She was surrounded by the gardens; the sweet smell of flowers and the wind rushing through the treetops. Children’s voices and footsteps with soft murmurs, the ground soft beneath her shoes. She looked down. Her arms felt light with the Wisher boy gone. The sunlight and wind was a nice change from the dank and dirty dungeon. Vessa looked to the main path winding its way to the first of many buildings.

The dungeon lay in the third building from the main. The hallway connecting them having two permeant lines where feet had been dragged towards it for millennia. Vessa had tried washing and polishing them away, but they always stayed. The voices escaping into the hall may change, but the lines leading into one of those rooms never did.

Vessa found a bench near the river to sit on as she debated her choices.

No one escaped for long. She’d seen a dozen attempts in the last decade by the fully trained and each had been brought back; and spent time in a room, their voices the only thing to escape. On the other hand, it was unlikely she’d be punished any other way for how massively she deviated from the assignement’s intent, so she was less deterred than usual from running.

Stalling wasn’t helping, but she had the excuse of formatting her debrief before bothering Castillo in his office. Except she was sure he was waiting for her; the removed assignments indicated that much.

Vessa took a deep breath of flowers, the river filling her nose, and rose to her feet. Running would make her time being tortured longer. She’d just get it over with and then not deviate from an assignment again.

She began walking up the main path to the first building where all the offices were. When she saw Kamino and Teldesh walking towards her. Once in the homes, in the time before the base when death had been turned inwards. When she’d fought to not compulsively kill herself. They’d been friends. Convincing each other to stay alive and not give into the thousands of possibilities of death.

Now both merely nodded at her, and she them. Better to move on from that time where, if their minds were trying to kill them, the adults were never open to torture.

Once they’d come to the base, torture had been used regularly, as pain was an easy way to force their suicidal minds to switch to being homicidal. At least that was the official reason or one of them. Keeping them in line was the other.

Vessa shook her head to keep from thinking about that time as she walked further up the main path. Samillia hadn’t made it to the base. If she had … Vessa flinched at the idea of hearing Samillia scream. She’d been kind and silly and was the other reason that Vessa, Kamino, Teldesh, Marlene and Capsa had drifted apart. Samillia had kept them together.

Vessa reached the door and pulled it open.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Some groups that came to the base grew closer hearing each other scream as their minds were rewired, not her group. Two years in and they avoided each other. A brief thought to Ensald and Kelsi and how they’d stayed close in the hell of that place. Vessa shook her head again. Hoped they were alright and focused. She didn’t want to be thinking about Samillia or her old friend group if she was to be tortured. It would just make it worse.

Amtheran at the front desk looked up from her work at Vessa with her usual emotionless face.

“You’re back early,” Amtheran said as she trailed her index finger along a series of runes. Vessa forced a smiled as she leaned against the wall and waited for the runes to glow.

“Here, I thought I was back on time.”

“No. Everyone was sure you would not be back until another a year at best, what with the fifteen assignments.” Amtheran said as she began reading papers and marking on them.

“I am efficient.” Vessa said intentionally, not mentioning that it had been thirteen assignments because she’d fucked her last one so badly Castillo wasn’t willing to wait for her to complete the last two.

“Hmm yes, too efficient” Amtheran said, no doubt implying that Vessa should have taken time for herself with each assignment as many others did.

“How much did you win off me?” Vessa asked to change the topic before she could recieve a cryptic lecture or have Amtheran dig deeper to find out about the removed assignments.

“It would be improper to say.”

“Did Douwell lose at least?” Vessa asked, Douwell being the only person to stay friends after coming to the base. An annoying friend that would as soon backstab as help, but still.

“Yes, she did.” Amtheran said.

“Does she know?”

“Hmmmmmm, not yet,” Amtheran said with a slight curve in her lips.

“Not yet?”

“Castillo and I are the first to know about your return.”

“I walked up the garden path,” Vessa said and tried to recall all those she’d seen, but gave up, as she hadn’t really been paying attention after running into Kamino and Teldesh.

“Then maybe she knows by now.” Amtheran said with a full on smile and then looked down to the runes. That glowed a faint pink color.

“He’s ready for you.”

“Pink Amtheran?” Vessa asked, and Amtheram blushed.

“Rune casters, what are they like?”

Vessa laughed as she walked down the hall, bracing herself as she thought about how annoyed Douwell would be when she found out she’d failed to predict Vessa. Vessa knocked and waited.

“Come in.” Castillo called and Vessa took the last painless breath she was likely to take for a while before she turned the handle and walked in. To be torn apart for how the last mission went. She found she didn’t regret it. Vessa wondered if Samillia would smile at how the mission had turned out, probably, but that was likely the reason Samillia was dead.