Redamancy (d.m)

Chapter seventy-the great escape

Charles ditched the car on the side of a uninhabited highway, dragging me roughly by the hair into the woods that sprawled on both sides of the road. My feet blistered from walking uneven distances in heeled shoes, but I wasn't certain that speaking would earn more good than bad, so I stayed silent as he led me deeper into the thick trees.

Finally, he halted at a clearing, the faint light from the moon flickering through the overhead branches. Pulling out his wand, he conjured two plain wooden chairs in the middle of the clearing, shoving me down into one, my bound wrists sitting uselessly in my lap. Dragging the second chair over dirt and fallen leaves, he turned it around to sit facing me, fixing the cuffs of his sleeves before jamming the wand forcibly at my neck

"I think we'll skip the pleasantries, for the sake of time" he said softly, "you were sent by Voldemort, correct?"
"I don't know what you're talking about" I mumbled confidently, averting his gaze and wincing as I felt the tip of his wand dig sharply into my neck
"No point in denial, it won't get you anyway at this stage of the game" he said with a sadistic laugh, "how many others did you come with-other than that faggy Mudblood you were talking to?"
"Watch your mouth" I snarled with narrowed eyes
"Someone's feisty" he said with an amused expression, leaning his face closer to mine, "too bad it won't get you out of here alive"
"They're waiting for us to arrive at the address I gave" I said defiantly, "and when they get there and realise there's nothing by an empty lot at the corner of Rosen and Granite they're going to know something's wrong"
"Oh well now I'm just terrifed" he swooned dramatically, before letting out a dark chuckle, "you yourself have no fucking idea where you are, and by the time they find your rotting corpse I'll be long gone"

He reached out to pat down my waist and down my thighs, making me squirm in disgust

"Get your filthy hands off me, you prick" I yelled, making him pull away with a laugh
"Relax, I'm just making sure you aren't armed" he said, "although" he gestured to my roped hands, "in your state, there's hardly anything you could do even if you were"
"You know, you're getting awfully mouthy" I spat with a glare, "why don't you just kill me?"
"Oh I can't do that" he said with a genuine expression of caring, reaching a hand out to stroke my hair and making me flinch from his touch, "not yet, not when you possess so much...value"
"Value?" I repeated in disbelief
"Oh yes, see you're a supporter of Voldemort, which means there is just mountains of information sitting in your pretty little head" he took a lock of hair in his fingers, absently twirling it around, "and you're going to give it to me"

His eyes locked into mine with dead concentration, and I recoiled as I felt his forceful pull in my head, clawing at the memories and knowledge that I stubbornly withheld from him with all the strength in me. Finally, the failed attempt has drained him, and he broke eye contact, falling to the ground with a loud groan

"Occlumency" he breathed out while rubbing the sides of his forehead, "I guess you're not just a pretty face after all"
"Guess not" I said with mild triumph, squeezing my eyes shut in response to my own pounding headache
"The good thing is...we've got all night" he said, still breathless, "I will get it out of you"

He stood up from the ground, walking over to me and returning his wand to its place on my neck

"Even if you prove much more skilled at Occlumency than I had originally anticipated...no matter...there are other ways"

I didn't even have a split second to register his sentence before he cried out

"Crucio!" His intense infuriation translated into his curse, the torturous sensation of stubbornly unwavering pain overcame me, growing so intense that my brain could no longer recall a time that wasn't occupied with blood curdling screams of pure agony