#tavari

Jay woke up with a loud ringing resonating in his ears. He groaned, finding it hard to care all that much about the handcuffs biting into his wrists. He was so tired, he just wanted to sleep.

He needed to get up… he needed to keep looking…

Looking for what exactly? He could figure it out after a short nap. He was so tired.

He needed to get back, Lloyd needed him.

He fluttered his eyes open, staring at the wall. The room was dark, and it smelled like clorox.

What…?

He wanted to go back to sleep.

It was dark and cold and he couldn’t feel his lightning coursing through his veins. 

He didn’t have any energy. He just wanted to sleep.

It was a type of exhaustion that he wasn’t sure he’d ever felt before. His body was empty, his head was numb, were and himself even one in the same? He couldn’t bring himself to care that he was lying on the dirty floor of a dark basement.

That seemed important.

But he could worry about it after he slept.

Why couldn’t he go back to sleep? He was so tired, but it was so cold, and his head hurt so much.

He wanted a blanket and a bed and peace of mind.

His brain was acting all slow and fuzzy, but the discomfort and the fear lingered in there somewhere.

He groaned again, trying to find a comfortable position to fall back asleep in with his hands attached to a pipe or something behind him. There wasn’t much that was comfortable.

He kept fidgeting to the best of his ability, the fuzziness slowly going away as time passed. His head swam violently every time he shifted, but even so, he couldn’t make himself sit still. He needed to know why he was here, and more importantly, he needed to figure out how to get out.

What must have been hours passed in dead silence, the only sound being that horrible ringing in Jay’s ears.

Until he heard footsteps.

He didn’t bother to sit up, staying slumped over in the sort of not so painful position he’d managed to find. 

The door swung open.

A man came in from the other side, approaching and observing Jay with interest. Uncomfortable now, Jay sat up awkwardly.

The man crouched down, taking Jay’s face and roughly turning it side to side, then all but forcing his mouth open and examining his teeth. It was kind of like the most creepy dentist appointment ever.

Jay tried to jerk away, but the man’s grip was firm. 

“Hmm, let’s see,” he muttered, now tracing his fingers over Jay’s chest, and before Jay could do anything about it, the man punched him in the jaw.

Jay cried out, his vision filling with black specks as his head swam. 

His captor grinned. “Yes, I think you’ll do just fine,” he said.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Jay asked, yelping when he was hit again. His captor just smiled wider.

Jay jerked at the restraints, hissing at the metal biting into his wrists. “What do you want?” He demanded. “Let me go!”

The man only laughed. “I’d say that it’d hurt less if you don’t struggle,” His captor bared his teeth. “But we both know it’ll hurt regardless.” Jay’s captor stood up then, pacing back and forth.

“See, I’m a very audio-sensitive person. The little sounds people make do so much more for me than words ever will. And the sounds a person makes when they’re hurt?” There was a gleam in his eye, a kind of hunger that made Jay uneasy.

“Those are the best sounds of all.”

Jay tensed, panic beginning to truly set in. That… didn’t sound good.

“You know what I’ve been just dying to try?” He asked, pulling a lighter from his pocket.

He pressed it against Jay’s chest, flameless. If he wasn’t going to burn him then what—?

Jay screamed at the sudden sensation of fire against his skin.

“That’s right,” his captor said, grinning. “Keep singing for me.”

More burns followed, each one similar to the first. Jay grit his teeth, trying his best to keep quiet, if only to spite this bastard, but the startle of the pain, not to mention the pain itself, was making it difficult.

He’d always hated fire.

His captor’s eyes narrowed as Jay finally managed to get a handle on his cries.

He hit Jay in the chest, hard.

When that didn’t work, he hit him again, this time right over that first burn.

Jay screamed.

His captor smiled again. “There, now, that’s better.” He pressed his hand against the wound roughly, Jay whimpering in pain.