Fragments - Book One of the Missing

Chapter 6 - Taniel

He received a hard punch to the stomach, knocking the wind out of him, and he fell hard to his knees.

He tried to keep his balance, but was out of practice and couldn't fend off his attackers from this position. St. Andra's had made him soft. All those mornings he spent in the gym lifting and the hours he spent running could not protect him in the streets.

A sharp boot connected with his back, and he toppled over. Strong arms caught him before he hit the ground. Taniel had the distinct feeling that he was being thrown into some sort of vehicle. As the engine rumbled to life, he tried to maintain consciousness and take stock of his injuries. He lost the fight almost immediately when he received one more nasty punch to the face.

****

It was impossible to maintain any awareness of time or space after losing consciousness. His groggy mind woke up as his limp body was thrown over someone's shoulder and carried down a flight of stairs. Taniel bounced with each step like a rag doll, thinking dully that the feeling was rather uncomfortable. But at this point, he was almost certain he was being taken somewhere in the Underground.

Of course he jinxed today.

He was dropped, rather unceremoniously, into an iron-wrought chair. The cold metal stung his bare skin. His hands were bound behind the chair, but his legs were left untouched. Taniel was quite familiar with the Underground's hospitality, and considered this situation lucky. In the years he spent in the Underground, he had been witness to Wills brutally beating other gang members. In fact, sometimes he had been on the wrong-end of the situation and had been victim to Wills's tactics more than once.

Sometimes he hung the boys from the ceiling by their wrists, uncaring that the manacles tore into their skin. Or worse their feet. Taniel hated those days. The days his head was so full of blood he saw red. Wills got a high from torture. The whippings Taniel could handle, if only because they were over quickly. The worse Taniel ever received was when he accidentally let a more senior boy of the Underground get caught by the Officials. Wills was livid with him and made sure Taniel knew it as he tore off fingernail by fingernail.

Other times Wills strapped boys and enemies alike to tables and let new recruits like Taniel watch as he slowly removed finger by finger.

Wills used to run with the Nines — that is until he killed his own gang leader and took over. As part of his initiation, he had to cut off a finger from each hand while the gang watched. Perhaps doing the same to other people was gratifying, but Taniel thought it was really his sentimentality at play.

But these devices were only the ones he had been witness too. Usually Wills didn't like an audience. He would rather promote fear through sound association. When people heard the music, they knew what was coming. Frankly, Taniel was grateful the music drowned the sound of boys' screams. And his own.

Fear kept people in line. If they knew enough of what happened when the music played, they could imagine the rest. Ultimately, it was one of this tactics that worked. Wills built the Underground from nothing. Once he overtook the Nines, he conquered every other gang in the city. All the while, he recruited orphaned and homeless kids to be his messengers, his scouts and his errand boys. He gave them the shelter and family he never had.

He has stayed in control of the Underground for at least the last fifteen years or so. His brutality stood out from day one as he built his army of criminals.

Taniel wriggled in the chair to test the binds, causing the legs to scrape against the cement. He was knocked on the back of the head in response. Jinx, again.