Where There is Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth

Chapter 9: Cast Into Outer Darkness

There hadn't been enough water in the bottle to do more than wet his mouth. He begged for more – would have screamed for more if his voice were capable of it. But he was ignored.

What he'd done for those few drips...

Tiny stood and shuffled to the other end of his body. Shawn tensed – knowing what was coming next. It still wasn't enough to steel him against the tear of agony as he was heaved from the floor.

Stutters of breath barely made it through his teeth as he was allowed to drop onto the hook; his body swung a little, side to side. Acid flooded his throat as he was inverted and he peeled his lips away from his teeth at the scald. Only a minute or two – maybe just a few seconds and Tiny would let him down again. He just had to wait it out.

But Tiny wasn't muttering over the scale. He wasn't pinching skin between his fingers. He was walking away – towards the table. Upside down and with a view barely lit, Shawn couldn't make out what the man lifted from the rough surface. Then, seconds later, the glow was blocked as Tiny came back.

Now he felt the touch – though not the two fingers plucking at his side that he's expected. Instead, his belly jumped as a palm flattened over it. Even with the dark he still closed his eyes – immediately terrified by the shift from the regular. He heard himself whispering in both foreign and English, words mashed together as he begged against whatever was about to happen.

And then his words stopped in a choke as metal sliced across his gut.

He froze as warm drops spattered down his chest – struck the underside of his chin. He shrank into himself as he waited for the loops of entrails to spiral down – a sensation that would be one of the last ones felt before...

Seth...

“Please don't – not any more, please!”

He only knew he'd been holding his breath when he gasped for more – keening as a fresh gash opened beneath the first. Then oxygen evaporated again as his body shook under a motion of sawing. There was too much pain to make any sense of himself. Blood shed down his body – fleeting warmth before it was followed by cold so deep he shuddered. But for his one cry, he hadn't made a sound. He couldn't make a sound.

One last jerk, and Tiny stepped away again.

Shawn's view spun sickly – color and light invading where they couldn't possibly exist.

He heard the clunk of metal – so familiar now. The glow increased the tiniest bit – real light against the false as a tiny fire leapt bright with excited heat.

And then, the sizzling hiss.

He knew what was happening – but he couldn't accept it. Not even after all he'd gone though – all he'd seen. All he'd done. Not now.Please...

He let the unreal light fill his mind as he tuned out for a time. His ears heard activity – a chair sliding back – the scrape of a knife – but he wasn't truly present for it. He thought of Gus though he couldn't immediately see his face. He heard his laugh though and felt warmth soothe back into his chest at the memory of that giddy sound.