THUD CRASH BUMP
As I walked through the street I heard some ruckus coming from a house. It sounded like a wild animal hitting itself against something, so instead of ignoring it, I threw my cigarette and walked in the direction of the house. I looked at it and it seemed abandoned, even for The Fall standards.
CRASH
The noise intensified as I approached the house, which made me get in position to attack. I took out "Dom" and broke down the house's door. "Anything here?!" I shouted in expectation of a response. A squeak, a bark or even a scream… I was just waiting for any type of response.
THUD THUD
This time, the noises were followed by a man's scream. It wasn't one of horror or fear, but one of pure pain. Pure pain coming out of that man's throat startled me even more.
I looked at my surroundings. Not on my right, not on my left, not even above me. The only direction left? Beneath me.
BUMP
As I took a few steps inside the house, another bang appeared beneath me. Whoever it was, he was aware of my presence. Step after step, the man made more noises, each one of them being louder than the last one.
BUMP BUMP BUMP
Noise after noise, I looked for a way to get to where he was. At the end I found myself in front of a door, locked with chains and locks. These appeared to be new, which made me think that maybe that house wasn't as abandoned as I thought.
The door was "decorated" with many messages written on it. Among these messages there were "Asshole", "What you gon' do without them now?" and "Forgive him father, because he didn't know what I was gonna do to him". I laughed at this last one, both for the religious weight it had and because of the creativity of the person who wrote it. I spat on it and carved a big "X" with Axie.
After my big piece of art I withdrew Axie and put her back in her place. Then, I took Dom out and with three swift swings, I made a hole big enough for me to get a glimpse of what was lying behind the door. The light was faint, but I saw that the room had a set of stairs that led down, which gave me the idea that it was a basement. At the end of those stairs I recognized the silhouette of a man resting against the wall.
THUD
A noise echoed in the house when the man tripped on the stairs, falling helplessly on them. I looked at the man through the hole in the door and got a better view of him when he tried to get up. It was a naked man, with his eyes covered and his hands tied up on his back. He squirmed and cried under his restraints, but it only drove him more desperate.
The scene was gross and sad at the same time. I got the chills thinking about why people did this to him, but instead of backing down, I broke down the door with Dom in my hands and approached the man.
Step after step I heard a dripping sound intensifying as I got closer to the man. I didn't pay much attention to the sound at first, so I took the man and dragged it out of the basement, taking him out of the house afterwards. While I was dragging him, I noticed that the sound disappeared, something which piqued my interest. I looked around and saw a trail of blood under him, but no noticeable wounds that could make him bleed that much.
THUD
My hands let go of the man's body and dropped him in the front yard of the house. I didn't want to have much to do with him, so I just took his blindfold off and cut the ties on his hands before taking some steps back to keep my distance with him.
"Thank you boy," the man told me in a weak voice while trying to sit up. He took a deep breath and then proceeded to "look" in my direction, following with a question. I didn't pay much attention to him at first because his face looked a bit familiar to me but, after he asked many times, I finally paid attention to him.
-Boy! Are you listening? I asked if the lights are out!
My left eyebrow raised as I heard his question. Why would he ask something like that? His blindfold was off of him, so how could he ask something like that?
"He seems oddly familiar" I thought again as I got a glimpse of his face again. It wasn't an acquaintance or anything, I remembered him from TV. Maybe a celebrity?
-Boy! Answer me!
My attention got drawn towards him. I wanted to avoid further contact with him, but I also wanted to find out what was going on with him.
I inspected every centimeter of his body with my eyes and then, I realised two things: One, his eyes were closed this whole time and two, his balls weren't there. He had many injuries all over his body, but the most important of them all was the lack of his balls, which was probably the reason why his body was dripping blood earlier.
-So, are the lights out?
He asked, unfazed by my staring. Was he not aware of me? Was he even aware of his closed eyes? My mind wasn't clear about him, but one thing was sure: This man was a peculiar, even dangerous kind of person. After all, he was locked up for a reason.
I checked him up from afar and realised another thing I skipped earlier: His breathing was harsh and inconsistent, like he was trying to contain his pain. Was he trying to not react too much to the loss of his balls? Or was he trying not to drag too much attention?
After thinking for a short period of time, I ended up going to where he was, careful not to let him listen to my footsteps. Once I was close enough, I got a good look at his face, recognizing almost instantaneously who he was. I fell back at the sudden revelation, compromising my location to him.
-Boy, when did you get so close?
My hands dragged me away from him as quickly as possible. The mere thought of being close to him gave me nausea. Yet, somehow, there he was: Tommy Yoshida, the fugitive, was just a few meters away from me.
I brought Dom out and got up, supporting all my weight on him. I walked silently towards him and held Dom above me. I didn't even want to see his face knowing all the stuff he did back in the day.
-Say, boy, what was I doing down there?
I didn't want to answer him. I didn't want to exchange any words with him. All I wanted was to end his miserable life once and for all.
Still, my mind didn't make up and I ended up lowering Dom slowly. I still wanted to know why he was there and if I had to be wary of the people who did that to him. My question, clear as crystal, traveled from my mouth to his ear, making him frown as he heard the question.
-You won't believe me boy, but I don't remember why I was there.
Amnesia, huh? Perhaps the beat up was so brutal he forgot stuff. Still, I had to make sure he was telling me the truth.
I asked him again and made a grossed face as I heard him responding the same thing. I brought Dom up again and then lowered it quickly, chopping off the 2nd joint of the fingers of his right hand, which was on the floor. He quickly curled up and got into fetal position, complaining about his pain.
-Can you people stop hurting me?!
"You people"? So he had memories of people hurting him?
I brought Dom close to his other hand and with the cold steel of my axe, I touched him. I was concise about my words, making myself clear when I asked him how he ended up like that.
Yoshida broke in tears as he heard my question, remembering all the things he went through in that basement. All the torture he underwent and all that time he spent in isolation were just a layer of what he went through.
My face turned into one of pure disgust as I heard what he went in there and all the things that the men who tortured him said to him. Turns out that those messages were left there by his captors, who were all parents of Yoshida victims.
"Asshole" was written by a father whose daughter got sexually assaulted by Yoshida while he was working as her teacher; "What you gon' do without them now?" was written by the father who cut the man's testicles off. Apparently, he also raped his daughter, which caused her to take her own life; "Forgive him father, because he didn't know what I was gonna do to him" was the message of a mother whose daughter got taken away by Yoshida's hands, being her the mastermind behind everything that happened to him.
Those 3 and many more parents united just to avenge their kids. It's a rare sight watching people unite after The Fall, but at least they did it for a good cause.
During his crying, Yoshida did not reveal what happened to his eyes and why he couldn't open them. Out of disgust, I ordered him to force his eyelids open with his hands because I didn't want to come in contact with them, watching in awe what was revealed in that moment: He didn't have eyeballs either.
He definitely deserved it, but the way of those parents was a bit brutal, which made me make a mental note to not get on their bad side. During my inner monologue and thinking, I suddenly stopped hearing Yoshida's crying close to me. My head turned around quickly and saw the injured man wobbling away from me.
While he got away from me, I didn't even move or tried to chase after him. Instead, I calmly took out Axie and, after taking a deep breath I threw her at him, hitting him on his back. His "running" body suddenly fell to the floor, splattering blood all over the pavement. I looked in pity at his corpse as I walked up to him, lighting a cigarette in the process.
After taking a hit, I picked up Axie and went back to the house I was in before. There, I cleaned Dom and Axie with every piece of fabric I found and, after giving a kiss to each one of them, I put them back in their place.
My feet walked me out of the house and I spat at the entrance. This was just a bump in my journey after all. I walked up to the naked corpse of the criminal and turned off my cigarette on him, continuing my journey after making sure that the cigarette was completely off.