Wrong Place

A new friend

"You are quite the stubborn little girl, aren't you?" it was the same man who had broken my arm and leg yesterday "It must have been very painful to drag yourself all the way over there." He sat carefully on the bed and looked at me expectantly.

"I wanted to sit in the chair." I shrugged "I thought it might help with the pain." Better to play dumb and feed the idea that I was just a little girl.

"I see." His pen was poised over the notepad again "Have you decided cooperate today?"

I tried to refrain from rolling my eyes "I cooperated yesterday. I told you everything I know."

"You've told me nothing." The man argued.

I threw up my hand in exasperation "Exactly! I don't know anything!"

"You're lying to me again." His voice was even but carried a threatening undercurrent that was impossible to miss "I thought we had agreed not to lie to each other." He got to his feet and walked towards me.

"How many of my bones are you going to break before you believe that I'm telling the truth." I asked, desperately trying to stall him from whatever it was he was about to do.

"Oh, I'm not going to break your bones today." He extracted a small object from the breast pocket of his suit "I thought I'd try something new." He held it up so I could see it, and my stomach twisted with fear. The object was sliver and box shaped, with hinges on one side and nearly invisible line going around it about two thirds of the way up the smooth surface. A lighter, and a high end one by the looks of it. Having lived with a nicotine addict for most of my life, I knew that the more expensive a lighter was, the hotter and longer lasting the flame tended to be. Looking at the lighter the man who snapped my leg was holding, I knew that the flame it made was probably blue and could last for hours.

"What's that?" I tried to keep the tremor out of my voice and almost succeeded.

"This?" The man asked it surprise "This little thing is the best lighter on the market. It puts out a flame with an average temperature of one thousand eight hundred degrees' Kelvin, or two thousand seven hundred thirty two degrees Fahrenheit, and can last up to eight hours uninterrupted." He flicked the top open "Do you want to test it out?"

"No." This time I let my voice shake. He needed to believe that I was really scared, scared enough to tell him the truth.

"I didn't think so. However," His thumb rested on the ignition button "If you keep lying, I'm afraid you won't have any other choice."

"I already told you, I don't know anything." I blurted, watching the lighter.

He heaved a regretful sigh "Very well then." The lighter clicked on and blue flames jetted out like they were coming from a blow torch. "You leave me no choice. Such a shame to ruin your pretty face." I flinched away as the lighter came very close to my face and tried to turn my head but the man caught my chin and held it still.

I can't even describe the pain that came next. I thought getting two of my limbs broken was painful, but that didn't hold a candle to having that flame held to my cheek. My mind was so wrapped up in the agony that I couldn't even open my mouth to scream, let alone form coherent sentences. A deep, agonized wail suddenly filled the room, and it took me several seconds to realize that it was coming from my own throat. The pain only lasted a few seconds, though it felt like an eternity to me, before he moved the flame away. There was no stinging or prickling in the burned area at all, just an empty numbness. The three seconds he had held that flame to my face had been enough to burn the nerve endings completely off.

"Tell me what you know." His voice was soft but clear as a bell. My mouth opened but no sound came out. If my vocal chords had been working properly in that moment, I might have told him the code. My mouth had opened of its own accord, my instincts for self-preservation over riding my resolve to keep my mouth shut. Luckily though, the pain had momentarily stunned all my other systems and by the time my voice was working again the rational portion of my brain had reestablished control.