julian.
“She did WHAT?! Nothing! What are you saying! Mierda!” She was close to tears while his voice was thick with bitter bile, self-constructed venom, dousing her face. There was not enough him to contain what was brewing inside, flammable, willing to leave cinders in its wake. It only took Claudia to be mentioned, not even by name, for his entire physiology to change, for his skin to tear at the edges of his restraints, to threaten the breaking of his own bones if it meant he’d be free to protect who wasn’t there. All useless. He remained where he was with all the struggle in the world, only to wind up slamming his back into the chair, the fight not extinguishing but pausing, rebuilding the strength, reformulating the strategy, refilling the lungs.
“For /me?/” The muscles in the back of his neck coiled, snatching the edges of his jaw to a rigid line, enough to cut her on if she came closer. “You drugged me? You tied me? You shocked me? For what?! For me?! How?! How is this for me?! Que te den por culo! Answer me!”
A rawness began forming at the back of his throat, flesh in shreds, a taste of iron settling in the pit. Even swallowing the implication that returned from one glance at her hand, the weapon meant for defense weighing in her palm watched before flickering back to her face. His lips were pursing, chewing at the surroundings, fuming at how little sense all of it made, the lack of control to change it. He was not dealing with someone that was of this reality; he was dealing with someone of the one he constructed. It was enough to have his nails dig into the arms of the chair as he steeled himself from exploding again.
“You think we’re in a dream?” He couldn’t help his tone from seething, teeth still clenched, fingers still moving as if he could wave his hands around as he talked. “Prove it. Show me!”
of course he would react, as though she’d activated a tripwire in his thoughts. any thought of claudia must have felt like burning from the inside out. it shorted her own breath and she was merely the one trapped, not even the full consciousness. he pulled against the zip ties while she watched in blinking calm. this was what she had expected after all, signs pointing towards her being right, that he would try and reject the truth of the situation. “you’re not you!”
his voice rises with each question, she has no choice but to meet him halfway, to make sure that she has been heard above all the chaotic thoughts he’s trying to project towards her. there is no real world where she would do this all to another person, but they will awake unscathed. tears are blinked back, he will thank her when he realizes the lengths she was willing to go. unbending and unbroken. “you’re not going to like it.” she knows what his brain will tell him, that anything she tries is certain death, that there is nothing for him on the other side. it is a ruse, the traps that have been set. “but you can choose.”
the taser snaps just once as warning, if it ricochets off her own skin she can’t feel it. that is just option one. she points; there is a tub of water in the corner, already filled. he’d suggested it himself really, though she is not so strong to have set it up so he could tip into the tub. but she can hold his head under, she can shock his system all the same. “i’m tired.” and she is, the brittleness of her words, the dark circles painted under her eyes. “i can’t let you continue this. it’s fantasy.”












