Antecedent (Tex Sawyer)

Antecedent 13

A/N: oooft I can be cruel when I want to be. Admittedly I'm starting to struggle writing this now but I'm nearing the end so maybe that's why. Anyway! Hopefully it's okay 💖

~~~

Roger howled as Tink cruelly twisted and plucked off his fingernail, more blood swimming onto the table and past Tink's hook as he chuckled watching in glee. The blanket of skin which once concealed the nerves was now on show as Mama cackled from the corner, Heather joining in as Tex gave a low whistle. Roger thrashed weakly from where he was held as I forced myself to watch knowing that more torture would come from looking away. My eyes wanted to close, to tear away from the horrific sight and wet hot wails of the poor man. The family however just seemed like they had heard the best joke and it was only more sickening for it. Breathing in weakly at the feeling of my own pain I felt the need to shout at them and verate them further but it wasn't just me who could be punished and it was clear to see that Tex was basking in Roger's misery. I hated myself as my lips sealed and no words escaped, I couldn't offer him reassurance because a vegetable peeler was only the beginning. The assortment of weapons before us was a sign to come.
"Look at him cry Grandma!" Heather giggled insatiably, patting the older woman who laughed so loudly she choked on it. "He's crying like a little girl!"
"He certainly is."
"Not looking like such a hero now, is he darlin?" Tex chimed in as he wiped the peeler against the material of his shirt and looked in my direction with a smug sneer. "Heck not even looking like much of a man right now. Bet you're filled with some real regrets now, aren't you mister?"
"He looks more like he's close to shitting himself." Tink responded, his hand was now back on Roger's trembling and pale, once pushing it down against the material of the wood as they feebly pulsed and twitched. "Wouldn't be a first."
"They always do." Tex rolled his eyes in reply. "What do you think now Lori, is he still your ticket out of here?" I refused to argue and bit my tongue not wanting Roger to suffer more. I could tell just by looking at him that he was getting to the peak of his limit as it was. He had been through enough and just when you thought they couldn't get more wicked the Sawyers showed there was always another level they could stoop to. "Not so handsome now, is he?"
"Heck who knows if he was before, other than Charlie and of course herself. Might always have been an ugly bastard with crooked ass teeth. Face only a mother could love."
"Maybe." Tex agreed. Flinching painfully as Tex glided his fingers down the exposed of my arm I pursed my lips. He was determined to seek a reaction, a sign to show that I was really allowing it to sink in that this cruelty was on me. My fault for making the decision I had to run. "Not like you though sweetheart, you're at your most beautiful like this. Exposed, bleeding, holding back tears. All I need is you begging me to stop and I'd be a happy man but maybe you need a minute or two to really soak it in. I can wait." My nose wrinkled in disgust as he leant over me, his head leaning onto mine. I continued to focus once more on the dark haired man who was now heavily panting through a smashed jaw. His eyes were flickering to the point I wondered if he was truly conscious or going into shock. Either one would be a kinder fate than continuing on with Tex's 'game.' We had only just started and with every gleam of the knife under the struggling bulb I could feel myself wince in pain at every breath I took. I could only imagine what level of pain Roger was in.
"Most quiet she's been." Tinker stated calmly, "heck maybe if we left one of her little friends alive for a bit she would have behaved. Would have asked how high if we told her to jump."
"Not worth the hassle." Mama said. "Not while there's other ways to break a bitch." Tex hummed in agreement, his head continuing to nuzzle against my own so I felt every chuckle. "Only way they will learn."
"Think she's starting to learn though Mama. Anything you want to say sweetheart?" Breathing in a pained breath I thought about it. Would anything I say cause more harm than good at this point? I closed my eyes and focused on labouring breaths wondering if it would hurt to even try, if I did something other than insult them would there be the smallest act of mercy? I doubted it greatly when they got off on such a thing. It would be an open invite for more trauma. I shook my head slowly. "Maybe not learning all that fast after all. How about I make it a little easier for you Lori." Feeling his chin slowly slide down my face until he was leaning on his knees at my side he gave a cruel smile. "You want to look at me?"
"What will you do to him if I do?" I was finally able to find my voice and heard him click his tongue in response. "I turn my head, you hurt him worse than you already have.."
"Why don't we have a little pause right now." Exhaling, I slowly turned my head so he was more than a side view, there was no keeping down the hesitance or apprehensiveness knowing he so easily could be lying and that mallet on the table might greet the other side of Roger's face. He seemed pleased I was doing as I was instructed and continued to lean on his knees, the peeler no longer in his hand as he drummed his fingers against his legs in anticipation. "No shame in not wanting to play anymore darlin'. Heck, if you had said sorry when I was whipping you before I would have been okay calling it a day."
"You expect me to believe that saying sorry to you will fix everything?" I questioned sceptically, my eyebrow raising as I hatefully took him in. Stupid was something I had never been accused of being and I didn't want that to start now.
"Not everything." Tex disagreed with a small shrug, "we all have to start somewhere though. You can have a starting point right here, if of course you know what you're apologising for and you're doing it for the right reasons. Maybe, maybe we can forgive you." I slit my eyelids as Roger's groans continued to fill the air.
"What about Roger?"
"What about him?" The cowboy questioned idly tilting his head at me.
"It's not like you're going to let him just walk off."
"Ah, well you've got me there." Tex shrugged.
"And I doubt you'd be hospitable to him." I pressed. Mama scoffed and Tink snorted at the mere idea proving my point in a matter of seconds.
"Got me again."
"So if I apologise, what actually comes from it?" I demanded not seeing a win in anything. It was clear that regardless of what way it went that Roger would die but if there was anything I could do, anything I could say to prevent it then I was willing to test the water and see. "You say the game would be over but it seems you enjoy cutting and hitting me more than a person should so I doubt saying I'm sorry would change anything."
"I do enjoy hurting you." Tex admitted simply, "but I also want to hear that you were wrong because I don't think you've said that much in your pampered little life. How about you say sorry and the game just ends. Heck maybe I'll be generous and maybe let your new buddy over here last longer than a few hours though I would say from the sorry state he is that he'd thank you for it." I closed my eyes and turned my head before allowing them to open and make eye contact with the poor injured man with an inquiring look. His eyes had stopped rolling in the back of his skull, sweat mixing with his blood as he gave some heavy breaths. He looked back in an almost desperate way and I could tell as much pain as he was in, he wanted some form of liberation from the torture before glacning back down at his skinned finger. Slowly he tapped on the wood once. I nodded and faced Tex once more he was still resting on his knees, his amused grin only spreading further up his cheeks as if he knew what was being said in silence.
"We stop playing." I reiterated sternly. "Both of us."
"Game over for both of you." Tex nodded, "I'm waiting, Lori." My voice failed as I parted my lips. Swallowing the heavy lump in my throat I attempted to find words and calm myself enough to think. This was what Roger through all his ailments wanted, a breather. A minute of which he was safe from the psychopaths. I eyed up the bundle of weapons before me and their lengths thinking of all the pain that they could and would inflict without any hesitation. We were both already suffering, I was more sure I would have more scars than not at this point. The rusted saw especially stuck in my mind, they would not hesitate to draw out scraping off a finger or hand. I breathed slowly using Roger's weak noises as inspiration.
"I'm sorry."
"For?" Tex pushed as Tink chuckled.
"Good girl, now we're getting somewhere." He congratulated me. Mama even applauded me along with Heather as I bit my tongue and any insult that wanted to be sent their way. Tex reached a hand up to grab my bruised chin and turn my head in his direction as far as he could manage against Tinker's device. Now he seemed pleased, a little too pleased at knowing just how under his thumb he expected me to be. Keeping me still he pushed for me to continue once again.
"For...escaping." I started hesitantly.
"And?"
"Insulting you." I added not at all sorry for any remarks I had sent their way. They were a punch of incestous psychopaths and sadistic hicks.
"And?" Watching where he cocked his head pointedly, I sighed at Roger as he flinched and wheezed in pain something that Tink did not help in the slightest by pushing the points of his metal hook against his now lynched finger.
"And for running off with the first man I saw." Using the words Tex had previously directed, I used them insincerely. I was sure Tex could detect the bitterness which laced each word but he remained smug at the fact I was doing what he wanted and slowly removed his hand from his kneecap joining in with his Mama's slow clapping.
"There we go." He nodded gleefully as I breathed out. "You know what comes next, don't you?"
"What?" I asked breathlessly, his index finger and thumb rubbing at the flesh of my chin and cheek with a gentle caress.
"Well, we need to kiss and make up." He explained slowly as if it was the most obvious thing in the world before winking in my direction. I swallowed the feeling of sickness back down with difficulty.
"That wasn't part of the deal." I told him instantly feeling nothing but disgust at the mere motion of doing something willingly. "I apologised like you said."
"No kiss, no deal." Tex said simply. "Hey Tink, pass the cleaver I want to take off the pretty boy's ear for Mama."
"Fine!" I cried furiously as the elder Sawyer moved forwards to take what was instructed, upon hearing my acceptance he halted hand hovering over Tex's next item of choice. Roger truly had suffered enough as it was. "Fine..." I repeated solemnly.
"Not exactly being inviting about it Lori, maybe I don't think you're being so sincere after all." Glaring at Tex he breathed along and gave a heavy sigh. "Ask me, come on now."
"Ask you?" I repeated.
"Ask me to kiss you as you said before, consent. You're all about consent aren't you?"
"As if you care about consent though." I bit back hastily and in disbelief. The fact he had even the briefest concept of it was unfathomable considering each and every time he had touched me. When he had forced his tongue in my mouth, when he had bitten me as well as the fact I was still stripped down. It was almost laughable and I choked back exactly that. He truly was out to humiliate me. "You don't care about consent so just get it over with."
"Not doing a very good job of wooing me here Lori, gonna have to try harder than that now." Tex informed me with a shrug, "Tink." The elder sibling moved again and passed the cleaver in his brother's direction. Roger instantly flailed and waned in protest.
"Wait!" I cried instantly as Tex removed his fingers from my face. My heart raced as poor Roger continued to squirm like a trapped worm. "Wait..."
"I'm waiting, sweetheart. Last chance." He warned me, holding the cleaver in his hand as I breathed in once more.
"...Please..."
"Please what?" Once more the tears burned in my eyes at the thought of having him once more in such a personal space but it was the only way. The only way that we could be safe for a few more hours perhaps even come up with a plan no matter how unlikely an escape would be when neither of us were in a condition to move. "I'm running out of patience here sweetheart."
"Cut his ear off and make the bitch eat it." Mama suggested. "Then his tongue."
"She'd just spit it out." Tink muttered disapprovingly.
"She'd swallow when she has to." Tex reassured him as I flinched in revulsion, they weren't insinuating as a food source and I dreaded what they were becoming the next source of payment. "Still waiting though Lori, last and final chance before I get to carving now." His smile had fallen and been replaced with a more serious expression from how long I had left him waiting for his demented request. "Clock is ticking."
"Please." I finally repeated pushing myself to do the unthinkable. "Kiss me...please."
"Sorry sweetheart, didn't hear you." Tex pretended to clean his ear drum with a finger.
"Please-"
"Louder."
"Please kiss me!" I cried in anguish as loud as I possibly could through the bruises and pain. The sneer instantly replaced his darkened expressions. Putting down the cleaver onto the material with the other knives and weapons, he straightened himself up.
"Happily."
"Wasn't so hard now, was it?" Tink said, chuckling slowly. "Sorry boy, taken lady." Roger winced once more as the hook pushed down breaking into the vessels of his fingers and forcing a darker shade of scarlet to leave what was left of the one that had been peeled.
"Now she's learning." Mama agreed eagerly, leaning forward in her wheelchair.
"No holding back now sweetheart, you want the game to be over after all so if you don't kiss me back that's the deal broken." Tex warned as I stared at him in abhorrence knowing he wasn't joking, there would only be one chance and he was right, the twisted game of his had to end and if this was the payment then as crude and repugnant as it was I had to do it. My mind went to Joel and thought of him. His memory now is just a fading image, one I struggled to fully recognise once more but I clasped at what I could. Tex's breath fanned my face. One chance. Urging myself not to be sick, I felt his lips press against mine. My body wanted to recoil but as much as it nauseated me I remained still against the binds and focused more on the repulsive feeling of the slither of wet that sought entry into my mouth. I submitted and felt his breath against my own as he kept one hand against the side of my face, the other moving to stroke down at the marks across my back panting as he caressed and stroked the wounds. I gave a pained gasp but once again thought of Joel, as if it was him. His image failed to stick but still I continued to respond for as long as he desired.