were many faces on the pages, all so different, he would never appear in one of them. Most of them were women, his father's favorite specimens, some more beautiful than others.
"Let me know when you see something you like."
He hadn't to listen some more words to understand why that book was in his hands. Not a glance, nor a single reading, did nothing more than close it and place it on the floor, away from him and his hands.
"Lift it."
"I do not want it." He replied with fear.
He knew that this act was wrong and deserved to be punished. A bad boy must be severely punished to learn and not re-commit the same mistake, he was punished many and painful times and still did not learn; he was a bad son, very bad, did not deserve that Ramsay consider him as such. None.
"Lift it, Reek." That order came more sweetly, it did not seem so tough.
And despite the softness he did not obey, his insubordinate attitude was latent. Ramsay sat on the bed, tried to get away but was in the tip and collapse would only be worse for him. He cringed at the examining gaze of those cold eyes.
"In what part of the food chain you think you are, Reek? You do not know, right? You know nothing, Reek. Now you're just a puppy and a puppy occupies the lowest place in the food chain, all the other creatures passing overhead, despise and kill him. But if you listen to me you'll be a lion, a lion is strong and nobody is higher than him in the food chain, is a ruthless beast that kills anyone who tries to take his place. You have to be a lion, Reek, a lion if you do not want anyone taking advantage of you. People will be mean to you if you're still a dirty puppy."
"I will not do it."
"A son of mine will grow unnecessarily polite, if I am giving you education is so that you use it, with it you will survive in this food chain."
"I-I am not your son." The wrong words escaped from his mouth again.
"Why do you not?"
Ramsay grabs his neck, a chill corroded his back. His head was balanced from front to back until his whole body fell. His knees were hit, his palms arrived on time so his chest does not hurt. The hand pressed his face to the yearbook, remained so a long time, the neck was numbing and his eyelids abruptly joined by starting tears.
"View around."
His head was high, his teeth squeak. His eyes opened by the intervention of the fingers of Ramsay, without subtlety these spread his eyelids causing more irritation and tearing.
"What do you see? I asked, what do you see? Do you see anything to indicate that you are not my son? That we are not family? You see something? Answer me, Reek!"
Theon trembled, he saw so many things, but none of which founded in him the family feeling. He saw the sofa on which Ramsay spent much of the weekend and the TV that used to watch cooking shows, he had memories there. When he was good he was allowed to watch it and see different faces of his captor, and this gave him sweets there, always had a reward for that ungrateful son. A chocolate hitting his head, a few pairs of candies on the floor to pick them up before sitting or a lollipop on the television that was received as a surprise. And so his years taught that was a gesture originated from a loving father, as a reward for good work of his son.
And that empty corner of the kitchen, at Christmas that was the place of the awkwardly decorated tree. He could put the star on the top and decorations by the contour, Ramsay each year took him a picture next to the tree to remember how many centimeters he grew, how little he needed to surpass the tree and perhaps to keep that happy expression on his face or the registration of the teeth he had lost, not by natural causes but because Ramsay snatched them. Every year he received a gift, a new puzzle, a coloring book, a sweet. Only once he obtained a better gift, it was when he had thirteen, Ramsay gave him a bear as big as his torso stuffed and take it away of him a months later. He took twelve seconds to open the locks so his punishment was to see the destruction of the bear that helped him sleep.
The table also carry a memory, on that table Ramsay took him the first time. It was as a punishment, of course. He was fifteen and the house was not clean. Ramsay cornered him his arms behind his back and pulled the chest to the wood. No matter how many apologies he launched, anyway Ramsay slipped his trousers and pants, and put his dick in his ass. He shouted a lot, his throat broke and his voice came out slowly and pitched for a whole week. And for the first time he had to clean the blood that was not of a woman, but after that he could be considered as one.
"So, Reek? You will not answer me? What do you see?"
"We are family. I see you, Father, and I, together as a family." The sob made his voice to be expelled slowly. "S-sorry, Father, I'm so sorry. We are family, I was wrong, Father. Forgive me, please forgive me."
When finished talking Ramsay pushed him from the ribs, his body fell and instantly his legs buckled joining his arms in his belly. His face sank into the ground, his tears wet the wood.
"Well, I will forgive you. But I do not wanna hear you the rest of the night. I do not wanna know anything about you. I do not want to know you exist!"
Ramsay slumped on the sofa, did not turn on the TV and rubbed his temples watching him, he had that look so sweet and rushing at the same time. He made him angry for no reason, did not want that, did not like to see him angry but his mouth didn't stop. He returned to the bed without making any noise, lifted the chains so they do not jingle, his legs, one by one, and the yearbook, Ramsay would not want him to neglect the gifts he gave him.
Ramsay stood up, he was returning to him and was very afraid for it. His eyes tried to get lost in the wall, his tears were about to give a new apparition. Ramsay's body heat was getting closer and closer.
His right leg was grabbed, a scream was expressed. Ramsay settled the support of the chain on his ankle. A click was the next thing he heard and the iron divided, unstitched of his flesh and layed on the mattress. A dark purple contour detailed the area in which the chain grabbed him, was a color created by dirt, the dried blood and oppression.
His eyes widened with greatness, why his father would do that? Why after such bad behavior? Why? He did not deserve so much sympathy. He rubbed his ankle, was soft and it felt very empty without the chain. His skin was cooling without the chain above.
"T-thank you, Father." His tearful voice came out.
Ramsay said nothing to him, he had broken a rule, he did not obey him and created noise with his voice, even though said to him he did not want to hear him the rest of the night. With his father on the sofa the courage boarded him and went to him, not as a person would do, he was kneeling like a small dog with floppy ears because he knew that he was bad.
"Sorry, Father. Please forgive me."
He positioned in front of Ramsay, his head fell to the bare feet of this and his lips kissed them. One by one, slowly, his lips moist. His father did not move away, perhaps the anger that possessed was not as serious as Theon thought.
"I'm so sorry, Father. I will not do it again, I'll be a good boy, please. Punish me if you want, I'll do anything for you to forgive me, Father."
Ramsay took his jaw and lift his face, he had a long smile on his face. "I already have said it, Reek, I have forgiven you. And I remember telling you that I did not want to hear you, that I do not want anything from you and you disobeyed me again, what's the matter with you today, bad boy?"
"I do not know, Father, I'm sorry I do not wanna be a bad boy."
"It doesn't matter, Reek, you do not have to keep worrying about this. It's too much for a silly little puppy like you, now you must worry about the punishment, because I have to punish you, right?"
"Y-yes, Father." He whispered.
"Give me your hand, Reek."
"My hand?" He asked credulous.
"You are not in position to question me, Reek. Come on, give me your hand, which you prefer."
He ceded his right hand. He lifted it slowly, trembling, Ramsay clinging to the wrist made the hand come faster. He ceded his right hand. He lifted it slowly, trembling, clinging to the wrist Ramsay made the hand come faster. And the knife was released, Theon swallowed, a spasm paralyzed him.
"What finger should I cut, Reek?"
None. He had said, he chewed his lower lip. "The one you prefer, Father."
"Then, how about the little finger? Yes, the little finger will be perfect."
The knife landed on his finger, he wanted to apart it and Ramsay squeezed it harder , it was a warning. The knife slipped from one extreme to another, stopping at the separation of the phalanges and just giving him a taste of what was really coming soon.
He inhaled deeply at the time that the knife nailed in the last phalanx, he tried not to scream and an aching moan came out in exchange. His teeth joined around his lower lip, screeching and cutting it as if they were the knife edge. The blood glimpsed with a thick and dark drop, with the continuing of the cut it became a line without conclusion.
His flesh was fragile so at the slightest touch of the knife it would break. It was fast, an inclination after another and the skin next to the flesh reddened by the blood and formed two separated parts. He could not hold the view in that, the fragmentation of the flesh caused him nausea. The pain and time increased at the moment the knife stagnated in his bone.
The strength of his teeth on his lip was not enough to hide the incessant and loud screams. He begged several times and all of them were silenced by the cut that was becoming more brutal.
Time seemed eternal, he speculated that was going to be dead when the finger was out of its place of origin. The vigor of his resistance could not cope with the increased suffering that was imposed. He received lashes, in all ways that could know, some punches in the face, hangings, many blows, but no pain that these led him exceeded the current.
Ramsay released him, not his finger. There where he was before his finger was now spreading a tingle, he did not dare to see the result of the amputation. His father smiled at him, by the tears that clouded his vision he was not getting the white of the teeth.
"Do not cry, Reek, you've been a good boy. So brave." Ramsay passed his fingertips beneath his eyelids, wiping the tears that these proffering. And kissed his forehead, a sign of encouragement surely. Theon smiled at him accordingly, returning the gratitude. "Wipe those tears, I'll bind up that finger later. Now we have something to do with it and I need you attentive, Reek, will you be able to do it?"
"Yes, I can do it, Father."
"Good. Then go to bed and bring the yearbook, Reek."
Theon obeyed, he knew that Ramsay would force him to see those faces again and choose one of them. He took the yearbook with his uninjured hand, the other was beating and the blood was still breaking out. Ramsay placed it in his lap and opened it selecting pages randomly.
"As you do not want to choose we will let your finger do it, do you agree, Reek?"
He nodded, it was not a question he need to answer, the answer that Ramsay expect or will have would not be the one that would honestly come out of his mouth. Ramsay released the bloody and pale finger into the air, a short distance to ensure that would fall into one of those faces in black and white. It fell almost at the end of the page, Theon did not observe the face of the victim until the finger was removed.
"Oh, a nice girl, Jeyne Poole, good choice, Reek."