You're Never Alone

Chapter 13

Word Count: 1388

Warning: The next few chapters contain torture that is moderately descriptive and may be triggering to people. Any of the following chapters with !#$% at the top means that the chapter may have triggering content in it.  -Tori 

Phil wakes up to the sounds of yelling and people moving. As he opens his eyes from his very uncomfortable position in his cell, he sees Dan, now shirtless, being violently picked up but what surprises him is that it's Dan that's yelling and not the soldiers. Phil suddenly realizes that Dan's father is definitely starting the morning off with games of his own and this thought instantly wakes him up. He sits up quickly and watches helplessly as Dan is gagged and then chained to a metal frame in the middle of the room. It's unlike anything Phil has ever seen in his lifetime.

It's silver and about seven feet tall while being roughly five feet wide. Dan's wrists and ankles are clamped into cuffs from each corner and a separate cuff not attached to the frame is put around his neck.

Phil can almost taste Dan's fear from twenty feet away from him and he can see it in his eyes as he bites down on the wad of cloth in his mouth. Dan carefully looks over at Phil as he hangs his head down. Phil looks back with wide eyes but Dan shakes his head, telling him to not show he's afraid so Phil instantly covers his fear with a serious frown. Dan nods slightly in approval and the doors slam open causing him to quickly stare back at the floor.

"Ahhh good morning, Daniel!" the king says happily as he strides into the room. Dan rolls his eyes and shakes his head as he looks up to see his father with a group of soldiers behind him. He wears a blood red cape and his nice clothes but today, his crown isn't present. "Still not a morning person I see." Dan glares at his father with such hatred that Phil practically winces as he watches. The soldiers disperse around the room as the king grabs a knife from the table next to the frame.

The rest of the table is organized neatly with a couple other things such as a couple daggers here and there, a couple knives, and a few devices that Phil couldn't quite see.

"You know my rules but your dear friend Wren here doesn't so I'll say them once and only once," the king starts and Dan rolls his eyes once more. Those rules have been practically burned into his mind every since his mother died. "First, you're not allowed to scream and second, don't fight me because. You. Won't. Win."

And with that he drags the blade in his hand down Dan's chest in a long diagonal line from his shoulder to his hip. Phil watches Dan's hands clench into fists but he doesn't flinch away. Blood rises to the open wound but the king is unfazed and puts the knife down, somehow unimpressed that Dan didn't do anything.

"Ungag him." A soldier follows his order and removes the cloth from Dan's mouth and Dan breathes out in fury. "So answer me this: why did you help the rebels?"

"I would've died if I didn't," Dan replies but of course, he and Phil both know that the rebels wouldn't have done such a thing. "So, father, why am I really here in this so familiar frame if all you wanted to do was talk?"

The king looks up with an irritated frown. "You aren't allowed to betray me and not have a consequence. You of all people should know that," he shortly explains and Dan scoffs which, unsurprisingly, makes his father more irritated. The king picks up a different blade this time but it's blue and Dan's eyes widen slightly. Phil realizes that this must be the blade that the king had previously used on his son. He walks around to the backside of Dan and teasingly holds the blade in his fingertips before putting the tip against Dan's back. "Try not to scream."

"Yeah 'cause that'd be a great idea, ri-" Dan begins to sarcastically reply but the king doesn't let the prince finish as he pierces the skin and Dan inhales sharply as he squeezes his eyes shut. Phil watches, internally screaming and wanting to stop this so much but he can't. The king drags the icy blade around Dan's back for a few moments as Dan writhes in pain. It's so intense that Dan tries to move away from the blade but he can't go far because of the chains connected to him. Dan pants and clenches his teeth together.

Then the king pulls away and Dan instantly slumps forward, sweating and out of breath. Phil can see the blood dripping down his chest and back.

"You...son of a...bitch," Dan mutters breathlessly and the king mearily shrugs as he walks back to the front of Dan and places the blade back down on the table. He then crosses his arms and looks at his son before speaking again.

"You betrayed me, you joined our enemy, you even killed your own mother," the king starts. "Let's see. You killed someone else's so not only your own, you let the rebels get away. I'm not very happy with you, Daniel."

Dan chuckles, looking up at his father. "You never were proud of me," he replies. "I could've caught some rebels and you would still hate me for some other reason. I could never make you proud no matter how hard I tried."

The king glares at Dan as he picks up one of the devices on the table. "You feel that collar around your neck?" he asks and Dan raises a brow, mildly bored. Suddenly a huge shock of electricity shoots through Dan and he cries out in pain and surprise. Phil very quietly gasps in surprise as well. "That is going to tell you if I think you're lying or not. So tell how did you meet the rebels?"

"They kidnapped me from a small cafe on the corner-" he starts but another shock bursts through his body and he arches his back until it's gone. "I'm telling the truth! I didn't intentionally join them, okay?!"

Even with the truth tumbling from his lips, his father doesn't believe him. "Okay so say I believe you. How did they get you to join them?" he growls but Dan is willing to say the truth...or most of it at least.

"They knocked me out and shoved me in a room, taking away my fire. They beat me and hurt me but I wouldn't tell them anything," Dan explains. The king looks at his expectantly, waiting for more. "And then..."

"And then what?" he demands but Dan closes his mouth and stops talking. "I guess we're going to have to do this the hard way."

It goes back and forth for so long that Dan's open wounds stop bleeding for the most part. Phil just watches as Dan either lies or tells the truth and the king believes him or not. It just continues between the two until Dan eventually does something he shouldn't.

"Where are they hiding?!" the king screams but Dan lies.

"I don't know!" he yells back and this time the king sees right through it, turns up the electricity a little more, and shocks Dan. Dan cries out and arches his back just like every other time and clenches his fists. The pain is so white and blinding that Dan feels it building up in his chest like a star until he screams and he screams bloody murder. It pierces the the small amount of noise in the room and bounces off every surface until the king stops.

Dan fully slumps forward and the world goes in and out of focus, spinning around him and blacking out momentarily multiple times. He dully hears his father telling the soldiers to take him down and put him back in his cells. Dan feels himself being jostled around as the cuff around his neck is taken off. The cuffs on his wrists and ankles are opened and two new cuffs are snapped onto his wrists but Dan is so out of it that he doesn't even try to fight back. He's carefully scooped up into someone's arms and gently placed in his cell as the world goes completely black and disappears.