Arc 6. A seemingly endless loss
Road to a Hero:
Three Chances in another world
Chapter 46. Peter Alone
After four days of working on both the Silver Chariot mk two and weapons for the Montgomery company, Peter slowly thought of a plan of escape. He waits for Chester to lock the door, so he quickly places a small slip of metal between the bars so it doesn't completely shut. He then waits until it should be the middle of the night, sitting around anxiously walking around until he feels the time is right. Once he stops hearing any movement from the other side of the door, he removes the metal slip and puts the back end of a hammer before it shuts. He then puts as much as much effort in as he can, pulling the end of the bar to unlock the door. Due to the absence of any elemental crystal, he could use without supervision, the only thing to do is use pure strength, which he doesn't have much of, but he still pushes on. The door slowly unlocks, straining him until failure, but he makes it, and the door unlocks. He peeks his head out, making sure nobody is watching before he walks out, and once he feels the coast is clear, runs out with only a hammer in hand. He gets a better look at where he is, due to the fact every time they move him he has a bag on his head. It’s a hall made of brick and stone, giving the feeling he’s in a sewer system or catacombs, reminding him of the Red Arrow’s hideout that was once in Athens.
He finds various other locked doors, all needing a key to open, with no exit in sight. He tries his best to stop shaking, but he’s become one with fear, he’s about to pass out. It's so bad, but he keeps moving. After a few minutes of slowly walking down seemingly looping hallways, he sees a stairwell, escape, victory so close but yet so far. But that all stops when he’s kicked in the chest so hard he flies into the wall behind him. While wind, in shock, and about to pass out, looks on to see Chester staring at him with a deeply enraged glare.
Peter gets up and tries running back to his cell, hearing Chester call out for him as he does so. Chester follows close behind, going through the maze-like structure of this underground hideout. Chester looks to find the door to Peter’s room cracked open, and when he enters, he’s nowhere to be found. Peter, hidden behind a doorway, runs over and closes the door, turning the vault-like lock, trapping him inside.
Peter cheers and begins running back towards the exit, feeling like he’s won, but he feels the ground begin to vibrate. He turns around and sees the door being kicked from the other side, cracking the walls, bending the door, and creating a loud banging echo. Peter goes running, but the kick from earlier reals its head back in, causing him to fall down due to a flash of pain. Holding his chest, unable to breathe, he can only watch as Chester kicks the door down. Chester, while lighting a cigarette, slowly approaches Peter, watching him pash out. Before everything goes dark he sees Chester’s villainous smirk, burning a fear-filled hole in his head.
Hot.
A burning hot sensation.
Burning into his side, Peter’s side, the side of his shoulder.
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He begins to awaken, feeling himself bound once more, staring Chester in his eyes. He looks over, still drowsy, and finds Chester pushing his lit cigarette into his shoulder, causing him to scream out in pain. Though, before he can do so, Chester slaps him in the face, pulls up a chair, and flicks his cigarette at his forehead.
Chester: “You tried to get out, key word being tried. I told you you’d regret doing this, and oh you will.”
Peter: “....Why…why are you doing this…why can’t you just tell me, other than just “make us weapons”...there has to be more…”
Chester: “Whatever, you’ve been here a bit, and you’re not leaving any time soon, so before you understand the conscience of your actions, I’ll squash your pondering mind. Rupert doesn't know about this, he knows about this place, but it’s mine. The people here are in my line, and you’re in my line too. I want to stop him, and to do that we need to take Rupert down and get as progressed as possible. Connections, blackmail, and weapons. That’s it, very simple, now, welcome to hell.”
Peter tries to continue talking, but Chester shoves a dirty rag in his mouth and begins Peter's punishment.
It starts out small with a quick kick to the head. But it quickly progresses when Chester puts on a pair of brass knuckles and begins to beat Peter vigorously. Peter screams out, trying to do anything to stop this, but it’s no use. The room is almost pitch black, all but a small candle beside a table with horrifying things placed on it.
Pliers, a hammer, a knife, a flame crystal, and various other tools for torture. He begins shaking around, trying to stop Chester, but this only angers him. Back and forth, over and over, a repeated barrage of punches brushing and crushing his face. His bones crack, his teeth fall out, his skin opens up, and he leaks blood from every opening. Once he begins to lose feeling in his face, Chester grabs the pliers and grabs his fingernail. Peter tries to scream out, but he doesn't get a second until his nail gets ripped out. With nothing left to do, and so much more to come, Peter begins sobbing while it continues.
Seconds feel like minutes, minutes feel like hours, hours feel like days, and days feel like years. His flesh is cut, his nails are stripped, his bones are broken, and his mind is toyed with. Only enough food and water to keep him alive, no human interaction, other than Chester of course, and tools meant for pure horror. It’s slow and methodical, not going far enough to do serious damage, but what he’s doing is still horrible. Only his ribs are broken, his nose is broken, one back tooth is lost, the nails on his left foot and right hand are stripped from him, he’s burned, shocked, and his right arm has been broken.
After three grueling days of pure torture, he finally gets pulled from his hellish punishment and thrown back into his room. He cracks his eyes open and watches Chester slowly close the door.
Chester: “Tomorrow you’re helping pack flame crystals, oh and to reward you for sticking around and not dying, you can work on your car till New Year. And I left you pretty much intact, so if you do anything like this again, I’ll make sure you can’t remember a single reason why you want to leave…now what do you say?”
Peter: “....Thank….you…I’m sorry…”
Chester: “Good boy.”
Chester slams the door behind him, locking Peter back in his small, smelly, wet, and dirty room to try and regain a semblance of pride he, at this point, has lost all of. As he sits there, curled up in a ball, crying his eyes out, he loses all focus for the time to begin, being dehumanized, embarrassed, and broken. And seemingly to spite this tragic fate, Gray and the others are spending their day having a small Christmas party. Gray, dressed in a self-sown Santa Claus outfit, eats a large turkey-looking creature for dinner. While Gray thinks about asking what animal he’s currently chowing down on with his Santa Claus hat-wearing friends, he leaves it best to be up in the air so as to not spoil the mood. Just like last year they have a Christmas tree in the living room which shines brightly through the dimly lit cottage. Though unlike last year they don’t have gifts for each other. Because of everything currently happening, everything that has happened, and everything yet to come being so stressful, they left it up to the spirit of the holiday Gray brought to them three hundred and sixty-five days ago.
Gray {I do wonder…it tastes like a little bit of lamb, roast duck, and steak, but looks like turkey…mmmh.}
End of Chapter Forty-six