The Script of Evil

13 - The Devil's Den

Anxiously Billy waits after the scraping sounds stopped. It is awfully quiet. His heart is racing and he is giddy from fear. What now? He comforts himself that the book must be so important that they will have to keep him alive. They cannot torture him until he gets in such a state that he can't return it. They don't know where it is.

Something yowls through the air and connects with his back and Billy's yelling reverberates through the empty warehouse as the shock and intense pain overwhelm him. A terrible burning pain bites into his back and his muscles contract involuntarily and painfully. The ropes cut into his wrists and he realizes that his calves aren't supporting him anymore and that he hangs on the rope. He tries again to balance himself on the front cushions of his feet while he gasps for air and he feels his shoulder muscles and those around his ribs are stretched to their limit. It's like a cat o' nine tails, a multi-tailed whip, with hard knobs that tortured him all over his back. The pain is intense and it makes him feel queasy.

"Your last chance to come clean or else it's going to get much worse."

Billy struggles to get the words out: "Just give me the opportunity to get the thing for you, please ..."

Again this yowling thing cuts through the air and slashes into his back and this time it is much worse. Wildly and severely shocked he plucks on the ropes and his screams of pain echoes through his ears while a burning fire overwhelms him. He realizes that it will get algorithmically more severe because this thing doesn't only injure new flesh but also the already injured flesh on his back. How is he going to cope if this continues? He prays the man would talk again. The pain is unbearable.

Again this sickening yowl and the thing torture him more severely this time and then again and again. It doesn't stop. Billy jerks from side to side from shock and the hellish pains that are unbearable. It feels like red hot irons burning his flesh. His shoulders are paining and the tightness on his writs bites deeper and deeper. The torture continues unabated and the yowls come with monotonous regularity and the pain increases with every slash. He feels dizzy and is hovering near unconsciousness. He wishes that he can just pass into oblivion so that it becomes dark and his misery ends. His bowels turn and his intestines contract and also his bladder and excretion and urine flow freely down his legs. Now he knows what the function of the plastic is. He tries to get balance on the front of his feet cushions but slips and the mess of blood, shit and urine.

Eventually, he passes out.

"Billy ..."

Billy hears his name and a blurry image in front of him stays out of focus. The pain is strangely different from before as if it was decreased by a strange trance. Billy realizes it is adrenaline, his body's own drug that always let him feel on top of the world after a strenuous squash match. His body must have been pumped full of adrenaline as a natural drug against this brutal torture.

"Billy, wake up ... "

The person in front of him slowly comes into focus and Billy is shocked and looks away. It is the wizard. He was unconscious.

"It is so unnecessary, Billy, you only have to look into my eyes and I will spare you all the pain and suffering. You are caring much about her?"

Billy hears his own voice and it sounds unnaturally slow: "I really want to give the damn thing back. Why don't you just give me the chance to fetch it and return it? I don't want you in my life and when I've returned it, you can leave me and my family alone."

Suddenly the wizard's hand comes in sight with a bunch of keys and Billy feels again how fear clamps around his heart when the wizard remarks: "24 Park Drive, Billy Shaw. We are going to make sure it's not at your home. In the meantime, think about this: your back is cut open and when we return, you'd better tell us everything because that thing is going to cut away at your flesh up to the bone and you will not survive, Billy. We now are going to throw salt on the wounds to curb infection, but also to let you experience the severity of the damage to your back. Does that girl mean so much to you? Enjoy it, you wanted it so badly. Billy Shaw's own little hell ..."