I open my eyes and am greeted by the sight of a dimly lit brick room, with the idea of windows nonexistent. A table was near the metal door that enclosed the room. It was filled with various tools.
I couldn't make out what the tools were.
Trying to take a closer look, I get pulled back, hands and arms first, with the sound of rattling following.
I veer my gaze upward to see what was causing it.
They were chains.
Metal chains cuffed my hands together, dangling toward the ceiling, giving me very little space to move around in. My feet, confined to the ground with the same principle, and my clothes were gone. I was stripped naked.
Did Alice do this? I knew I shouldn't have trusted that devil. What the fuck does she want from me? Does she want money? I don't have any.
In a panic, I call out, hoping that someone would come to my rescue.
"SOMEBODY! HELP!!!"
My words echoed through the room with no response.
How unsightly of me.
I couldn't care less if a fucking peasant saved me right now. I need to get out.
Anyone.
Please.
Anyone.
Save me.
Hours pass, and I spend that time dangling my hands with the chains, staring off into the dark abyss of the room.
**CLICK**
The heavy metal door opens up, and a man with a slender build walks through, wearing an apron on top of his raggedy clothes.
This man looks familiar to me. I've seen him before.
He walks over to the table filled with tools and stretches his arms to pick one up, putting it down before picking another and cleaning it while walking in my direction.
"D-do you know what this is?" he asks with a leering gaze, smiling sinisterly.
As he approached me, I could make sense of what the tool was. It was a small blade.
What was he going to do with it?
The man steps closer towards the light, and his face finally registers in my mind.
This was the bastard in the alleyway who stabbed me, begging for bread. The fucking ingrate. You got the bread. Moreover, you pierced my body and left me to die. If it weren't for these chains, I would strangle your neck as I pleasantly watch the light fade from your eyes as you call out to your deceased wife and kid.
I grit my teeth with so much force, a little blood pours out, moving down to my chin.
"Oh no. Th-that's no good n-now. You shouldn't b-be hurting yourself like that, d-dear." He says as he caresses my mouth with his filthy fingers filled with dust.
He sticks his tongue out and moves his head around, licking the blood off my lips.
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!?" I savagely jumped at him, but he backed away in time for me to barely scrape him. I try to break free of the chains with brute force, but am met with a harsh, cruel reality.
The man licks his lips, stained a little with my blood, "Feisty."
He pulls back his arm and drives his fist into my stomach, knocking me back with enough force to send the soup that I drank prior out of my mouth.
The chains were too constricting and fixed me back into the standing position that I was in before.
Trying to catch my breath, I stare at the floor, looking at my own vomit. It smells horrid. I take another look at the man, his eyes seeming even more lustful.
He's enjoying this.
Thrusting his arm back to prepare for another swing, he deals a blow to my face, bloodying my nose. He proceeded to do this all over my body, beating me until there wasn't a spot on my figure without a bruise.
I could barely hold myself up, and my legs eventually gave out, leaving my hands to dangle from the chains.
"YES!" The man grips his face with both hands, pulling on it as his gaze is fixated on the ceiling. "THAT'S M-MORE LIKE IT!"
He returns his attention back to me, licking the blood off his knuckles, and takes out the blade he grabbed before.
The man grabs my fingers and steadily brings his face closer to my ear.
"Now, I w-wanna hear you s-scream. Okay, s-sweetie?" The man's smile got even wider, raising his cheeks so high, it covered his eyes.
He takes the blade and places it underneath the nail of my pointer finger before pausing, glaring at me.
"Wait, please. HOLD ON!" I begged.
He drives the blade deeper into my nail, prying it off, and an excruciating pain fills the tip of my finger.
I scream in agony as my eyes start to well up with tears.
The man lets out a laugh, "YES, MORE! M-MORE!!!"
He continues the process, prying off all of the nails from my right hand, each time with the pain getting sharper. The man moved the blade to my left hand, going underneath the nail of my thumb, before he was met with an interruption.
The metal door swings open.
"That's enough," a female voice says, inching closer. "I'll take it from here, Bartoslav."
It was Alice. Her left middle finger in her mouth, sucking on it.
The man lets out a sigh and takes off the apron, handing it off to Alice before putting the blade back on the table and leaving the room.
She looms over my bruised, naked body, covered in blood and tears, dangling hands first by the chains that held me up from the ceiling.
She takes her finger, covered in saliva, out of her mouth and brushes it against my cheek. "You poor, poor thing," she sarcastically taunts.
"You bitch, what the fuck do you want from me?" I furiously ask in a faint, quiet voice, using up half of my energy.
She moves her hand towards her chin and moves her head a bit upward, as if looking down upon me. "My, I just wanted someone to play with," her fingers stroking my bruised body gently, feeling searing pain as she did.
I don't have the energy nor the strength to do anything but watch as she does what she pleases with my body.
She took a step back and quietly observed me.
"This won't do, I need a toy that lasts longer."
She leaves the room and quickly returns, with three men following behind her, dragging something. The men set the item near my body, putting it barely out of my reach, and left the room.
It was a cow, dead, of course.
What the fuck do they plan on doing with it? Why is it so close to me?
The men return, getting three more cows and setting them near my body.
They take their leave, and Alice, coming out of the corner of the room, had a sinister look on her face. She stands directly in front of me and in the middle of the cows that were lined up in a circle. She puts her arm out with her palm open, in my direction, and starts speaking.
"By light and breath, by root and flame,
I call on life to bless this name.
Wounds be mended, pain be gone,
With heart restored and spirit strong.
In silver tide and golden glow,
Let life rise and gently flow.
Healing."
A mysterious green light that seemed like particles poured out from the dead cows, gathering into Alice's palm.
Amazing.
The green light then unleashes in a straight line in my direction, surrounding me while slowly disappearing, almost seeming like an illusion. The light being bright, strained my eyes, ultimately closing them, and I felt something strange. My eyes still closed, felt my face getting less swollen. I open them and look at my body, confused at what was happening.
The bruises that covered my body began to slowly fade, and focusing my attention on my hands, I witnessed the fingernails on my right hand start to grow back, with the pain being almost gone.
So this was magic.
Stunned, I looked at Alice and noticed something. The body of the cows that surrounded her began to evaporate into the air, ultimately disappearing in a matter of seconds.
That must've been the catalyst that I read about in that book.
"I can't have you dying on me now," she exclaims while leaving the room. "We'll continue our fun tomorrow." The metal door closes.
I properly stand on my feet and feel my hands over my body, checking to make sure that I am all healed.
Parts of me are still writhing in pain.
She must've healed me just enough not to die.
That whore. That conniving bitch tricked me to confine me here.
I'm going to get out of here, alive.
I swear upon my life, I will kill that woman in the most gruesome way imaginable and toss her remains to be fed upon by wolves.
No matter what it takes.
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The days that followed felt like a monstrous hell.
Every day, Alice would enter the room, bringing in a new method to torture me. The worst being a device in the shape of a pear that was inserted in my mouth, forcing me to open my mouth wider each time, breaking my jaw and ripping my cheeks. The man, whose name was apparently Bartoslav, would then visit me later after Alice was finished up, and use his own methods to make my experience as insufferable as possible.
By the time Bartoslav would be done, Alice would come back in with the same three men, placing four cows, once again, in the middle of the room, followed by Alice healing me.
With this method, I won't even be able to experience the sweet relief of death and would have to endure it all again the next day.
Will there ever be an end to this?
What was the point of my coming into this world?
Why me?
Why?
Why?
Why?
Why?
Why?
Why?
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Another day followed with the same routine and a pain that was worse than the one the day before.
How long has it been since I was first imprisoned here?
I wonder what's going on back in Japan.
Reminiscing, I break down into tears.
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More time passes by, and the longer I've been imprisoned here, the more numb I've become to the pain.
I decided to start keeping track of the time to find out how long I've truly been here. Since I've started counting, it's been about 17 days. Counting each second that passed, I came to the conclusion that I've been here a total of about 40 days.
40 days of this hell.
But it hasn't come without its pros.
I've started to figure out how magic truly works and how to activate the spells that I wish for.
I first started small.
With the knowledge that Alice would always come to heal me before the day would end, I decided to use my own body as a catalyst.
However, there was a problem.
It seems that to activate a spell, you need to recite an incantation, or the spell would not work, with the problem being that I don't have any knowledge about incantations. But, after countless thinking and experimenting, I finally found the solution.
Envisioning the spell in my head, I realized that-that was also a method to manifest the spell, and an alternative to incantations. I gave a name to each spell that I envisioned.
Sacrificing the tips of my fingers and using them as a catalyst, I unleashed spell after spell while the day was over, and nobody was in the room.
And of course, it wasn't as if it wasn't painful. Upon discovering this method, I was hesitant to even attempt it, but I was desperate and went through with it. The more time that passed, the less painful it became due to the pain tolerance that I built up from the constant torture and the practice that I had been putting in.
Until finally, I felt powerful enough to break out of this place.
All I needed to do was patiently wait for the opportunity to come forth.
A few weeks later, the metal door squeaked open, and Alice walked through holding a new device that seemed like a toy for her.
"I can't wait to hear how you scream today," she squeals excitedly, gently holding her face with her fingers.
She closes the door, and it's just us two in the room.
Slowly approaching me, her lustful desires seem to be at an all-time high today.
It's time.