Daughter of Death

XXIV

Shorter than usual, and more of a filler, but eh.

Cade didn't remember the torture. It was all a blur. All he remembered was the aftermath, which was more painful than the actual torture.

    He remembered Leo dragging him back to his cell, throwing him in. He rolled across the floor to the opposite wall, into the shield that had ended up in there sometime before.

    The door slammed closed behind him. Cade gritted his teeth, his arm shaking as he clutched his head. He had suffered no physical injuries. He wasn't stabbed, or burned, or anything of the sort.

    Instead, he had been tortured mentally.

    He wasn't sure how. He had been knocked unconscious when he was found, and when he woke up again, the pain had started. It felt like something in his mind was being ripped off, slowly but surely, and being pulled like a string, unraveling his brain. He remembered screaming his throat hoarse. He remembered struggling against a dozen hands holding him back. He remembered feeling helpless as excruciating pain ripped through him.

    Now, he laid on his side in his cell, his vision blurry, shaking as his head throbbed. The feeling was still there. Like a string inside his skull, and tugging—constantly tugging, pulling. No matter how much he felt his head, there wasn't anything odd physically. It only made his helpless feeling worse. There was nothing he could do to make the pain stop.

    After laying there for a few moments, he saw a tiny whirring drone in front of him. Its red eye stared at him, somehow sad and sorry.

    A smaller, fainter hologram appeared.

    Don't speak. There's a new window in here, and that guy Leo is standing outside. Are you okay?

    Cade shook his head. Almost sassily.

    Humor. That's good. How bad is it?

    He mouthed, Bad.

    ...

    Shaking, he whispered, "I-it still hurts, but I'll live... Go hide."

    Nowad looked like it wanted to protest. Then it nodded, and flew silently to the toilet.

    It took ten minutes for him to be able to get up. The pain never ceased, and his body shook, but he just gritted his teeth, and stood anyway. The metaphorical string seemed to yank as he stood, and he stumbled, using the wall as support. He stifled a gasp. Blood rushed up to his head, making him feel lightheaded on top of everything else.

    Moments later, he finally started walking. He went to the window, and leaned on the bars, looking out. Indeed, the guy Leo was standing guard outside, not immediately outside the window, but visible from inside.

    Cade tried to speak—admittedly, he was curious. He wanted to ask some questions, even if they wouldn't get answered and he might get another session of torture for bothering Leo, but they didn't seem like they were going to kill him just yet. Instead, however, he started coughing, his throat dry. The coughing didn't really help. He must've screamed himself hoarse while he had been tortured.

    It took a while for it to die down, but once it did, and he looked up, he was surprised to see Leo leaning against the wall next to the window, his arms folded, looking at Cade.

    Cade stared at him, a little startled. Leo's blue eyes met Cade's green ones. A moment later, Leo unfolded his arms, producing a glass of water from nowhere, and pushed it through the window bars.

    "Here's some water. Your next meal doesn't come until three hours later. Hang in there."

    Cade blinked, confused, but took the water anyway.  He swirled it around in the glass, peering at it, then sniffed it. No discoloration, no strange odor or scent. It seemed like normal water.