Empath Onboard

Save Me - I Can't Save Myself This Time

"Oh shut the fuck up. You're acting like a child. You won't be seeing them again so you won't be needing the thing." Lukai replied harshly, holding the thing between his thumb and forefinger as if he wished to touch as little of it as possible as he wandered to the other side of the darkened room, the shadows blurring his image until a match was struck and a hearth that had been hidden by darkness lit into a bright flame. It was soon a roaring fire, filling the previously chilly room with ambient warmth. It felt so wrong for such a torture room to be warm.

"Please don't destroy it...Ed and Stede picked it out just for me. I'll do anything... just please don't burn it." Ivan pleaded, the tears still falling in relentless torrents.

"There's nothing I want from you! But that is some pretty good begging. Save it for your master. The vampires love it when their empaths beg them." Lukai replied, tossing the plug into the fire. The lacquer caught the flame quickly and the plug burned easily.

"I hate you! I'll-I'll kill you!" Ivan sobbed, his will starting to crack around the edges.

"There it is. The beginning of the break. I can hear it in your voice." Lukai said with a cruel laugh. He picked something up from the table and swaggered back to Ivan's bound and prone form. He tucked whatever it was into his pocket and picked up the basin of pink-brown water and dumped it over him. Ivan whimpered, the cold water a shock to his already panicking system.

"Just fucking kill me! I-I will get free! I'll kill you and... if they're not coming... I'll d-die too!" Ivan shouted, putting up the rest of his fight as Lukai dropped the basin and stepped ever closer, the item withdrawn from his pocket. Glinting in the light was yet another dagger. Lukai sunk his fingers into the purpling and swelling leg, the bone broken for sure. Ivan cried out, trying to jerk away as the pain sang up from the injury, settling hotly into his belly. This isn't right!, He thought his mind turning against his traitorous body.

"You won't do either. I've already gotten a buyer lined up for you. Can't lose precious products after putting so much work into it." Lukai replied before pressing the sharp tip of the dagger into Ivan's thigh and slicing it down to his ankle before mimicking the action on the other. Lastly, the wounds on his arms and chest were reopened in the same fashion. "Now, why do you get some rest while the fire is going? Here's your cuddle buddy too." Lukai said before rolling the dead boy's body until it lay limply against Ivan's side, already going cold.

"No! No, no, no, no! Get him off of me...get him out of here! I'll be good, I'll be good!" Ivan screamed hysterically, unable to thrash enough to get the body away from him.

"Sleep we-ell!" Lukai replied in a sing-songy voice as he left the room, the finality of the door's slam signaling the end of Ivan's escape attempts. The hysteria melted over the time, his eyes dulling, deadening as the fire slowly died out in the hearth, his last piece of his beloveds turned to ash with his will.

Izzy

Izzy could see the storm brewing not far from the shore line. One day had passed and everyone had been using this last day to prepare, Ed and Stede learning to fight beside power wielding empaths. But Izzy, Izzy wanted no part of it. He knew how to fight and felt it was a waste of their time. There was this growing terror in his heart, something screaming that they had already lost that their beloved Ivan was fading and they still had yet to save him. Would there be anything left to save?

"Please, Spitfire... please hold out for us. We're trying, we're coming. Just...hold on." Izzy whispered into the wind, leaning heavily on the porch railing to the Guardian's current hideout. He didn't move when he heard the back door open and feet thumping across the wood to lean down beside him. It was the mad woman, Kavalry or KC or whatever it was they were supposed to call her. Over the last five days, Izzy had refused to interact with her. She was incoherent more often than not and Izzy didn't think it would be any use talking to her. But today, she seemed almost clear today, like she had found stability for but a moment.