As I Once Knew

Chapter 8

Kai

I was exhausted, a 19 hour flight even on a private jet was enough to make anyone tired. The lack of sleep with the added stress of Lydia's near death experience made me feel like I hadn't slept in months.

I dropped my bags off in my room before heading towards Andras's office that overlooked the training facility. The tall floor to ceiling one way glass windows made you feel like you were standing in a fish tank. The office was simple, black furniture, sleek hardwood floors, and a few pieces of modern art hung on the walls.

Andras was standing by the wall of windows, his back to me as he looked out at the group of trainee's sparring with various weapons below. His tailored black suit, and slicked back graying hair makes him look older than he actually was.

"Kai, so nice of you to join me on the home front. It's been too long since you've been back."

Coming to stand just behind him., his face in the reflection of the glass, his lips pressed into a thin line, his eyes cold. "I've been busy," I stick my hands in my pockets, rocking back on my heels.

"Yes, about that..." Andras turns to face me, his deep brown eyes narrowing. "I must say Kai, I'm quite disappointed in your work. It seems you have gone lax, perhaps a reminder about who you work for is needed, boy."

"I assure you I know exactly who I work for." I grit my teeth, my hands clenching in my pockets.

"It seems you don't, because you seem completely unbothered by the lack of progress you've been making. You work for me, when I say jump you say how high. So when I ask for progress I expect it. So I think it's time for a reminder." He snarls, and the door behind me slams open, I hear the heavy boots before I feel their hands on my arms.

"Nikolai and Jared will be your instructors. I assume we won't have any problems, correct?" He turns back to the window, Nikolai and Jared grab me roughly and steer me away.

Fuck.

They tug me along the hallways to the basement, where individual cells line a long corridor. Each cell is no bigger than 8 feet by 8 feet, they each have an identical metal bed with a thin foam mattress, a toilet, and heavy iron barred doors. The smell alone is enough to knock someone off their feet, stale metallic blood, and must. At the end of the basement is a single black metal door, Nikolai unlocks it before Jared shoves me roughly inside. 

Stumbling into the concrete room, as the door slams shut, locking me in with them. My teeth ache from being clenched, and it takes every ounce of self control not to kill them both with my bare hands. They force me down into the metal chair in the center of the room, locking my wrists and ankles into place.

"I never thought I would see the day when I get to teach you a lesson, after all the ones you taught me." Nikolai spits, my body shakes with pent up anger, but I make no effort to move. Moving gives them more of a reason to drag it out.

"Andras thinks you've forgotten you work for him, he thinks you believe you work for yourself, do as you please not him. So he asked us to make sure you know exactly who you work for." Jared circles the metal chair, coming to stop behind me.

"So let's get on with it, shall we?" Nikolai smiles, before walking to a table in the corner, he studies the various knives and weapons on the table before picking one with a curved blade.

Jared grabs the hair at the top of my head, and wrenches my neck backwards, as Nikolai walks back over, before sliding the knife against the hollow of my throat, not hard enough to do significant damage, but enough to draw blood.

A thin trickle of blood slides down my throat and onto my shirt. I take a deep breath, closing my eyes and thinking back to the training from my dad.

'Separate yourself, detach, mentally leave behind your body. Go someplace happy, don't think about the pain.' my father drilled it into my head. I've never been more grateful for that lesson, while my father intended for it to be used while being tortured for information to keep you alive long enough for someone to get to you. It was helpful when I needed to distract myself from killing these two idiots and blowing my cover.

They really were bumbling idiots, most of the time I was the one who cleaned up after them. But one thing they were good at was torture. Sadistic bastards.

Andras had a few people who were more criminally insane than he was, Jared and Nikolai were two of them. They came broken out of prison for serial murders, the who having formed some sick bond over their love of hurting people.

Thinking of what they did to their victims made my skin crawl.

I could feel them beat and cut my body, it still hurt, but I focused my attention on the scenes in my head.

They had to show some restraint, which was hard for them, their victims usually didn't last long in interrogations. As much as they enjoyed torturing people, their quick tempers made it hard for them to hold out sometimes.

Even though they both hated me, I was still their superior, Andras's right hand man and my death would be their own death sentence.

Taking another deep breath as one of their fists connected with my side. I wasn't stuck in the room in Andras's compound. I was at home, Maverick was sitting on the couch in the living room, drawing in his sketchbook. Lucas at the breakfast bar typing away on his laptop, as Lydia moved about the kitchen, cooking something new. She would greet me as I came in, her small delicate body wrapping around me like a koala. Her long legs anchoring herself around my hips, her fingers digging into the hair at the base of my neck .

She'd be so excited to tell me about the dish she was preparing for dinner, she'd force me to taste test everything, and I'd praise her. Reveling in the way her face lit up with a smile from my words. Then we would all eat together at the dining room table, sharing about our days. Maybe after we would all swim in the pool before relaxing in the theater before bed. Lydia lounging across us, her head on my lap, Maverick twirling her hair around his fingers from beside me, Lucas holding her legs on his own lap.

I'm ripped from the fantasy by someone plunging a knife into my shoulder. The searing pain is too much for me to ignore. Jared stares down at me before slowly pulling it back out, "Now now Kai, it's not nearly as fun when you don't make sounds."

Pulling in a sharp gasp, pain squeezes my chest, I definitely had a few broken ribs, I could feel bruises forming on my jaw, my neck aching from snapping to the side with the hits. Blood drips down my arm pooling on the concrete beneath the metal chair, adding to the stains from others.

They continued their torment a while longer, before they left, the bloodied knife from my shoulder clattering to the floor. Time passed slowly, I wasn't sure exactly how long I sat there before a young boy, no older than 13 came in and undid the wrist and ankle restraints. His hand clasps around my arm and he tugs me to my feet. The room sways and spins around me. It takes almost all his strength to keep me from toppling over onto the floor. For a young kid he was lean and muscular, the years of training that he's received here making him more warrior than child.

The hallways to my room have never felt longer, we shuffle down corridors. Our heavy breathing is the only sounds that echo through it, as my body grows weaker with each passing step the brutality of the beating finally catching up to my aching muscles. The kid leans me against the wall outside my door and reaches into his pocket and pulls out a master key.
    "Do you need medical care?" His voice is quiet, timid,

"No, I'll be fine. Thanks for helping me to my room."

He pushes the door open without a word, his face cast down at the floor. "Just following orders."

Limping into the room, I glance around, everything is as I left it. The dark plain bed, simple wooden table next to it that holds a single lamp, my bag of clothes on the floor where I dropped it. I shuffle over to the bed and collapse into the middle of it, a rush of pain spikes through my body. My eyes feel heavy, a weight settling over me, as I drift off to a deep dreamless sleep.