Chris eventually quieted down when his throat started feeling sore. While the screaming helped alleviate some of the pain, he realised it would only make things more difficult for him.

Not only would it ruin his voice, making it more difficult to answer the following questions, but it would also delay the whole process, making him have to deal with the pain for longer.

The man pulled out a flask from his inner coat pocket and took a sip while walking back to Chris. “What? It’s just water. Did you think I would drink on the job? I’m a professional.”

Putting the flask away, he cleared his throat in a way that made Chris feel like he was being taunted. “What were their crimes?”

Chris tried his best to clear his mind and think of the answers. This question was far tougher than the previous one. There were a lot of crimes that people could commit before being sent his way, but all of them had to do with national or public security in some way.

There were some cases that he could remember easily, but there were some that were hazy. He could remember what he had done to the person more vividly than what they had done to others.

It took him a while, and the pain was only making it worse, but he eventually figured out what he was pretty sure all of the answers were. The answers ranged from hacking to acts of terrorism, and many others.

He pushed the answers out through gritted teeth, making sure to say them in order of what had happened.

He prepared himself for the pain of the spikes growing, but it never came. Instead, much to his horror, the man reached for the doors. “No no no wait!”

“Five of those were incorrect, please try again.”

The metal doors scraped across the floor, the grating sound digging into Chris’ ears as he panicked. The light in the middle of the room was now blocked by the closing doors, and Chris was bathed in darkness with only an increasingly small sliver of light coming through the opening.

He wanted to reach out for the doors and push back, but that was impossible. His hands couldn’t move from where they were, but even if they could, he wouldn’t have been able to stop it.

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There were spikes that covered the door, and in his weakened state, he didn’t think he would be able to muster up enough strength to fight back. Even if he was at his peak, he wasn’t sure if he could move the doors as easily as that man could.

His brain whirred into action, trying to figure out where he had gone wrong. There were some he was sure were correct, and some that he wasn’t sure about. But he couldn’t pin down which five he had gotten wrong.

He gave himself up to the pain, wallowing in despair. But as if divine intervention had struck, the doors stopped before they could fully close. The only thing that could still be seen through the gap was the man.

Chris looked up, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. He thought that the man had changed his mind and had shown mercy on him. For a moment, all of the pain faded into the background. He wanted nothing more than to reach out to the man and beg for his release.

But his hopes were shattered when the man ignored his looks and continued speaking. “Next question, what illegal things did you do to each of them during their interrogations?

Pushing back the pain, Chris tried to think of the answer. This question was both simultaneously easier and harder than the previous one. Easier because he could remember most if not all of it. Harder because there was just so much more that he had to remember.

He had lost a lot of blood, and he was feeling woozy and delirious. He didn’t know how much longer he could make it. He didn’t even know if he could make it through this question. He didn’t know if he was going to accidentally say the wrong thing or mix things up.

He felt like his brain was sinking into mud. It was running so much slower than usual. He had to focus hard just to make sure he didn’t miss anything.

He had a feeling that he was walking on a tightrope. If he got anything wrong here, he would die for sure. But he also felt like he was approaching the end of this tightrope. He had to be. He wouldn’t be able to survive much longer if this wasn’t the end.

His voice was barely above a whisper as he slowly pushed out the answers one by one. He had done a lot of things, and spilled a lot of blood.

He had never felt more guilty about what he had done than how he was feeling now. He believed that if he was given a second chance, he would never do this again.

The pain numbed, replaced by guilt. His entire body was irradiating so much pain and for so long that he became somewhat used to it. So much of his blood had been spilt that he didn’t know how the other person would possibly clean this thing after he was gone.

He had plenty of experience cleaning blood off things, and knew just how difficult of a task this would be.

He pushed out the last of the answers and looked up at the man with a blank stare.

“That is correct, now onto the final question.”

His words sounded like the ringing of church bells in Chris’ ears. Incomparably holy. Like he was on the threshold of being saved.

“What do you think should happen to you?”

This is my chance! Although he was in a daze, his eyes still glimmered. His heart started pounding in his chest from excitement. “I should be let go,” he said, pushing down the guilt he felt in hopes of being able to escape.

“That is not entirely true.”

The doors slammed shut before he could think.