I opened my eyes slowly, coming out of a dreamless sleep. I tried to move my arms but they wouldn’t budge from my body. I could feel the roughness of a rope that had been tied tightly around my body keeping my hands by my side. I tried wiggling my legs but they too had been bound.

Feeling the claustrophobia start to kick in, I tried to scream but it was muffled by a cloth that had been stuffed into my mouth. It tried to push it out with my tongue but found that it too was held inside my lips by yet another rope that was tied around my head.

The side of my cheek was wet. Wherever I was, it was damp and cold. Something scuttled in the corner making me jump. Tendrils of fear crept into me as I started to tremble. A drop of water sounded off every ten seconds or so in the corner. I could hear some creature lap at it and was afraid that it may decide to come and nibble on my toes.

I laid there in silence, a slight buzzing noise becoming not only apparent but annoying. The buzzing grew louder with each passing second. It was driving me insane. Nothing I could do made it stop. I tried to wiggle free from my bindings but doing so made me breathe heavier which pushed my body harder against the rope.

The buzzing was so loud now that it was hurting my ears. I screamed into the cloth of my mouth but still, the buzzing persisted.

“This is how we treat those who have slain our own.”

The words of Gauss came unexpectedly. I did not jump because I was already convulsing on the ground, my heart beating and sweat trickling down my face.

The buzzing stopped.

“You killed a very fine goblin yesterday. He’d been with us for twenty years or so making sure all of our men and women wore our wardrobes well and comfortably. It was a shame to see him go.”

I tried answering him but the cloth in my mouth made it impossible. I heard creaking from where Gauss had been speaking as he made his way over to me. I heard him unsheathe his blade and felt the cold steel of it press against my cheek as he sliced the rope.

I spat the rag out, gagging as I did so. My tongue and mouth were so dry. I was dying of thirst.

“I didn’t kill him,” I said, my voice raspy from lack of water. “You did.”

A hard slap licked my cheek. The force of the blow was so strong that I spun half a circle. The pain brought burning tears from my eyes.

Still, Gauss spoke calmly. “It was not I that killed this fine goblin. It was you. You tried to kill our Leader Nawgheed. All of us in Refuge have taken a vow to give our lives up for this man.” There was a moment of silence as Gauss sniffed a bit. Was he crying? “Pritt would have done the same if he had known what was to come from you. That, and if he’d been strong enough to lift me.”

“And what about you?” I asked him.

“What about me?”

“Why wasn’t it you who jumped out in front? Why didn’t you sacrifice yourself?”

Gauss’ normal apathetic face gave away a tiny bit of hurt. It was obvious he had been asking himself this question.

“I have a purpose that needs to be fulfilled before my life can come to an end.”

I scoffed at this. “I know why you really didn’t do it. You’re a coward! You’re a disgusting maggot eating coward!” These words were not mine but flowed so freely from my lips. It felt good to have them out in the air. “Yes, you never liked Pritt! You always thought his work was meaningless to the Refuge. Yes, you find that all jobs are meaningless if they don’t revolve around physical action!”

Gauss did not slap me this time but kicked me hard in the ribs. A loud crack echoed through the cold dungeon as a few of them broke. I couldn’t breathe as intense sharp pains vibrated through my body. I turned onto my back, writhing upwards which made the pain so much worse. I collapsed and heaved, my lungs finding that they could no longer take in a full swallow of air.

“Before my work can even start we must tame your darker half.”

He waited for me to calm down, to allow the pain to dull to its lowest level in which it would stay for days before receding a little more. It seemed like a few hours had passed.

I opened my mouth and spoke hoarsely. “What… do you mean?”

Gauss knelt beside me, his toes directly in front of my face. Gently, he started to stroke my hair which was very bizarre after he had just kicked a few of my ribs in half. I tried to shake his hand off me yet he continued.

“You, Ira, are the son of a succubus. The devil himself.” Swiftly, he grabbed a lock of my black hair and yanked it out as hard as he could. It was so fast that I didn’t even have time to cry out. Warm tears filled the corners of my eyes.

He held the hair in front of my face.

“Look at this,” he commanded.

Gauss, with his other hand, reached back into a pouch on his hip and withdrew a small orb much like the blue one he had left for me back in the alleyway. Except, this one radiated white and sloshed half-empty of water. He placed both the lock of hair and white orb into one palm and crushed them both.

I could hear the sound of something sizzling in his hand as white smoke filtered through his fingers. He opened his palm and revealed to me that my hair was convulsing left and right on its own and looked as though it was an egg frying on a pan.

“Holy water,” Gauss said.

“That doesn’t prove anything!” I screamed. I tried to turn and kick at the man for even suggesting something so heinous. So sacrilegious. But my ribs refused me the pleasure.

“Parts of you have taken on the devil’s traits,” the man continued. “Your hair and right hand, for example, are demonic. Cursed by the devil’s blood.”

We stared at each other a moment before I chuckled. Then, I full on burst out laughing, forgetting the horrible pain in my side for a moment. It was more maniacal laughter, true, but it felt so good. This big man was obviously just some insane magician of sorcery and I… well what was I? A prisoner? Had he been the one to create all these illusions in my life as of late? Yes, that could explain it! Or… was I the one going crazy?

“I don’t believe you,” I finally said, the fire in my side now reawakened from the fit of laughter.

“We will see,” Gauss said, turning from me and walking to a far side bench. He sat there and stared back at me.

“And how will we see?”

“By staving and beating you,” Gauss answered, nonchalantly as if it was common knowledge.

“What?”

“By starving and beating you,” he repeated.

“No,” I said, turning my head from him. “I don’t believe you.”

Over my shoulder, I heard him whisper, “We will see.”