He Who Controls the Flame (001 fanfic)

Chapter Seven- Nightmares and Reality

Peter was glad he was getting electrocuted.

Okay, maybe he wasn't glad to be getting tortured, but he was glad it was his ass in the seat and not Juliettes. God, Juliette. He couldn't get her face out of his mind. She looked...terrified as he was being strapped in, screaming at her father to stop. He knew he should've been focusing on the imminent danger, but all he could think about was the fact that she was screaming for him. Not at him, but for him. She had cared for him, cared for him enough to go against her father. Her own blood. But then again she did hate him, so maybe it wasn't that big of a deal.

"I have been so generous with you, boy," Dr. Brenner said, pacing in front of him. The baton came down onto his stomach and he screamed, white-hot tendrils running over his skin, into his bones, through his veins. It was everywhere. His muscles cramped so tightly they felt locked in place.

"I could've left you there," he said. "Could've let you rot in an orphanage with the rest of the forgotten children in the world while your daddy went to prison." Peter panted, leaning his head back.

He had passed out for a moment before, the last thing he saw being Juliette's amber eyes, and then...nothing. It only felt like a moment, like a blink, but when he awoke, Juliette and the guards holding her were gone. Just Brenner and the guards who dragged him were left. He wished Juliette still was, she had made the pain bearable. One look at her and the agony lessened, just a fraction, but she distracted him enough.

"Don't," Peter ground out.

"Don't what?" Brenner asked. Despite the monster Juliette thought him to be (and Peter had to agree...he definitely was) Brenner didn't let his daughter see the rest of her Orderlys torture. He had let her believe he was done, sending her away, before he continued. He let her think Peter had gotten off easy, though Peter doubted Juliette's delicate heart thought the torture she had seen was "getting off easy."

"Please," Peter whispered, his body spasming. He hated when Brenner spoke of his father, of that night. He dreamt of them sometimes. Dreamt of his mothers body rocketing up into the sky, of her limbs cracking like toothpicks. He hadn't known...hadn't known-

"What, don't want to be reminded of how you sent an innocent man to jail?" Brenner laughed. "How you killed that night?" The doctor nodded and the baton came back down, this time at his neck. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and his teeth clacked together as a wave of electricity ran through him. It was like being set on fire. All he knew was the darkness of his eyelids and the pain riding through him.

"You take her out of her room, say anything untoward, or even look at her wrong and I will shove you into a cell and you will never be let out again. Do you understand?"

Peter snorted. "Scared I'm going to corrupt your little angel, Brenner?" He didn't need to know he was already doing that. But oh how Peter wanted to see the anger on his face if he heard that he had traveled into Juliette's mind and gave her cunnilingus in his precious Rainbow Room.

Brenner seethed, and Peter imagined smoke should've been pouring out of his ears. "Again." He jerked as electricity coursed through hs body once, twice, thrice, four times. He could hear the blood pounding in his ears and his body wouldn't stop moving. Spasming. Dark spots crowded his vision and blinking wouldn't clear them anymore. Were they collecting?

"You're testing your luck," Brenner said. Peter felt him grip his jaw, moving his head from side to side. Once, he had treated Peter well. Once his touch was gentle and full of kindness. Once he had hugged him and told him he could trust him, that he would give him the world if he got into his car and let him take him away.

Peter wished he had went to fucking jail.

"I dare you to get rid of me," Peter said between clenched teeth. He wasn't trying to clench them, but he couldn't control much of his body at the moment.