Breaking The Balance

Breaking The Balance - Three Truths, One Lie

Nothing happened. For a moment, everyone could breathe a sigh of relief as The Shadows looked confused and infuriated as it waited for whatever consequence was coming. Gaines looked more and more uncomfortable with each second that ticked by. The tension in the air could be cut with a knife, as nothing happened. The Shadows grabbed Ianita by the shoulders and began to shake her as if it could cause a chemical reaction and start the process manually. Something seemed to be missing until you looked around the room.

It took a minute for everyone to notice that in the corner of the room, where Tom and Caitlin had been lying on the floor – Caitlin's body was tensing up as the pain grew in intensity. Her skin drained of all colour and her muscles began to seize up, violently shaking her agonised form in jerky, rapid and unpredictable movements. It was terrifying to watch, her eyes rolling in the back of her head as she struggled to control herself. There was no way to stop it, all they could do was observe and pray that it would be over soon. Ianita breathed shallowly, trying to cause her heart to beat faster so the poison in her system would be flushed out faster – trying to relieve Caitlin of as much pain as possible but slowly realising that their battle advantage was slipping away like the grains of sand in an hourglass.

"What the hell... Now this is interesting! You actually tried to sneak a big secret like this past me and to your credit you almost succeeded. I did suspect that Ianita had some form of magical protection that I was unable to eradicate since she was able to withstand such high levels of agony but I didn't think this was what would happen!"

Everyone immediately tried to avoid The Shadows gaze, wishing with every fibre of their being that the creature would somehow experience amnesia or come to a completely different conclusion. Depressingly the creature was not created to be stupid; it was created to be ruthless. Its face morphed from confusion to a devious grin that promised to horrible events that were surely yet to come. Cracking his knuckles, the creature moved over to where Caitlin was fitting on the ground and kicked her sharply in the ribs – his grin getting rapidly wider with each rib cracked and every howl of pain.

"This is how it is going to work. The injection I gave to Ianita is a powerful chemical taken from your original realm – called sodium pentothal. If you don't know what it can do, its other name is 'truth serum'. So. I am going to ask you all a question. You will answer me. I will then ask Ianita the question. If she does not give me the same answer as all of you, I will break a bone of one of those who dared to lie to me. This cycle will repeat until I get all the answers I need."

Silence fell across the room as they stared at the creature, waiting for it to speak again. It was in moments like these that the group really wished they could communicate without letting the creature know what they were talking about. All they could do was watch as the creature strutted around the room – occasionally kicking those who didn't flinch away in fear when it walked past. The stone floors were slowly being stained a crimson red, tainted with the blood of those unfortunate enough to face The Shadows wrath. Eventually, The Shadows came to a stop beside Sonja and stared her straight in the eyes, watching with glee at the shiver of fear that ran down her spine.

"Let's start with an easy one. How did the sky heroes come to this realm?"

Everyone's answer was the same. Even Mianite didn't bother attempting a lie.

"Through the void."

Ianita concurred with this answer. The Shadows nodded sagely as if it had expected such a unanimous response from its oh so willing subjects. Twirling its knife in its hand, it strolled around the room again – carefully selecting its next question and the victim that would have to answer first. Walking over to Martha, the creature gently stroked her hair which caused her to turn and spit into the creature's face. The response was instantaneous, the creature putting one foot on her left ankle to hold her in place and the other stomping down on her knee – breaking it with a vicious snap. Martha let out tiny whimpers of pain, not wanting to give it the satisfaction but being unable to control her response to the waves of agony that were emanating from her now broken leg.