Soul: Book 1 (DISCONTINUED)

Torture

Dr. McNulty flicked the lever and the iron door opened with a loud creaking sound. The heels of his boots echoed ominously off the cobblestone floor as he slowly rolled a tray of supplies into the room. His eight blue tentacles trailed behind him, curling and twisting in the air like wisps of smoke. The doctor turned on the glowstone lights to see a bacca cuffed by his wrists and ankles to an operating table. His head was lolled to the side and his eyes were closed.

The doctor took some tools from the tray and recorded information such as the bacca's height and weight. He then removed several strands of the bacca's fur and placed them in a bag. The unconscious bacca groaned slightly and twitched as the doctor carefully extracted the venom from his teeth. Once he was finished, Dr. McNulty smiled sadistically. Now the fun could begin.

Dr. McNulty took a hypodermic needle and filled it with a blue liquid. An low, unstable laugh escaped his lips as he stuck the needle in the bacca's chest and pressed the plunger. The bacca instantly jerked awake and the back of his head hit the table as his body went rigid. His black eyes seemed ready to burst out of their sockets and he let out a loud gasp as the adrenaline coursed through his veins. Jerome's heart pounded furiously and his chest heaved as he panted heavily. "What... What the..." the bacca stuttered, still slightly disoriented.

Dumbstruck, Jerome watched as the doctor removed the needle from his chest and placed it back on the tray. He then rolled back the white sleeves of his coat and snapped on a pair of gloves before turning to face the bacca. Jerome took a swift glance at the name tag on his coat before meeting his gaze. "I'm glad to see that you're awake." Dr. McNulty said casually.

Jerome realized in horror that he was tied down and he grunted as he struggled to move his limbs. His efforts proving to be fruitless, he looked up and stared at the eight tentacles flowing from the man's back. "You..." he mumbled, the mismatched pieces in his mind falling back in place. He shook his head and his lips drew back in a snarl of anger as he yelled, "You! What do you want from me? What have you done with Se- OW!" Jerome yelped when the doctor slapped him in the face with his tentacle.

"You're not the one asking the questions here. Understand?" Dr. McNulty said menacingly. Jerome merely glared at him in defiance. He struck the bacca again, but this time Jerome did not cry out. "Understand?"

Jerome quickly realized that there was no point in fighting back. "Yes." he said quietly.

The doctor relaxed and smiled. "Good. I hope that we can keep things nice and simple here. All you need to do is answer the questions I ask. Easy, no?"

"Depends on the question." Jerome replied as he tried to conceal his fear behind a mask of indifference.

"I would extremely regret it if I were forced to use, ah, painful methods to get the answers I want. So let's not cause too much trouble." Jerome shivered slightly at the subtle tone of his voice. Dr. McNulty pulled out a notepad and a quill. "Let's start off with the simple questions, shall we? What's your full name?"

"Jerome Aceti." He heard a faint scratching sound as Dr. McNulty wrote on the notepad.

"How old are you?"

"19."

"Family members?"

"They abandoned me when I was a pup."

"Why?"

Jerome hesitated before answering. This was a touchy subject for him, but he wasn't willing to find out what the doctor would do if he didn't answer. "Baccas are supposed to have strong legs for swimming, but I was born with a defect. Plus, I was a runt. So they abandoned me. End of story."