Quest for the Eighty-Eight Keys

Chapter Nineteen: We're Taking One of These Pretty Boys

WARNING: TORTURE, KILLING, AND MENTIONS OF BLOOD!

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Nyx watched Terra, holding down the head of his struggling victim underwater. When the pink-haired woman waved her hand, he yanked his victim's head up and allowed him to cough and hack before gulping down air. Nyx kept a tight hold of the man's blonde hair. He kept his eyes on his leader, waiting for her to signal for him to submerge the man's head.

Terra knelt so that she was face-to-face with the torture victim, questioning him, "where is Draco's key?" She was visibly irritated. Not very surprising considering they had been torturing this man in his own home for what Nyx guessed was a few hours.

Nyx looked over at the closed front door, seeing that Lust was leaning against it, a lit cigarette between his lips, and appeared to be growing more and more impatient with each passing minute. The youngest member of the trio looked back at Terra. He watched as she stood up and nodded at him. With that, Nyx pushed the man's head back underwater. The man immediately began struggling against the rope that bound his hands behind his back, trying to push against Nyx's hold.

This was, of course, all in vain. Nyx was a lot stronger than he looked. In fact, he was physically stronger than both Terra and Lust. When Terra waved her hand again, he brought his victim's head back out of the water. After several minutes of coughing and audibly heavy breathing, Terra asked again, her irritation now bleeding into her voice, "where is Draco's key?"

The tortured man sputtered, "I don't...know!"

Terra sighed and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Nyx questioned his leader, "what if we have the wrong guy?"

Terra snapped at him, "No! He has the key! I know he does!"

Nyx flinched at her loud tone before he looked away from her, instead, directing his gaze down at the heaving form of his victim. He felt a stab of sympathy for the man and silently urged him to give up the location of the key that they were looking for.

Terra then insisted, kneeling to be on the man's level, "just tell us where Draco's key is and we'll let you go." Her tone was low and threatening. Nyx felt a shiver run down his spine at the woman's tone, having had it directed at him one too many times.

The man managed to shout, "I don't know!"

Terra tsked, stood up, and ordered Nyx, "get the wax."

Nyx released the man's hair before he obediently headed to the man's kitchen, walking toward the stove to find a large pot of melted wax on top of it. He stared down at the molten liquid, a sickening feeling building in his gut as his hand unconsciously brushed over his lower back, grimacing as he brushed his fingers over the scarred skin.

Quickly bringing himself out of his thoughts, the young celestial wizard donned a pair of oven mitts and picked up the large pot by its handles, and walked back into the sitting room. He took a moment to observe that the victim was laying on the wooden floor, his hands still tied behind his back and a blindfold tied securely around his head. Water dripped from his hair and face. Terra stood over him with a foot on his back. Lust was still leaning against the door with a cigarette in his mouth, seeming to have not moved at all.

Nyx sat the pot of hot wax on a nearby table and stood beside it, waiting for Terra's further orders. When the pink-haired woman noticed him, she commanded, "pour some."

Nyx nodded and picked up the pot again. He walked over to the man on the floor and poured some of the hot wax onto his back. When he heard the man scream in pain, he scrunched his face and tightened his grip on the pot's handles. He tipped the pot back to stop the flow of the wax and looked down at the already reddened skin underneath the burning wax, becoming more painful the more the tortured man squirmed. He grimaced at the sight and looked away, diverting his eyes to the curtained window on the other wall.