I'm still getting used to writing in POV again.
WARNINGS: Torture, blood, language
Chapter 31: The Crack of the Whip
Third Person POV
William fiddled irritably with the folded letter in his hands, consistently opening and closing it. He had read the words no less than a hundred times but words retained the same feeling of reading them for the first time. Cináed had given it to him the previous night, claiming he found it on the princess' desk after he saw her running out her room with a figure clad in black. The letter had revealed her attempted elopement with the blacksmith. If Cináed hadn't found it, they would've gotten away.
Smirking at the thought, he folded it and put it away.
William dropped himself lazily into a chair with a loud sigh as Cináed entered the room. The two men spoke casually for a while, Cináed gloating over the victory achieved at Flynn Rider's death. William smiled and nodded, agreeing with the words with pure lies. Not long after, they came to the topic of the other prisoners.
"I want you to deal with St. North." William said, pointing at Cináed, "Get him to tell you where the money is by any means. I want it back. All of it." The scar-faced man nodded,
"What of the others?" He asked. William stood up and walked to his desk,
"I will ensure treason." He picked up a piece of parchment, folded in half, "With this." He handed it to Cináed. He skimmed over the words until he saw the name signed at the bottom,
"Is this real?" He asked. William laughed heartily and took the parchment back,
"Of course it isn't but the King won't care. If Kozmotis finds this letter in the English filth's home, His Majesty will be convinced instantly and want nothing more than to see their heads on spikes." William handed the letter back to Cináed, giving a silent order. The man took it and nodded his head,
"What of the blacksmith?" He asked. William turned away and looked out the window,
"I have something special in mind for him."
Hiccup's POV
The dungeon was terrible. It was dirty and gritty and it stunk. We had no light except for the little light that beamed through the barred opening in the door and the barred window imbedded in the wall near the ceiling. During the day, it was hot and stuffy but at night we sat shivering as if it were the middle of winter. And you could do little to pass the time. No merry music nor light chatter could help pass the time or lift the mood, not with the constant fear of torture and death scenting the air.
Jack had resigned himself to sit on the floor with Rapunzel, keeping a comforting around her while playing with her hair. North paced around mostly, his abandoned coat lying in the corner. He had been muttering in a foreign tongue, rubbing his face and neck in a nerve-wracking manner. I suspected it was because of Flynn.
Less than an hour after his death, the guards came to collect his body. I suspect he's now rotting in a mass grave filled with the skeletons of other bandits. North had had a few outbursts of anger and grief. In the first one, he destroyed the only furniture in the cell: a stool. The pieces lay scattered across on the floor.
I had resigned myself to leaning against the wall, staring out into the free world. I tried to talk to Toothless but he was silent; I guessed that my gift had its limits. I thought of Merida often. I could her vividly. Her eyes, her red hair, her beautiful body, everything. I tried to imagine what she was doing right now, maybe trying to convince her father to let us go or maybe William was beating her into submission. I gritted my teeth. If I ever see him again, I'll kill him for everything he's done to me, to Merida, to Jack and Rapunzel. I will make him pay.
The jangle of keys and the click of the lock caught all of our attentions. We all looked at the door as it opened and two guards came walking in. They said nothing and instantly walked to North, roughly grabbing his arms and putting them in chains. They pushed him out the door and left without another word. The door slammed shut loudly.
"Where do you think they took him?" Rapunzel asked quietly. I shrugged my shoulders,
"I don't know." I replied with the awful feeling of dread in my stomach. I prayed that North would be alright, that he was not going where I thought he was.
Third Person POV
The guards walked North down the hall, one in front of the bandit and the other behind him. He knew it was pointless to resist so he walked calmly with them. As they continued their walk, he looked at the doors he passed, sometimes able to see a prisoner. Many were men; rough brutes that had the faint spots of blood in their stubbles. They passed another door and North stopped in his tracks when he saw a young girl in the window. She couldn't have been older than 17. The girl looked at North and all he saw was emptiness in her eyes.
The guard pushed his shoulder,
"Keep moving!" He ordered. North spared one last glance at the girl before continuing to walk, wondering what she had done to land in a place like this.
As they progressed, the guards seemed to get more frustrated and irritable with North and began to drag him to their destination. They finally reached another door. The guard standing there smiled and opened it. North just barely caught a good look of the room before the guards pushed him down in front of a pole and tied his hands around it. The Cossack felt a terrified when he realized he was in the torture chamber.
He heard some men whispering behind him but every time he tried to look, a guard would hit him. Minutes passed and nothing happened. Feeling the need to annoy them, he said,
"Can we please get this over with?" The whispering stopped and North chuckled lightly at his own joke. He heard the click of boots approaching him and someone bowing down next to him.
"Impatient, are we?" Cináed sneered. He looked up to the guards and nodded. One grabbed a knife and cut open North's shirt, letting the fabric dangle on his arms. Cináed stood up and noticed the large, ugly red scar that ran across North's entire back, "Had a run with the law before, bandit?"
North didn't answer,
"That wasn't the law." He muttered under his breath, tears forming in his eyes at the painful memory of that scar. It clouded his mind so much that he didn't hear the crack of the whip until it lashed at his back, searing pain rampaging in him with a painful sting to finish it. North bit his lip and breathed heavily in order to suppress the pain.
"You've stolen from us for many years." Cináed spoke. He leaned down beside the bandit and pulled on his hair until they face each other, "Where is the money?" North stared at him and slowly shook his head,
"Go fuck yourself." He whispered and pulled himself out of Cináed's grip, realizing it would only get worse from here. Cináed paced away, fuming. He spoke to the man holding the whip and whispered,
"I think 50 should do it."
The man chuckled darkly and lifted the whip to deliver another blow.
North bit his lip so hard that it began to bleed. He refused to scream; he refused to appear weak and vulnerable. Each lash hurt more than the other and the sting became more and more powerful.
1... 2... 3...4...
He counted the lashes, trying to escape his pain with happy memories.
5... 6... 7... 8...
He saw Petrov, the day he got him; when he won his first fight; the day he found Flynn.
9... 10... 11... 12...
Then he saw her. His wife. Her black hair, her caramel colored skin, her large green eyes, her beautiful full lips. He saw the red bindi on her forehead, the blue trim of her white choli and lehenga.
13... 14... 15... 16...
He heard her laugh, her sweet nightingale voice as she spoke, her smile.
17... 18... 19... 20...
He saw another smile. One as sweet as his wife's but with a hint of mischief. His daughter's smile. He heard her little voice say "ya tebya lyublyu, papa" and he heard her giggle and saw her blue eyes shining.
21... 22... 23...24... 25!
North screamed, not only from the lashes but from the pain in his heart.
"Nicholas!" He heard his wife scream. North looked around frantically, the memories of that night washing over him,
26... 27... 28... 29...
He remembered their little house on the outskirts of the village. He remembered the horror of finding it empty, all the furniture thrown over the floor and items scattered and smashed everywhere. He remembered hearing the crying of his daughter from the hiding place underneath the floor. He remembered pulling his terrified girl out of the hole and comforting her.
30...31... 32... 33...
He remembered her saying that the villagers had come and taken her mother away and that her mother had hidden her. He remembered telling her to stay hidden and her putting a small gold bracelet in his hand, saying it would protect him. He remembered giving her a kiss and going to the village.
34... 35... 36... 37...
He remembered seeing the villagers standing in a circle around the town centre, some holding torches and the monks saying prayers in Latin. He remembered the horror scene of his wife chained to a post with her choli ripped from the whip. Remembered her blood staining the pure white fabric; remembered the devil holding the whip with the darkest smile on his ugly face.
38... 39... 40... 41...
He remembered running to her, throwing himself onto her and the stinging pain of the whip as it slashed across his back. Remembered being pulled away and watching the devil lift his whip again. Remembered running to her again and the pain of the whip as it slashed against his arm.
42...
Remember the sound of the rattling chains as they untied his wife. Felt her tears seep into his shoulder as the voice of the devil instilled fear in the villagers to the "devil spawn", to his daughter.
43...
Remember the sword pointed at his heart and the devil demanding to know where his daughter was; remembered saying no.
44...
Remembered the devil lifting the sword to impale him. Remembered the villager running into the square with his daughter.
45...
Remembered the devil walking to her.
46...
Remembered the arms holding him and his wife back as the devil lifted the sword to the little girl.
47...
Remembered his wife breaking free, running to her and embracing her.
48...
Remembered the sword running through her heart.
49...
Remembered the devil lifting the sword again. Remembered the final scream of his daughter.
50!
North yelled a yell so loud and so full of agony that it could be heard at the gates of DunBroch. He panted loudly, tears running out of his red eyes, the pain in his back as unbearable as the pain in his heart. He heard the clicks of boots returning to the spot beside him but he paid no heed when the man began questioning him again. It didn't matter anyway; he would die anyway, either here at their hand or on the gallows. He didn't fear death. He never had. Ever since that terrible night, he wished he could die.
The man left North's side, obviously dissatisfied by the bandit's silence. North knew that there was a new order to whip him some more. As the whip was lifted, North uttered a name. A name he hadn't said in years. With the smile of his wife in his mind, he whispered,
"Paro."
Jack's POV
Another long hour had passed but North still hadn't returned. I was worried beyond wit's measure. North held invaluable information about Aileen. If he betrays it…
I shook my head, knowing that North wouldn't break no matter what was thrown at him. I had encountered him several times before this affair. He was not one to betray something he put his heart to.
I took hold of Rapunzel's hand, stopping the fiddling she was doing. She sighed and readjusted her position,
"I'm worried." She whispered. I placed a small kiss on her forehead.
"Me too." I replied. The silence ensued once more but it didn't last long as we heard the familiar click of the door. I stood up, ready to face any guards, but only North entered, collapsing to his knees. All three of us ran to him as the door shut.
"North?" Rapunzel asked as she knelt in front of him, placing a hand on his shoulder. He hissed loudly and she withdrew her hand, noticing the red sticky liquid on her hand. She looked at his back and let out a strangled scream.
I looked and just barely prevented myself from retching the contents of my stomach at the sight of his back. There were no less than 70 wounds of the whip endlessly oozing blood; there was no spot on his back that wasn't covered with the red liquid.
Hendry walked away and retched into the corner, the sound making me more sick.
"Rapunzel." North said weakly and numbly. She looked at the man's face, nearly weeping at the sight of how broken he looked. She tried to give a smile as she wiped away the tears with the hem of her dress, "You can use my coat to stop the bleeding."
Rapunzel nodded and retrieved the coat from the corner. She was about to rip it into long strands when North reached for it and took out a item, a small bracelet made of gold. As Rapunzel continued to rip, North pressed a kiss to it,
"North," Rapunzel said quietly as she ripped another long strand, "Did you tell them anything?" She lay the strip of cloth on a cut. North hissed loudly and started sobbing. He leant his head to the floor, pulling on his hair,
"Heather, forgive me." He sobbed. Rapunzel looked at me, the worry and fear etched on her face. He had told them about Heather.
Third Person POV
Heather Williamson blinked away a tear as she straightened out the sheets on the bed, reflecting on how empty it would be from now on. Heather's mother had passed on into the next life and now, Heather felt more alone than ever. With Mavis and her mother gone, Heather had no one. Well, she had Fionntan but the man was so shy that Heather could never read his feelings. She could never tell if he saw her as a friend or, perhaps, something more.
She sighed, grabbing the white dusting cloth to start her routine of cleaning her house. When she stepped outside to clean the now gray rag, she spotted the group of guards leaving the castle. As any normal person, she thought they would head in her direction. She dismissed the thought though when they took the route to the Transylvanian Inn.
Heather continued her chores peacefully. She took a bucket and went to the well at the end of her street. She filled it with the cold water and returned home. But she was just at the door when she heard a scream.
When she turned, she saw the guards had entered the street and one guard, possibly the leader, had grabbed a woman by her hair and pulled on it roughly. The poor woman screamed in pain.
"Where is she!?" The guard yelled at her, yanking on her hair again. The woman let out another cry and pointed down the street, at Heather.
Heather dropped the bucket and ran into her home, slamming the door shut and locking it. With minimal difficulty, she pushed the small closet in front of the door; not a moment too soon. The instance the furniture barricaded the door, loud banging on the door started.
"Heather Williamson! Open this door in the name of the King!" The leader yelled but Heather had no intention of complying. She ran to the bed and pulled a sack from below it. In it were supplies and any item that would betray Heather's treason. She threw her cloak around her and fell to the floor, starting to feel the rough stone. As the banging grew louder, Heather pulled a stone up to reveal a hidden passage. She slid herself into the black hole and pushed the stone back as fast as she could.
The stone had slid into its place when several guards entered the home through the windows.
Heather sat silently in absolute terror as she listened to the guards moving the closet away from the door. She flinched when the leader yelled in frustration at her "disappearance". She didn't move until she heard footsteps over her. With a gasp, she began running down the tunnel. She knew that the tunnel had no turns so she wasn't scared of running into a wall.
She let out a sigh of relief when the exit came in sight, a hole beaming in light on the ceiling. Using the walls and any roots, Heather climbed, somewhat ungracefully, out of the tunnel, pushing aside the thin blanket of sewn together leaves.
Quickly replacing the blanket, she ran from the tunnel and the tree that hid it and ran towards the hideout. All the occupants were surprised the see Heather, especially in her haggard appearance.
She explained to them what happened. When Heather finished her tale, Aileen confided that North and Flynn never showed up for their rendezvous last night. North had the money Aileen needed for another escape.
Heather's attempted arrest... North's and Flynn's disappearance... It couldn't have been coincidence. Aileen realized that the mission had been compromised. They were all in danger.
"Ya tebya lyublyu, papa" means "I love you, papa" in Russian. I just had to have North's daughter say something cute. I'm not going to tell her name (it'll be revealed later) and I'm not a 100% about her age but I'm guessing she's not older than 6. *wipes away tear* If any of you want a visual of Paro, there's a picture of her on my DA page.
Guys I thought of a little…. "game". If I reach 600 reviews on this story, I'm going to write an alternate ending. Now, I'm going to do this based on popular vote. When the story is drawing closer to its end, I'll put all the scenarios in a poll and let you decide. The one with the most votes wins. The poll closes when I post the final chapter. PS: there are approximately 11 chapter left.
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