Darkness Dissolves When the Door Opens

Torture

1943

“I’m Jules. Jules West.”

It had been a couple of days since Himari came to the soldiers’ lives and gave them a bit of cheering up. She was always kind and smiling, and she never displayed any disgust or sorrow on her face. 

But Jules would regret his next action for the rest of his life.

“Himari,” he said with a low voice. The guard shot him a warning look. “Can you stay and talk to me.”

At that moment, everyone inside the dungeon either slapped their faces or just oh-no-ing Jules’ next fate.

The soldier immediately pulled her hand out of the cell even before she finished replacing Jules’ plate. The food fell from her hand and she tumbled backward just outside Jules’ cell. Jules became infuriated and jumped toward the guard with every energy he got left.

“How dare you fucking touch her like that?” 

The guard tried to knock him off, but Jules’ hands were blinding the guy’s sight. They danced outside the jail doors as everyone else just quietly appreciated the fight and put on their concern faces for Jules. John seemed to almost reach the guard’s keys when he snapped Jules’ head and bashed him to the floor next to Himari. The guard grabbed the keys and stomped John’s reaching arm until the snap could be heard.

John’s scream alarmed everyone in the Cathedral. Men poured in with their rifles readied on their sides. Yamako arrived first and helped the bleeding guard up. Then, he faced Jules and kicked his face with his rough boot. Himari let out a squeak after Jules’ face went upward by the kick. The guard wiped his bleeding nose with his sleeve. Then, he kicked Jules’ belly and he jerked back with ache all over his body.

“What were you thinking, Jules,” John murmured from his cell.

Jules were on the ground, panting, coughing blood. Yamako seized Himari’s right hand and pulled her up. She almost sobbed, but at that very moment, Jules and John saw the hatred on Himari’s eyes. The genuine hatred filling her head with so many angry emotions. 

“You think you are such a hero, huh, private?”

Yamako said something to the guards and they picked Jules up. They dragged him out of the room.

Everything was blurry for Jules. He wasn’t walking. He was levitating, surfing on the air with rainbows and dragons everywhere. 

They all entered a room below the altar, and a surgery table was already conveniently placed. Two guards grabbed the struggling fellow, and Yamako firmed Himari with all his strenght and forced her to look. Japanese forcing other Japanese wasn’t very popular back then. Everyone in the dungeon became so sure that she wasn’t a very popular person in the Japanese military. 

“One question before I torture the shit out of you.” Yamako had his hands all over Himari, holding her from struggling her way out. “Why did you do that? You knew what would happen. Did you want to be tortured?”

Jules didn’t open his mouth. He himself wasn’t very sure why he did that.

The total of men holding Jules’ body on the surgery table was three people. He didn’t struggle because at that moment, torture was inevitable.

A man with a clean, white lab coat stepped in the room. His glasses were wide. His movement was slow. He got something out of his pocket. 

A tweezers.

They were going to torture Jules with the tweezers. They would pull his nails one by one, slowly, excruciatingly. Jules saw this before. He didn’t like where it ended. Being beat up was nothing compare to that.