Torture

Perched on his throne of rotting corpses and bone, Angelseed stared coldly into the eyes of his newest victim, Brinkina Kilis. Brinkina and two others were trying to steal intelligence from the Clan Satal Keto mainframe but were captured in the middle of the download. Her two counterparts were immediately executed after having their minds probed. Brinkina was unfortunate enough to become the gift of the CSK Counsel, Alastery.

After what seemed like an eternity, Angelseed stood from his throne, making his way down to Brinkina, igniting his lightsaber as he went. As he grew closer he noticed a small note attached to Binkina's wrist binders. It read: "Dear Angelseed, Here is a little present I thought you might like. I'm sure you can find a nice, long, painful way to dispose of her. Alastery."

AS looked at the note then back at the prisoner. Slowly he approached, drawing his lightsaber close to Brinkina's throat. His golden eyes piercing deep into Brinkina's soul. Breaking the dead silence she spoke.

"Why don't you kill me and get it over with?" Blood trickled down her chin as Angelseed clawed the side of her shapely face.

"Did I say you could talk?" Angelseed's voice rippled off the black marble walls of his lair. "If I didn't like hearing my victim's scream, I'd cut your vocal cords." Licking the blood from his hand, Angelseed walked to a small control panel. He pressed a button, lowering a platform displaying hundreds of horrific melee weapons designed for torture. "I will give you a choice my dear little spy. You can either have the skin peeled off your body like an overripe fruit, or have your heart removed through your stomach. Which will it be?"

Fear wreaked off Brinkina's body, nauseating Angelseed. Sweat puddle around her knees, dripping off her nose and lips, mixing with the blood gushing from her cheek. Her skin trembled as the lighsaber hummed over under her neck.

"I need an answer now, or I'll have to do my favorite of the two."

"Please, don't." Brinkina begged.

"Don't what? Don't babble on and on? Or don't kill you?"

"Please don't kill me."

Angelseed looked deeply into Brinkina's eyes. "Don't kill you? There's no fun in that. But I'll give you another choice." Angelseed walked to the platform picking up a long blade then returning to the center of the lair. "Kill yourself." Pure terror burst across Brinkina's face.

"It's the only way to end your suffering quickly. This is the most mercy I'll give a victim."

With a gesture of his hand, Brinkina's wrist binders fell to the floor. "Take this blade, and strike yourself in the chest. If you aim right you can pierce the heart and die within seconds." Angelseed handed Brinkina the blade, stepping back a few steps to give her enough room.

The woman stared at the blade in her hand, then up at AS. Sparks set off through her mind, morals conflicting with need. She knew she couldn't get out of dying no matter what she did, but there was still one thing she could do. She had a weapon now, and stood a chance against Angelseed.

Brinkina jabbed the blade forward, hopping beyond hope that it would catch her tormentor in the gut. Muscles tightened around her body, stopping the weapon just millimeters from her target. Horror rushed through her soul, as AS' voice echoed through her mind.

"You foolish little girl." Angelseed's tendrils wrapped around Brinkina's arms, legs and neck. "You should've taken your life with your own hands. Instead, you try to attack me. Is this what I get for mercy?" The tendrils tightened in all directions, pulling at Brinkina's joints. "Do you have any idea of the things I can do to you?" The tendrils around Brinkina's wrists opened their mouths, biting down hard. Blood gushed down her bare arms, racing down the length of her body, pouring on to the floor like a crimson rainstorm.

Her screams thundered off the walls, begging for compassion. But her cries where only answered by the tendrils around her ankles moving their way up to her knees. They constricted until the loud, wet, popping noise of her knees being dislocated bounced around inside Angelseed's head.

Dozens more of AS' beloved tentacles wrapped around Brinkina's appendages, causing her to scream louder than anyone AS had encountered before. The tendrils pulled, pushed, rubbed, cut, everything a sadist could imagine inflicting the maximum amount of pain to their victim.

"PLEASE!" Brinkina screeched. "Kill me! Kill me now! For the love of God…Kill me!"

Angelseed replied with a tendril wrapping around Brinkina's mouth. "You should've taken my offer."

With that last bit of words, the tendrils completely covered Brinkina's body. Like a den of snakes, the tendrils moved in disorder, writhing about the body. Angelseed stared at the mass coldly, feeling the tendrils rip the skin from his victim's body. The gruesome scene went on for what must have been hours. His body tired, and his mind bored, Angelseed recalled his tendrils, recoiling into the length of his back.

What once was a living, breathing human girl by the name of Brinkina who had to live the last few moments of her life in agony, was now a skinless mound of blood and muscle on the floor of Angelseed's lair.

Picking the body off the floor, Angelseed made his way up the steps to his throne, tracing a path of blood as he went. He set to work incorporating the new flesh to his throne, making sure every bone was in place.

He worked deep into the night, and early into the next morning until his work was interrupted by the vidlink on the panel next to his masterpiece of gory craftsmanship. Grudgingly he pushed the button.

"Hello Angelseed, how'd you like your present?" Alastery asked.

"Thanks." He snarled fitting a femur next to a ribcage.

"Good. I thought you'd like it." A dark smile stretched across the Counsel's face. "When you're done, I have a mission for your unique talents. I'll brief you personally at eleven hundred."

"As you wish." Angelseed glanced up at the screen shortly, then back at a stray index finger jutting out from the middle of a mandible. "Until then Alastery."

"Bye." The screen shut off, again engulfing the room in darkness.