Ragnarök

4 | The Last Straw

"Content, in faith. I'll seal to such a bond,

And say there is much kindness in the Jew."

Antonio in The Merchant of Venice (Act I, Scene III)

❆

Freddie watches in horror as the Princess is dragged away, not so sure he can stomach the sandwich anymore. Even if he can, it doesn't matter because barely seconds pass before the bread is snatched out of his fingers and he is pushed onto his knees like before, feeling a sharp sting across his face when he is slapped by one of the guards.

"Wha-" He starts before he is slapped again, forced to remain silent. Someone lights a torch, making him squint.

"What did I say about food, you bastard?!" The same Valkyrie from earlier asks, grabbing hold of his jaw and looking him dead in the eye.

"The pri-"

"Oh, no, Vike. You don't get to blame the princess." The Valkyrie growls and slaps him once again, breaking the skin at his cheekbone.

"I'm sorry." He says, hanging his head.

"Ah, now-" The Valkyrie is cut off by the appearance of her leader.

"I'll take it from here." Khloë says, pulling a bearskin whip off the wall, moving her woman aside. "Smith, what's this I hear? Manipulating the naive princess?"

Freddie ignores her words as his eyes go wide, knowing that he's in for it. He should've never accepted the sandwich, going hungry would've been better than this. He's never been whipped before, only beaten and bruised. Never whipped.

"Smith!" Khloë yells, scaring him.

"Yes, my lady?" He whispers, looking at her feet the way law dictates him to.

"Acknowledge when I say something to you!" She yells, kicking him across the face, almost making him fall over.

"I apologise, my lady."

"Manipulating the princess was a bad idea, you're going to pay for it. Maybe that'll teach you never to talk the Royals into loving your goody-two-shoes behaviour."

"I didn't-"

"Silence! Get him on the pillar." Khloë commands, her voice reverberating through the cell and he is pulled to the cylindrical pillar in the center of the room. His olive turtleneck is pulled over his head and thrown across the room, landing perfectly on his neatly folded leather overcoat.

His hands are pulled around it and he feels the cuffs attached to the pillar snap around his wrists, keeping him from moving. His stomach drops and a bucket of cold water is poured over his head torturously slowly, making him wheeze in shock, trying to breathe without letting the water go down his lungs.

"Please stop!" He begs and in reply, he gets a kick to his kidneys, making him want to throw up. He's not too sure he can bear all this pain all for eating some bread. But then again, Pietro, his younger brother, died for stealing a can of soup after going hungry for days, so this is nothing in front of that.

"I've not even started yet." The leader of the Valkyries says, watching him desperately trying to claw his way out of the shackles, making her laugh.

"You made those shackles, Smith. You should know better than to try to get out of them." She says.

He cries out in frustration, the skin on his wrists and knuckles going white as he does everything in his power to try and get out. Small but steady streams of blood start dripping up his arm, the shackles cutting into his wrists painfully.