Gunner's Paradise

A Trial By Torture Part 2

"What do you want?" he asked her as he bit his lip.

"It's not time for that yet," she said, "Only when we become friends first."

"We don't need to go through all of this trouble, I can be your friend now," Ralph insisted.

"Be my friend now...hmmm," she said, "And you aren't lying?"

"No, I don't have any reason to lie to you. What's the name of the bear?" Ralph asked.

"Her name is Lilly," she said, as she became conscious of it in her hand and hid it behind her back.

"Lilly that's a good name and what is your name?" Ralph asked as he slouched himself down onto the ground.

"My name is Cassandra, Mister," she said as her legs were fidgeting.

Ralph looked at her choosing his next words carefully, "Well then can I see Lilly?"

Cassandra stepped forward to Ralph as the surrounding men observed him. She was inches away from him and he felt as though some men were getting closer to him.

When she was just hands reach away from him he tried his best to smile despite the pain, he was in. She was just a young girl, and he believed that she might have just been lonely and wanted to force an idea of friendship onto other people.

She placed the bear in front of her face, in a playful gesture. "Hey mister your time is up," Cassandra said calmly.

Ralph's face change in shock as the surrounding men pounced on him before he had the chance to respond to the sudden change and so again Ralph experienced this pain until he had no more nails left on his next hand. After it was done, the men dropped him onto the floor as they stepped back and gazed upon him again.

He felt like a deer trapped within a lion's den, the cub gently playing with its meal before it devoured it. He bit his tongue as he straightened himself out as best as he could and looked at Cassandra.

"So tell me," Ralph muttered to her in a scruffed voice "Where are you from?"

"Me?" Cassandra responded amused "I never had a home per se Mister, It was just my mom and I and we would travel from place to place."

"Where is your mom? I don't think she would be pleased to know that this is what you're doing," Ralph said bluntly.

"True she wouldn't have liked it but this is who I am, and she is no longer here for me," Cassandra replied.

"Sorry to hear," Ralph said, "I have known lost too and I understand how that could feel, I lost both my daughter and my wife."

Cassandra's eyes moved off him for a while just looking beyond him in the distance. "You're a strange one Mister, why are you so interested in little me?"

But before he could respond, she said, "Again time's up, now come the toes."

She opened up more and more bit by bit to him as they talked, slowly revealing more information about herself but still holding back as if unsure of what to say but the one thing that Ralph realized triggered her was the mention of her father. She cut the time even shorter than five minutes.

"Mister are you okay?" She asked him as if unaware of what he had just experienced.

"It's fine," Ralph said although his body suggested otherwise as he tried to calm himself down. He laid sprawl out on the ground with his back on the hard bloodstained concrete.

Cassandra looked at him it seemed like she wanted to say something but didn't know how to form the words.

And then she spoke, "Why aren't you angry with me Mister? Why do you keep talking to me, so nicely?" she probed, while squeezing the bear behind her.

"You may hurt me without me understanding but it is because I want to be your friend. To understand you but this seems like the only way you know how to talk, I wish it weren't so," Ralph replied.

"Mister..." Cassandra said, before being interrupted by the door being opened. She looked back to see another woman entering the room. The light of the outside made Ralph instinctively close his eyes.

"You have been playing your games long enough," the woman stated. "What you have discovered? Has he said anything useful yet? If not, I will be taking over from here, I will be sure to make him sing well."

"We were in the middle of a conversation Casandra said, why do you interrupt? He will tell me everything there is, no need for you to take over, besides, I have her permission."

"Yes, you do but that's in getting results. If you don't then anyone else has fair game over him to get those results, remember that," she said, as she opened the door and walked out.

Who was that woman? Ralph pondered but also realizing his situation was far worse than before, he had only thought to this point about making it through the door but now he realized that he had been naïve. What was behind the door, more people, where was he and what the hell was going on? These questions floated in his mind as he thought about the best plan to work within the circumstances.

Cassandra looked worried, she came even closer to him and bent down until she was mere inches of his face, he could smell her and she was looking him right into his eyes as she said "Mister we are running out of time, tell me everything you know of the children that live with you, if not someone else will take you from me."

"The kids?" Ralph responded in shock.

"Yes," Cassandra said as she looked down on him. "Tell me everything just like I told you everything you wanted to know, and then we can truly be friends and no more pain."

Ralph thought it over, this time there was no time limit but her face had changed she truly look as if she was worried for him, could this other woman be worse and the information Ralph knew couldn't put the children at risk seeing that they themselves didn't know where they are, he believed they had to be safe but it could help give him more time to understand the situation by talking.