It doesn't hurt anymore.
The pain carried on for so long that it barely registered to him now.
His nerves were left with a faint burning sensation. A strange feeling like pins and needles, it was as if his entire body had gone numb.
In the damp cell mold grew in the corners and along the mortar that lined the bricks in the walls. Echo hung from the ceiling by his wrists. It was clear that the chains were cutting off the circulation of blood to his hands. His fingers, the only part of his body not covered in blood, were visibly purple and swollen.
Directly underneath the chains was a sea of red.
Sticky crimson beads flowed down his arms, across his prominent clavicle, past defined hip bones...down all 5 feet of his tail...
Not a single inch of skin was visible underneath all the blood.
His head hung down lifelessly. Hair almost completely shaved off, prickly little strands grew in place with a colour impossible to discern with all the clumps of drying blood stuck to it. It's obvious the shave wasn't his choice, the cut was janky, with uneven chunks missing from both his hair and his scalp.
His long eyelashes were just barely visible but his eyes were shut tight. It wasn't because of the fact that he didn't want to look at what was happening to his body. It was simply because he couldn't open them at all. It was impossible to discern an expression from his face coated in layers on layers of both caked on blood and flayed flesh that no one had bothered to bandage.
The only part of him that was somewhat intact were the back and sides of his tail.
Pearlescent scales glittered beautifully between the deep red streams of blood.
SSHHNNK!
The butcher sharpened his knife.
SSHHNNK!
He hummed a little tune as his gloved hands guided the blade.
SSHHNNK!
He lifted his foot up off the pedal of the electric whetstone he was using to sharpen his fillet knife.
The butcher took his time placing an adjustable stool in front of Echo. He paused his humming to let out a low whistle in appreciation.
"Gee, yer a real beauty aren't ya?"
With his right hand he gripped Echo by the hip without a single care to all the wounds on him, the rough leather digging into his flesh. But Echo's body was too exhausted to even twitch in response to the stimulus.
"Tis a shame I couldn't bring ya home to play for a bit..." The butcher licked his dry chapped lips, "The Federation will make more profits selling your body for materials than for sex... and I definitely couldn't afford ya either way haha~"
The man wasn't looking for a response and so without another word he slid the knife under Echo's scales one by one. Unknowingly granting half of the merman's wish for the man to just shut up and kill him already.
On each side of the butcher there was a bucket. As he painstakingly carved each scale out of Echo's flesh, he stared at it for a while before placing it in one of the two buckets. On the long metal table behind the butcher were rows and rows of Echo's scales. Cleaned and spread out. Neatly organized by size, shape, colour, and type.
It was beautiful to look at, but in the way that butterflies captured and pinned to a frame by their wings were beautiful. Morbid.
Echo's blood dripped down slowly and took new paths down what was left of his flesh as the butcher skinned him, continuing to remove his scales.
The man had stopped humming. As he focused on his task the only noise in the desolate cell was the tiny little splash of fresh blood falling into the small puddle directly beneath Echo. There was actually a drain there with the sole purpose of collecting blood but Echo had been there for so long that it coagulated and blocked the drain so a pool of his own blood made the metallic scent overwhelm the whole room.
Despite his own desire to do so, Echo still hadn't passed out. So he could only comfort himself with the fact that even though it should hurt, he could no longer feel the pain.
×××××××××
They didn't expect the mood to change so quickly.
When the General first arrived for the inspection he was unexpectedly polite and greeted the low ranking guards of the Butchery with respect they weren't expecting. The only reason they had been assigned to give the General a tour of the place was because no one else wanted to do it and they were fresh military school graduates who had no backing. They were scared of this General everyone seemed wary of but after meeting him they were finally able to speak somewhat freely! What a good guy! The banter was was lighthearted in a way that would never be seen between people of different ranks. An interesting sight to see.
But as the two led him away from the soldier's quarters and into the halls that led to the Butchery the mood changed. The banter ended all of a sudden and there were no more polite smiles sent in their direction.
Now the two young soldiers didn't even dare to breathe as they walked two paces behind and to the left of the inspecting General.
As the sound of their breathing vanished, the only thing that could be heard was the rhythmic click clack of heavy formal military boots walking down the hall at a leisurely pace.
The General dragged two gloved fingers along the mortar grooves of the brick laid wall.
He stopped abruptly and spun around to face the two nervous privates with a raised eyebrow and two gloved fingers stained with black and brown and red.
"....Is this what the generous funding of the Federation goes towards?"
"Um well Sir... you know there's alot of men stationed here and the materials are the priority so-"
The General's dull brown eyes glowed red for a split second as he grabbed the one who spoke by the collar. Making the 6 inch difference in height much more apparent as the 5'6 graduate stumbled and was forced to look up at the man.
"Do you prioritize our materials by allowing them to be contaminated by mold and mess?" He dragged the two stained fingers along the man's cheek making him smell the rusty scent of dried blood up close. "Is it your priority to diminish the value of our goods? Hmm? This doesn't seem like the behaviour of a brother of the Federation..."
There was a dull thud that echoed through the hall as the other young man fell to his knees. His hands desperately reached up to block his mouth and nose. The smell of smoke was invading the hall. Invading his lungs. He was choking. Coughing. Almost to the point of puking.
"In fact... " He continued slowly, showing a predatory 'smile' as he bared his teeth and switched from grabbing the collar to grabbing the throat of the poor boy who was shedding silent tears because he didn't know what to say and didn't want to make it worse, "...Doesn't that seem more like something an enemy would do? Hmm?"
What was the right answer? Neither of the privates knew. There didn't seem to be one. This mad man was going to kill them. Their parents only wanted good things for them. That's why they went to a good military school. They were both relatively weak but had enough connections to end up in this easy job guarding a place that never had to face battle. It was a comfortable life... so why should they have to die like this?!
Both men transformed at the same time.
Their hands grew larger and the small hairs turned into thick fur. Most importantly, long sharp claws replaced their nails. The one further away lunged for the General at the same time the other slashed at his face...
Unfortunately that reaction came a bit to late.
The one that had jumped up immediately keeled over after moving so fast with so little oxygen going to his brain. All he managed to do was leave a small mark on the General's leather boots.
The one being held captive simply got his wrist caught by the General before his claws could even make contact with the man's face at all. The General tightened his grip on his neck, sneered, and muttered something the young man couldn't make out before he passed out-
"I can't believe the graduates are this weak and stupid this year.... How pathetic."