ready for the carving [et al]

Cillian nodded in agreement. "I think you're right, son." Cillian flexed his fingers, the pliers opening and closing as he did so. He moved so that he was in front of Elias, facing him directly.

"Ya know, Elias...I knew your dad when we were kids. Never met your mom, didn't even know Henrik had a wife or that you existed...but props to Papa Selway, he sure did find himself a bad one, eh?"

As he rambled vaguely about the Selway family, he kneeled down and stroked Elias' fingers, deciding which one he'd cut off first. "You know, lady Selway is why you're all here. I don't know if you heard, but she's alive."

Elias' eyes widened and filled with tears, surprise, some hope, and dread. He had no idea what Cillian was talking about, or if this was just some sort of psychological torture. Where was his mom? Had his father known? Would he die before he could even see her again?

"She's a criminal, your mom. Her whole family's involved with some bad stuff. She pissed a lot of clio off, running away and starting a family. In a way, you're kind of the reason she got taken in the first place. And that ultimately led to all of this... Ha!"

Cillian had finally picked which finger he'd start with -- the index finger on Elias' right hand, which he knew was his dominant hand -- and he held it up so it was perpendicular to his other fingers. He placed the pliers around Elias' finger and looked back with a maniacal smile at Poppy and Axel.

"Say cheese!" he said before squeezing as hard as he could.


--

The next couple hours were a blur of horror and pain. Axel was forced to watch as his father tortured and fucking dismembered his friend right in front of his eyes, and then it got to be "his turn." Spenser doled out most of the punishment, though his dad joined in near the end as well. By the end of it Axel's limbs were all still attached, but his leg had been snapped like a twig. He was bleeding--pretty badly, he thought, but he was too out of it to be sure--and they hadn't even bothered shackling him again, since it wasn't like he was getting up and walking away now.

Eventually Spenser and his father left, promising to be back in the morning. The barn was dark and quiet again, save for the ragged breath and whimpers of the three prisoners.

Axel was lying a couple feet away from Poppy and Elias. The nerves in his leg were screaming, drowning out the pain from his other injuries. Desperate for some kind of comfort, he painfully began dragging himself over to Elias and Poppy. He collapsed onto Poppy's lap when he reached her.

Numb. Poppy had barely been touched physically, but her entire body still felt weak. Her mind, overwhelmed and exhausted, had all but shut down long ago. When Cillian and Spenser left the barn, vowing to return again when the sun rose, she barely registered it.

Now she sat, unfeeling, holding Elias' lifeless body. He was breathing--that much she was sure of. He was moaning softly every so often too, which Poppy heard in tandem with Axel's heavy breathing and whimpering.

She was pulled out of her haze when she realized a rustling that had started in the back of her mind was actually Axel pulling himself over to where she and Elias were. Listening to his moans was painful--a terrible reminder to the injuries she had witnessed him sustaining.

"Axel," she breathed. Her voice was ruined--raspy and soft and broken--from the hours of screaming and sobbing. "Axel, I'm so sorry."

She'd been unable to stop any of the madness, had been forced to sit back and watch as both Axel and Elias were tortured. She felt guilty that she'd sustained only superficial wounds when they had both been ripped into again and again.

"I-it's not your fault," Axel said in a strained voice. He should have known that something like this would happen one day. That things with his father and Spenser would escalate to this point. What would happen now? Would they just be--be killed in the morning? Tortured to death? Was this their last night alive? Suddenly, Axel started to sob. I don't want to die.

"Ugh," Elias moaned, his eyes slowly opening. He heard some clio talking around him, and -- for the second time since being kidnapped -- he for a blissful moment forgot where he was. But the excruciating pain that he felt coming from his right hand quickly reminded him, as did the hay they were laying on and the gloomy, suffocating barn they were stuck in.

He looked up to Poppy, who was sort of cradling him, and he was so thankful for her. And for Axel, though he seemed to finally be breaking down. Elias didn't blame him, and if he weren't in such shock from having his fingers torn off by old and rusty pliers, he'd probably be balling as well. But honestly, by this point, Elias felt so empty. Cillian and Spenser had done an amazing job at torturing them, making them feel worthless and disposable, and Elias was just waiting to die at this point.

"It's mine," he breathed, looking up at the ceiling. "It's my fault. Or...my mom's? I...I don't know...I didn't know she was even alive. I hoped, but..." He sighed, wincing from a shocking pain in his hand. "...not for it to be like this."

Poppy looked at the soaked bit of cloth that was wrapped around Elias' hand. She'd ripped apart the skirt of her dress after their captors had left, trying desperately to stop the blood that had been spilling from his missing fingers. Were they supposed to change the bandage? Leave it alone? It was dark and sickening looking.

"It's not," she insisted, to Elias' deduction that it had to be his fault because of what Cillian had said about Aunt Estela. She wished she had enough energy to think that through--the information their torturer had given them about her. Was it true--was Aunt Estela alive?

"It's...we're going to be okay," she said, deciding to focus on their present. But her voice was still broken, her throat still itchy and painful. And if Cillian and Spenser made good on their promise to return...

All she could hope was that Uncle Henri had indeed been waiting for Elias at the dock, and that he would try to find him. Someone had to come. Elias' loss of blood...Axel's broken leg... Someone had to.

Right?