(Disclaimer is in the first chapter. Blarghh.)
Cold. His whole body was cold. Slowly,
Reno fluttered his eyes open, and it was dark. He gasped and tugged
forward, feeling cold iron digging slightly into his wrists. He was
sitting upright, his arms propped above his head and chained to the
wall in tight shackles. The chains jerked and rattled at his attempt
to pull away, and he cried out, his attempt failing Slowly his bright
eyes adjusted to the darkness and he could make out the rocky surface
all around him. He was deep in a cave, the light of day barely
reaching him from the cave entrance. The cave continued back even
deeper and the darkness and cold of the place made him quiver. "The
hell... w-where am I?" he sputtered weakly.
"Your torture
chamber." came a dark voice, followed by a chuckle. Ryota stepped
from the shadows of the deep darkness, mako-red eyes glinting as he
tapped part of a whip lightly on his palm.
Reno glared at the
approaching kidnapper, gritting his teeth. "The hell is your
problem? What I ever do to you?!" He tugged forward on the chains
again, but to no avail.
"Simple. You're a Turk. You're with the
ShinRa."
Reno scoffed, "So? I'm not in charge of ShinRa, you
dumbass!" He yelled and gasped for air as he was kicked harshly in
the ribs.
Ryota leaned down, his face inches away from the
red-head's. "I'm going to pick you all off, one by one..." He
lifted up Reno's chin and smirked, "You seem to be the one in
charge of the Turks, so I thought I'd take you first..."
Reno
glared dangerously before turning his head down and snapping at
Ryota's fingers. The hand was jerked away before Reno could bite it
and was turned up, slapping hard against his face.
"Hnng..."
Reno recoiled from the hit, but he forced himself to recover, glaring
again at his tormentor. "They're gonna come for me, and when they
find me, you'll be as good as dead!" he spat.
"And what makes
you think they'll come? No one came when you called before, so why
would they now??"
Reno was silent for a while before answering,
"They didn't hear me, an' if they did they probably just thought I
spilled coffee all over my papers again! You'll see, once they notice
I'm missing they'll search every damn corner of this planet!!" He
twisted his body slightly, rattling the chains and yanking. "Might
as well let me g-AHH!" The whip cracked across his side, ripping
through his shirt. His eyes stung with tears and he quivered from the
sharp pain.
"No one's going to find you..." Ryota's grin was
crazed, "Better straighten up your act, Reno-boy..."
"What
have you got against ShinRa?!" Reno hissed through gritted teeth.
His side still burned from the whip.
"Everything." the brown
haired man stood straight and took a few steps away from Reno,
tapping the whip handle to his open palm once more. "I grew up in
Gongaga... I'm sure you know the place... In fact you were there not
long ago..."
Reno bit his lip in concentration. That was the
place he and Rude were conversing over who liked who... He glanced up
at Ryota again with a scowl, "Yeah, that old run down junk pile of
a town...? OOGH!" The other man had turned swiftly, kneeing Reno in
the stomach viciously.
"It was because of the ShinRa that it's
like that, you little bastard!" Ryota growled, slamming a fist into
Reno's jaw. He backed away again, looming over his groaning hostage.
"The reactor they put there blew to pieces, my whole family was
killed from the explosion, and I was horribly injured and exposed to
a high amount of mako because of it!"
Reno honestly didn't care
about his captor's sob story. It was a damn poor excuse for
kidnapping him. "It's not my problem!" he spat, "I didn't build
the damned thing!"
As Ryota stepped closer to the red-head, most
likely to strike him again, Reno yelled and kicked up his legs wildly
to keep the other man back. As a result, Ryota had to back off,
clapping a hand over his left leg that was impacted by one of Reno's
shoes. He glowered at his hostage.
"You just don't learn your
lesson do you?" the taller man raised up his hand slightly to give
a snap of his fingers, followed by a whistle.
Reno looked about
frantically, he could hear something from the deep depths of the cave
rumbling closer and closer, the tapping of claws on solid rock, the
near metallic sound that represented something between a large
growling cat and some kind of bird. He tugged at his shackles
helplessly, twisting his body and grunting in fear. Ryota sneered
wickedly as he moved towards the creature hidden in the shadows. He
led it out into Reno's view. He knew exactly what it was. The front
of the large creature resembled some kind of a large eagle, dark red
and black feathers about it's head and neck. It's large black wings
were folded at it's lion-like sides. It's front legs were that of a
bird of prey, sharp talons scraping against the rock, and the back
legs were the furry clawed legs of some kind of large cat, gray in
color. The brilliant bright colors of it's peacock tail dragged
behind the large creature, the bright greens, purples, and blues
shining whenever the light barely tinted them. Reno had seen these
creatures before in the Mideel area, they were much like the griffins
of Cosmo Canyon but far more deadly and darker in color. This was a
hippogriff.
Ryota was cradling the animal's head in his hands,
giving it a small kiss on the beak before whispering to it with a
silky cooing voice, "I brought you a new toy, Mist. This one's much
larger that your other ones, and probably more fun..." He took his
hands away from the hippogriff and patted it's back, "Try not to
kill it, darling."
As the large creature slowly slinked towards
Reno, he gulped. His whole body went into fits of trembling as he
pressed himself to the wall of the cave like a small cornered animal.
And that was exactly what he was at the time, a small animal trapped
and cornered by the predator.
The creature, Mist, as Ryota had
called it, stared Reno down with unblinking eyes, it's wings
unfolding a little and it's tail standing upright and spread. When
it's beak was only inches away from the terrified Reno, he
instinctively kicked up at it and squirmed. He hit the chest of the
large animal with a thump, which caused the creature to rear up in a
rage. It's talons came down on him, tearing across his two shirts and
shredding them open to reveal his clawed, bleeding chest. He hissed
in pain and struggled to jerk himself free. The smell of his blood
only seemed to excite the creature as it lunged at his shoulder,
tearing into the fabric with it's sharp beak and puncturing deep into
the flesh. He cried out in agony, the talons being dug into his chest
again and dragged down slowly. Mist backed away suddenly, making a
small cooing sound. At first Reno didn't understand this, the tears
flowing down his cheeks, then he knew as he saw a pink mist coming
from the creatures mouth. "Shit!" he hissed, closing his mouth
tight and trying not to breathe in. It was a confuse spell at the
second level, one of the favorite attacks of the hippogriffs. He
couldn't hold his breath much longer, and as he breathed in,
everything around him spun, bright shapes and different colors
whirled about his head. His sense of up or down left him quickly and
as he thought the creature was lunging at him again he kicked
desperately, yanking so hard on the chains that the shackles cut into
his wrists. Even the trickle of blood on his arms couldn't bring him
out of his state of chaos. He screamed at the feeling, he saw snakes
crawling down his skin, bugs and disgusting little creatures. The
sharp pain in his leg felt so distorted to him that he wasn't sure
what it was anymore, and he flopped himself about helplessly as the
hippogriff tore at the flesh on his leg. Minutes seemed like hours of
agony, for his sense of time had also left him with his confusion.
Punctures and claw marks were scattered about his bloodied body, his
clothes were nearly shredded down to nothing as his head slowly
stopped spinning. He moaned in distress, his body throbbing in pain
as the creature was led away by Ryota and fed some kind of reward.
Reno squinted dizzily after the hippogriff as it spread it's wings
wide and flew from the cave with a loud eagle-like cry.
Reno was
glad it was over... Or so he thought. A sharp gasp escaped him as the
taller man tore off what was left of his clothes. He flinched. This
guy was a sicko... No doubt about it. The red head hissed quietly,
"You gonna kill me...?"
"No, not yet, anyways." Ryota's
mako red eyes lit up, "I'm going to torture you 'til your last
breath over a course of days, maybe even weeks. And no one will come
for you. No one cares enough to come. Even if they did, they would
never find you. Never."
Lies. It's all lies. Rude will come
for me, he has to come... Reno fought back his tears. He had to
be strong, as he always was. He couldn't let Ryota's words get to
him. But he wouldn't argue further, it would make things worse. The
air was cold on his bare skin, night was approaching and the little
light he had to see was leaving.
"I hope you've enjoyed the
preview, the real show starts tomorrow. Welcome to your nightmare."
Sickening laughter poured from the red eyed man's lips, he let the
whip crack across Reno's already bleeding chest, sneering at the
agonizing cry resulting from it. And then he left the cave to let his
captive shiver in the dark.
Reno had survived his first day in the
cave, though it was short and he was left to fear and wonder what was
to come in the days ahead. Would anyone save him...? He was weak and
stinging all over, he repeated in is head that Rude wouldn't give up
on him, Rude would come, Rude would come... And thus he began the
first night in Nightmare Cave.
TBC
