Torture

  “You still rather not give in?”

  Zandra gripped her fists tight on the other side of the rope.  The chair she was bound to didn’t budge from the metal floor beneath it.  Whoever built it was a master at welding since not even she could break it.  

  “I’d rather drown.”

  “Oh you know I would never purposely harm you my dear Zandra.  Do you really think that little of me?  But lucky for you, you seemed to have made a few friends in your time away from us.  You’ve must’ve been wondering what was behind this lovely velvet curtain in front of you.  Why don’t I show you?”  Mr. L drew back the veil revealing a tank of water reaching from the floor to ceiling, and in the midst of it all, hands and feet tied behind him, blindfold wrapped around his eyes, and suspended in the air by a single rope was no other than Hirudo.

  He didn’t struggle or move his head, but it was clear he hadn’t been knocked out in any way.  His breathing was abnormally fast, and Zandra could only assume his heart was racing as well, almost like his body was preparing him for a familiar task.

  “Hirudo!  Don’t be afraid, I’ll be there in a second!”  Zandra frantically fought against her own bondage.

  “Tsk tsk tsk.  Zandra, I thought you were smarter than this,” Mr. L said crouching down to where she struggled and patting her atop her head.  “I’ll make it easy for you my dear child.  Comply and give us your whole mind and body for us to use, or watch your friend drown in your place.  One call and that measly rope of his will be cut.  Pretty simple decision if you ask me.”

  “I will never work on your side,” Zandra said, spitting on Mr. L’s shoes.

  Mr. L backed away from her in deep disgust as he glared at his now dirtied shoes and then to Hirudo hanging above the tank.  “I’m a nice person Zandra, I really am, but sometimes your mistakes can’t be forgiven.”  He reached to his ear where a small communication device was placed.  “Drop him.”

  Snip

  The sound of Hirudo’s bound body hitting the water echoed inside Zandra’s head.  Within the span of the next several minutes, he desperately tried to untie the restraints around his hands and swim to the surface, but just like Zandra’s chair, they wouldn’t budge.  He shook from side to side, slammed himself against the glass wall of the tank, and even tried contorting his body into something able to break free, but in the restraints he stayed.  Moving his body so much exhausted him quicker, and the oxygen he’d been holding had all but left him in a flurry of air pockets.  His panicking had once again cost him, and this time his life was the price.

  As his barren body floated its way to the surface, his blindfolded unwound showing to whoever gazed upon him a pair of sullen eyes and lashes littered with bubbles.  Only when he was dead could he achieve his goal.

  “No!”  Zandra struggled again for a little longer and then hung her head.  

  “Cheer up Zandra.  He’ll come back,” Mr. L laughed out.  “I would never use a beautiful vessel such as his so wastefully.”

  “You killed him,” Zandra whispered.

  “Well of course I did!  Didn’t you see him struggling for air just a minute ago?” Mr. L quipped with another hearty laugh and a knock on the glass to mock Hirudo’s lifeless body.

  “You fucking killed him you monster!”  Zandra started to fight against her ropes again, the ropes which were starting, very lightly, to snap.

  “Woah woah woah.  No need to get yourself all worked up.  I told you didn’t I?  I’ll bring him back if you ask politely.”  Zandra only glared with her rustic brown eyes.  “Fine fine.  I will awaken him.” 

  And so, with another call of his earpiece, the tank became nothing more than another room with a glass wall and a deceased body lumped in the corner.  Upon closer examination, Hirudo’s water silked skin and matted hair could be seen before people dressed in silver suits and masks entered with a surgical table and a bag full of odd instruments.  They unbound Hirudo, carried his body over to the table, and spread him out, limbs dangling over the sides.  His face looked as if he was just asleep in a sort of petrified state for his eyes were still staring with immense fear until one of the silver suits closed their lids.

  Mr. L began to talk over their actions.  “Pop quiz Zandra.  What is the fastest way to bring someone back from the murky depths of the sea?”  He asked, and without waiting for her answer, he continued, “That’s right!  We gotta suck up all of the water that’s clogging his little lungs!  Now I know this looks scary from an outside point of view, but see that really long transparent tube they’re sticking down his throat?  Well that tube is going to be directed right into his windpipe!  Pretty neat right?  And see that big metal pump they got over there?  That’s my most favorite machine in the whole facility.  It’s made with an extreme sucking ability and, if not watched closely, is able to suck out all of your internal organs!  But don’t worry your head too much.  He’ll be fine.”  

  Mr. L walked back to where Zandra was seated with a cheery pep in his step and his hand up to his ear once more.  He circled around her then to the glass, back to her, the glass, and again to her.  He walked on this path eight more times before finally speaking into his ear.  What could be heard on the other side of his earpiece came with it a smirk and another laugh from him.  His plan, whatever it entailed, was being carried out exactly as he wanted.

  “You’ll never get away with this.”

  “Oh dear.  It seems I already have.”

  The suits started the machine, it’s gears and pump moving liquid out through Hirudo’s throat.  It squeezed and it whirred.  In and out and in and out and in and out again.  Was this really saving him if the possibility of another death still lingered?  Would Hirudo be grateful that he was alive again?

  “Technically he isn’t dead.”

  Zandra snapped her head up.  “Meaning what?”

  “Well, if he did supposedly die from drowning, we wouldn’t be able to revive him.  I drained the water before he got too close to the light so all they need to do is suck out the water!  Plus, if he stayed in there too long his little organs would get gross from that tank water.  Blegh.”

  “You’re disgusting.”

  “Yes, but what’s new?”