Hell chamber

Chapter 1 - Hell's start

As consciousness crashed back in his mind, Lio felt a slight metal pin slowly making it's way under his fingernail. A sharp pain instantly flashed all the way up to his forearm. He let out a strident cry of pain.

Lio : "AAAAAAAAAaaahhhh!!!"

He twitched, unable to turn his head. He felt a warm liquid dripping out of his finger, blood. A filthy combination of iron, excretion and putrefaction warped under his nose as he realized the stench permeating the air. Where was he? The blood enveloping his fingers wasn't enough to produce a third of the smell he was experiencing.

??? : "Seems like this one's awake. Ha, haha, hahaha... Time to have some fun."

Who was that? What was going on? Let it all be a bad joke! All these thoughts crossed Lio's head, his hands trembling as the pain would not subside. The grotesque laugh Lio's captor let out sent a chill right down to the bottom of his spine. Only then he tried feeling where he was. His head and his limbs were unable to move. A long wooden table tinkered with metal chains was restraining his whole body. From the clamp that was holding him down around his head to the metal bracelets cuffed around each of his ankles and wrists. The captor walked around Lio for another minute until he whispered gently in his ear.

The Captor : "Don't be afraid. I won't kill this one right away. Would be a shame to send this one, such a fine cut of meat, to the next world without extracting all that we need."

His core shaking, Lio looked left and right, only to be welcomed by a darkness gently lit by the fire of a burning lantern. That smell again. It reached the deepest part of Lio's stomach until he felt like throwing up. But he was not able to. Lio had nothing to puke. The gnawing sensation of hunger suddenly made itself known to his body. Unable to grasp the predicament he was currently in, Lio barely kept enough willpower to listen to on.

Lio : "GET ME OUT! SOMEBODY HEL-"

Destroying parts of his teeth, the captor vigorously slammed a metal ball in his jaw.

The Captor : "Now now, hush hush. We don't want this one to be disturbing this one, and this one, and also that one."

The captor was rejoiced with all the fresh meat he got. The captor's hand stroked Lio's left cheek tenderly, as if a mother was caressing her newborn baby. An uncanny sense of reassurance enveloped Lio's mind amidst the terror he was facing. As if purposely timing his gentle hand strokes, the captor ripped open Lio's fingernail. The jolt of agony that followed from Lio's right index felt as if lightning had stricken throughout the rest of his soul.

Lio : "!!!!"

The pain, too sharp and too fast for Lio to react in time, left him voiceless.

The Captor : "Good boy, this one! On to the next prize, there are still 19 left."

When tears started to run down Lio's face, he heard a gentle hush filled with a disturbing and obsessive love. Lio felt a veil of darkness enveloping his entire existence with fear. All he could do was to shed silent tears alongside his erratic respiration coming from his nose. The captor continued the extraction with his inhuman precision, fateful to his duty. Without hurrying himself, a deep and meaningful sense of pride sent the captor into a state of pure delight.

Snapping in and out of consciousness, Lio fell down the pit of hell, one nail at a time.

*****

Back in his cell, unsure about the time, Lio heard indistinct chatter coming from down a long hallway. Trying to get up to his feet, he felt a huge wave of nausea surging over him. Not able to hold it back any longer, Lio puked in the waste can besides his cell bars. A murky, nasty and thick black mess came rushing out of his stomach. The smell alone could make anyone faint.

Lio : "What the hell is this? That's so disgusting, it looks like I just puked a swamp out."

Thankfully, he had not sullied the light linen clothes he had been put in, which would have made the only protection he had between his skin and the cold hard ground useless. He wished he could have kept his leather clothes he had worked so hard to get. If what he did before could be called "working".  That was when something hit him. Even though the pain he felt was still burning and fresh, Lio had recovered his nails. Somehow, they grew back? With no time to collect his thoughts, a new cell mate seemed to have been taken down to the far end of the hall way.

The Captor : "Yes yes, place this one in the last cell."

Passing by his cell, they dragged the newest poor soul on the ground. Barely resisting, the captor grabbed the new prisoner by the hair.

The Captor : "Isn't this one a pretty cute new addition, huh? Not that you'll stay as pretty as you are for long..."

Silently laughing, the captor threw the prisoner in the farthest cell, opposite direction of Lio on his right. A rough thud, the body hitting the cold hard ground of its cell, the captor smiled in satisfaction walking away. Several steps followed in the same direction.

??? : "Man they are really working us to the bone, huh? I just wanna be done with this job and go back. Let's go, we're done for the day."

??? : "Yeah let's just get out of here. The Captor will take care of the rest."

As Lio tried his hardest to continue and listen on to the conversion of the men, he heard something coming from the cell with the new prisoner. Muffled sobbing, the voice of a young girl. He recognized instantly who the newest prisoner was. A mixed feeling accompanied his realization as relief and panic dawned over him. He whispered to the familiar girl, gently.

Lio : "Lia? Is that you?"