When the Sun Falls (BTVS)

Chapter 15: Punishment Games

Angel, Season 1: Episode 3

I groan as I am suddenly aware of my body's position, eyes widening as I wake. I was chained, arms dangling above me, handcuffed to the roof. My shoulders were incredibly sore, stretching at an unnatural angle. My feet were touching the ground, but even if I tried to squat, it would put a terrible strain on my arms, so I was forced to stay upright.

My painful thoughts are interrupted by an even more, painful, gut-wrenching scream from the other side of the room. The chains twist together as I spin around, to see Angel, face contorted in pain, hot skewer driven through his torso. It steams, the horrible scent of burned flesh filling the room.

The skewer is inserted by a man, dressed in a more medieval suit, golden glasses gleaming in the firelight. He was bald, and something told me that he was a vampire.

He says something to Angel, to which Spike, who was standing right beside him, turns away, and starts yelling, " I want my ring! I'll stake him if he doesn't tell me!"

The torturer looks to Angel, examining his body, "He knows you won't do it, not until you get the ring. Besides, look who's awake."

I shy away as the gaze turns to me, and Spike comes over, " How are you, pet?"

I look at him as he places a hand on the chains, " I hate you."

In a rough manner, Spike pushes the chains bounding my arms away, causing me to stumble, and in a loud voice that echoes across the room, says, " Isn't she pretty Marcus? Nice skin, pretty body, it'd be a shame to wreck it."

The torturer comes over, and places a cold hand on my stomach. I choke back a whimper as he looks me up and down, " Yes, she's young too."

Spike smirks, looking back at Angel, whose tired face was filled with worry, " Marcus prefers kids, he likes to eat them, and do... other things."

The feeling of fear twists through my stomach as Marcus's hand runs up the side of my shirt, stopping right below my breast line.

" Don't touch her!" Angel says in a tired, but very assertive voice.

I watch as Marcus draws a knife from a hollister on his side, the silver blade gleaming in the little sunlight. Taking in a breath, I feel the knife be dragged upon the side of my cheek, a cool blade cutting only the first layer of skin. The blade trails down to my neck, and then to my chest, where it hovers above my shirt. With one quick motion, he slices downward, cutting a thick line down the middle of my shirt, then proceeds to rip it off. My heartbeat quickens as open flesh is exposed to the air, the most vulnerable part, my torso, being drawn upon by a knife.

I watch as blood wells up on the cuts, seeing that he knows exactly how deep to cut to draw blood, inflict pain, but make me not black out from pain. The sting of the knife stops and I watch as Marcus heats a poker in the fire, before coming back over to me, tip of the poker a burning red.

The vampire torturer gleams as he presses the poker against my wrist. There is a hissing noise as smoke billows into my nose. The pain is unbelievable, hot, searing, but I couldn't turn away, I couldn't even move my wrist as the heat burned deeper into my flesh, charring layers of skin.

I don't scream, no matter how bad it hurts. He moves onto the other wrist, leaving the other arm a mess of charred balck skin, and shiny pink puss layers of newly exposed flesh.

I grind my teeth into my lip as an attempt to stop myself from screaming, so hard that I can taste my own blood. It all ends when the poker is pressed flat into my stomach, stinging, burning away my sensitive skin. I shriek as the poker imprints on my flesh. When it is finally done steaming, he removes it, to reveal the black charcoaled look of the skin around it, and a shining, pink bumpy layer of flesh, Blood leaked through the pus, going down to my waistband, and pooling on my light skirt. I force back the tears that sting in my eyes, looking my torturer in the face, " You think that you can hurt me? You couldn't even break Angel, and he was the one who broke me. You're pathetic, no matter what you do, you won't get the ring."