Zootopia: Secrets And Deception

Chapter 10. Memories

Three days earlier when Nick heard Judys voice over the phone, it was almost unbearable for him. Jeremiah hung up and placed the phone on the table just a few feet away, knowing that Nick couldn't reach it even if he tried. Both of his hands were cuffed to different pipes and was hanging there for the longest time, but now he was almost strong enough to stand. "So, Nickolas. What shall I do with you?" Jeremiah said with curiosity.
"I suppose letting me go is out of the question?" Nick answered knowing that it was.
"You know, Nickolas. You remind me much of myself in a way. Smart, sly, and scarred!" Jeremiah said as he began to slither in a circle around him. Nick looked at Jeremiah once he said that.
"What do you mean?" Nick demanded, his eyes glued to Jeremiah.
"Why, Nickolas. You may have told Judy about your past as a boy scout.....but have you told her about what happened brother and parents?" Jeremiah said cruelly.
"Shut up! You leave my past out of this!" Nick shouted, and began to struggle in his restraints.
"Have you told her about how your brother went into the military, and almost eight months later him and his squad were ambushed and none survived?" Jeremiah said, knowing that the best kind of torture is mental torture. Having the subject relive past traumatic events that they tried to bury, the scarring that was buried so far down inside so it would never see the light again. Hoping to forget everything, but they never do. Only to have it brought up in anger and frustration, just enough to make them go almost, savage!

"Shut up!" Nick yelled, but Jeremiah went on.
"And when your parents found out, your mother was never the same, like a part of her was missing or dead. Your father almost drank himself to death every night, and would come home angry and beat your mother. He didn't know any better, because he was drunk and had no control over his actions. And one night you hid under the table and watched your mother get beaten by your father. Over and over he swung, she was so close to death before he stopped, and saw everything he had done. He grabbed his gun and....."
"Enough!" Nick screamed, interrupting Jeremiah.
"It must have been so hard for you to watch your mother in the hospital with all those injuries, and couldn't take care of you. The 'Child Protective Agencies' took you away from her and put you in the system, but you escaped and found Finnick, who took care of you. Taught you how to con people, while you looked for you mother and couldn't find her." When Jeremiah finished, he watched and saw what he had wrot. Nicks head lay low and tears flowed down his face.
"I have never told anyone about this.....*sniff.....how.....how do you know?" Nick asked, limp and in pain from reliving the painful memories of his past.
"Before I lived here, I lived underground. Beneath where everyone walked, where everyone went, and everything went." Jeremiah explained as he continued to move around the room. "I know because I would look up at the world above to see what it was like. I know because I watched as a poor fox lost his brother in war, his father to himself, and his mother because of the system. I know because I too lost....." he stopped speaking suddenly. Nick raised his head to see him stopped moving altogether, and saw pain inside this snake, inside Jeremiah. "It's a story for another time." Jeremiah said, and began to move towards Nick, who looked back at the floor. But Jeremiah grabbed Nicks chin with the end of his tail and raised him up, so he could look him in the eyes. "Don't you worry, Nickolas. There's so much more that I wish to talk to you about." Jeremiah said as he released his chin. "In the meantime, my boys will give you a different kind of torture, and is much more different than mental torture.....what is it called again? It seemed to have slipped my mind.....oh yes, now I remember.....physical torture! Boys, bring out the equipment!" he said and began to slither out of the room. His henchmen rolled in another table with a cloth, covering whatever lay underneath it, and a creature with almost identical skin like Jeremiahs came in. "This is professor Iguana, Iggy for short. He is in charge of removing that bullet from your arm, stitching you up, and keeping you alive while my boys keep you company. I will talk with my partner-in-crime about what else we can do with you." He said darkly, and slithered out of the doorway as his men threw the cloth off Iggy's tools and torturing equipment, and began their work.