I was left speechless at the sight in front of me. I had so many questions. Why were they here? Why is he getting paid? Why was I taken? What is my punishment? What is he gonna do to them? I had so many questions yet no answers, my head was screaming at me to do something, speak anything just get some answers. But before I could ask he started again. "Alright take off their mask show him there conscious" his lackey walked up to my family and Gerard and started taking off their mask's one by one when they took them off. I remembered something from when I first woke up which was about five minutes ago now. I haven't gotten a break since I woke up, but let me get back on track, I remembered hearing muffled screaming, I now found out where it was from all of my family members were taped face so I couldn't understand what they were saying but they were screaming "Muf" "MMukY" "MMMf" I couldn't understand them what were they saying to me were they telling me to run, to live. Were they blaming me? Is it my fault we are here? Why would it be my fault what did I do? I'm just a normal human, a normal kid! "No leave his's on. We'll leave that one to his imagination" I looked over to where he was talking to one of his lackey's was about to take off Gerard's mask. Leave it to my imagination. What does that mean? What could possibly be wrong with him? Is it because he's sick? "Now will leave him for later. Excuse me, Lucky what do you think the punishment is? "I don't know and I don't care. Let them go now!" I didn't know what to do, was that the right move? Did I mess up? Should I have tried to act not nervous? Should I have just acted like I was scared for pity? I was scared, I was terrified, what was he gonna do to my family? I have so many questions!?! "Oh hoh, you don't care! Well you should!" "What do you mean?" "The punishment is losing everything, your everything!" "What do you mean!" "I kept having the same questions over and over, again and again. But I'm not stupid I think I know what he was gonna do I just didn't want it to happen, I wanted to be oblivious, I wanted nothing to be wrong, I was being optimistic. "Oh come on Lucky! Your not that stupid are you!?! I know you're a kid, but come on!! You're losing your everything a.k.a your family and friends! So say bye to the people in front of you!" he's been smiling this entire time like he enjoys this it made me sick to my core. I didn't know what to say. I was speechless again. What am I supposed to say "Stop" I'd be stupid to think that would work. "I won't let you" What am I gonna do? I'm not some shounen protagonist or some strong martial artist. I was a normal fucking kid! "Alright now let's put their mask back on. Lucky we need to get you in the mode of this whole torture thing so I'll let you see for now but soon your mask will be back on and you'll have to use that great head of yours! So what should we use first? Hmmm, I have an idea how about you chose Lucky?" "huh" I couldn't even act like I wasn't scared and didn't care. Tempuu started rolling over a cart when it was in front of me. When he stopped it in front of me I saw a lot of bloodied up tools. I now realized what I was smelling of him earlier. Blood, he smelled just like it, I wanted to throw up. I wanted to go home. I wanted to leave with me, my family, and Gerard. I wanted this all to be fake. I was praying this was all just some elaborate plan for my birthday party. I wanted some type of hope to appear in front of me. "CHOOSE!" I jumped in the chair "Choose one! Hurry up Lucky or I'll choose for you!" "Uhm, This one!" I chose the one that looked the least painful. It was a small coil that had two little hooks on the inside of it. "Ouch! That's a painful one. How could you do that to them!" A chill ran down my spine, is he lying? I don't know. I mean it doesn't look too painful. So many thoughts came rushing into my head. I wish this would all just STOP! "Alright now I'll choose who to use it on" NO! STOP! DON'T USE IT! USE IT ON ME, ME! DON'T TOUCH THEM! I was screaming yet no words came out of my mouth I just sat there looking STUPID! Why am I so weak? Tears started falling down my face. I couldn't help it. I had so many emotions rushing into my head. "WOAH, crying already I didn't even do anything yet Ha Ha" Did he just chuckle. DID HE JUST LAUGH AT MY PAIN! I WANT TO KILL HIM I WILL KILL HIM! Just then I saw something out of the corner of my eye that looked like a… knife? It was a shadowy gray of maybe a smokey gray. What was it? Why was it floating? Who is i-THROW IT! A thought came into my head that overpowered all other thoughts. The thought wasn't mine, it sounded like an old man and all he said was throw it-*SWISH I heard this piercing sound that sounded like something zooming in the air. I looked over and the gray thing was gone. I looked over near Tempuu and the knife was in his back! It threw itself at him without me even touching it. "Shiiit! I forgot you were an Elemental. Well to be fair I didn't think you had control over your powers yet." wait so that was my Elemental powers it was a gray knife those can be useful if I can control them better but more importantly. I can beat him now! "Thankfully you're still weak. Heh Heh, The knife's dull." Despair, Despair fell over me I can't win. It finally hit me… I'm just a kid, I can't win, I'm just too weak. "heh HEH AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! YOU SHOULD"VE SEEN YOUR FACE RIGHT THAN! AHAHAHAHA" WHY! WHY! GOD, WHAT THE FUCK DID I DO WRONG! what could I have possibly done to deserve this? god? "Aha ha oh man that was a good laugh now let's start with the real fun. Now who should I choose? Ah how about him?" He pointed to my little brother. "Is he a good pick?! HUH LUCKY?!?" "..." I can't choose somebody else. He knows that he's just tormenting me. "Alrighty, it looks like you're ok with it, let's put it on!" He wrapped the coil around Cache's finger and put the one hook under the fingernail he retracted the other one in the coil. I realized what it did now. I want to throw up. "Alright now let's start one spin.Two spin." "MMF" "Oh you hear that Lucky he just screamed!" "..." "Ah you're no fun guess I'll have to go faster" What did he say? *Rip, huh what was tha-"AAAAAAAH" My head jerked up from the sound of that scream when I looked up I couldn't help but throw up *BLARGH I didn't want to look anymore "and there goes one" Ah he's finally done now I don't have to deal with Caches screams. I didn't have to deal with his pain anymore. "Now time to do the rest!" "What do you mean the rest!?" "The rest of his fingernails obviously" "wait so I have to go through that 9 more times" "nope 19" "WHAT PLEASE NO! I CAN"T EVEN GO THROUGH THAT ONE MORE TIME! PLEASE! WHAT DID I DO TO YOU PEOPLE!" tears were going down my face like a river. I can't go through that again. I DON'T WANT TO HEAR HIS SCREAMS ANYMORE! "Wow, are you selfish" "huh" This entire time it's just been your pain, you can't go through this anymore. Yet nothing bad has happened to you yet, nothing at all. Talk about self pity." …. Ho-How can I respond to any of that. He was right. I'm a selfish prick. I deserve everything that's happening to Cache,SO WHY IS HE GOING THROUGH THAT?! "WHY NOT ME THEN" "Cause that's not the job. Okay now that's enough silence, let's start having fun!" "WAIT PLEASE-" "AAAAAAAAH" "NO STOP PLEASE! PLEASE!" "NO STOPPING NOW THE FUN HAS JUST STARTED! AHAHAAHAHHAHAAHA!" two…three…four…five that's one hand done now. And the screaming still hasn't stopped.He's still laughing too. What am I doing? Am I screaming too. I can't tell, I'm saying something. Sounds coming out of my mouth. What am I saying, am I just screaming like my brother? Am I cursing him and his henchmen? I don't know, it's like someone else is talking for me. Six…seven…eight…nine…ten now he's done with the hands. Cache stopped screaming he stopped laughing now all that could be heard was mine and Cache's crying. Wait a minute, how is he gonna do his feet? The coil is too long. Does that mean he gets spared? " Ahh, This will be difficult thankfully we have Cearca" After he said that one of his henchmen started moving over to him and took the coil from Tempuu then started to put the coil on Cache's big toe then when he hit his foot he stopped, then the screams continued he started drilling it through his foot. "AAAAAAAAH" "WHY! PLEASE! I'LL DO ANYTHING!" "AHAHAHA IT'S LIKE MUSIC TO MY EARS!" After that Tempuu started dancing a stupid dance around the room to me and my brothers screaming. 11…12…13…14. The noise stopped. Cache stopped screaming and it fell silent "Huh WHY'D HE STOP YOU DIDN'T KILL HIM RIGHT!" "No he passed out from the pain" "Oh then we might as well kill him" what "I don't feel like waiting for him to wake up" "WHAT! WHY! DON'T KILL HIM HE'S GONE THROUGH ENOUGH! PLEASE! PLEASE!" "No can do Lucky" "WHY THE FUCK NOT!" "Because this is your punishment!" He said this with the widest grin on his face like he was a kid at a candy shop. I want to kill him! "MMMMMF" For the first time in a while I looked at my parents. I could tell my mom had tears streaming down her face even without the mask. My Dad looked like he was cursing Tempuu but he still wasn't crying. "Shut up it will be your guy's turn soon" "MMCK MMF" My dad screamed at him even with the tape you could tell he was telling him to fuck off '*TWHAM Tempuu punched my dad right in the stomach, my dad couldn't talk anymore. He got the wind knocked out of him "Now since you like knife's so much I figured I should kill him that way Tempuu grabbed a knife from the rack "NO! PLEASE! STAB ME! "No can do Lucky this is your punishment after all" It's my fault he's going through this. Why is it always my fault? *SHUNThuh please don't tell me *Blurgh I threw up again "Hey Lucky, Your brothers dead. And it's all your..fault" "AAAAUUGH WHY! WHY! WHY IS IT ALWAYS MY FUCKING FAULT! WHY DID I HAVE TO KILL MY BROTHER!" WHY DID I HAVE TO KILL MY BROTHER!" It was my fault I killed him, I killed Cache "that's right, it's your fault." "I KNOW! I KNOW ALREADY! *drip snff *drip Why is it always my fault" "Alright time to start you Mom now!" "WHAT! WHY! ISN'T KILLING CACHE ENOUGH TO YOU!" "Nooope, it's nooot!" "Now which tool should I use heh heh" *sniffle why am I so weak? Why can't I just kill this bastard? Why did I have to kill my brother? Why can't I stop him? Why is he gonna kill my mom? Why can't he just kill me already? Why? WHY? why do I have to go through this? Because of that stupid game, SO WHAT IF I LOST? Why do they have to be punished? why? Why? WHY? "This one should do just fine" "NO! PLEASE! WAIT!" "what." he… listened! "Can you please use that on me! Please." "No can do, I said I wouldn't cause any physical harm to you and I'm a man of my word!" "PLEASE! PLEASE! I DON'T CARE IF YOU BREAK YOUR WORD!" he's not stopping. "I WON'T TELL ANYONE! PLEASE!" he's not gonna stop. "PLEASE I'LL DO ANYTHING!" "There we go all set up now let's start!" This machine was simple yet effective all it did was make small stabs in your arm whenever pressure was applied from the outside. "WHAT! PLEASE NO!" "NOPE NOT GONNA" * rrip "AAAAAAAAAH" "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" *drip *sniffle "PLEASE! NO MORE I CAN'T DEAL WITH THERE SCREAMS ANY MORE" "Hey! Ceasca do this for me!" "alright" Ceasca started moving towards my mom and started doing the same thing but he kept on rotating the ring. "AHHHHHHH" "HEH HAHAHAHA" No words can come out of my mouth at this point. All I can do is just cry. I wish my ears were gone. I wish I was born deaf. I wish he'd just caught off my ears and put the bag back over my head. I wish all my wishes would come true. After about five minutes of laughing and screaming and crying my mom finally died. She died from either pain or blood loss. Yet I didn't throw up, I didn't scream, I just cried. That's all I could do at this point. My voice was gone, there was no more food in my stomach, and I just couldn't stop crying. "Alright now it's time for the father"I didn't scream this time to try and get them to stop, I just accepted it and cried. "Ceasca put the bag back on his head!" "Okay" Ceasca put the bag over my head so I couldn't see anything. "They say your other senses heighten when you can't use one. I wanna find out if it's true!" I was scared, scared to see if it was true, scared to lose dad too, scared to lose Gerard next, all I was, was scared. *Rip ah it' starting I heard the coil he used on Cache and the sound of a nail being ripped off. Two..three..four..five..six..seven it kept on going all the way to 20. Throughout all of that all I heard were the nails being ripped out, I didn't hear him scream once. Then I heard the tool they used on my mom be used. I heard it be used 20 times as well. *Whack after that I heard punching over and over again I counted 105 punch being thrown "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME LOOK AT THIS BEAST!" Tempuu sounded more impressed then mad for some reason "Hew Ceasca take off the kids mask show him this shit!" Ceasca took off my mask and I saw what they did to dad. When I saw it I started crying harder than I was before. There my dad was barely recognizable, all beat up blood everywhere no nails nothing just sitting there and he didn't scream once. Then I saw a tear fall down my dad's face and he muttered something I couldn't hear I wanted to hear so I said "what did you say." "It's -It's not your fault Luck" more tears started rolling down my face *shunk "there that should kill him!" "huh Auu AUUUUGH" I started screaming again I started crying even harder too "I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU! YOU HEAR ME I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL FUCKING TORTURE YOU UNTIL YOUR DEAD" I started screaming at Tempuu with every curse I could think of and when I was done he told me "You can go now" "huh" "You can leave after one more thing" "what is that thing?" "One more round of bullshit! If you win you get to leave if you lose you get to leave no repercussions whatsoever!" "What happens to Gerard?" "Nothing either way you'll both be safe now the real final statement….Gerard has been dead this entire time." I was filled with rage again even after cursing him out. He was treating this like a stupid little game still "STOP SPOUTING SUCH BULLSHIT!" " EEEEEEEAAH WRONG YOU LOSE!" "huh" "As you can see he's dead! So you can bring him home if you want! I don't care!" He's been dead this entire time. I finally saw some hope for the first time in an hour for the first time in forever I saw hope. I decided to close my eyes cause I didn't want to see anymore and I saw something, it was like a gray orb something was drifting me towards it. It was like a shimmer of hope for some reason yet all it was, was a gray orb. I didn't even need to think about it. I decided to reach out to the orb. It was the first and only wish I got granted. I had hope and I intend to cling to it with all my might. After I touched it I suddenly felt like sleeping like passing out like just resting after everything that just happened. I wanted to stay awake and leave, but I was about to lose consciousness so I just gave up and let that hope take over.