Far From Home

Whips

     When Seth woke up, there were two wooden poles stuck in the ground in front of him, some two meters apart. How they had gotten there and when he had no idea.

     Death had left him after licking his wounds, and for one whole hour, Seth had waited for him to come back, dreading the moment he would. But he never did. Hours passed, and finally, Seth passed out into a rather deep sleep; the deepest and longest he had slept in the last three weeks. He suspected it had been nearly twelve hours and wondered why Death had never come back.

     His eyes were still blurry from sleeping, and since his hands were chained, he couldn't lift his hand to rub them. After a few minutes, the poles came into focus and Seth felt his stomach drop. Two chains with shackles were connected to each pole. Both poles were covered in blood and deep gashes.

     Seth leaned forward to study them more when the familiar screeching of a heavy door opening filled the cavern and he leaned back against his chair. Death walked down the pathway, covered in his cloak, but with his head bare. But, this time he wasn't alone. Two cloaked figures followed closely behind and Seth wondered if they had been there when he had been kidnapped. Seth shivered as Death neared and leaned back against his chair as far as he could. 

     As far away from Death as he could.

     Despite the obviousness of him being awake, Death backhanded him right across the cheek, making him cry out. Before the boy could recover, Death sent a punch into his gut, forcing the air out of his lungs.

"     Try anything, and I'll make it hurt worse," the werewolf hissed, then snapped his fingers. The shackles disappeared from around Seth's legs and Death wrenched him up to his feet. The sudden movement and the fact that he had been sitting for the last twenty one days or so, made his legs give away immediately. He found himself being held up only by Death's hard grip, which wasn't very pleasant since his claws were digging into Seth's flesh because of it.

     The two figures who had entered with Death walked over to one pole each and held out the shackles attached to them and clipped them on around Seth's wrists. Death let go of him and Seth collapsed, feeling as if his shoulders were being pulled out of their sockets. The chains were too high to let him stand, but too low to lift him off the ground. It was very uncomfortable and painful.

     His back was to Death and the other two figures, but he heard a set of footsteps retreating and suspected that the unknown things had left, leaving him and Death alone, which terrified Seth to his core.

     SNAP!

     Seth flinched at the sound he had heard many a time in the movies he had seen when he was younger and living near Rochester. The snap of a whip.

     Seth heard Death's cloak fall to the ground and watched as he walked slowly around to stand in front of Seth. The whip hung loosely in his grip, dragging on the ground, as we moved.

     Seth felt his heart throwing a Halloween party in his chest, filling him with terror and foreboding. He stared into Death's red eyes as the creature leaned in closer.

     "We're trying a new type of torture today. You haven't told me what I have wanted to know, before, so maybe a little change will make you more... cooperative. "

     Seth gulped and sealed his mouth. Death gave out a dark chuckle as if he had expected it all along. Walking behind Seth once more, he stopped and there was silence.

     SNAP!

     The thin leather sunk into Seth's back, going an inch deep and slicing a long line down his back. Seth let out a bloodcurdling scream and lurched against his chains.

     SNAP!

     SNAP!

     SNAP!

     Tears spilled out of Seth's eyes and he felt the familiar feeling of his throat beginning to hurt from the screaming. And the questions began once more.

     "What are the names of each Knight?"

     "Where are the artifacts hidden?"

     "Where is the entrance to the Fairy Kingdom?"

     Within minutes, Seth had lost consciousness several times. The pain always brought him back, unfortunately. He begged Death to stop, plead him to cease the torture. Death always shot back with the same question: "Are you ready to cooperate yet?"

     He always shook his head, but deep down he knew, at some point, he would break, and nothing would keep him quiet.