Cracked
He was screaming.
It was a wild, raspy, scream of agony.
One by one, the thoughts I had been carefully collecting lost their hold, each one slipping into an abyss that only his screams could reach. I tried not to despair as each scream was followed by another, and another, until it seemed like one unending scream of anguish. My vision was black, eyes clenched shut. It was a futile attempt to regain my focus before my mind conjured images that were all too familiar.
I heard everything. His pain induced cries bounced all over this translucent prison, each one accumulating in volume. It was the same inhumane torture that they had conducted on him the week before. They had both of his arms and legs constricted to a cold flat table, streaks of crimson everywhere, staining the reinforced glass walls that separated us. The image had long since burned into my mind and was a reminder to keep my eyes closed, lest it become freshly seared once more. My efforts to not witness this travesty visually were spoiled due to my latest obstacle. Sound.
Crack.
Damn it, I heard that one. That was definitely a bone.
I opened my eyes, and immediately regretted doing so. The kid was crying now, panting and shaking, desperately trying to catch his breath as a man clad in white stood outside of our cells.
"How are you feeling Castor?" He said, his lips curling, creating a cold malicious smile as he methodically sized up his ‘specimen’ with his black eyes.
"P-p-piss off…” He shakily replied.
We had come to refer to him simply as the doctor, but we had no intention in grouping him with the friendly pediatricians we had when we were kids, this man was a nutcase. Upon hearing Cas’s words, he made a twirling gesture with his right index finger while simultaneously cocking his head to the left, indifferent to whatever came to his ears. He was a master of tuning out the sounds of pain and anguish he inflicted upon his victims. It was an ability I wished I had as the whirring of an electric saw buzzed through my eardrums with a sickening clarity.
Bastard.
Cas’s body was tense, his black hair damp with blood and sweat. I could tell that he was still resistant, his posture defiant and admirably unfaltering. I knew he would try his best not to scream again, but as the saw edged closer and closer to his skin…
My eyes shut.
His involuntary cry of agony pierced through me, making my face cringe in horror. I punched the steel floor beneath me, disgusted by my uselessness. I used to think we had a chance of escaping. That was before Cas was subjected to the doctor’s sadistic operations, before his screaming became the only things that I would hear from him for weeks, sometimes months.
Yet amongst all the blood curdling cries, something else caught my ear. The doctor was shouting at someone. This was rare, and it even made me smile a bit to hear that he was angry, a disgusted tone present in his usually meticulous and indifferent voice. Apparently, it seemed like one of his flunkies wasn’t up to his latest task and retched all over the doctor’s normally pristine white lab coat. A loud hiss was made when he left through the sliding metal doors, gesturing frustratingly at his now colorful garment as he instructed his assistants to literally throw Cas back into his cell. A short lived thud followed.
It was the first time that I could talk to him in awhile, the doctor wasn’t the type to leave us alone for too long.
“You look like hell,” I jokingly mocked.
He opened his eyes slowly, and I was glad to see that they weren’t blank brown eyes staring at me. An odd little smile appeared on his lips as he whispered, “I…know you.”
Now this was not funny, I was his brother for crying out loud. At that moment I wondered if the pain of the torture had been affecting his memories as well. I thought about it for another moment before replying, and decided to humor him to find out what was wrong.
“I sure as hell hope you know me, we have only been beating the crap each other ever since we were born.”
He chuckled through the pain he was feeling. “Really? That can’t be, father frowns at that sort of thing. Conduct unbecoming of a gentleman, he always says.” His laughter made him let out a sharp grunt when another spasm of pain tore through his stomach. I noticed that most of the cuts were directed at his abdomen, which was astonishingly already healing.
Well, he remembered dad, I suppose that was a good thing I thought. I had wanted to continue this rare opportunity, but with a blink of an eye and a small groan, he drifted off to unconsciousness before I could utter another word. He finally got a chance to rest, and I really hoped he was dreaming, dreaming about a place far away from here. With a loud sigh, I leaned on the glass wall for a moment, trying to think of a course of action. This didn't last long as my contemplation was soon interrupted when Cas abruptly twitched and whimpered in his sleep. So much for the sweet dreams I thought, but it soon became evident that he was not experiencing an ordinary bad dream. The twitches became progressively more jerky, and before long he was thrashing wildly from side to side while the whimpers from earlier became incoherent babbling.
“Stop. Stop it. No more. Please.” He gasped, each word separated by hurried breaths.
I moved closer to his cell to get a better look, and got the fright of my life when he exploded off the floor and lunged toward me in a berserk frenzy. I recoiled, and tried to get as far as my cell would allow as he punched mindlessly at the glass wall separating us.
“Stop it! Stop it! Get out of my head! Father! Please! How can you just stand there and do this to me? You’re on his side aren’t you Lux? Why? Why are you doing this?! I’ll kill you both!”
This was bad. A small crack suddenly appeared in the glass wall, if I wasn’t so disturbed by his behavior, I would have been amazed at his sudden strength. He continued with this for what seemed like forever, and I closed my eyes again. Seeing him like this was just as bad as seeing him getting tortured. I needed to think. I tried to delve into my mind to drown out the noise, and as the moments passed, it seemed to work. I heard nothing. After a few minutes I opened my eyes and realized why, Cas’s body was back on the floor, stiff and unmoving, as if nothing happened.
Slowly, I edged closer to him and waved my hand in front of his face. I couldn’t help but shiver at the lack of reaction; his eyes were wide open, yet totally empty. I heard the sliding of the metal doors open again, followed by a now clean doctor. He made a few glances between the two of us and noted the situation. He snapped his fingers, and his assistants took heed.
No. Not again. There was nothing I could do as they dragged his body out from his cell and to the table for a return visit. A lever was pulled, and I heard the crackling of electricity, the sounds dangerously increasing until all I could hear over the high voltage were Cas’s awakening screams of torment. He was conscious now, much to the doctor’s delight. With his awakening, the doctor made another hand signal, one that I recognized.
Crack.
My teeth were grinding together so much I felt like they were going to crack as well. I closed my eyes and tried to think of a plan, some randomly construed idea, anything. However, any thinking I did was consistently and routinely broken by the disturbing background music of human torture.
Crack.
Damn it, they broke another one of his bones again. How many bones are there in the human body? Too many apparently.
I needed to focus.
Crack.
Another bone had snapped, and I was going mad. I frantically clawed my head to think of something.
Crack.
Focus, focus, focus.
Crack.
It’ll be over if I could somehow focus…
Crack.
After what seemed like an eternity, the sounds came to a halt as a silence suddenly entered the room. My eyes were still tightly shut in fear of what I would see if I dared to open them again. His mutilated body after another day of sick torture was all too clear and present in recent memory. I desperately tried to muster other thoughts, but it was no use. These visions pervaded my mind with ease, conjuring images of crimson stained glass, skin pale and white as snow, and a vacant stare.
I opened my eyes.
The doctor smiled.
Crack.
- Lap Nguyen
