Memory
Jason
He really doubted he was bleeding out, but it sure felt like he was. They had followed the corridor down deeper into the castle. It led them down deeper into the castle's keep. They came across a storage room where they found two more prisoners eating away at the food there. They didn't want to share the food so...well they can't eat anymore. After that room was clear, Hadvar went back to go get the little kid, whose name was Haming. They grabbed as much food as they could, feeding Haming while doing so. Then they left through another door that took them even farther down into the keep.
The wound from the arrow he had taken did not help much when he was fighting. And one of the Legion soldiers from the storage room had bashed their shield against that same arm. So, he could say that he was in a fairly large amount of pain.
As they traveled deeper into the keep, they came across the dungeons. In truth, they could hear the screaming coming from there as soon as they entered the corridor from the storage room.
After a quick debate, Hadvar decided to stay there with Haming while Jason and the Argonian decided to go check out the dungeon. As the walked down the stairs that led them there, the screaming had gotten louder, until it suddenly stopped. Sharing a glance with the Argonian, they both crept around the corner. When they turned that corner, a gruesome sight laid before them.
In the middle of the room, were two ropes hanging from the ceiling. Which hung down like nooses. On the floor under each noose, we're chains that only stretched so far in any direction. Now the horrible part, was that there was a person hanging by those ropes and chained to the floor.
There was a wrist tied to each rope and an ankle chained with each shackle. The person before them was hanging up, with his body spread out like the letter X. Various chunks of skin was cut from his body. Some in certain shapes while some were just random patterns. Some of the man's fingers were gone, he had about five fingers left between each hand. On closer inspection, the fingers that he did have were cut down the middle of them, with the bones pulled out from them so that they just hung like flaps of skin. Seven toes had be cut off as well, four from the left foot and three from the right. Each finger and toe was cleaned and then laid on the table just to the right of the body. On the table, there was also a tongue, one eyeball, and another body part that Jason hoped wasn't what he thought it was. But looking at the dark bloodstains that turned half of the man's breeches a dark red, he was pretty sure that it was. It was then that Jason realized that it was the traitor from the courtyard. Derrick Fath. As they walked around his body to get to the other side of the room, they realized there was a name carved into his back. Stevron.
From the other side of the room they heard a sound like someone whistling. When they got there, they saw someone cleaning and putting away tools. Torture tools. A hand on his arm stopped Jason dead in his tracks, and he turned to look at his companion.
"This one's mine", the Argonian whispered to him.
With a nod, he watched the Argonian creep up behind the man, most likely Stevron, and grab him with both hands around the head. Then with a sharp twist, the torturer dropped dead to the floor.
Without turning around he said, "You should go get the others. I'll wait here."
Turning to go get the others, Jason caught another sight of Derrick just hanging there. Drawing his sword, he cut down the body. He then turned back to the Argonian who was searching through the tortures stuff.
"Find something to cover this body with."
"Sure."
When he came back down with Hadvar and Haming, the body still laid there, uncovered.
"I thought I told you to cover him." Turning towards them, the Argonian had a smirk on his face and just shrugged.
"Oops. Must have slipped my mind."
I swear to all the divines, I'm going to kill him.
Walking towards him, Jason's fists and jaw clenched. That was when the Argonian turned around and tossed something to him. Catching it, he recognized it was a lock pick.
"For the door over there." The tilt of his scaled head was the only indication of where 'there' was.
Now walking towards the door, Jason set to picking the lock. He was fairly good at it, having done it since he was a little boy. He used to always sneak into houses and steal food and other valuable, which he later sold so he could by things he needed. Like food, or a dagger.
One time after work, when he was fifteen, he was caught going through the kitchens of one of the houses. He was searching through the pantry, when he heard a sqeak from behind him. Turning around, he saw a girl standing in front of him. She looked like she had just gotten up, to get some water. Which I'm sure she did since it was past midnight already. She was staring at him with fear in her eyes, then she turned her gaze towards his hand and took a step back. He remembered looking at his hand to see that he had his dagger drawn, quickly he put it on the table and looked back to girl. It was then that he saw how beautiful the young girl was. Her black hair, which he assumed it was black because it was so dark in that house, ran past her shoulders. Her pale skin glowed in the darkness, all the while her white nightgown had accented her body well.
He had never seen this girl before. He was sure of that. He would have remembered if he had. Which didn't make sense, because over the time of his life, he's been at just about everywhere in the village at just about every point of time of day or night. Which is why it shocked him to see her now.
It shocked him even more when she opened the drawer next to her and drew a knife on him. It was so unexpected, and she was still so beautiful, that he laughed. Which he had to quickly quiet down so he didn't wake her parents. Him doing that caused her to take a brave few steps forward, knife still firmly pointed at him, and narrow her eyes. Which he was now able to tell were a bright blue despite the lack of light, which he cursed at. He quickly raised his hands above his head like he was surrendering.
"You move and I'll scream." Her voice was soft and demanding, drawing him in. All he could do was nod.
"Put your knife on the floor and kick it to me." Again her voice drew him in, but he had a mouth that couldn't exactly stay shut.
"But I can't move princess."
Eyes narrowing, she then gave him permission to do what she said. And he did with little hesitation or second thought. She picked it up and took a few steps closer, knife still pointed at him.
"Why are you here?"
He could now see her body more clearly behind the thin nightgown she wore. It still had to mature in order to look like some of the tavern wenches he would see at work, but it was no less attractive. He was able to see bare skin from her feet to about mid-thigh, which probably felt as silky and smooth as they looked. Continuing his gaze upwards, he was able to see the spread of her hips and the narrowness of her waist. Still further up, he was able to see the outlines of her breasts, still small but no less enticing. Finally, his gaze fell back on her face where he saw a dark spot on her cheek and a confused frown, which confused him as well.
"Why are you here?"
It took him a moment to realize she had asked him a question.
"I-uh...I was-uhm...I was looking for...for food. I was looking for food."
"Can you talk right or do you not know how too?"
Even though he was a little offended, he was liking this girl more every second. "Yes."
"Yes? Yes what?"
"Yes I can talk." He realized his hands were getting sweaty and he could feel a blush heating his cheeks. Now he was glad for the little light in the room.
"Well good, now tell me why you're here."
"I just told you why princess."
Her eyes narrowed once again at the name and she took another step forward, just one more and she'd be an arms length away. "Don't call me that. I'm not a princess."
"You look like a princess", he quick retort had caught her off-guard. Good, he thought.
"What makes you say that?"
"Well, I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful girl", he could see the disbelief spread across her face, "so I was thinking, she just has to be a princess."
He smiled at her then, hoping to get her to relax and maybe put the knife down. Or so I can get a little closer.
"Well I'm not a princess so don't call me that."
"Well you're my princess sweetheart." He could see her getting frustrated, but the knife did lower some, and that was good. She then pointed the knife away from him and at the table to his right.
"Go to the table and light that candle."
Gladly, he thought, I'll be able to see you better.
He smiled at that prospect, which causes her to take a nervous step back and raise the knife towards him again.
"What?"
He just shook his head, "Nothing princess", and proceeded to do as he was told.
"Are you gonna keep calling me that." Lighting the candle, he then turned to face her.
"Would you rather me call you gorgeous?" Now he could see the pretty flush that invaded her cheeks at the compliment. He could also see that the dark spot from before wasn't just her skin. But a bruise. "What happened to your face?"
"Nothing." She turned away from him quickly, lowering the knife to the floor. When he took a step towards her, she spun back on him with her knife raised again. "I didn't tell you to move."
"Sorry", he stopped dead in his tracks, not wanting to see if she would fulfill her earlier promise of screaming, "but what happened to my face."
"I fell", she said quickly. To quickly to be considered the truth.
"Come on princess, you don't have to lie to me."
"Stop calling me that", he could see the tears in her eyes now. But what really hit him was the broken "please" a moment later.
"I sorry, I won't call you that again." A tear had ran down her cheek then, furiously she wiped it away like she loathed it's existence. Cautiously he took another step forward, which was apparently not noticed by her.
"What happened?"
"It doesn't matter."
"If someone hurts you, it does matter darling."
"Don't call me that either." This too, was quickly out of her mouth before he could react.
Well then... "What's your name then?"
She hesitated, he could tell. But she still told him. "Lyra."
"That's a really pretty name." He caught the little pink flush that rose to her cheeks again, which made her all the lovelier. But this time, he also saw the little upturn of her lips. Those beautiful, full lips.
"Thank you, I really like it. My mother named me."
"Does your she know that 'you fell'?" He made air quotes at the 'you fell' part.
"No", the water in her eyes was back, "she died when I was little." He immediately felt bad.
"I'm sorry, I never knew my mother so I don't know what that feels like."
"It's okay." The tears didn't fall this time and her eyes did dry up some.
"Does your dad know you got hurt?" That's when he saw it. The fear that was reflected across her face. He's grown up with enough orphans and heard enough stories to understand what he saw. He used to have a friend, Hamlet, who had a little brother that was just shy of eight at the time. Hamlet was eighteen then, and he had told a younger Jason, only twelve, that he had actually killed their father because he would beat them. Which is why Hamlet and his little brother, Mychael, had to run from their old town and to his small village. Jason would never forget the fear in little Mychael's eyes when anyone's dad was mentioned. Even though his was dead, he always that that he would come back and find them and hurt them again.
It was that same fear that he saw flash across her face. That same fear that made his blood broil and made him want to punish the man that was probably asleep right now. I could kill him, I could do it quickly and quietly, no one would know.
In a very small voice she answered, "He knows."
"Because he's the one who does it, right?"
She looked away from him then. Finding some spot on the floor very interesting. The knife no longer pointed at him, just held very tightly in her hand, which was at her side. Again, slowly, he took another step forward. She didn't make move or turn away from that spot on the floor. When he stepped forward again, her within arms length now, she looked up at him, but didn't move her hand or the knife. He could see the tears in her beautiful blue eyes again, one rolled down her left cheek and over the purplish bruise on her high cheekbones. He had his arms spread out to his sides, and slowly took another step towards her and she tensed up, her hand twitching like she wanted to raise the knife back up.
"I won't hurt you", at her skeptical look and another twitch of her hand, he stopped midstep, "I promise."
Clearly still not believing him, he decided to take a risk.
"Lift the knife up." At her confused expression he explained. "You can hold it against my neck, and if I do something you don't like you can tell me to stop, and if I don't, which I will, you can kill me with a single movement."
Slowly, she lifted her hand and placed the blade against his throat.
"Feel a little better?" She gave a little nod, so he slowly took another step. She tensed up some more but didn't say anything. "Is it okay if I wipe your tears away?"
Again she gave a little nod, a pretty blush spreading over her cheeks. Slowly he moved his hands til the cupped her face, and with his thumbs, he gingerly wiped the tears that we're still slowly rolling down her cheeks, being extra cautious when he brushed over her bruise. She relaxed some, and even moved the knife down some so it was pressed against his chest now.
"You're still beautiful even when you cry." At that comment she gave a snort which portrayed her disbelief, it had caught him so off-guard that he couldn't hold back his smile. Which she saw and relaxed some more dropping her had back to her side, carrying the knife with it.
"Do you want a hug?"
She just stared at him for a moment, and he couldn't imagine anything more beautiful then her. Even her tears and that bruise couldn't put a blemish on her. I don't understand why anyone would want to hurt her. She's gorgeous. He almost missed it right there, but in the smallest, most softest voice he's ever heard, she said yes. And then slowly, so slowly, he gathered her up in his arms and she tucked her head underneath his chin. The knife clattered against the floor, and she gripped the front of his shirt with both of her hands, her newly formed tears wetting the front of his shirt.
"I'll never hurt you, okay?" He felt her nod her head against his chest. Her hands were practically tearing into his shirt with the death grip she had on it. Looking at the small window on the other side of the room, he realized tha it was nearly dawn and the sun would be up soon.
"I got to leave beautiful, it's almost morning." Again she nodded into into his chest, but didn't loosen the grip she had on his shirt. In fact, he thinks she might have tightened it. Which caused him to chuckle a little bit.
"I'll come back tomorrow", he said. Then quickly added, "if you want me too."
She looked up at him this time, her grip loosening on his shirt. "I would like that."
"Okay I will." With that, he placed a kiss in her forehead. When he pulled back to look at her, she had the blush again. Only this time she also had a small smile as well. Then he left her like that and walked to and out the front door, as quietly as he could.
"Hey if you can't do it just give it to me and I'll open up the door."
Jason was dragged back into reality by the sound of that voice. He turned to see the Argonian standing behind him. Hadvar and Haming standing behind him. I must've drifted off. "No. I got it." He then went back to picking the door lock. Getting open on the first try.
"Well next time you decide to daydream, just give me a heads up so I can pitch a tent and cook as some food." Then the Argonian walked straight passed him and down the corridor.
I'm going to fucking murder that insolent, insignificant, sorry fucking excuse for a-
"Hey", Jason turned back to Hadvar, "are you alright?"
"I'm fine", then he stepped aside, "after you?"
Hadvar then grabbed Haming's hand and led him though the corridor. Jason following shortly after.