Assassin's Creed: Winter's Falling

Chapter 31

A few hours earlier...

Sol woke up chained to a wall. She wasn't sure where she was, but she did know she was in deep trouble. She remembered spending the morning with Lazerus in the park. Lazerus... Sol quickly searched her surroundings for him. She was locked in a small room. The walls where a rusty brown and gray, the floor was covered in weird brown stains, and the single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling seemed strangely old-fashioned. It glowed a yellow that made the walls look ancient and dangerous. It created a shadow in the corner of a man hunched over a carpet bag. It took Sol a moment to realize there was someone in the room with her.

"Laz?" Sol asked carefully, the boulders in her gut telling her she was wrong.

"No darling," The man straightened. "I'm afraid not."

As the man approached, the light caught his features. He looked like a gangster from the old movies her father used to make her watch. Pinstriped suit, black tie, and a fedora that obscured his face. He held a bloody knife in one hand and a branding iron in the other. As he approached her, a second man entered the room with metal bucket. He placed it next to her and scurried from the room. Sol glanced into the bucket and caught a glimpse of a pile of coal on the bottom. Strangely, the coals looked shiny and slick.

"You," the man who Sol had now dubbed Mystery started. "Will tell me what I want to know."

"Classic," Sol spat. "Couldn't come up with a better line?"

Mystery laughed, "You're friend in the other room said something similar. He thought he was to tough. Then we put the knife to him."

"Joke's on you," Sol shrugged slightly. "Laz can't feel pain."

"Yes, he can," Mystery smiled at her how one might smile at a child. "Just not physical pain."

Mystery took the knife and cut Sol's leg. She did her best not to scream, but the pain was intense. She almost bit her tongue in the process.

"Tougher than she looks," Mystery clucked and dropped the knife. "Scream for me, kid."

He pulled out a matchbox, lit a match, and tossed it into the bucket. The kerosene doused coals burst into flames easily. Mystery squatted by the bucket and stuck the branding iron inside. Sol could tell where this was going, but she knew she was powerless to stop it. Mystery leaned the rod carefully against one of the wall to keep it from tipping over the bucket.

With a sickly grin, Mystery picked up the knife with one hand, and grabbed the edge of her long-sleeved shirt with the other. Sol's brain had just enough time to register that her jacket and hidden blades where gone before he swung the knife and slit her shirt open. The knife tore through the shirt like butter, but did no damage to Sol's skin. Mystery wanted her perfect for what was to happen next. He was elated to see a white bandage tied tightly around her abdomen. The feeling of his hands against her skin had he separated the bandage from her gut and cut it away sent tendrils of nausea through her body.

"A stab wound," Mystery grinned. "Stitched closed, but only partially healed. Why don't I help seal it?"

The grin never left his face. Mystery pulled the now glowing orange branding iron from the fire. He pushed her shirt aside with his free hand. As the iron made contact with her skin, Sol couldn't help but scream. This feeling, it was more than pain. It was a destruction of everything Sol was in an instant. The slow reconstruction that followed left her numb and weary. She could just barely make out the sound of Lazerus screaming her name from somewhere beyond her reality. Then her mind lost its grip, and she slipped into the void.