The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 197

Chapter 197

Chapter 197: Torn

My eyes shot open from a sharp sting on my cheek, only to see a blinding light aimed straight at my face.

Immediately, my heart started to pound as my mind scrambled to make sense of what was going on. I tried to get up, but both my hands and feet were bound to the chair I was sitting on.

“Grey. Can you hear me?” a dark silhouette behind the fluorescent light used in hospitals asked calmly.

“Where am I? Wh-Who are you?” I managed, my throat dry and burning.

“What is the last thing you remember?” a different shadowed figure growled, ignoring my questions. He had a larger frame than the one who had asked the previous question, but I couldn’t make out any other details aside from that.

My head throbbed as I tried to recollect the memories, but eventually I was able to sort them out. “I... I had just won the tournament.”

I was slowly adjusting to the light, able to make out more details of the room I was in and the figure standing in front of me.

“What else?” the man said calmly.

“I accepted an offer to be mentored by a powerful person,” I let out, hoping my ambiguity would go unnoticed.

“What is the name of this powerful woman and what is your relationship with her?” the man asked. The fact that he knew she was a woman made me think he was either testing me, or he already knew the truth.

I pulled at what felt like a thick metal wire tied around my wrists. Seeing as even my strength reinforced with ki did nothing, I answered. “I only know her as Lady Vera, and I just met her.”

“Lies,” the larger man, that I now could make out had long slicked-back hair, hissed. He raised a hand, as if to strike me, but the thinner man stopped him.

“What happened after you won the tournament, Grey?” he then asked, his voice never showing any signs of emotion.

I winced, trying to remember. “I think I headed back to my dorm room, right after.”

Lady Vera had said before we parted that she’d contact me once things settled down, but better to not tell these men more information than they ask for.

I was jolted out of my thoughts when the larger, long-haired grasped my entire neck with a single hand and lifted me—and the chair—off the ground.

“Again, lies!” he said, his face now close enough to mine to make out more details. He had scars all across his face, making his already-intimidating face even more frightening. “It’d be wise to just tell us the organization that sent you to protect the legacy.”

Organization? Legacy?

I couldn’t make sense of their accusations but with my throat unable to even gasp for air, I was left gagging in the man’s grasp until his thinner companion smacked away the hand that was choking me.

Anchored down by the chair I had been tied to, I fell helplessly on the ground. I lost consciousness for a split second when my head snapped and hit the cold hard floor.

When I came to, I had been put back upright, face-to-face with the thinner man that somehow scared me more than the large scarred abomination.

He had short cropped hair and eyes that looked more hollow than a dead fish. A single look into his eyes made me doubt that the man even had emotions to hide.

His eyes remained locked on mine for a split second before his lips curved up into a smile that didn’t quite reach his dead eyes.

He turned around and walked away. “Strip him while I get the white phosphorus.”

The larger man sneered as he tore off the old shirt I had worn to bed and the goose-print pajama pants that Headmaster Wilbeck had gotten me as a joke for my birthday.

“I believe you have some information that we need. Fortunately for you, this means that we need you alive for now.” The thinner man came back, wearing gloves. In his hands was a small metal cube. “If you’re truly who we suspect you are, then you might have prepared for this. If by some mistake, we’ve made an error and everything that we considered as evidence was simply coincidence, then...well... you’ll be experiencing something that you’ll never forget.”

“What? What are you talking about?” I said, still bleary from the recent head trauma.

“This will be easy,” the thin man smiled as he dipped a gloved finger into the metal cube. “I won’t even ask you any questions yet.”

He smeared a line of shiny silver paste just below my ribs, and brought out a lighter.

“W-Wait. What are you doing? Please,” I begged, still unable to even process how everything was unfolding.

The man didn’t talk. He just lowered the small flame onto the silver paste. As soon as the fire touched the substance, a pain that I didn’t even know existed erupted.

A scream tore out of my throat as my body convulsed from the searing torment that remained concentrated to where the paste was smeared.

I had gotten burned before, but compared to the sensation eating away at my skin right now, those memories actually felt pleasant.

It seemed like hours as the pain somehow seemed to grow worse. During this time, my screams turned hoarse and the tears that flooded down my face had dried and crusted.

Finally, the pain began to subside, only for the thin man—the demon—to apply another line of the silver paste on a different section of my body.

“P-Please,” I wept. “Don’t do this.”

The man remained silent and lit another hellish fire on my body.

I screamed. My mind screamed.

Every part of my body spasmed and twitched, doing whatever it could to expel this torment but all for naught.

Thoughts questioning whether I was going to die soon turned to thoughts hoping I’d die.

I couldn’t tell how many times the demon sauntered back to me with that wretched silver paste of his, but this time he stood still. He didn’t immediately smear my body with the paste again, but rather just locked eyes with me.

I jumped at this chance. If it meant that I would be free of the pain, I would do anything.

“I-I’ll tell you whatever you want. Anything. Everything!’ I pleaded, my voice barely coming out as a whisper.

“That’s better,” he smiled sincerely, somehow making his face even more twisted than before.

“Now, I’m going to paint you a little story and you’re going to help fill in the gaps for me. Any attempts at lying or withholding any truths will unfortunately lead me to put this in places more... sensitive. Am I clear?” The thin demon held up the container of what he called white phosphorus and waved it in front of me.

Without even the necessary saliva to swallow, I simply nodded.

“Your name is Grey, with background checks confirming you to be an orphan under refuge by one of the many institutions of this country. Headmistress Olivia Wilbeck had been taking care of you since infancy and the orphanage was what you considered home. Am I on track so far, Grey?”

I nodded again.

“Bring the boy a glass of water,” the thin man replied, seemingly pleased by my obedience.

The larger companion held a dirty cup against my mouth. The water was stale and musty, as if they’d wrung a wet dog, but it still felt like bliss against my parched mouth and throat.

The bulky man pulled away the cup when I had only finished half, making me crane my neck forward to try and suck as much water before he pulled it completely out of reach.

“Moving on—and this was where I was hoping you’d start filling in the gaps...” he said as if I had a choice. “What military institution trained you to be the legacy’s protector, because there wasn’t anything on official records.”