Alice slowly walked towards the cloaked woman, who seemed to have fallen to the floor. As Alice stood before her, Annabelle became still and didn't move for over a minute. Her life signs gradually lowered to the point where Alice thought she might be unconscious or sleeping.
Then, with a flick of her foot, Alice kicked her.
Chapter 11
A world of darkness fled from Leo as he slowly regained consciousness. As memories of what had happened to him flooded into his mind, he opened his eyes and blearily took in his surroundings.
He was naked, seated in a cold metal chair, and bound tightly at the wrists and ankles by cold shackles. The icy metal of the chair bit against his bare skin, and beads of cold sweat dripped down his forehead and into his eyes.
With a quiet grunt, he struggled against his bonds, but he was too weak to break them and quickly gave up.
When he tried to look around, he realized his head was also bound, and he couldn't rotate it. He could only move his eyes within their sockets to look around.
He could see that he was in a small, dimly lit room, that there was no one else there. There was nothing of note in the room, except for a few exposed pipes running along the ceiling and what looked to be his clothes wadded up on the ground in the corner. It was cold there, but not cold enough to kill him. It was just enough to cause discomfort.
Based on the exposed pipes and the dinginess of the metal walls, he guessed he was down in the maintenance levels of Osiris station. Whoever had captured him had most likely transported him from the upper decks down to the thousands of old and uninhabited lower levels, where they could hold him without the chance of anyone finding them.
Osiris was an old station and had grown much over the years. As people had flocked there, more and more levels had been built onto it, and the inhabitants of the station had inevitably moved to the newer, more spacious, and more technologically advanced upper decks.
The vast empty chambers of the lower decks were now only home to those who wished to be lost amongst thousands of miles of abandoned, derelict corridors and chambers.
With a quick thought, Leo queried his scanning implant, but it didn't respond. As he queried his other implants, he found that they were also unresponsive. Whoever had taken him had found a way to disable his implants.
Leo wanted to take advantage of any time he had alone and looked around as best he could while testing his restraints, feeling for any weakness in the bonds that held him.
There was a door on the far side of the room, facing him. It was the only door he could see and probably the only way in or out of the room. There would probably be guards outside the door, and he would have to fight to get past them if he could free himself.
As he stared at the door, it suddenly opened and light spilled forth from it, nearly blinding Leo with its brightness. In spite of his sensitivity to the light, Leo didn't shy away, and saw a quick and fluidly moving figure step through the door, then close it with a soft clunk.
When the bright light faded, Leo looked at the figure with grim realization.
It was the licking drunk. The same guy he had stood up for in the bar, then had disarmed when he tried to shoot up the place. Apparently, the drunk had access to resources that Leo wouldn't have expected, and allies as well. The people who had gassed him must have been hired by the drunk. That, or they were being paid by someone else — the Origin Council, perhaps.
Regardless of who was behind his capture, it didn't matter at that moment. Leo needed to convince the drunk to release him, whether with promises of payment or another method of coercion.
The drunk ambled over to Leo and leered at him. "Ah! Wakey, wakey?"
Leo kept his voice calm when he replied. There was no reason for him to anger his captor. "I'm awake. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
The man began pacing back in forth in front of Leo and gave him a broad smile, but didn't speak. He started licking his lips after his third trip back and forth. The drunk was surveying him as a butcher would a fine cut of meat, Leo thought with a grimace.
After a few tense, silent minutes, the drunk finally stopped, then slowly reached his mangled stump of a right arm toward Leo's mouth. He let out a high pitched squeaking noise as he pried Leo's lips apart with his stump, then rubbed it on the front of Leo's clenched teeth.
"Nice teeth you have there. I think I'll pull them out, one by one," the drunk announced. Then, he reached into his pocket with his undamaged hand and pulled out a set of pliers.
Leo looked at the pliers warily as the man waved them back and forth before him. The drunk slowly pulled his stump away from Leo's mouth and smiled knowingly, clearly delighted with the situation.
"You'll find that isn't really necessary or productive," Leo replied in what he hoped was a convincing and confident tone.
"Yeah, okay, you rat shit," the drunk laughingly replied. Then, he thrust the pliers towards Leo's mouth.
With a forceful jab of his stump, he clumsily spread Leo's lips apart and started scratching the pliers back and forth across Leo's front teeth. Leo responded by clenching his jaws together as tightly as he could. Whatever the freak wanted to do to him, he wouldn't make it easy.
The drunk grunted like an animal as he struggled to get the pliers fastened onto one of Leo's teeth. It was difficult work with only one hand, and Leo fought gamely for several seconds, but the man with the pliers had too many advantages to be denied for long.
With a wild scream of effort, the drunk pried Leo's jaws open and grasped one of his front teeth. Leo struggled and tried to jerk his tooth free, but with his hands, feet, and head bound, his resistance wasn't strong enough to belay the drunk's sadistic efforts.
"Ah, there we go!" the drunk exclaimed. "Now we just wrench and pull away, and it will feel very nice for you, won't it?"
Leo tried to protest, but with the pliers in his mouth and fastened tightly on his front teeth, all he could muster was a loud, desperate grunt. The man locked eyes with Leo and listened to his grunts with a cruel smile on his face. Then, he licked his lips, and with a vicious downward pull, extracted one of Leo's front teeth.
As the pain of the tooth being ripped from his jaw came over Leo, he felt a wave of nausea fill his stomach. He thrashed against his restraints as he grunted in agony, but they still didn't give.
"HAHAHAAA!" the man cackled. Then, he began dancing awkwardly around the room, holding Leo's tooth in the pliers high above his head like a small, bloody trophy.
As Leo watched the drunk dance around with his tooth, the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth, and he felt the sickening warmth of it run down his chin. With a disgusted retch, he spit out the blood that flowed forth from the hole in his gums, and it splattered down onto his bare chest.
Instinctively, Leo closed his eyes and tried to search. He tried to feel around as he had in O'Hearn's when he had cut off his tormenter's hand, but there was nothing there. There was no divine roar of the Void this time. After only one try, mental exhaustion overcame him and he was forced to give up.
Leo opened his eyes to see Thrall still dancing, and a disturbing realization came to him. The Void wasn't going to save him. There was no way for him to curse himself out of the drunk's torture chamber.
Though Leo's internal struggle seemed to go unnoticed, his tormenter did see the blood spill out of his mouth. The drunk eyed the blood and he slowly stopped dancing. As he looked down hungrily, the drunk licked his lips again.
Then, like a snake striking, he smashed his forehead down into Leo's sternum. Leo gasped in pain as he felt the air leave his lungs and looked down in horror as the drunk began to lap up the blood that had spilled onto his chest.
The drunk moaned with ecstasy as he frantically licked up the blood, occasionally sucking Leo's skin with his lips.
Aghast at what was happening, Leo coughed through the pain and blood in his mouth. "What the hell is wrong with you. Who are you?"
The man didn't answer, but kept licking and sucking fo
r another half a minute, moaning and grunting like an animal. Slowly, he worked his way up Leo's chest, to his neck, and finally to his lower lip, where he licked and sucked vigorously.
Leo tried to recoil, but he couldn't budge his head even an inch. He gnashed his teeth sharply, trying to bite the man, but all it inspired was a light chuckle from the man as he continued sucking Leo's lip.
Finally, seemingly satisfied with his meal, the drunk stood up, licked his lips, and sighed with satisfaction.
"Ah, that's good blood. Different, but good. Very, very good, in fact... Something exotic there for sure, but still delicious. Rare, I bet... I've never tasted anything like that. There are notes of coffee and licorice, and an earthiness... It's like the earth from some distant planet..."
Leo glared at the deranged individual before him. He couldn't begin to conceive how the drunk had become so insane, or how he had managed to escape the station authorities and capture him so quickly. He may have been completely insane, but the blood-drinking freak clearly had some type of power and excellent access to resources and personnel.
"Who the fuck are you?" Leo sputtered. "If you're gonna torture me to death, you can at least tell me your name!"
Still smiling, the drunk held the stump of his right arm inches in front of Leo's face, then slowly forced his stump into Leo's mouth. The pressure caused another jolt of agony to flare in Leo's jaw, and his empty tooth-socket radiated pain out through his head and neck.
"It's all the same to you," the drunk answered. "But still, I guess if I'm gonna be doing this to you, it won't hurt if we get to know each other a little better. I do find that a good relationship of trust and love makes the blood taste a little sweeter. I doubt you'll ever come to love or trust me, but maybe, if I play my cards right, we can become friends."
When he stopped speaking, the man slowly pulled his stump back from Leo's face, raised it high over his head, then smashed it down onto Leo's exposed testicles. The blow compressed Leo's genitals brutally into the metal chair on which he sat and made a loud, squishy, thump when it landed.
Toxic blooms of nausea and agony blossomed within Leo's lower abdomen, and he let out a loud, animal-like howl. As the nightmarish sensation washed over him, the sickness in his stomach grew. Without the will to hold it back, he retched and vomited weakly all over himself. The vomit dripped down his chin to mix with the blood that remained on his chest.
The drunk chuckled as he observed his handiwork. "Ahhhhh... That must feel so good. I hope you didn't want kids, Leo!"
As Leo gasped in agony, he struggled to maintain his composure. He knew that his torturer had terrible things in store for him, but he had hoped to avoid damage to his genitals until after the drunk had exhausted himself on other body parts.
Leo took a gasping breath and spat a mixture of blood and vomit defiantly onto the drunk's smiling face.
"Fuck you, you piece of shit. I was gonna offer to pay you to let me go, but now you're getting nothing from me, you sick fuck!"
It was the most defiance Leo could muster, and it landed with little effect. Still laughing and smiling, the drunk stepped back from Leo, wiped the vomit and blood from his face with his stump, then walked to the edge of the small room. There, he leaned leisurely against the wall and surveyed Leo.
"Don't get all pissy. We're gonna be here a while, and we might as well be polite to each other. C'mon, what do you say? Can't we be friends?"
"Fuck you," Leo spat.
The drunk frowned and crossed his arms. "Oh, Leo. I see we've gotten off on the wrong foot. Here, let's start over."
The man took several rapid and tiny steps away from the wall to stand directly above Leo, then uncrossed his arms and reached his stump of an arm out towards Leo's face.
"My name is Thrall, and yours is Leo. Nice to meet you, Leo!"
Thrall, Leo thought with rage and disgust, glad to finally be able to put a name to his tormenter.
The man named Thrall moved his stump around Leo's face, caressing his cheekbones, then his chin, and finally, Leo's pursed lips.
"Now, you need to introduce yourself, so I can get to know you a little better. First impressions are so important, you know, and good manners are the most important part of making a good first impression."
When Leo opened his mouth to answer, Thrall violently shoved his stump into Leo's mouth as if trying to push his whole arm down Leo's throat. With a maniacal glee in his eyes, he then viciously punched Leo in his liver with his remaining fist, then reached down and forcefully grabbed Leo's genitals.
"SUCK MY FUCKING STUMP YOU RAT FUCK! TASTE ME GOOD OR I'LL RIP YOUR FUCKING BALLS OFF!"
With Thrall's stump crammed into his mouth, all Leo could muster was a muffled, incoherent noise of protestation as he struggled in vain against his restraints. With increasing rage, Thrall bore down on Leo's genitals and began to tug on them forcefully, sending waves of increasing pain and nausea through Leo.
Thrall lowered his voice and whispered into Leo's ear. "How do I taste? Is it as good as you imagined?"
Then, Thrall bore down on Leo's genitals even harder, and Leo thought they would tear from his body if any more pressure were applied.
All thoughts of escape left him as the hopelessness of his situation sunk in. He was about to be tortured to death by an insane man named Thrall, with whom he had met only through pure happenstance.
As Thrall forced his stump further into Leo's mouth, Leo felt a soft crunch and knew his jaw had been broken. Rather than increasing his pain, however, it was just another small crunching inconvenience within his sea of agony.
As his pain finally broke through his self-control, Leo found himself looking back on flashes of the long, pointless life he had lived.
Everything he had been through, and everything he had done had led him to that terrible moment, and it all seemed very meaningless. He couldn't help but become filled with regret at the cruel and fruitless manner of his impending demise. If his death could have meant something, then he could've died at peace. But that was not in the cards for Leo, and that caused him profound sadness.
He had tried to live as good a life as he could, considering his bizarre background and relentless persecution. He had made mistakes, yes. He had hurt people, but he had always hoped to make amends if he could find a peaceful existence somewhere. If he could have just gotten away from the Council and their endless, dogged pursuit, he could have built a meaningful life somewhere. He could have had a wife, a family, and a home. He could have become a good man. He didn't want it to end yet. He didn't want to suffer a meaningless death at the hands of a deranged psychopath.
Thrall seemed to read Leo's thoughts, and a look of deep satisfaction came over his face.
"Thinking about your stupid, pointless life, Leo? Well, let me tell you... This is nothing! There is so much more... So many different kinds of pain, and so many different scents of agony! I'm going to show them all to you, and before I finally let you die, you'll thank me for the..."
But then, Thrall was interrupted by the soft clunking sound of the door. The light blinded Leo as the door opened, and he couldn't see who was there, but he did a hear a high-pitched and whiny voice that came from the other side of the threshold.
"Thrall! Come out here, now!"
With an angry snarl, Thrall roughly released Leo's genitals and extracted his stump from Leo's bloody mouth, then walked reluctantly to the light of the open door.
"You stupid rat! I told you not to interrupt me. I don't want anyone to interrupt me!"
At an even higher pitch, Leo heard the other voice frantically stammer a fearful justification. "It's not anyone! It's Seven! He's here now, and he said he wants to talk... Talk with you..."
Without so much as a look back at Leo, Thrall angrily stepped through the door, then slammed it behind him. The blinding light was instantly extinguished, and so was any chance for Leo to overhear their continued conversation.
Chapter 12
"We need to learn everyt
hing she knows about our target," Idi announced in Alice's mind.
"Yes, Idi," Alice replied. She was grateful for Idi's help but was beginning to feel very odd about following the A.I.'s orders.
"I know you're there," Alice whispered to Annabelle. "We need to have a little chat, Miss Darcy Annabelle Persephone, the Third. So, either deactivate your cloaking device now, or I'll hack it and do it for you."
Alice kept her guard up as Annabelle faded into sight and clumsily climbed to her feet. When Alice saw Annabelle's face, a pang of sympathy ran through her, for the skin around Annabelle's jaw was raw and blistered, and had begun to melt from her face. If not for the horrible disfiguring burns, Alice thought she would be very beautiful.
Annabelle had clearly been on the wrong side of the acid nozzle at TOB. In spite of the gruesome injury, and the haunted look on her face, Annabelle still seemed rather resolute. She stood before Alice with as much confidence as one could hope for in that situation.
Annabelle crossed her arms defensively and looked down at the floor. "Call me Annabelle. How do you know who I am?"
"I identified you via your I.D. chip," Alice replied. "I saw what happened in TOB, and I need to know how you're involved."
A broad goofy smile suddenly spread across Annabelle's face. "Haha... You saw me! I did good, didn't I? I got the antidote! I did it... I actually did it..."
Annabelle not in a solid frame of mind, Alice quickly realized. Unfortunately, all of the remedies to allinium that she knew of were just as psychoactive as the acid itself.
"She is mentally compromised, Alice," Idi stated. "You must bring her to the Epiphany and question her."
"Yes, Idi."
Annabelle's altered state of mind could be a blessing in disguise, Alice thought. It could make her much more pliant during questioning.
"You needed the antidote, Annabelle?" Alice asked consolingly. "Is that why you were following those two men?"
"Yes. I needed it," Annabelle goofily agreed. Then, she began to cry. Tears streamed down her raw, red cheeks as she continued. "I needed the antidote, and I wanted to save Leo. I wanted to save him, but I didn't. I only thought about myself... Why didn't I help him?"
The Ganymede Legacy Page 11