Just info for the future: the chapters get longer! They'll alternate between short and long, mainly because that's how I designed them. I wrote the outline in my notebook, and typing them out was when I was going to fill them with detail. So please be patient with the pace it's going. Thank you! I hope you enjoy this new chapter!
I knew it was all in my head. For years, I had been trained for this moment. Drills and tests, over and over again, going over which method was more effective and learning how to make it the least effective. But there was so many things wrong with that type of training. Comrades will hold back; enemies have no such limitations.
The room was lit a dull red, but I had only glimpsed at it once. I kept my eyes closed so I couldn't see, but my senses were on fire. I could feel everything. My nerves were bundled and frayed at the edges. If they knew I was about to give up, they didn't let on. They continued raising the temperature to the point where I was practically being suffocated, then they would drop it until I was freezing. Fires were lit at the highest temperatures, and the air was turned on when it was the coldest. I had thrown up twice, but I could honestly say I had yet to break.
I deserved an award.
"What is your name?"
I was silent, biting down on my lip. My eyes were still closed. I could see lights flashing behind my eyelids. I didn't know what they were trying to do, and I didn't want to know. They had interrogation experts in here, torturing me and trying to forcefully get information. They had people who could get into my mind and take it themselves; see it all with their own eyes.
But what was I supposed to tell them? I knew one thing, and one thing only, and it was very precious to me. If I was going to protect something about myself, it was going to be that one thing.
"I have no name."
Wrong answer.
"Where are you from?"
"I have no home."
Wrong answer.
A loud crack echoed around the room, and suddenly, my face was stinging and throbbing.
"Calm down, we'll break her eventually," someone hissed.
"We've been at this long enough!" A man roared. "Tell us, girl, who are you and where are you from?"
I was still in shock about being slapped. It was the first physical pain I had felt since being here. Not once had they laid their hands on me. I didn't know if it was because they were being nice or what, but it all came to me as a shock nonetheless. I had not expected it. This was not something I had anticipated happening, and yet it had.
"What do you want from me?" I whispered, lowering my head. I opened my eyes and stared down at my lap. There was nothing there. From what I could see, I looked the same as I had before I had been brought here. The room was still red, and that flashing like was still flying around us in what I assumed was a circle. I had heard about the interrogation and torture methods of the different villages.
The room was silent; my voice had surprised them. The men in this room had never heard my voice before.
I could feel my body shaking. "Naoko."
My name.
"Answer me!"
Silence.
I closed my eyes again and leaned my head back, staring up at what I assumed would have been the ceiling, but was instead the backs of my eyelids. After I had finally opened my mouth and answered one of their questions, it had occurred to me that they had no obligation to answer any of my questions, and so I had given up the one piece of information I knew. I had let my emotions get the best of me. I had failed.
Rule number five: failure is not an option.