Separation - Walter Jacobs

Chapter 2

I closed my eyes for a moment. Suddenly, I felt pulled and jostled around. I couldn’t open my eyes. Without a warning, I was slapped so hard, I felt like I had just been shot a hundred times by a cannon in the head. 

    I didn’t open my eyes yet. I just waited there until another blow hit me. That felt like it shattered my skull. 

    Then, something that was hotter than anything I’ve ever felt touched my hand. The pain registered slowly at first. Then struck with incredible power. I screamed, opened my eyes, and attempted to jump off the table. 

    I couldn’t.

A hand thick with scars and burns grabbed my face and rammed me back into the table; causing me immense pain. 

    I barely moaned, “Where am I?” A rough voice said something I hardly heard. “You are somewhere you would never believe. You will not be seeing your friend or your wife for many centuries to come.” 

    I blacked out for what felt like just a few moments. It was actually over twenty-four hours. 

    I opened my eyes and tried to take in what I was seeing. 

It was so hot and humid here. I saw a screen and it said it was sixty-four degrees Celsius. I converted the temperature to Fahrenheit; one hundred forty-seven. 

    There was no way it was that hot. I could die in this heat. My hand started to tingle, and I had no idea what was happening. It started to shake and jiggle all over. 

    Then, it stopped as quickly as it started.

I felt oddly relaxed; as if I could touch the top of the world. Although I knew that wasn’t possible. 

    That is, until I remembered the events of the last few days. They flashed before my eyes and I felt like dying. 

    My wife could be dead. 

My friend is possibly gone forever as a murderous beast who almost killed me. 

    I was trapped in a cage on some random planet that has a temperature high enough to kill me. And I was being held captive by some evil, abusive, possible killers. “It appears things can’t get much worse than this,” I thought. 

    I spoke way too soon.

The door opened and in came someone I recognized. He, who came in the door, was someone I never thought I’d see again. Someone I did not ever want to see again. He was my arch enemy.

“Father Osveta,” I grunted, furiously. I walked over to him, slowly. He just simply waved his arm and I was shoved by an invisible hand towards the wall and smashed into the wall.

“What is it you want, murdering psychopath?” “I want you dead. That is all. But I won’t have you dead. Not yet, at least. I need you alive. And believe me, this isn’t mercy. I have a plan and you are involved.”

“And what makes you think I’m planning on helping you? You couldn’t make me do anything, no matter what the cost.”

“I assumed you’d say that. Imagine this: your dumb, weak wife in a room, alone. A man walks in while she’s laying on the ground. She is chained and tied up. She will experience immense pain every time she gets up. And get this, she is given super human strength, without the mind to handle it. So, she rips herself out of the chains and ropes and glue, shredding her skin, her muscle, her bones in the process. And she feels all of that. All while, being whipped and pounded and beaten and cut too.”

“You think a story is going to get me to help you?” “This is not a story. This is real life. Watch this, and don’t look away. You deserve to see this.”