Unexpected Encounter

One Step Closer

Words in BOLD in between "quotation marks" represent thoughts of characters.
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It was a dark, damp, and mouldy room. James could not tell where he was, there were no sounds he could use to make out his location, and all he could smell at that point was his own blood. He'd been locked in that room for hours now, being well restrained on a steel chair to prevent him from being able to do anything to his tormentor.

Every few minutes, a man would come into the room and torture James while asking if he knew who his captor was. James had been cut, stabbed, burned amputated, beaten, and so much more! The person who had him held captive seemingly knew what he was doing. James didn't have his clothes on when he woke up.

Suddenly, there were noises outside the small room! Chains fell to the ground and locks were slid open followed by the heavy door that lead back to civilization.

"Amazing, don't you think? Your blood is everywhere but you don't have a scratch on you!"

James refused to talk to the guy, he was trying to figure out a way to free himself  from the strange handcuffs he had on. The man was holding a car battery in one hand along with some cables in the other.

"Not very talkative, hmm? That's okay. I didn't bring you here to hear you talk haha I came here to fuck you up!"

James didn't give even the slightest hint of fear. There was nothing the man could do to him that couldn't be undone. All he could do was cause pain but James was already used to that... Or so he thought.

"Yes, yes, I know you can't die! I think we've made that pretty clear. But we also know that you're not resistant to pain."

The man knelt down in front of James, set his "tools" down and began to talk again.

"Have you figured out who I am yet?"

James began to grin as if he was enjoying himself just to bother his captor even more. Humorously, he mocked the man to irritate him.

"Honestly? I stopped caring about you around the second time you came in here to torture me haha"

The man kept his composure, and did not react the way James was expecting. There was no burst of anger, no cursing at the immortal man. The only things you'd find in that room, had you been there, were the two men, the chair James was sitting on, and a rectangular table that reached from one end of the room to the other, holding various kinds of torture devices! The man stood up straight, and walked to the table on the right side of the room and took a crowbar from his table of choices.

"Stopped caring?"

One swing to James's head, and he fell back with his chair!

"Haha, yup! Don't care one bit about you!"

Another swing to his face! This one caused a few teeth to fall off. The man started wacking James with his crowbar relentlessly! Now, it was obvious from the start that this man had something against James, but what was it? James was having a hard time thinking about it at all with the times he got hit in the head for the past few minutes!

"Come on! Tell me why you're here! TELL ME!!"

The man tied to the chair was not recognizable at this point! His nose was completely twisted and broken. His jaw, shattered. One of James's eyes got punctured during the beating, his face was completely disfigured! A big bloody mess!

"You have until you heal to give me an answer or I move on to the next tool!"

"Hust wai ohr mah jaw to mend itself back together. Haha there we go. Alright, alright... Obviously you're mad at me for something, and considering the knowledge you have in, well haha torturing people, I'd say you're not from any government I know... You have resources that they don't."

The man was finally lightened up a little, "Yes? Go on!"

"The only other time I encountered tech that could restrain me was a few months ago when... You're not Laura's dad by any chance are you?"

The man swung that bar once again, fracturing James's skull.

"Fuck you! She was my girlfriend!"

"Ok?"

The man, furious the way he was, leaned in on James's chair close enough for him to smell James.

"What do you mean, "OK"? You killed my girlfriend!"

"She was a mercenary, she knew the dangers of her life choices and decided to go through with those choices."

"WHY? Why'd you do it?!"

"She threatened the wrong person."

The man moved back from James to catch his breath. It seemed like... He was crying.

"Well, now you have me to worry about."

"What are you going to do to me huh? There's nothing you can do that can't be undone or that hasn't been done already."

The man remained silent as he set up his next torture device. His car battery stayed on a stool that the man had brought along during one of his earlier visits, the jumper cables were attached to James's testicles... Yes... his testicles. The car battery was off at the moment so it gave James some time to think about how bad it would hurt before it started. The man finished setting up the scene, making sure that James could not move his legs to prevent him from undoing what had been done.

"Yeah, but you feel pain, and that's enough for me... For now, anyway... This... next thing we're going to do will last... ten minutes."

"Why only ten?"

"Oh, ten minutes can be a very long time, as you are about to learn."

The car battery was switched on and James began shouting in agony! His legs were tied to keep him from moving too much.

"In case you didn't know, anything above ten milliamps is fatal to the normal person. My car battery here, is special haha it doesn't give off the usual amount of voltage. Right now, you have about two hundred and sixty seven milliamps running through your balls-- Shit! Hahaha holy fuck, man! That looks painful haha... Aaaaaand your ten minutes starts now."

Meanwhile, back to Gabriel and the others. The car still could not be used because the gasoline was frozen. They were walking to Erics bar. Gabriel, Alex, Crissy and Eva. Gabriel had given the girls some more clothes to wear to help them fight the cold.

They didn't talk much through the trip to the bar, Eva only felt like speaking german, Crissy had a secret she needed to tell Alex, and Alex was too worried about James to talk to anyone, while Gabriel just felt too cold to talk. Eventually, they got to where they needed to be but there was a problem. No one was answering the door that seemed to be locked.

Gabriel made one last attempt to knock on the door before knocking it open. Inside, they found Jackson talking to Mr. Eric, and another person sitting at the counter with them... Crissy instantly knew who it was but it took Alex a while to figure it out. The man talking to Mr. Eric and Jackson turned around to see who had just busted themselves in. With eyes wide open, and a grin on his face, he called out,

"Lex?"

"D-Dante?"