penumbra

Chap. 15 - Drowned

tw: water torture discribed in detail.

+ smut in the second half of this chap

- - -

"Again."

And his head was back underwater.

It filled up his nostrils and lungs, it made him choke when he started to swallow it with his mouth wide open in reflex. It burned so much. It felt like spikes and razors dragging across his airways, tearing everything open in their way. His arms flailed around as he tried desperately to get his head back up, but that only prompted them to immobilize him even more. Well, at least enough so he wouldn't hit or slap any of them, but it was nice if he fought a little. It was so funny!

Consciousness faltering, muscles giving up. He tasted and smelled iron. The grip on his hair tightened and he felt a few strands being ripped out, just as his eyes started rolling to the back of his head. He was going limp, his body couldn't fight anymore and everything was suddenly so dark.

He died.

...

What a joke. No, he fucking didn't.

"Hey! Come back to us!"

Ugh, just let him die...

An unfocused beam of light began materializing in front of his eyes. It was all over the place and shapeless, abstract like a watercolor paint pallet.

Until it wasn't, and the image right in front of his eyes snapped into focus.

He coughed and gagged, projectile-vomiting water mixed with blood, darkening the already reddened content in the large vat from the other two or three times he'd already been dunked in. Water also cascaded down his nose as his inhuman body rejected it inside itself. Everything just hurt. He wasn't being allowed decent access to blood so he was weakened and tired.

"Thank you for joining us again," Yonghwan's voice was almost like feedback in his ears. "Don't give me that look, you useless brat. If you hadn't fucked up the last thing I told you to do we wouldn't be here and you know that."

The eerie laugh of his coven mates around him made his stomach churn. The one that gripped a fistful of his hair tugged his head backwards harshly. He felt and heard his neck crack with the brash movement, the pain zinging all the way up to his scalp and temples.

"After this many times you failed to do anything right... You're lucky it's so entertaining to make you cry."

He whimpered as a single tear left his eye and disappeared amidst the wetness of the rest of his face. "Please...!"

Yonghwan's lips curled up in a sadistic smile.

"Again."

He tried to scream, but had no strength left in him. It came out weak and dragged out, soon muffled by water again. His cries and wails swirled around him with the air bubbles that came out his nose and mouth and he could only see red from how much tainted by blood the water was. His chest hurt excruciatingly. He just wanted to die once and for all. He never asked for any of this. Why was that happening to him? Why did he have to suffer so much? Why couldn't he just die?

"Hongjoong."

It echoed around in his head, distant, yet so close somehow.

The grips on his limbs turned soft, almost like an embrace. What was happening? What were they trying to do?

"Hongjoong."

He was sick of new games, new ways to punish him, to torture him. He didn't want any of it! Let him go!