River of Misery

Christopher

I woke up in a room. My arms are over my head and my legs are dangling four feet from the floor. All I see are chains, whips, bars, and many more weapons. As I'm looking at the room around me, Ziruk walks through a door at the far end of the room.

“Hello, Christopher. How are you?”

“Fantastic, Ziruk. How ‘bout you, punkin?”

He backhands me so hard he splits open my lip.

“Boy, you know better. Just so you know, you have good friends. They are planning to break you out of my custody. They won't be able to succeed. I thought you should know.”

“Why should I know?” I ask bitterly, “I’m only going to get hurt more later.”

“Just so that you know why you are being punished more severely,” he gladly lets me know.

“So what fun activities are on the schedule for today?”

“Just know that I am going to thoroughly enjoy this day.”

I grin at him as my head slowly falls to my chest as I digest this news. I keep my eye on him as he pulls a piercing/tattoo machine closer to me. He prepares the piercing gun.

“Hold out your tongue, boy,” he commands me.

I shake my head, defiantly. Sighing, he takes my head and forces my jaw open. He takes the gun and pierces all the way down my tongue.

“There you go. Now let’s move on.”

My tongue is on fire. As he puts in the Fae Iron rods in the holes, he whistles. Then he pulls out the tattoo gun before he starts tattooing a Celtic symbol of slavery along my right arm. When he finishes this, he pulls out a sharp little blade. He thoughtfully puts the blade to his chin and asks, “What should I do next?”

I glare at him as he puts the knife next to my right cheek and pulls it in a sharp diagonal. He repeats the motion on my left cheek.

“That’s wonderful. Do you know what these cuts mean in our world?”

I shake my head.

“It means that you belong to me. This marks you as my property. Two backward diagonal marks. It will mean so much to the demon lords. The only way for you to not have the negative effect is to become a demon lord in your own right. Do you know what the demon lords can do to you?”

I shake my head no again. He signs before he answers his own question, “The lords can take you and torture you in whatever way that they desire. The only limitations are their collective creativity. They have free reign to do whatever they wish so long as you don't die. Do you know how to become a demon lord?”

I shake my head.

Ziruk sighs before answering, “You’re hopelessly lost in our world. Did no one teach you anything? Anyway, you become a demon lord by surpassing your true master in power in personal power and you have to have the acceptance of the Demon Over Lord.”

He continues to ramble on as he cuts demonic symbols on my skin. I blacked out for a few minutes before Ziruk realized what happened. To revive me, he pierced my n****e with a red-hot rod and leaves it in and proceeds to do the same to the other n****e.

He walks around to my back with a carefully selected brand and burns my shoulder blade, holding it in place for a few minutes. Then, he chooses another one and burns my inner thigh with it.

“How does it feel, Christopher?”

I glare at him.

“Fine, boy. Let’s continue this, shall we?”

Two weeks later, I’m being shook awake. When I hear Kie’s voice, “Chris…. Chris…. Chris, wake up!”

I open my eyes and see that I’m not hallucinating. Kie is standing here, and so is everyone else.

“What are you doing here? It's too dangerous for you.”

“I came for you,” Kie says.

“What happened, Chris? What did he do to you?” Jaden asked, horrified.

“What do you think, brother? They were trying to drive the last shreds of humanity from him,” Fane sarcastically comments as he pulls me down from where I’m hanging.

I frown at them and harshly question, “What are you doing? Ziruk will capture and kill you all.”

Jaden’s eyes hold unbearable agony as he swears, “I won't let him hurt you again, Chris.”

The next thing I remember is waking up in my bed in my house with people camping out.

“What happened?” I question.

Everyone jumps up and rushes toward my bed. They all try talking to me at one time.

“Wait, what? One at a time,” I joke at them.

Fane starts explaining, “Well, when we found you, you blacked out. So, we got you unchained and carried you into the hall. We were outnumbered as we inched our way to the exit. When we finally got out, we were all mostly unharmed. A few bruises. Then we brought you here. No one has left your side since we got you back.”

I look beside me and see that he was right. Everyone is here, including Kie. But thankfully, it seems like she’s sleeping deeply right now.

“Is she okay?” I start to panic.

“Yeah. This is the first time she has slept in days. Like I've told you, we will always worry about you,” Fane replies quietly.

I nod and say, “I’m tired again. I’m going back to sleep.”

Everyone nods and eases back to let me rest some more. I was asleep in minutes.